Locations for “Pride and Prejudice 2005”

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Regina Jeffers

For this movie discussion, I decided to visit some of my favorite places in the UK for filming. The places below were all used in Pride and Prejudice 2005. I have also included some of the history. If you know additional facts, please chime in. Most of these facts came from http://www.infobritain.co.uk.

Groombridge Place and Enchanted Forest, Kent (Longbourn)
In 1662 by architect Philip Packer, with the help of his friend, Christopher Wren, the seventeenth century’s premier architect, built Groombridge Place. Packer’s house was built on the site of a series of former manor houses owned by wealthy nobles, including Richard Waller, who famously kept Charles Duke of Orleans at Groombridge after capturing him at the Battle of Agincourt. Completing his new house in 1662 Packer then started thinking about his garden. Beginning in 1674, Packer began designing the gardens surrounding Groombridge House He was assisted by John Evelyn, a horticulturist and famous diarist. Evelyn was a multi-talented man who showed an unusually modern concern with the problems of urban living, and a reverence for gardens as an escape from them. Evelyn conceived a series of formal gardens arranged as “outside rooms” of the house. Although Evelyn was generally formal in his gardening ideas, the sense of blurring the boundary between indoors and outdoors was actually a theme that would emerge once again in the 20th Century. Some of Evelyn’s garden rooms at Groombridge also preempted modern design in creating an artfully “natural” landscape. The Secret Garden is the best example. It is suggested that this was Packer’s favourite garden. He is supposed to have died here in 1686 while reading a book.

Basildon Park, Berkshire (Netherfield Park)
Building of Basildon Park began in 1776 under Francis Sykes’ tutelage. A farmer’s son, who joined the British East India Company to make his fortune to support his political career, Sykes became governor of Kazimbazar. Returning to England in 1771 a rich man, Sykes bought the Basildon estate. Although facing financial difficulties, he managed to win a baronetcy and to become an MP. Sykes struggled on with the building of his grand house, in a palladian style, which was already going out of fashion. When Sykes died in London in 1804, Basildon Park remained unfinished. Sykes’ son inherited the property, but he too died within a few weeks, and the new owner, Sykes’ grandson, Francis Sykes the third baronet, was only five years old. With little money, ownership somehow remained with the boy, who at age 14 started entertaining Prince George at the house. Prince George was famously dissolute, and Sykes’ association with him only drained the family fortune further. With the family in a state of financial turmoil, Basildon Park was offered for sale. Just for good measure, personal turmoil was also thrown into the mix, when Sykes’ wife Henrietta started having an affair with future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. Henrietta also had an affair with the painter Daniel Maclise. When her husband denounced Maclise he broke the unwritten rule that such goings on in high society should be kept discreet. As a result, Charles Dickens, a friend of Maclise, decided to use the name Bill Sykes for a villainous character in a new book he was writing. Oliver Twist, complete with Bill Sykes, was published in 1838, and Francis Sykes was humiliated. He finally sold Basildon Park that year.

Burghley, Lincolnshire (Rosings Park)
Burghley is perhaps the grandest of all England’s sixteenth century Elizabethan houses, capturing the drama and other-worldly spirit of that time. Lord Burghley, William Cecil, Treasurer to Elizabeth I, and her most influential advisor, directed its structure. His grand house is like others of the period, Longleat or Wollaton Hall for example, except Burghley just had more of everything. In fact it may claim to be the definitive grand house of late Tudor England. Burghley, like most great properties, housed lavish collections of art and valuable objects. The Heaven Room became Lady Catherine’s drawing room in the 2005 film. The fifth Earl, Lord Exeter, commissioned the Italian artist Verrio to paint the murals on the wall and ceiling. There is a Hell Staircase leading to this room. Owned by a family trust, Lady Victoria Leatham, daughter of the Marquis of Exeter, the medal-winning Olympic runner portrayed inChariots of Fire, manages the estate. (As footnote,s the late Ian Charleson, who played Exeter in the film, has a RSC Award named after him. Matthew Macfadyen previously was nominated for the award. Also, Lady Victoria appears regularly on Antiques Roadshow.) Burghley has been used as a location for a number of films including Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth, the Golden Age, and The DaVinci Code.

Chatsworth, Derbyshire
Chatsworth is home to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. Since Chatsworth was first built in the early sixteenth century, it has been closely involved with religious disputes that have shaped Britain into modern times. Elizabeth Hardwick, and her husband Sir William Cavendish, treasurer to Henry VIII, built Chatsworth. When the king decided to marry Anne Boleyn, he needed to escape the influence of the pope who refused to grant Henry a divorce from his first wife Catherine of Aragon. In the upheaval of the Reformation that followed, huge amounts of money were taken from dissolved Catholic monasteries. From 1532 onwards a significant amount of this appropriated money went to Sir William Cavendish. He was made First Earl of Devonshire, and Chatsworth benefited from William’s newfound wealth. The Earls of Devonshire remained Protestant champions thereafter. Protestant Elizabeth I held the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots prisoner at Chatsworth on a number of occasions between 1569 and 1584.

Wilton House, Wiltshire (Mr. Darcy’s music room at Pemberley, where Elizabeth first meets Georgiana)
Wilton has been linked to royalty since early Anglo Saxon times. A nunnery was founded here, which figures quite frequently in Anglo Saxon royal history. The twelfth century saw the nunnery at Wilton being replaced by a Benedictine abbey, which was disbanded during Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1542 Henry VIII granted the abbey and its lands to William Herbert, whose descendents, the Earls of Pembroke, still own Wilton. A year after acquiring his new property William Herbert began creating a Tudor house, incorporating parts of the old abbey. This house was famous during Tudor times as the residence of Mary Sidney, sister of Elizabethan poet Sir Philip Sidney. In the 1630s the 4th Earl of Pembroke commissioned Inigo Jones to re-model Wilton House in a Palladian style. The Double Cube Room used in the film is an example of the style. Many films have used Wilton House as a location including The Young Victoria, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility,The Madness of King George, Mrs Brown, and The Bounty.

Haddon Hall, Derbyshire (the inn at Lambton)
Originally built as a fortified manor house in the eleventh century, Haddon Hall belonged to the Vernon family, and then passed by marriage to the powerful Manners family. In 1703 John Manners, 9th Earl of Rutland left Haddon Hall, and went to live at the Manners family seat at Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire. A long period of neglect followed for Haddon Hall. For over two hundred years it lay in a kind of suspended animation in an almost unaltered sixteenth century condition. A lesser house would have fallen down, but this was a strong stone built, fortified manor house. The empty house endured through the centuries until the 1920s when the 9th Duke of Rutland visited his long forgotten family property and realised how important it was. With the help of a restoration expert named Harold Brakspear the building was restored, not as a building representing a single time period, but more as a building that had accreted layers like sedimentary rock over long periods of time. There are small sections that date to the eleventh century, but there are also parts of the building which date to rebuilding between the thirteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
With Haddon Hall illustrating a long period in history it is fitting that the house is often used as a film location for historical film and drama. Haddon Hall has been used for The Princess Bride (1986), Jane Eyre (1996), Elizabeth(1998), and Pride and Prejudice (2005).

Stourhead, Wiltshire (location of The Temple of Apollo used for the first proposal scene)
Henry Hoare, whose father, Sir Richard Hoare had made his fortune in banking, built Stourhead between 1717 and 1725. Stourhead and the banking fortune, which created it, date from a financial revolution that accompanied the Glorious Revolution of 1688. After 1688, British monarchs were obliged to work within the constitution set out by Parliament. Now debt run up by the country became the “national debt.” Debt became increasingly accepted, and this new attitude was one of the reasons Britain became such a powerful country in the 18th century. The gardens at Stourhead illustrate the worldwide power that Britain began to enjoy following the financial revolution. It became increasingly fashionable to have exotic foreign plants in gardens, brought back from countries under British influence. The estate is huge, and includes King Alfred’s Tower, a folly of monumental proportions. This fifty meter high building lies at the end of a long coach track leading away from the house. It commemorates King Alfred’s victory over the Danes in 878 A.D. Stourhead remained with the Hoare family until 1946. Henry Hoare, the Sixth Baronet lost his only son during World War One, and a year before his own death in 1947, he gave Stourhead to the National Trust.

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“X” Doesn’t Mark the Spot

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Regina Jeffers

“X” Doesn’t Mark the Spot

Recently, I spent a delightful morning counting words in Pride and Prejudice. Why? You may ask: Regina, do you not have enough to do with your retirement years than to sit around counting how many times Jane Austen used the word “sex” in this novel? (That would be seven times, by the way.) The truth is I am a bit OCD about some things. (Okay, I’m a lot OCD at times, but not as afflicted as my friend Brooke who turns all the paperclips in the holder on her desk in the same direction. Yet, that is another story.) Counting and numbers actually are distracting. It exercises the other side of my brain, and on that particular day, I had hit a wall with my new novel. I had three possible scenarios for endings, and I could not make up my mind, which one would play out the best. Of course, choosing the ending affected the events I would choose early on in the storyline. My writing was at a stand still. (Yes, that is one of my glorious duties as the person who runs the contests on this site.) Therefore, I turned my attention to the post I had yet to write for my own blog.

