Today was a pretty easy day. We woke up and had breakfast, then got on the bus for a very long ride – about 4 and a half or 5 hours. We had some great times on the bus though. Lauren and Noah told an extemporaneous story about an enchanted land and incorporated everyone’s names. It ended up being about a magic carpet named Andy (our coach driver), a chimney sweep named John (our tour guide), a leaf named Mike (Dr. Buck), a fairy named Jessie, a gazelle named Ashley, two old hags named Hanna and No-Jonica, a death ogre named Nancy, a cloud goddess named Liz, a wood nymph named Ashlee, a sheep named Kellie, a gambling aardvark named Cale, a water droplet named Kendra, a pyramid inscription named Andrea, Taylor who could only saw the words “Jack” and “Slaw,” the good ice cream fairy Kay, and a pom-pom witch named Emily. :) Then we passed around cards that Liz made with all our names on the outsides and signed everyone’s cards so we have a memory from the trip. Then we started to watch Cool Runnings in the bus but didn’t quite finish.
We arrived in Haworth and some of us had lunch in a little tea shop called “Cassandra’s Cup” right across the road from Jane Austen’s house. (Cassandra was Jane Austen's sister's name.) I had a toasted bacon sandwich and tea – it was perfectly lovely. Then we toured Jane Austen’s home where she lived for the last eight years of her life. It was here that she revised Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice before sending them to publishers, and she wrote Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion while living there. I even have a picture of the tiny little desk where she sat and wrote every day.
Probably my favorite part of the day was, after touring the house, when our group went out into the garden, and gathered around John, who read us the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice. It was absolutely perfect and I got a great video of most of it. :) If I’m ever having a bad day I’m pretty sure I’m going to pull up this video and watch it because it’s just that fantastic. :)
Then we left Jane Austen’s house and walked to Chawton House which is where Jane’s brother lived. He inherited the estate in Chawton, and we went to the church where Jane’s mother and sister are buried. Jane herself spent the last days of her life in Winchester so she could be near to her doctor, and is buried inside the Winchester Cathedral. She died when she was only 41.
Then we got on the bus and came to our new hotel. We’ll stay here for two nights. Tomorrow is our day trip to Bath. Touring Jane Austen’s house today, it sort of dawned on me for the first time that Jane lived in Bath for awhile but really didn’t like it. She didn’t like the city atmosphere and it’s been recorded that the clacking of pattens (people’s wooden overshoes) on the stone streets got on her nerves. In class we read Persuasion, and in the novel, the heroine (Anne Elliot) doesn’t like Bath either. It’s just interesting to see the little pieces of herself that she sometimes wove into her characters.
When we got to the new hotel, a few of us took a walk on a footpath through the woods near the hotel. (All hotels seem to have woods and places to explore here. Having “grounds” must be a UK thing.) The guys (Cale and Noah) acted as tour guides and gave a fantastic impromptu tour of the Enchanted Forest of Southeast England. (Which happens to be beside a Best Western hotel in Chawton. Who knew?) We saw Dotty-Dotty-Woo-Toos, Amazonian Tree Snipe tracks, Ugwumps, Guppydactyls, fossilized dragon claws, a wishing stump, and even a Hisser. And Cale told us all about the epic battle between the Welsh clan and another clan I can’t remember the name of on Swan Lake as we stood on the edge and looked out. It was fabulous... and extremely entertaining. Dinner was delicious – an appetizer of goat cheese, followed by a main course of poached salmon and vegetables, and a dessert of apple crumble and custard. Andy (our Scottish coach driver) sat at our table so we asked him several culture-related questions and laughed. A lot. :)
Tomorrow, as I said, is our day trip to Bath. I’m pretty excited. :)
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