Savoring Moments in England: Part I

From history to novels and paintings to gardens, cathedrals, pubs, and afternoon tea I am grateful for this amazing opportunity to tour England.

Let’s make time for a cuppa tea?

   

   Savoring Writers – Jane Austen

We began our “Literary Tour” celebrating Jane Austen, hosted by Tours International.  The annual “Regency Parade in Bath” was fun and colorful with over 1400 participants dressed in period costumes.
From there we walked over to the Jane Austen Center.  The next day we visited Chawton where Austen spent her later years with her sister and mother and the two churches where her father was rector.   Knocking on the wooden door of St. Nicholas, we were greeted by parishioners. Though the service was nearing the end they welcomed us and invited us for tea and delicous homemade cake.

Another highlight was choral evensong at Winchester  Cathedral.  Austen is buried inside the cathedral. Visitors contribute flowers and write journal entries at the site.  Our first pub experience was at  The Royal Oak….fish and chips, sticky toffee pudding, cider and beer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emily, Anne & Charlotte Bronte

The Bronte Sisters found their vocation and living through writing seven novels including Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.

Our guide Johnnie was proud to bring us to his native Haworth, a quaint village.We visited the Bronte Home, Parsonage, and St. Michaels Church of the Angels. Lunch at Pave’s French café was tres delicieux! Then we walked out on the mysterious Moors.

Charlotte Bronte in her novel “Villette” wrote “Ah! When imagination once runs riot where do we stop?”

The sisters wrote on this table at the parsonage.

 

Savoring Beauty

Kent is known as the “Garden of England.” We visited Sissinhurst Castle & Gardens to view Vita Sackville-West’s gardens and the Tower containing her original writing studio.   Next door we stayed at  Sissinghurst Bed and Breakfast enjoying scones, cake, and tea in the afternoon.

We visited “Charleston” Vanessa and Clive Bell’s home,  Art is everywhere! They painted on everything:  walls,  fireplaces, chairs and tables. Such fun to see their whimsical designs. Vanessa’s painting studio, (built by art critic Roger Fry) was in a separate alcove next to her bedroom.  They also designed frescoes in the Berwick Church.The Bloomsbury group came to Charleston and to Virigina Woolf’s “Monk House”  to retreat and enjoy each other.

 

 

                                                               

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nearby is Virgina and Leonard Woolf’s “Monk House” and writing studio. It was a sunny day and many people were siting by the gardens and listening to a man recite a passage from Virinia Woolf.

 

“Only Jane Austen did it and Emily Brontë. It is another feather, perhaps the finest, in their caps. They wrote as women write, not as men write. Of all the thousand women who wrote novels then, they alone entirely ignored the perpetual admonitions of the eternal pedagogue—write this, think that. ” -Virgina Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own”

Savoring  History 

On our last day in Kent we visited Chartwell House and Hever Castle.  Chartwell was the home of Winston and Clementine Churchill. The first site that caught my attention was the black swans in the lake. After walking through his stunning gardens we toured his home. A fascinating exhibit of his life was on the bottom floor.  We walked down the hill to his art studio and viewed his prolific collection of paintings.

 ‘Happy are the painters for they shall not be lonely. Light and colour, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end, or almost to the end, of the day.’  – W. Churchill

 

  Churchill’s Art Studio

 

 

Hever Castle: Home of Anne Boleyn

Hever Castle was built in the 13th century, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I.  In the early 2oth century,  William Waldorf Astor purchased and restored it.  Anne Boleyn’s prayer Book of Hours  is remarkable.   

Anne wrote opposite a depiction of the Virgin’s coronation:

“Remember me when you do pray, that hope dothe led from day to day.”

    

 

Savoring Friendship 

54 years ago Reg and Peg and I met as freshmen at California Lutheran University.  Our  campus chaplain, Gerry Swanson, listened us into being. Peg and Reg went on to become Lutheran pastors; a few years later I entered seminary in Boston. What a joy for us to meet at Heathrow and tour together for  two weeks!