Lingering in Chawton: Our Last Day

| The incomparable Chawton House Library. |

England 2015 Trip Journal
Wednesday, April 14

The view from our window.

     Now at last I am writing of our final full day on this memorable trip. We spent it in one of the places – perhaps the place – we love most: Chawton (which includes the Alton Secondhand Books store, of course). Our early start turned into leaving at 11:00, but we still had ample time to soak it all in. Chawton was our first port of call, and as we drove there I tried to imprint on my memory the look of the cheerful green fields and woods all around us with the sun shining, and the prospect of being on our way to a place we love so much while some Jane Austen music played in the car.

     We spent some time really looking in the Jane Austen's House Museum shop and at their used book table for souvenirs. I found another magazine that I could give as a gift, Mom found a book for me on language in Jane's books and a mug, and some postcards and a teaspoon she picked out for souvenirs.

The utterly pleasant main street of Chawton, with Jane Austen's House Museum on one side and Cassandra's cup on the other.

Jane Austen's House Museum glowing in the spring sunshine!

 

     A good lunch was then in order– at Cassandra's Cup, of course. It is pleasantly relaxing to go in a place long before they are scheduled to close and when it is full of fellow customers enjoying themselves like you are. We each got the toasted ham and cheese sandwich with a cup of bacon and lentil soup, which was quite filling, even after I had saved one half of my sandwich by stashing it in my purse wrapped in a napkin. We decided to forego tea (shocking, I know) and share a dessert: a rhubarb crumble with custard, which we enjoyed immensely. There was a poster of of teacup designs from 1785-1820 that we were looking at, pointing out our favorites to each other, and noticing how many of them looked as if they could be contemporary. (We are easily amused when it comes to tea...)

Cassandra's Cup, newly painted green.

A delicious toasted ham and cheese sandwich.

     Then it was time to leave our traditional table by the window in the front room of Cassandra's Cup to walk just down the road to the grounds of Chawton House. On our way, a man getting out of his van asked us if we knew where Chawton House Library was. It was surprising enough that he was right there on the road and didn't know, but we were rather amazed when he told us that he lived only 10 miles from there and had never been to the house before!

     We saw at least a dozen lambs in the field to the right as we walked up the drive! One of them had gotten out, who we found among the daffodils. We got pretty close to him, but he squeezed back under the fence when Mom tried to pet him.

     It felt so exciting to be back as we walked through the open gate up to the door, like we were old friends coming for a visit. The two ladies volunteering inside the house were the most cheerful people we'd met on this trip so far. They were just so happy and seemed so pleased to give us our tickets and let us know that the kitchen was open if we'd like to pop in for some tea after touring the gardens. I had half-hoped to see Jeremy Knight again, and I thought it would have been nice to have his company as we walked around the grounds, but he was nowhere to be seen. There didn't seem to be scheduled tours anymore, unlike last time when you had to book a place before you could even go inside. Now you simply walk up – which I admit I do prefer.

Chawton House itself! In Jane's day, the walls were covered in white stucco.

     What a warm, pleasant day it was! The warmest day of the year, BBC told us. And warm enough to make walking in the shade comfortable. There were scores of yellow primroses blooming inside and outside the walled garden. Jane's brother Edward Austen-Knight began building this part of the garden while Jane was still at Chawton. He re-designed all of the gardens, and I could just imagine Jane and Cassandra visiting him, telling him how well they liked his improvements.

Edward Austen's walled garden, filled with apple trees, strawberries and vegetables.

 

     We walked around the little wilderness to the lime walk, then turned into the wilderness to explore its criss-crossing paths. All of the trees were practically bare, but the ground was carpeted by little purple flowers and soft green grass. I wanted to just spread a blanket on the ground and sit there for hours – thinking, writing and having the odd cup of tea.

    But I couldn't do that, at least not today, so we decided we might as well go. Although not without peeking in the gift shop, and even though we didn't buy anything, we looked at some more Jane Austen books that were quite interesting, such as a recipe collection of the Knight family.

"A prettyish little widerness..."

Jane loved to walk in this little wilderness – and so did we!

A back view of Chawton House.

     Our last view was of a tranquil house, with no one but ourselves to enjoy it. In fact during the whole of our visit we only saw five other people visiting. I just wanted to linger at every place we passed on our way out: the front of the house, the gate, the entrance to St. Nicholas's church, the gravel walk, the daffodils, the lambs, the trees, the stone wall – I did not want to leave them, and could hardly bear the thought of them all continuing on without me being there to see it. So I it was impossible not to gaze back at the House for as long as I could as we drove away.

 

Lingering one last time at Chawton House...

     When I think of England – every place we went – I feel such a longing to see it all continuing on. Including even the regular everyday places like Costa Coffee, Sainsbury's, and Boots drugstore (because my sunburn that I had accidentally acquired at Lyme the day before was being uncomfortably troublesome, meaning I required aloe vera), our last three stops in Alton.

   We decided to have some coffee at Costa instead of doing more shopping in the charity shops, so we grabbed a brownie from Caffé Nero – those utterly delicious Belgian chocolate ones – a mocha from Costa, and a copy of The Times, and sat outside the Alton Costa shop by the little stream. We  enjoyed reading about the general election and the Conservative Party manifesto out in the pleasant evening air when we were joined by a duck surrounded by ducklings as they were swimming along in the water.

The most delicious brownie in the world.

This little family joined us for coffee.

Our view: the old mill in Alton.
Love this place.

     Then it was time to pop across the road to Sainsbury's for some travel snacks like nuts, cheese, lunch meat, grapes, and chocolate, of course. We told the cashier where we were from, and she welcomed us, then after we mentioned that we'd been there for six weeks already told us she hoped we'd enjoyed ourselves. Another example of English friendliness. :) We put some more gas in the car, and had the unusual experience of going through the car wash there at Sainsbury's. We also wanted to vacuum it out, but the vacuums were broken at two different stations. I won't say too much about packing. Only that it was a bit impressive to me that I could get all our new books in my bags, and that as a consequence, my suitcase was as heavy as a rock.

............................................

     The next morning we got off to Gatwick airport smoothly. After dropping off the car we even had time to stop in the Caffé Nero upstairs before going through security – to grab one last mocha to toast our unforgettable time in this incomparable country!

England, it's been grand!

© Anna Morton 2017

Southampton: Jane Austen's Forgotten Home

| Jane Austen danced here! |

England 2015 Trip Journal
Monday, April 13

     We decided to enjoy some of Alresford before our trip was over, and we had more gorgeous weather, so we took a stroll down Broad Street and West Street. There was a charity shop literally a few houses down from our flat, and although it was rather smaller than the average charity shop I managed to find quite a treasure: a mug with 'Her Ladyship' on it! Having been given my title last year, it seemed like the perfect souvenir to buy myself. I'm rather excited to show it to the friends who so kindly bestowed my title on me. :) And it was only £2.50! For a second breakfast we popped into Heidi's Swiss Patisserie for tea and pastry – well, I got a jelly doughnut, to be absolutely precise. It was a cozy, clean place that seemed to be a favorite with the locals for sandwiches and coffee.

Looking down West Street in Alresford.

     We visited Southampton at last! We drove to Netley Abbey first, and parked in the Abbey Hall parking lot at the corner of Grange Rd. and Victoria Rd. right next to the recreation field (and it's free!). It was only a five minute walk from there up to the Abbey on Victoria Rd. There is a parking lot on the Abbey grounds which is also free, but it's quite small.

     It was truly exciting to know that we were actually standing where Jane Austen and her nephews had stood 108 years ago. When her 11- and 8-year old nephews Edward and George, her brother Edward's sons, came to stay with Jane and her mother in Southampton after their mother died, Jane was determined to look after them and cheer them if she could, so she devised a visit to the nearby Netley Abbey. For a day out from Southampton they crossed the River Itchen in the Itchen ferry, and then rowed themselves down the river to the Abbey.

     It is a ruin now and it was a ruin then. It's also still free to visit! It remains quite a perfect ruin, with ivy growing up the walls and great open church windows with sunlight streaming through. This is both a medieval and a Tudor ruin because Henry VIII gave it to a nobleman after dissolving the monasteries in 1536. He altered the grey stone of the Abbey with lots of the iconic Tudor red brick, some of which still remains.

The romantic arches of Netley Abbey – just the setting for a Gothic romance...

A large section of the Tudor brick.

  

     In the space that was once the chapel there are some carvings on the base of what was once a pillar commemorating King Henry III! (He was patron of the monastery during his reign from 1216-72.) There were hundreds of carvings all over every wall – mostly graffiti – but even graffiti gains importance after two hundred years (the "1811" I noticed scratched into the Chapter House was particularly exciting to me).

Graffiti is no new thing...

The iconic gothic chapel ruins.

  

  

A crown for King Henry III carved into the pillar base.

The only bit of Netley with a roof: the Chapter House.

     The Abbey is set in a beautiful spot, and I love to imagine Jane Austen and her nephews sitting under the great tree, walking about on the glowing green grass, and perhaps playing a game of hide and seek among the ruins. During our visit I observed that school must still be out because there was a group of boys being boys, running about and climbing up the Abbey – just like young Edward and George might have done. :)

There is even ivy growing in a pointed gothic window... Could there be a more perfect ruin?

