Adventures with Jane! Day XIII & XIV: Books, Fabrics, a Palace, ‘Clueless,’ and Home!

August 5, 2025 BookLady DebLeave a comment

Started the morning with Joy spotting yet another famous person – in the lobby of the hotel – a Gerald-Ford-Lookalike – Joy is very good at finding these people! [recall Churchill last night at The Wellington!]

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We are off and running this morning to see as much as possible before the play tonight…

We hit Hatchard’s on Piccadilly first thing – one of those must-see places whenever in London [I go again when I came back in July] – founded in 1797, claims to be the oldest in the UK, it offers five floors of books, mostly new but also a brilliant collection of used and rare…one could be here all day, or more – so we do a rather fast scurry to all the floors, find this book, newly out that we both have to have…

Always check the Churchill section…how much can you possibly say about one man??

– and after a few purchases we head next door to the other must-see London shop Fortnum & Mason: their windows alone drawing you in…

Did not do Afternoon Tea this time – but here it all is awaiting your arrival….

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Passing Carnaby Street on our way to Liberty London on Great Marlborough St., with its array of fabrics for all manner of fashion and household goods. I had not been here before and what a treat! There was an exhibit on the history of the store and its variety of fabrics – could not get enough of this!

Then off to do the Royals – Kensington Palace – have been a number of times before but with different exhibits, this time going through most of the place to see its history – then a fine café lunch and then just wandered back to the hotel to pack and prepare for the play – A few photos from the Palace:

Queen Caroline of Ansbach [consort of George II]

The great Peter the Great

[Here is a great post on the various portraits at Kensington Palace: https://anhistorianabouttown.com/royal-portraits-at-kensington-palace/ ]

The exhibit on Queen Victoria’s childhood included this:

Loved this display on ‘what to where when’:

Fashion! the ‘Dress Codes’ exhibition – but I only focused on this one dress of Queen Alexandra…

I want one…

-and then this, which I very much wanted to see – it is quite something…

One of my favorite places: The Orangery

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Then the play! No photos allowed during the performance, so only these from the outside [with Nelson in the background]:

and the opening screen:

Clueless did not disappoint – completely faithful to the original film AND Emma, there were catchy tunes, with great actors / singers / dancers; enough plaid to satisfy any tartan-obsessive; and enough energy in the playhouse to keep us all tapping and clapping all the way home. It was pure delight! [It is closing soon – get your tickets if you can…]

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So this short stop in London ended our tour – my hopes to see some of those places on my to-do list [the Sherlock Holmes Pub. and the National Portrait Gallery, closed for renovation the last time I was there] – I was not too disappointed as I was coming back at the end of June – and happy to report I did see Richard III in his new digs at the NPG [Room 1, Floor 3] as well as my favorite pub, under new management and with a new sign, but all the same inside with the Holmes memorabilia upstairs – the pub sign has changed a number of times through the years – here is the new one:

[Mr. Holmes is a topic for another day – a full post just on these changing signs is way past due…]

[this sort of creeped me out – my mother’s name was Elsie…]

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And of course a Richard III – because even Jane thought he was an innocent man…

Jane Austen on Richard III ~ Guilty, or “A Very Respectable Man”?

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Day 14: Home!

I was off very early for a 10:30 am flight – the hotel packed me a lovely breakfast; the taxi driver and I had the best conversation about Life and Current Politics I’ve had all year [lots to talk about!]; Heathrow was smooth sailing – and I was home via Charlotte NC and to Savannah in what seemed like a jiffy..

Such a nearly three-week journey! – very well-spent – with a hearty Thank You to JASNA and Pathfinders [and Marian our leader and driver Paul], to Liz Cooper for all her planning and just being there for all of us. And to everyone in Britain who welcomed us with such open arms despite our political nonsense! All the tour participants were a joy to spend some quality-Jane-time with – Thank You all for making this trip one of a lifetime – all in celebration of Jane’s 250^th – seeing all the spots from her birth to her death, and all the glorious writing in-between. I am more devoted than ever – we are all nuts, of course, but justifiably so!

[You can visit the JASNA site for information on this years two tours – you should start planning for next year – JASNA will be announcing the 2026 tour early in the new year…just do it!]

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Tea Towel – Winchester Cathedral

Winchester Cathedral – at the Jane Austen wall memorial

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Adventures with Jane! Day XII: Bath to London Wanderings…

July 31, 2025August 3, 2025 BookLady Deb2 Comments

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:

Passing by this artful extravaganza: quite the magical show – we could not stop smiling!:

Found the home of Randolph Caldecott, complete Hero in the history of children’s literature – I love him:

Caldecott’s John Gilpin

And finally the London Review of Books Bookshop, a favorite spot, but this evening closed because of an author event in progress…

So ‘til tomorrow – last day! Aren’t you exhausted??

