Jen & Angel in Europe: Bath Day 3 - None of your Queens Square for us!

11/6/2014 - Lacock, Jane Austen Centre

Angel ordered the Scotch Pancakes with berry compote and creme fraiche for breakfast this morning. She was super excited to see the strawberry on top of the compote and ate it with great relish. This was on top of the 2 bowls of fresh blueberries we'd already eaten. I got the Eggs Royale, same as yesterday, as I thought the smoked salmon was more bang for your buck.

Angel: Only because they didn't have hot dogs on the menu.

Jen: Hardy har har. Har. Har. Har.

We'd spent last night researching how to get to Lacock, a tiny Tudor-style village in the countryside about an hour outside Bath. Online directions weren't very good so I was quite hesitant on coming here. But, as they filmed Pride & Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion, Harry Potter and countless other films here, it was too irresistible to pass up. I mean, when else would we ever be in this neck of the woods?

We boarded the train at Bath Spa to Chippenham, which is a major bus depot. The directions online on how to get to the bus station from the train weren't very good, so we had to ask around. A nice man said "Go straight--you can't miss it." Ummm...ok? Sometimes you just gotta trust, even though it didn't look like straight had enough room to house a bus depot. Yet, as you walk through the tiny village center, a hill emerges and you can see the tops of buses waiting at the depot. Yay! I guess his directions were right on the money, after all!

Angel's directions were to hop on the Faresaver X34 or 234 bus to get to Lacock. We saw the X34 pull into the bay so we got all excited and pushed the gate open to get on the bus. The driver shook her head no. She's on her break. The 234 pulls up, but the bus schedule says that the X34 is supposed to depart first. We're so confused. As it turns out, 234 is operated by another company, First Group, and the fare is more expensive by about 50 pence per way. If you wanna buy a roundtrip ticket, you can, but you can't mix bus lines because they're operated by different companies. The bus drivers do give change if you buy with cash.

I was griping at how expensive the bus was--2.25 pounds per way. Dude, the train from Bath Spa to Chippenham was only 6.90 pounds roundtrip! But it was totally worth it in the end, as we could never walk it ourselves. The route may be only 15 minutes long, but it goes on highways and thru narrow country lanes that are 2 directions. I was constantly amazed that the bus could fit through some of those narrower lanes, especially when a truck was coming from the other side!

We finally arrived at Lacock. Yay!

...though there's cars everywhere, which detracts from the mood. In my mind, I think of the village as having blond yellow dirt on the ground--not concrete. Definitely no cars. But the village is only dressed that way for films. We kept marveling how much effort it must take to transform the whole village into a Regency era town.

Lacock is pronounced lay-cock and not lah-cock. Yesterday, at Number 1 Royal Crescent, one of the docents asked where we planned to go during our stay in Bath. We replied, "Lah-cock." She couldn't understand us, and I thought she never heard of the village. And then a look of understanding fell upon her face and she brightened. "Oh, Lay-cock," she said.

Oops.

Angel: Another one of the docents yesterday asked Jen if she could read. Reminds me of when someone said "Oh, you didn't look like you knew how to sew."

Jen: To clarify, little retard, the docent thought we were from an Asian country and all the placards with explanations are only in English. Dodo.

Angel: Actually, I think you look like you can't read.

We think that Lydia in Pride & Prejudice may have cooed over the window displays of this storefront:

Tudor-style houses in Lacock:

So, one of the docents yesterday said that Harry Potter I was filmed at Lacock Abbey (some of the scenes). Hunh? I soooo don't remember a church in the first Harry Potter film! Stupid me, I forgot to Google it last night and thought I'd just waltz in and magically remember the scenery. Nope.

On our way to Lacock Abbey we saw this other church and weren't sure if it was the Abbey or not. Luckily a nice gentleman offered to take our picture for us and then gave us directions to the Abbey. "You can't miss it! It's massive!" Err...notice a trend? Obviously we'd missed it.

St. Cyriac Church, not Bath Abbey

St. Cyriac Church dates from the medieval time period.

So this is the actual Abbey:

As we stood in front of the gates of the abbey (closed and locked), one of the volunteers came out to throw away some trash. He said the abbey would open in 10 minutes, but the sign says that you have to pay to see the interior of the abbey, so we nodded and smiled. Angel's fed up with churches :T

I told Angel let's walk around the side to see if we could get some snapshots. It turns out you can...from far away. Not very good shots. The gentleman volunteer came up behind us and said that if we wanted to take pictures, we could walk along the path a little more and there's a gate that opens out onto the grass fields in the back. But, he warned, please remember to close the gates, as they have sheep roaming on the grass and they don't want the sheep getting out.

