Further adventures in England

[luzula]

On the 30th I went to Stowe House and gardens, for the Flight of the Heron connection (Keith Windham is the stepson of the (fictional) Earl of Stowe). Wow, that really hits you between the eyes with the obscene wealth inequality of the 18th century. Also the wealth inequality between England and Scotland, comparing Stowe House with how aristocrats in Scotland lived.

regshoe, I definitely recommend going to Stowe, after your several years' rest! : ) It's a nice walk along the avenue to get there from Buckingham. Here is the view:

There's a classical-looking arch at the head of the avenue, though it's tiny in the photo. I had Keith and Ewen meet along that long avenue in one of my fics! : D It's supposed to have been beeches in the 18th century, but the trees now are not old enough to be the same ones, and have been mixed with oaks, lindens, horse chestnuts, and what have you.

THE HERON keeps an eye on me during my visit to Stowe!


Here is a view of that arch from the back of the house, thus showing how everything in the house and garden is aligned on a large scale.

I suppose, since FotH is an AU in that a fictional Earl of Stowe (whose name we don't find out) exists, then perhaps the actual owners of Stowe don't exist in that universe? Anyway, since Broster lived in Oxford close to Stowe, I'm sure she was there and saw it, though no actual scenes in GitN are set there.

On the way to Stowe I passed the town Milton Keynes, which sounds to me like a smushname for the enemy pairing Milton Friedman/John Maynard Keynes. *boggles*

In Buckingham I went to a post office and in every sentence, the post office employee called me alternatingly "my love", "my darling", and "my lovely". Wow, that was an experience.

On my way back through Oxford I had meant to go and see the house where D K Broster lived while she studied there and then worked as secretary to a history professor, but alas, I didn't have time after all the walking to/from Stowe. : ( Well, at least regshoe has done it for me...

On my last day in London I went to the Victoria & Albert Museum and also briefly to the National Army Museum since it was fairly close. Both of those were kind of frustrating in that I was only really interested in a small subsection of their exhibited material and there was not enough of that for me--of course they have large collections which are not on show... But hey, I liked the "try on an 18th century hoop and petticoat" and "practice tying a cravat" hands-on display with instructions at the V&A, and the "guess what this 18th century domestic object was for". And there was some interesting clothing as well.

There was also a Jacobite fan, obviously there's the white rose, but I don't know enough to decode the other pictures:


Now I am on the Eurostar to Paris, which really makes an effort to simulate every aspect of an airport experience except for the actual airplane. Elaborate checkpoints of various kinds, "gates", "boarding", etc. After that I expected the train to be some sort of futuristic marvel of technology, but no, it's just a train, the only special thing about it being that it has both continental and British electricity outlets.

Oh, and one last thing: I didn't post any photos from Portsmouth, but here is a cool Cap of Liberty that all the French ships had on the top of their masts during the revolutionary period. : D

Comments

[seascribble]

In Buckingham I went to a post office and in every sentence, the post office employee called me alternatingly "my love", "my darling", and "my lovely". Wow, that was an experience.

Someday, you must visit Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. ;)

[luzula]

Ha, okay. Is it a gendered thing? Like, do both men and women do it, and do they do it towards both men and women?

[seascribble]

Mmmm, kind of. Both men and women definitely do it to men and women of any age, but men together are more likely to use "bud" or "buddy" or "b'y" to each other.

[china_shop]

After that I expected the train to be some sort of futuristic marvel of technology, but no, it's just a train, the only special thing about it being that it has both continental and British electricity outlets.

Hee! That's certainly a let-down after all that build-up.

It's so interesting seeing your pics with the (explicit or implied) fannish context. :-)

[luzula]

Well, I would rather travel by train than plane, so for me it was actually a relief! Not fond of the airport experience either.

I'm glad the photos are interesting also to people who are not in the fandom. : )

[regshoe]

Wow, those pictures from Stowe House are great! Yes, it's definitely a pretty staggering illustration of wealth inequality, and it's all a very imposing and impressive sight—poor tiny Keith, the Earl might be nice enough but I can't imagine being introduced to that as your stepfather's house was very encouraging.

And how lovely that you saw another heron there. :)

I have actually wondered before if Milton Keynes (a new town founded in the 1960s) was somehow named after the economists! But no, apparently it was just the name of a pre-existing village within the area.

