Further adventures in England
Jul. 1st, 2022 04:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaOn 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 leastregshoe 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
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
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-01 11:10 pm (UTC)Someday, you must visit Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-02 05:41 am (UTC)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. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-02 07:26 am (UTC)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?
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-02 07:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-02 07:56 am (UTC)I'm glad the photos are interesting also to people who are not in the fandom. : )
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-02 08:02 am (UTC)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.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-02 10:21 am (UTC)And those are great photos!
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-02 02:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-03 07:58 am (UTC)Glad you're enjoying the photos!
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-03 08:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-03 05:38 pm (UTC)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
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-04 01:13 am (UTC)(and the Milton Keynes smush name made me giggle!)
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-04 09:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-04 12:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-04 12:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-05 12:38 am (UTC)And I'm so pleased you got to see so many herons on the trip!
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-05 10:18 am (UTC)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...
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-05 10:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-06 03:47 pm (UTC)Another heron!
Very cool to see that long avenue in real life. I had been imagining it as being entirely flat :D
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-06 06:36 pm (UTC)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!
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-07 06:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-09 11:48 am (UTC)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.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-10 01:25 pm (UTC)