Sheep?!

Now Baby's interested. Not really sure what her fascination with farm animals is, except that she's as mature as a two-year-old. And two-year-olds like playing with farm animal toys. :T

Gotta be careful walking on the grass, as there's sheep dung everywhere!

Bath Abbey

I stood there on the grass, trying to figure out when the abbey was featured in Harry Potter. Turns out, it's the interior that was used for the classrooms of Harry Potter, as well as the cloisters (hallway) when Harry hears the basilisk slithering behind the walls in the Chamber of Secrets.

Aaaahhhhh...

But the abbey costs around 9 pounds/person to go into and I didn't know at the time that it was the interiors that was used, so we didn't pay to go in.

Baby loves sheep! Yeah, her grass allergy miraculously disappears in the UK

Angel: And what luck! Yesterday in No. 1 Royal Crescent, there was no photography allowed so unfortunately I didn't get a shot of the little turnspit dog. Today in Lacock the George Inn actually has one! We didn't go inside to see it (as we weren't planning to eat there), but you can see what it looks like in the picture below (and how Jen's head is probably too big to fit in).

Jen: She's so juvenile. Oh, wait, puerile. Anyways, The George Inn is the oldest pub in Lacock, dating from the 15th century. Most of the other buildings are 18th century. Most of the village is owned by the National Trust and attracts a lot of visitors for its historical appearance.

We had the time table of when the next train back to Bath Spa would be, and we had exactly 10 minutes to get from the bus depot back to the Chippenham train station. So Angel made me run. Like crazy. I could taste blood, she was running so fast. My heart was ready to give out at the end of the run and I was panting and coughing on the train all the way home.

Angel: It was more like a jog. Jen needs to work on her fitness regimen.

Jen: We had 10 minutes to get to the train station, and we ended up arriving there with 5 minutes to spare. That was 5 more minutes that I could have spent walking the darn route and not feeling like I was gonna die at any second.

The train ride to and back from Chippenham is 11 minutes each way. Really short! Awesome! We got back to Bath with plenty of time to spare, which we really needed as we wanted to go to the Jane Austen Centre, and knowing us, we'd end up spending a good 3 hours in there. The centre is a minute walk away from our hotel, which was super, super nice, especially after that hellish run this morning.

Jane Austen Centre

The admission fee is 8 pounds/adult. The centre closes at 4:30pm (Winter hours--booo!), so we had to make sure we had ample time in here. They offer a free introductory tour about Jane Austen's life and as we were waiting for the next tour to start, we saw the dress that Sally Hawkins wore in Persuasion. What a complete and total surprise! We had no idea it would be on display, so I was absolutely delighted. And it's Wentworth!!! *sigh*

They had the script of the 1995 BBC version of Persuasion on display, as well as the filming schedule. Ciaran Hinds' autograph was on display:

Actor who portrayed Wentworth in 1995 Persuasion

And the all-important line in Persuasion:

1995 film script

The tour guide was dressed up in full Regency regalia. She told us of Jane Austen's life, focusing primarily on Jane's time in Bath. She grew up in Steventon, Hampshire, a rural country area that she loved and where her imagination could roam free. She grew up in a close-knit family with 7 siblings. When she was around 25, her father announced he was retiring from the rectory and he planned to move the family to Bath for the social life and restorative powers of the warm spring water there. Her five brothers had all moved out, established their own careers and families, which left the family unit as her parents, her, and her sister, Cassandra. Jane was shocked by her father's decision and sad to leave the only home she'd ever known.

But Bath had a lot of amusements for the country-bred girl. She could dance, socialize, play cards at the Assembly Rooms, and she loved partaking in all these activities. There were a constant array of events like concerts and theatre to entertain the gentry. Tea in the Assembly Rooms was a big to-do. Tea was not taken in the afternoon, like the English afternoon tea service we all know today. Instead, tea was served at breakfast and after dinner. It was a very expensive commodity, so only the wealthy could afford to drink tea. The hostess of the house would lock up the tea in her tea caddy and keep the key around her neck. Not even the housekeeper was entrusted with tea! When guests came over, the hostess would serve the guests herself (so not a maid serving the guests), pouring and mixing the drinks like a barista. Sometimes the marriageable young women of the household got to do this task, as it showed off their gracefulness when they poured tea. Jane would be in charge of the tea service in her house later in her life.

The Assembly Rooms served tea at 9pm in the Tea Room. Rumor has it that they used their tea leaves 3 times--once for the gentry, then they'd dry out the leaves and sell tea to the staff, then they'd dry out the leaves again and sell it to the public! Yuck!