 

     For lunch we sat in the Cricket field adjacent to where we'd parked that looks out over Southampton Water. We greatly enjoyed our tuna sandwiches as we gazed over the sparkling sea, imagining Jane, Edward and George rowing along the shore to the Abbey.

 

 

     Only a 12-minute drive up the road from Netley Abbey is Southampton, where Jane Austen lived for nearly three years of her life, from 1806 to 1809. She didn't do any novel writing here, that we know of – which could explain why people don't connect her with Southampton – but we do know that she was happy. She had escaped the confinement of Bath city life, and moved into a comfortable house with her mother, sister, friend and brother's family located right on the ocean with it's own garden.

     The city center of Southampton is unusual, dotted everywhere with fragments of the old city walls, and the buildings almost run into the water – they practically did back in Jane's time when the water used to come all the way up to the city wall. It would have been a pleasant place for the Austen ladies, being so near the freedom of the sea after being land-locked in Bath for six years.

 

     We found the place where the Austens lived in Castle Square, and although the original building has been demolished, there is now a pub on the site titled The Juniper Berry. There is just enough room behind it for the garden Jane talks of with such excitement in her letters. From among their raspberries and "lauburnam gold" they could have looked out over the ocean because the garden backed up right to the wall.

The Juniper Berry pub, once home to the Austen ladies. 

Behind the Juniper Berry, where the Austens kept a garden. 

     

     We parked in the lot on Castle Way between Albion Place and the Westquay Shopping Centre. To find the Austens' old home, just follow Albion Place, which turns into Forest View and runs right into The Juniper Berry. It is only about two blocks from The Dolphin Hotel where Jane used to attend assemblies. Just take Castle Lane to Castle Way, which leads straight to The Dolphin on High Street. It's all very conveniently close together!

     We popped into The Dolphin simply to check out their tourist info resources – or so I thought... It turned out to be much more exciting: an undercover stealth mission! Mom quietly called me to follow her up some back stairs, which was completely bewildering until I saw the sign directing us to the Jane Austen Suite. Then I guessed what she was up to. We went through a few doors, glancing around to make sure we remained unseen, and found a largish meeting room set up for dinner and covered with sky blue striped wallpaper, which Mom had somehow discovered was part of the room Jane would have danced in! We grabbed a few photos and videos before making our way back as stealthily as we had come. We were quite pleased with ourselves, and giggled with glee as we walked away down the street.

Before our covert mission into The Dolphin Hotel...

We found it! The room where Jane Austen danced in Southampton. 

     We then walked through the old town, following the Castle Square road near the Juniper Berry (which changes into Bugle St.) past the Tudor House and Garden, and down to the old wall (built in the 1200s), where we found the West Gate, the place where the troops in King Henry V's army had passed to disembark for Agincourt, as well as the spot where the Pilgrims had set sail for America. 

     I had to get Mom's picture with the monument marking the spot to go with her picture taken at Plymouth, Massachusetts, where the Pilgrims first landed. The wall led us at last to the waterfront, so we walked along for a bit like Jane Austen and her family had done before they set out on a little sailing expedition. Jane also would have taken this route all the way to the Itchen Ferry that she and her nephews took to reach Netley Abbey.

The monument to the Pilgrims in Southampton.

The West Gate: Henry V's troops walked past this stone...

A bit of info about Jane Austen on the Southampton walls.

     For dinner we settled on The Standing Order next door to The Dolphin Hotel. It is a Wetherspoon pub, which means that the prices will be quite decent, and that we may encounter a 2-for-1 meal deal like we did in Stratford and Selby. What made this pub quite perfect was the discovery of Jane Austen's portrait hung over a table. So you can guess where we sat.

Sitting under Southampton's most famous unknown resident.

     Perhaps the most memorable thing about sitting under Jane's portrait is the fact that our server didn't know that it was a portrait of Jane Austen. Mom told her we were sitting at the table next to Jane Austen's picture, and apparently she did not recognize the location of which Mom was speaking... It just goes to show you that even the people who live here have forgotten its Jane Austen connection.

     Now, it pains me ever to speak ill of English food, as it already has an unjustly negative reputation, but this is a story too good to keep to ourselves. It is not even a critique of English food, really, as it involves a tostada. You see, we had gotten a little homesick for Mexican food, which can be found in its gloriously authentic form on nearly every block in California, so we decided to diverge from our beloved British dishes on the menu to indulge in a taste of home. Well, it was not too different from what we know, except for the bar-b-que sauce. That was rather an unusual twist.

     Then it was time to return home to our lovely flat for some tea!



© Anna Morton 2017