Hi everyone,
I’ve had another great day catching up with a dear friend today. I left
Shannon and Alisha’s around 7am, and caught the train from Barnes to
Clapham Junction before then catching a train from Clapham Junction to
Alton which took about an hour. I took advantage of the platform wifi in
Clapham to chat to Mum and Pa whilst sipping on my coffee.
I arrived in Alton about 9.10am and Rachel picked me up at the station. I
met Rachel in 2015 when I set off on my gap year adventure. I started a
tour in Peru with G Adventures, and got ready for bed assuming my
roommate for the tour wasn’t coming that night. As I was about to sleep
there was a knock at the door and in came Rachel. There couldn’t have
been a better match, we are the same age and personality and hit it off
instantly. The next morning at breakfast people were asking how long we
had known each other and we replied “about ten hours”. I also saw Rachel
a few times when I lived here in 2015, including staying with her and
her Mum in Bath twice. Fast forward seven years and we picked up exactly where we had left off,
chatting away. I had the best day. Rachel got married in October 2020
and had her beautiful little boy Arthur last November. He accompanied us
on our day together and was such a well behaved, happy little boy.
Firstly we headed to Winchester. I was thrilled when Rachel suggested we
visit here, because I recently read Pa the postcards that he and Nan
would send me on their trips. On one trip to England in the late 90s
they went to Winchester and I remembered it from the postcard. I love
visiting places they did, especially off the well beaten tourist track!!
Firstly we wandered through the town, taking in the cute architecture
and heading past the cathedral. It was here we saw the first of the
‘Hampshire Hares’ - differently painted hare sculptures - that we saw
quite a lot of in the end.
We wandered up to a section of the city wall before heading inside the
Great Hall. It is all that remains of Winchester Castle which was built
in 1067 by William the Conqueror. Winchester was once a city of great power and served as England's capital. Henry Ill developed the castle between 1222 and 1258 into an impressive medieval fortress. It saw much conflict over various
occupations and wars, and was a court of law from the time it was built
until 1974. Today it is home to the magnificent Round Table, a medieval
replica of King Arthur’s Round Table. The replica in the Great Hall was constructed in 1290 for a
Round Table tournament and weighs 1200 kg. The artwork on it today was
painted when Henry VIII had it restored and redecorated in 1516. The 24
names around the outside represent the 24 Knights of the Round Table.
The hall itself was very impressive. One of the walls bears the names of parliamentary representatives
of Hampshire from 1283 to 1868. There were some gaps among the names, blank spaces due to times
of unrest and the Plague in Winchester. The steel gates constructed
to link the hall to newer, 20th century buildings, were dedicated to
Charles and Diana when they got married. The garden here was also nice.
We then enjoyed a nice brunch at a cafe called Josie’s, we each had a
milkshake and I had a delicious veggie burrito. Then we headed back to
the car and drove to Chawton, another place Nan and Pa had been to.
Rachel brought me here as the village is home to one of the houses Jane
Austen lived in. On July 7 1809 (strangely exactly 213 years from
today’s date!) Jane, her sister Cassie, her mother and their friend Mary
Lloyd (who later married one of Jane and Cassie’s brothers!) moved in here. Their
brother Edward provided the house as it was part of his estate.
It is known that she revised ‘Sense and Sensibility’, ‘Pride and
Prejudice’ and ‘Northanger Abbey’ in this house. She then wrote
‘Mansfield Park’, ‘Emma’ and ‘Persuasion’ here too, and all six were
published from this house. She lived here until 1817 when she sought
medical treatment in Winchester due to ill health and died two months later.
The garden was beautiful here, and the house very interesting. We
enjoyed seeing the reconstructed wallpaper that was possible due to old
fragments found only a few years ago. Apparently when Nan and Pa visited
it was set up more like a museum, but now it’s set up to look like the
house Jane would have lived in. The house was donated by a couple who
inherited it after their son, the owner, died in World War II.
We also saw some jewellery belonging to Jane, excerpts of a recipe book
her Mum made, a first edition of ‘Mansfield Park’ from 1814 and some
original drawings for ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
Next, we wandered down the road in the sunshine to Chawton House,
enjoying the houses with thatched roofs and cute streets along the way.
Chawton House stands where a medieval house once stood, and was used as a
hunting lodge over the years by Henry III and many others. The current
house was built in 1578, and the current owner Richard Knight is a
direct descendant of Jane Austen’s brother Edward who inherited the
estate when some distant family members made him their heir. There was a
rule in place due to the original owner being called Nicholas Knight
that meant that anybody that inherited the house had to change their
surname to Knight, even males marrying a female that had inherited (yes,
it could be inherited by females!).
The house was beautiful and I particularly enjoyed seeing a reading
corner Jane Austen used to enjoy apparently and the library downstairs
that was home to 2500 books all written by or about women.
We strolled in the lovely gardens around a path, and saw lots of signs
here that had Jane Austen quotes on them. The guide inside the house had
told us that lots of buildings and landmarks of the village feature in
Jane Austen novels, and that many names on a family tree they had
displayed here about the inheritance of Chawton House feature in them
too.
Finally, we went back to Rachel and her husband Aaron’s house where we
had a cool drink before Rachel dropped me at the station. I had such a
lovely day and it was fabulous to see her, it was hard to say 'bye (I
gave her three hugs!).
On the way home I left the train early and went to Richmond Park. Sadly,
my friend Sarah who I was meant to meet for dinner tonight tested
positive for Covid today so our dinner plans were cancelled as she
wasn’t feeling well. So I alighted at Surbiton, bought myself a feast at
Sainsbury’s and took advantage of the evening sunshine by picnicking in
the park. This was a very different experience to when I last visited
Richmond Park in March 2015 (it was very cold!!). I walked right into the middle of the park and was completed isolated (it's nearly 10 square kilometres in terms of area), it was very peaceful except for the odd plane flying overhead to Heathrow. Then I continued on and lots of people were walking and riding their bikes. The sunshine was beautiful, and I was happy to eventually see some deer as well. I ended up walking all the way home as I enjoyed the park so much. I thought I had had a lighter day today in terms of walking, but I only did 5000 less steps than yesterday in the end (25,000 today!).
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
PS: Can't believe Boris finally resigned today while I am here!!
No comments:
Post a Comment