Portsmouth Historic Dockyards
Jun. 30th, 2022 09:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaSo 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 toregshoe 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/
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/