At first, the Austens rented a very nice house in Sydney Place, directly across the famous Sydney Gardens and Jane would spend many an afternoon taking a turn about the gardens.

This is a reproduction of the portrait her sister Cassandra drew of Jane:

Portrait of Jane Austen, here age 35, by her sister Cassandra

The original hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London. An-gelll!!! I've been whining in London that I wanted to go to the National Portrait Gallery, mostly because I like looking at portraits of people who lived a hundred, two hundred years ago. But Angel shot down every one of my requests. Now who wants to go, hunh?

When Angel heard Jane Austen's portrait is displayed at the National Portrait Gallery, she conceded that perhaps we should visit it next time.

There aren't many descriptions of what Jane actually looked like and almost no portraits of her exist, save the one Cassandra drew. However, their niece, Anna, had this to remark about her aunt Cassandra's handiwork: "...it's hideously unlike."

In 1797, before her father announced he was retiring, Jane and Cassandra stayed with their wealthy aunt and uncle in Bath. Jane's mother came from a highly respectable and wealthy family, so Jane was always around wealthy people, even if her own circumstances weren't so good. Her father had to support 8 kids on 200 pounds per year, which meant things were tight and penny-pinching. Jane didn't like her aunt, as she thought her aunt looked down on her:

This is the entry in the Bath Herald & Register about Jane's aunt being put on trial for stealing:

Jane never married. In her younger days, she and a young chap named Tom Lefoy became very good friends, but they both came from families with no money. Tom was dependent on an uncle to finance his education, so a match between him and Jane was not possible.

Later on in her life, the brother of her good friends, Harris Bigg-Wither proposed to her. He had just graduated from Oxford, was the heir to a great fortune but was a quiet man. When he did speak, he was tactless and clumsy in conversation. To Jane, who admired wit, this must have been a turn-off. But she was so surprised by his proposal, she accepted on the spot. She was 27 to his 22, and had watched him grow up. She had no idea he entertained a secret crush on her til he proposed.

24 hours later, after a night of tossing and turning, she withdrew her acceptance to the embarrassment of both families. The tour guide posed that she might have felt even more pressured to remain a spinster after this debacle. Or that this debacle sealed her fate as a spinster.

Although, had she married him, she might not have written all the novels we love and cherish today.

When her niece Fanny asked for relationship advice some years later, Jane replied, "Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without Affection."

Harris Bigg-Wither

They had butter cookies on a plate so you could taste what they would've eaten in those days:

Very buttery!

Jane wrote some 3000 letters to her sister in her lifetime. Back then, it wasn't the sender who had to pay postage, it was the recipient. The price of postage was not based on weight. Rather, it was based on how many pieces of paper was used and the distance traveled. To economize on postage, Jane (and everyone else) would write in a "checkerbox" style, which basically means covering every little white space of the paper.

Actual letter from Jane to Cassandra

The sisters were very close and wrote to each other constantly. There was an audio of one of Jane Austen's letters; she's one very chatty lady. Snarky, too.

Emma, one of my favorites, was dedicated to the Prince Regent:

The Prince Regent wanted her to write something with Classic overtones, but Jane declined, stating she knew her limits as an authoress. She once wrote that she must be the most unlearned authoress ever.

Back in 2008, a first edition copy of Emma sold for 180,000 pounds. Wowza.

The Centre is interactive. You can dress up in Regency clothes and get your photo taken. Or, you can write with a quill:

It's darn hard to write with a quill! Annoying, too, to keep dabbing it into the ink pot.

25 Gay Street is another place where Jane Austen once stayed, near the Circus:

After leaving the Centre, we went to the Royal Crescent to take some more pictures. When we took pictures the other day, Baby did not want it sunny, as it does not match the mood of Persuasion.

Baby running across the Royal Crescent park:

This is the exterior of our hotel:

In the Jane Austen Centre, we learned that the Austens spent a lot of time house hunting for the perfect place to stay while in Bath. They ultimately settled on Sidney Place, but Jane Austen's mother had her heart set on Queens Square, because that was the fashionable address when she was young. In her eyes, Queens Square was the place to be.

However, in Jane's time, Queens Square had fallen out of favor. In Persuasion, Louisa and Henrietta are excitedly talking about a trip to Bath and they insist to their Mama that they must stay in a fashionable area of town. Henrietta tells her mom, "None of your Queens Square for us!"

I never got that line, as I had no idea what a Queens Square was.

I finally got it today. Aaaah, it's a location.

And on the short walk back to the hotel, we saw Queens Square!

...and funnily enough...we live on Queens Square! We never paid attention to the courtyard across the street, so had no idea that this is Queens Square. Angel and I cracked up so hard about it--Non of your Queens Square for us, indeed.