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Adventures with Jane! Day X: It’s all about Bath

July 23, 2025July 23, 2025 BookLady DebLeave a comment

So, today I messed up Royally – was supposed to meet a friend, but misplaced days of the week in my head – travel can do that to you [anyone else out there have this happen??]. To me, today was a Monday, because yesterday felt like a Sunday – everything contrived against my really knowing today is a Tuesday, the day set up to meet my friend – it was to be my second day in Bath, but I didn’t count the first day because we only got there in the evening – I am still trying to make sense of it – my only consolation is that we shall see each other in Baltimore!

So to carry on – today started with the usual to-die-for English breakfast (Tea + everything else) – then off on a walking tour of Bath – with a Terrific guide starting at St. Swithin’s Church where George Austen is buried – and also where he and Cassandra Leigh were married in 1754, their register below – and for those interested, William Wilberforce was married here also in 1797:

And of great interest to me, this is where Frances Burney is also buried, her grave in the churchyard, along with the remains of her husband Alexandre D’Arblay and their son. Burney had lived in Bath for a number of years and died here in 1840.

There is this memorial to her on the wall, and one to her sister and also novelist Sarah Harriet Burney:

These plaques were installed in 2013, replacing the originals what disappeared in 1958 during renovations to the church organ [are they perhaps somewhere with Jane Austen’s missing head??]

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From there we walked to the Royal Crescent, perhaps one of the most photographed spots in all of England? – completed by John Wood in 1775, Mrs. Austen’s sister Jane Cooper lived at number 12.

We hit all the mentioned locations in both Northanger Abbey and Persuasion – and easy to imagine Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney and Ann Elliot and Captain Wentworth wandering along the streets – the movies have made them all very real to us, and nothing has much changed really, other than the errant car or two, or people holding cell phones and wearing flip-flops…

The Queen’s Parade, the Gravel Walk [Ann and the Captain along with us]…we walked it, but in those early days it was a way for the gentry to be transported to the baths in their sedan chairs.

We passed the World War I Memorial which features the “Cross of Sacrifice” and erected in 1923, now has the additional names of WWII fallen, including civilian deaths – you can read more about it her: http://bath -heritage.co.uk/war-memorial.html

We followed around former haunts of the Austens and family:

No. 13 Queen Square is where Jane stayed with her mother and Edward in 1799 – he had come to take the waters… [it is now being renovated…] – and then along to Trim St, the final lodging of the Jane, Cassandra, and Mrs. Austen, and the “very bottom of the social scale, populated by prostitutes, beggars, and thieves.” [Jane Austen’s Bath, JA Centre]

25 Gay Street, just down from the Jane Austen Centre, is where the Austen’s lived following Mr. Austen’s death – [the Jane Austen Center is at #40]

And here several photos of various sites as we walked around:

The St. John’s Hospital, recently dedicated by the then Duchess of Cornwall [now Queen Camilla],

The all-important Circulating Library and Milson Street, Beau Nash, the baths, and shopping!:

and a sign worth a photo:

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After the tour, Joy and I went to the Jane Austen Centre – I had visited this several years ago when it was first starting out – much improved, and they do a terrific newsletter, and the long-time greeter Martin Salter is worth the price of admission… [these pictures from Joy]:

And some pictures from there worth sharing [I didn’t take many! – see the website for a great collection]:

And Joy found this in the WC!

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We visited the main Marketplace as Joy was in dire need of Gillards of Bath teas, and I spot a Snoopy:

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And then we went our separate ways – me finding it ironic that though I was supposed to be meeting my friend, I felt quite foot-loose and fancy-free and wandered all around Bath with no itinerary – what an idiot! And here is the final glitch – I did not stop to eat or go anywhere where I connected to the internet – if I had I would have seen the various messages from my friend asking where I was!

So off to Bath Abbey for an in-depth visit – and started it with a tour of the Jane Austen-related memorials – and here I found Stephen Herring of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine * giving tours at the Abbey! What a grand surprise! Though disappointed to not see Jackie as well – but Stephen was great taking a small group of us all around the Abbey – I took notes but took NO PHOTOS! – but we did learn about:

The Nibbs Family [James Langford Nibbs]
Dr. William Bowen – doctor to Mrs C Auysten in 1804
William Siddons, husband to Sarah
Admiral Sir William Hargood [Francixs Austen’s Canoppus
Caleb Hillier Parry
The Famous Castrata Rauzzioni

The Abbey also has an exhibit on through September 27, Austens at the Abbey – Jackie Herring is on the video and it covers much of what I had just learned on the tour with Stephen.

Wandered around the other exhibits at the Abbey, hit the bookshop (of course) and then wandered back to the hotel which was very nearby – and when I found the note from my friend letting me know I had missed her – it was too late as she was already on the train heading home – a lost adventure with a friend… but Marcia DID see Hazel in the Topping bookshop…so that was something I suppose…

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Dinner on our own and several of us headed to the absolutely required eating spot in Bath: Sally Lunn’s – a few photos for your pleasure!

And another day is done…

* Latest issue of JARW: [always a pleasure to see Mr. Darcy in the fog…]

and another great sign:

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Adventures with Jane! Day I of the JASNA Tour!

May 27, 2025May 28, 2025 BookLady DebLeave a comment

So now begins Day I of the JASNA tour! – I am off to Windsor where it is all to begin – we are to stay for one night at the MacDonald Windsor Hotel right in the heart of town [do I dare mention a TK Maxx next door? – notice it is TK not TJ – same beast, different country, apparently to avoid confusion with another UK retailer TJ Hughes – this explained via google…]

Well, enough of shopping – how to be in Windsor and spend time in a TK Maxx?? [though I did find a terrific dress!]

I have been to The Castle before, so other than a few shots I decided to just wander around the town, which feels like a small village – and alas, the first shop I see is Seasalt Cornwall [back to shopping sorry to say] – a friend of mine in England loves these clothes, and so I now added a new blouse to my suitcase [the end of trip found me in need of a new, larger carry-on – mostly books and pamphlets, some gifts, and a few clothes…it is all so irresistible…].

The main street was busy, a beautiful day beginning to be clouded over, as you can see here with Queen Victoria overlooking it all:

And here the famous Shambles, now a café, bar and bottle shop [formerly a teahouse] – known as “the Crooked House of Windsor,” it dates from 1687, and is, as you can see, Crooked…

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I did visit the Parish Church of St. John the Baptist [one of many churches on the trip, and uniquely not named after St. Nicholas (which many of those we saw are – stay tuned to start counting)] – the present church is from 1822, when it replaced an ancient Saxon / Norman building. Some pictures from here, highlighted by the two thrones, a gift of Princess Augusta, daughter of George III, who regularly worshipped here:

The Last Supper, that hangs on the wall above the west door, was painted by Franz de Cleyn (1588-1658), court painter to James I, and previously hung in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. It is considered a national treasure:

Felt quite regal meandering back to the hotel by way of the EII Walkway, to check in and meet up with my roommate [yay!], and then onto our first group dinner, where we all introduced ourselves and gave a bit of our history with JASNA. I felt right at home as a good number of the people were already known to me – a very companionable group, with many days ahead of us to get to know each other as we retreated into the early 19^th century with Jane.

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Adventures with Jane ~ The JASNA Tour 2025!

May 22, 2025 BookLady Deb5 Comments

So, finally, after years of doing various Jane Austen treks on my own, I was finally able to take the JASNA tour this May. And what a delight! Great itinerary, great accommodations, food, and brilliant company! Celebrating Austen’s 250^th, we toured the various locales of her life and works, and always with the feeling of Jane herself looking over one’s shoulder, wondering what all the fuss was about…

Highlights are too hard to list in order of preference – each day a new adventure – and rather like being asked which is your favorite Austen novel, the answer always being “the one I have just finished” – the best of the tour was each new day.

I will say that being able to be the first to go into the 8 College Street address in Winchester where Austen passed away on July 18^th 1817 was the most emotional – more on that soon – but it was a surprise to all of us that the College had worked so hard on getting it ready before expectations, and we were ushered in…

I shall try to sum up each day with a few pictures – I took 1227 in total [yikes!] and shall not burden you with all that [I have a penchant for windows and doors – and goodness knows where they are actually located…] – so here goes, as I start the course of my adventure, arriving in London several days early to visit sites with friends…

This is how you know you are in England:

DAY 1: Arrival, Lack of Sleep, Kensington walks

Arrived at my Kensington hotel but unable to check in until 3:00pm so wandered around on my own. I had lived in this Cromwell Road area as a student in 1968 [and where I met my husband] – so like to stay in this area when in London – changed a good deal, but the V&A and Prince Albert Hall are a short walk away and did this until lack of sleep set in:

V&A:

Cartier sold out, so I skipped through the Fashion Exhibit: was lucky to see this as it was closed to visitors just a few days later – a few favorites: