July 31, 2025 – Jane Austen in Vermont

Hotel Indigo [from their website – I forgot to take a picture!]

Our last group breakfast at our Hotel Indigo in Bath – hugs and goodbyes and “safe travels” to all who boarded the bus to Heathrow – and those of us doing the London extension boarded ours – we were a small group, and each of us with our own London agenda. We would be gathering only for breakfast each day and then on our own until the next evening’s play Clueless [more on that tomorrow…]

Our London hotel in Bloomsbury [love staying in Bloomsbury!] was a tad bizarre with the ugliest couch I have ever encountered – but we managed for the two nights as were never there…

[Not sure what that shadow is – appears to be a Knight in Shining Armor – but he too was frightened away by the couch…]

But first, a photo of this wallpaper – I think it was in the hotel in Bath – but this is a favorite pattern of mine so have to share:

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As Joy and I had a few of the same agenda high spots, off we went, walking everywhere, just so overJOYed to be in London again…

First, the John Soane Museum, comprising three houses in Lincoln’s Inn Fields – Soane’s architectural office, his home and library, and later home to his extraordinary collections. Since his death in 1857, everything has remained the same – all the works of art, sculptures, and furniture – all as he had it arranged (similar again to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston) and why there is minimal signage and no labels.

Exterior of the Soane Museum [from their website]

Soane is considered one of Britain’s greatest and most innovative architects – though his design for Whitehall, here as a model, was never executed:

Some of his work is found: [for a full list see here]

Bank of England [Threadneedle St London]

Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

Holy Trinity Church Marylebone

Royal Belfast Academical Institution

Royal Hospital Chelsea

St John’s Church, Bethnal Green, London

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As you first enter the dining room and library, you come face to face with his portrait by Thomas Lawrence.

The entire museum is a maze of rooms filled from top to bottom with Soane’s collections – one couldn’t take it all in in with daily visits for months – a few hours just leaves one quite overwhelmed [not to mention humbled…]

Let’s take a quick tour with a few of the photos I took [not enough!]

The Picture Room:

– Venetian scenes by Canaletto [alas! no photos…idiot]

– hidden behind large wooden doors that open up to another group of paintings – only about 10 people are allowed in for the timed viewings – we were SO lucky to arrive just in time – behind the panels we found Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress – here just a few (but you can see the whole series here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rake%27s_Progress

Austen as we know knew her Hogarth – she references him in a letter to Cassandra [8 Sept 1796]:

she has decided to not go to London with Frank for fear her friends will not be there –

“…for if the Pearsons were not at home, I should inevitably fall a Sacrifice to the arts of some fat Woman who would make me drunk with Small Beer.”

She is referencing here in her witty way the first plate of Hogarth’s The Harlot’s Progress – Austen understands the reality of a young woman alone in London:

You can see the rest of the plates here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Harlot%27s_Progress

The Basement:

In the basement you find the Monks Parlour: Soane here making fun of the Gothic style – the “monk” was Padre Giovanni, Soane’s imaginary alter ego – you could be invited here to tea – between this and the nearby sarcophagus of King Seti I (1303-1290 BC), considered one of the most important of all surviving Egyptian antiquities, I might have rethought a nighttime visit to Mr. Soane’s basement parlour…

[from the Soane fb page]

[from the Soane Museum website]

The Kitchen:

I can never resist an old kitchen – and here we have a patent range dating from 1812, as well as the china pantry with my favorite blue and white…

We find Shakespeare with his own hallowed place in the stairwell:

And the Drawing Rooms, painted in “Turner’s patent yellow,” we find family portraits and fine furniture:

[South Drawing Room – from the Soane Museum website]

And can we ever have a day without finding a George IV on the wall??

One of the dome ceilings:

And a secret photo of Joy and me! [I didn’t see this until I got home!]

The Apollo Belvedere [a cast from the one in Rome]: a very odd angle, not sure what I was thinking…

And the famous Dome Ceiling:

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Lovely time here – wish we could have spent more, but I was quite dizzy as we emerged into the light of day…and now time to just do a little more wandering to must-see places:

I passed LSE where I had gone to classes on my semester abroad in 1968:

Passing the Royal Courts of Justice, we saw much press activity about a famous court case about to be decided – I knew nothing about any of it and still don’t and cannot find anything in the news!

Of course a trip to London is never complete without a visit to Twinings [Jane would approve as well]

I have never understood why in a country founded and sustained by Tea, they do not serve iced tea – yet, here at Twinings at the sample tea bar in the back of the store, one of the “flavours of the day” was an iced tea – here is the recipe: Enjoy, wherever you are…

Dinner at The Wellington [appropriate since I started this trip engrossed in the guy – see first posts of this trip] was to finish our day – delicious beef pie – with Joy spotting a Winston Churchill behind her!

Walking back to hotel we took in the Royal Drury Lane Theatre,

And The Marquess of Anglesey – I feel connected to the good Marquess because I use an image of him in his curricle in my talks on Regency carriages and travel in Jane Austen’s time: