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

Jane Austen's "charms of Lyme..."

"... a very strange stranger it must be, who does not see charms in the immediate environs of Lyme, to make him wish to know it better." 

Persuasion

England 2015 Trip Journal
Tuesday, April 14

    We have certainly seen charms in the environs of Lyme and do wish to know it better – so, happily, Jane would not find us strange strangers. :)

     We had a beautiful drive through the Hampshire and Dorset countryside, making the two hours spent in the car go by very pleasantly. I can imagine that all of those green rolling hills we drove through are what the Dashwoods would have seen on their way to Barton in Sense and Sensibility. I could almost see Marianne going for a rainy walk on one of them!

The perfect hill for Marianne...

     Even though we arrived in Lyme after 1:00 there was still thick fog around the shore line. But in the last few hours it cleared up brilliantly! We parked in the Charmouth Street Car Park, which is a good size, along with having brilliant views when there isn't 200-foot visibility in the fog.

Walking through the streets of Lyme.
(Can't you just see the Musgroves, Captain Wentworth and Anne driving along to their inn?)

     The first thing we decided to do was to walk down through the town to the pebbly beach for lunch, seeing as we were hungry, and it was lunchtime. There was a festive holiday atmosphere by the shore, with kids from 2 to 102 eating ice cream from the several ice cream stands nearby and sitting on the beach. It was actually pleasant enough for most of them to shed their sweaters!

     While we were enjoying our sandwiches we were joined by a rather forward seagull. Mom kept throwing pebbles at him, but it didn't seem to perturb him in the least because he returned at least three times to screech at us for not sharing our lunch with him.

Lyme's foggy but festive seafront.

It was still a lovely day for a picnic!

     I had to walk down to the sea to "linger and gaze" as Anne Elliot does, and as Jane Austen did over 200 years ago. I have never heard a sound like the waves rolling over and over those pebbles, sending out thousands of little knocks all along the beach as they jostled together. It is musical; the perfect place to sit and think (or quote poetry with Captain Benwick).

"The party from Uppercross passing down by the now deserted and melancholy looking rooms, and still descending, soon found themselves on the sea-shore; and lingering only, as all must linger and gaze on a first return to the sea, who ever deserved to look on it at all..."

Persuasion

     We passed some houses along the shore in the cheerful colors typical of the festive English seaside resort: white, yellow, pink, blue and more, and two of them were cottages with names perfectly suited to Lyme: Harville Cottage and Benwick Cottage. I think Jane would smile. She wouldn't have expected the novel she wrote to be one of the claims to fame for this seaside resort that she came to visit for summer holidays.

     After passing the cottages we popped into an antique emporium on our way to the Cobb, and when we emerged the sun had dispersed the fog and was shining everywhere! The Cobb is something that must be experienced before one can appreciate its full value. As Jane points out, it is the views from the Cobb that are so beautiful – the Cobb itself was only built as a harbor defense in the middle ages – but we could see the cliffs "stretching out to the east of the town" and Charmouth across the sparkling bay. The view of the Cobb itself while you're standing on the Cobb are also what make it unique. One must walk along the top, admiring the way it curves left and then right, while the water quietly crashes against it.

Venturing out on the Cobb – somehow we managed not to be blown off.
The slope felt a bit precarious, though.

Selfies on the Cobb!

There's nothing like it!

Looking back along the Cobb.

Enjoying the sun and the sparkling sea.

     I loved looking toward the cheerful town with the water sparkling so brightly in front of it. The surface of the Cobb does slope slightly westward, which inclines one to stay toward the east edge from the irrational fear of being blown into the water (or in my case tripping and falling...). But the views quickly banish any fear, as well as the excitement you feel at walking where Jane herself, as well as Anne Elliot, once walked.

Lyme looking like a seaside town!

The scenery to the west of the Cobb.

The shoreline to the west of the Cobb, where the Austens may have taken lodgings in 1803 or 1804.

     At no point on this trip have I more wished that I was wearing Regency garb than when we were walking along the Cobb. Which brings me to Granny's Teeth. There is no way Louisa Musgrove could have run up those steps before leaping into Captain Wentworth's arms. I climbed them, and they are truly terrifying and utterly precarious. Believing Jane to be a practical person, my guess is that Louisa ran up a different set of steps, located nearest to the end of the Cobb. I tested those, too, and had no qualms about running up and down - I did not attempt leaping off of them, however. For one thing, I had no wish to risk breaking my head, and for another, there was no dashing Captain Wentworth to catch (or, rather, miss me).

The most likely candidate for the scene of Louisa Musgrove's leap.

The terrifying Granny's Teeth...
It feels that the slightest mis-step will make you slip and drop right to the ground.
Louisa would not have needed to jump to fall – a step would have done it.

     We spent the entire afternoon walking on the Cobb, but eventually we got hungry. Happily, we heard that the world's best fish and chips was back at the end of the Cobb! It's called Herbies. So we got in the enthusiastic (but of course this is England so orderly) line (queue, I should say) to request our treasure. It took a while, but at last we had it in our hands and made our way up the hill just behind us to the city garden to enjoy our dinner with a stunning view of the little bay. Oh, that fish was delicious! Just the perfect amount of crispy, greasy and flaky. 

     The park was pleasant, with lots of local plants and gravel walkways, and although I was on the lookout for the Jane Austen cement bust I'd heard about, it was nowhere to be seen. 

A bit of fish and chips by the sea.

Our view for dinner!

     The sun was looking low when we descended the hill in search of tea. We found some in a lovely pub on the shore near the Cobb, and we couldn't resist getting some scones with clotted cream and jam to have with it while we sat on the cheerful crowded seashore. I took the opportunity to write a couple of postcards and catch up on this blasted but beloved journal.

Having tea by the sea.

The Lyme seafront in the sunshine.

    After tea the Cobb was calling us irresistibly back for one last stroll. So we made our way down to the end of this medieval harbor defense to watch the waves crash quietly against the stone, with the gulls flying overhead and the sun setting behind the rocky cliff to the west. It was so peaceful and sad and beautiful - just like Jane's last masterpiece Persuasion.

Viewing a sunset from the Cobb.

One last stroll on the Cobb.

     As we walked back to our car the sky changed into the soft, gentle colors of dusk, and we lingered so long drinking in one last view of the bay that it was nearly dark when we left the timeless charms of Lyme. 

Lyme, it was an unforgettable day!

© Anna Morton 2017