And the museums sound fun :D What sort of eighteenth-century domestic objects did they have to guess about?

[luzula]

I wasn't allowed to take photos in the house itself, but as the tour guide said, everything that looks like gold is actual gold. *boggles* There is gold leaf on everything (some of which is modern restoration, I think). But there's no furniture left at all; that was sold off because the last duke to own it was a terrible spendthrift and went deep into debt and had to flee to the continent.

The heron shared its little island with the egrets! I don't think I have seen egrets before.

What sort of eighteenth-century domestic objects did they have to guess about?
Oh, hmm. A porcelain box with lots of small holes in the top, which was for putting flowers in. A marrow spoon. An apple corer. A mouse trap. An object for feeding sick people who couldn't chew, with a spout to suck from.

[regshoe]

Egrets, how lovely! They've been doing very well here recently, apparently due to a combination of climate change and widespread restoration of wetland habitat—they only started nesting in Britain in the 90s, but they're now a fairly common sight in some parts of the south. And they are very pretty birds.

And the historical objects sound like they'd make excellent incidental details for fic (you could use that last one in a hurt/comfort story, surely...?). :D

[philomytha]

Down here in Devon you get called ‘my lover’. My first experience of this was getting on a bus and the 50s-ish male bus driver gives an elderly gentleman his ticket with a ‘there you go, my lover.’

And those are great photos!

[luzula]

Oh wow. I guess that answers my question of whether this is a gendered way to address someone or be addressed in. It seems not!

Glad you're enjoying the photos!

[osprey_archer]

Loving that Jacobite fan! I absolutely envision some Jacobite miss snapping it out in a ball and fanning herself furiously when some guy she's been dancing with reveals himself an errant Whig.

[luzula]

Actually some brainstorming on Discord has shed some light on the figures on the fan! Most obviously, the shield is James Stuart's, and the tree probably an oak. The woman in the clouds could be either Queen Anne ascending to heaven with some cherubs, or Clementina Sobieski (James III's wife) having kids to continue the line. My theory about the woman in black, who looks sad, is that she is Sophia Dorothea, the wife of George I whom he locked up for having a lover (while he himself also had a lover)? I know that Jacobites used her as a symbol of George I being a tyrant (and also a cuckold...)

[mergatrude]

♥ What a fantastic trip! It was nice to be along for the ride, so to speak.

(and the Milton Keynes smush name made me giggle!)

[luzula]

Glad you've enjoyed it! And I'm apparently not the first one to have that thought about the town (well, maybe not the smushname thought, but the economist thought). But apparently it has nothing to do with them.

[nnozomi]

I'm glad that you, as a Jacobite fan, got to see a genuine period Jacobite fan (sorry, I couldn't resist, and it's really pretty!)

[luzula]

Ha ha, yes, I see why you couldn't resist the pun! : D I laughed out loud.

[sanguinity]

Good god, those are ridiculously massive columns -- although perspective may be playing tricks in that photo? But even so, as you say, that's an awful lot of wealth on display there.

And I'm so pleased you got to see so many herons on the trip!

[luzula]

Well, garonne and I went to Versailles the day before yesterday, so that is yet more obscene wealth! No herons in Paris though.

ETA: And yes, perspective is playing tricks, specifically the person on the left is not standing at the base of the column, but rather at the base of the stairs leading down from the columns...

[sanguinity]

Yeah, I can tell that he's farther away than the base of the columns, but not the relative distances of anything -- so yeah, I think they're coming off as bigger than they actually were.

But then I look at your photo of the house from a distance, and I'm like, it's not like those columns are small, either...


I must say Paris is a bit full of itself, if it doesn't even have any herons!

[garonne]

Another heron!

Very cool to see that long avenue in real life. I had been imagining it as being entirely flat :D

[luzula]

Yes, it was cool to meet the heron again at Stowe. And I too had been imagining that avenue as flat! : D

[feroxargentea]

In Buckingham I went to a post office and in every sentence, the post office employee called me alternatingly "my love", "my darling", and "my lovely". Wow, that was an experience.

Just to confirm what the other comments have said: endearments like these are a completely normal, polite form of address to someone of any age/gender (including strangers) in various parts of England. Calling people "love" is so automatic that I have to remind myself not to do it online or in other places where it might be taken wrongly.

[luzula]

Oh, interesting! Yes, I have not seen you calling people "love" online, I think. : )