Portsmouth Historic Dockyards

[luzula]

So on the 29th, regshoe and I arrived in London with the Caledonian Sleeper in the morning, and parted. She is a lovely travelling companion and I am so glad we could go to Scotland together for fannish squee and birdwatching! ♥ We also did beta-reading of each other's WIP:s, and I got to hear dramatic readings of her Flight of the Heron/White Cockades fic, with new cliffhangers each day. *g*

I was spoiled for choice as for what to do while in England, and hesitated between the Portsmouth Historic Dockyards and going to Rye for a museum on (among other things) smuggling in Sussex, obviously with 18th century relevance, and some birdwatching, as well as visiting the Sussex house that D K Broster and her particular friend Gertrude Schlich lived in for many years together. Thanks to regshoe to doing the detective work in tracking it down! Obviously it's just a private house, and one couldn't be too creepily stalkerish in going to it. In the end I went to Portsmouth, as one of the museums in Rye was closed, and also it would have been more travelling and walking. But I look forward to regshoe's eventual report on that house.

At the Portsmouth Historic Dockyards I did the Navy museum, which had lots of interesting stuff, but clearly my historical interest is very fannishly mediated:
Painting of random mid-19th century admiral: eh, who cares.
Painting of random mid-18th century admiral: oh, that is clearly a 1740's waistcoat!
Painting of the 1762 battle of Havana: eeee, that's the battle where I had Keith get injured in one of my fics, and then get the yellow fever (for maximum hurt/comfort)!

I did to go the Mary Rose museum, but it turns out my interest in Tudor England is almost nil.

The HMS Victory, however, was awesome and definitely the highlight of the day! I love how you can walk around inside it and see how everything works, though I am sad that the masts and rigging are down because of the scaffolding for repairs, and you can't go on the upper deck. And it had awesome nerdy guides that could answer all your questions about how everything worked! \o/

Comments

[sanguinity]

Hooray for awesome nerdy guides! \o/

[luzula]

Yes! Thanks for suggesting I go there, you were absolutely right. : )

[regshoe]

<3

No, the FotH/White Cockades fic is not for an exchange, there's no need to redact the fandom :D (the other one I showed you is!).

And the Portsmouth stuff sounds very cool—especially good about the nerdy knowledgeable guides on the HMS Victory. Surely the 1740s waistcoat was a good complement to BPC's waistcoats in the Scottish museums :D

[luzula]

All right, I'll edit it back in, then!

I will definitely see a lot more waistcoats, since garonne and I are going to a museum with a large collection of 18th century clothing in Paris. : D

By the way, I finished that first Raffles book, do you have any fic recs? Don't be shy of including your own. : )

[edwardianspinsteraunt]

Jumping in here, as someone who has also only read the first book, to highly recommend regshoe's "Where the White Lilies Grow" (https://archiveofourown.org/works/30555441/chapters/75363519) -- it's the perfect fix-it to the final story :D

[regshoe]

Ooh, I hope you enjoyed the rest of the Raffles book—looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it :)

Fic recs—with the caveat that I think a lot of the best Raffles fic relies on stuff from the second and third books, which present more opportunities for complicating character and plot in interesting ways, here are some good stories that only require knowledge of the first book:
I always enjoy WolfieOnAO3's fic for the imaginative and colourful character exploration. The pre-canon series 'Before the Ides of March' includes some material from the later stories but I don't think there are many spoilers—the first fic, A Good Turn, expands on what we hear about the backstory in 'The Ides of March' and is very sweet. Your Last Dance is about the theft of the Ardagh emeralds and features some lovely dancing.
thechestofsilver writes a lot of lovely cute ficlets—of the ones without spoilers for later books, I especially like Spark, a sweet and vivid little moment between Raffles and Bunny, and Nocturne No. 1, about their first meeting.
On the Wings of Melpomene by delfina is another schooldays fic and features some absolutely beautiful tension and hurt/comfort.
And as for my own fics, you might especially like my eighteenth-century AU Under the Jewelled Sky—though I should point out I wrote it before getting into FotH; there would be more Jacobite references if I'd written it more recently. :D

[luzula]

Thanks for the recs! Yes, I definitely enjoyed the book and will be reading more of them. : )

[seascribble]

Awww HMS Victory has me in my Aubrey-Maturin feels.

[luzula]

Yes! Exactly why I went there. ♥

[vatine]

ONe year, my then-workplace rented it for the company xmas party. That was quite fun, but I am definitely too tall for the insides of the ship (needed to duck every few steps, so as to not knock myself out on the timbers).

[luzula]

Oh wow, what a cool idea! Heh, I guess it was an advantage to sailors to be short...

[scribe]

Catching up on DW and admiring all your photos and travel stories, so glad you're having a good trip!

[luzula]

Thanks! Yes, an excellent trip. : D

[feroxargentea]

I'm glad you had a good time :)

(In retrospect, it was the right decision not to visit me and cj2017. I'm still coughing and running a slight temperature -- not nearly as bad as earlier in the week, but not something you would want to catch in the middle of a holiday.)

[luzula]

Yes, it was an obvious decision to make! I'm glad you seem to be on the mend, at least, and hope you get no aftereffects. How is cj2017?

[hyarrowen]

Victory is wonderful. But the masts have been down for about 7 years now, when are they going to finish?

A friend was in a production of a Shakespeare play in which the major speech was delivered from the poop-deck of Victory. One can only say, "Wow!"

[luzula]

Apparently not for several years yet! : ( It seems they are airing out the layers inbetween the planking of the hull, so they can dry out...

Wow indeed! Was the whole play staged on the ship?

[hyarrowen]

Heavens. That's a long job. It's nice to know they're doing it properly.

Most of the play was on the quay, but the St Crispin's Day speech was done from the poop-deck. My friend found a batch of Napoleonic-era naval swords in a basement (archivist) and those were used in the play. It was a wow, apparently - I'm just sorry I wasn't there to see it.