Preparing to post the last in my three part series of “Do You Speak Jane Austen?”, I needed to find a word or two in Austen’s writings that began with the letter “X.” I was soon to find out that “X” as the beginning letter was quite elusive. I scanned Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park. No “X” words were to be found. However, that doesn’t mean that our Jane never used the letter. On the contrary, 158 different words containing the letter “X” are used within Pride and Prejudice alone.

The most commonly used word containing “x” was “next,” and I shall take great pleasure in telling my editor, who seems to frown on the word, that Jane Austen used “next” one and seventy times in Pride and Prejudice. Other “X” words that our Jane used repeatedly were “expected” (43); “expect” (35); “exactly” (30); “exceedingly” (27); “expressed” (25); “anxious” (25); “express” (to mean both “to state” and “the mail”) (24); “expression” (22); “fixed” (22); “except” (22); and “excellent” (20).

Jane was also quite fond of “expectation” (19); “anxiety” (18); “extraordinary” (17); “excuse” (used both as a noun and a verb) (16); “extremely” (14); “excessively” (11); “expressions” (11); “vexation” (10); and “excited” (10). Of course, there are the variations of each of these words:
“vexing” (1); “vex” (1); “vexed” (8); “vexatious” (2): “vexations” (1); “exceeding” (1); “exceeded” (2); “exceed” (2); “expectations” (7); “expecting” (8); “expects” (1); “expecting” (1); “excepting” (4); “fixing” (2); “fix” (3); “inexpressibly” (1); “expressing” (3); “inexpressible” (1); “expressly” (1); “expressed” (1); “expressively” (1); “anxiously” (1); “excessive” (4); “excess” (2); “excellency” (1) “unexpected” (8); “unexpectedly” (3); “excuses” (2); and “extreme” (4).

However, some of my favorite finds had nothing to do with Austen’s repeating of these common words. Instead, I enjoyed finding “Oxford” (1), “annexed” (1), “exigence” (1), “bandbox” (1), “beaux” (1), “proxy” (1), “expostulation” (1), “exercise” (6), “exertion” (9), and “foxhounds” (1). Another thing I noted (minus the deep scientific study I should have executed) is that Austen seems to use the number “six” quite often in her writing. In Pride and Prejudice, she used “six” ten times, “sixth” once, and “sixteen” seven times. I laughingly told myself it was because our dear Jane had to handwrite her stories (which you might recall is an act in my writing process) and “six” is much shorter to write than say “seven” or “eight.” That reasoning died away when I thought of the words “one,” “two,” and “ten.” Perhaps, “six” was Austen’s lucky number. After all, in Mandarin, “six” is good for business and can mean happiness. Did our Jane anticipate her literary success by using the number “six” often? Yes, it is used multiple times in Sense and Sensibility also. Or, mayhap, I am simply looking for a good story behind all this counting. My mathematical brain is now assuaged. (Did I ever tell you that I began college as a math major? Eventually, I switched to language arts, and the rest is history.) Hopefully, some of you are also both right and left brained and can understand my need to be whole brained in my daily life. If not, you will continue to see me as quite eccentric. [By the way, if one is looking for more delicious Jane Austen words, check out the Jane Austen Thesaurus (http://writelikeausten.com/).]

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I See Jane Austen Everywhere!

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Regina Jeffers

I See Jane Austen Everywhere!!!!

As much as I love Jane Austen, one of my best friends loves Elizabeth Gaskell equally as well. I admit to having read only three Gaskell pieces in my time: Cranford, North and South, and Mary Barton. Last Christmas Season, I reread Cranford, but it has been many years since I have truly studied Gaskell’s works. However, recently, I agreed I would reread North and South, and my friend Jasmine and I would have a two-person book discussion. (Unfortunately, I’m a bit behind in my reading – working on the sequel to The Disappearance of Georgiana Darcy and working on a release of Book 7 of my Realm series, A Touch of Honor.) Gaskell’s brilliance lies in her ability to negotiate the relationships between the social classes, while adding Unitarian values of freedom, reason, and tolerance.

That being said, first, permit me to clarify one major misconception regarding North and South. That delicious scene in the mini-series where Margaret Hale (Daniela Denby-Ashe) spies on John Thornton (Richard Armitage) at his factory, and the air is filled with the cotton fibers, is NOT in the book – at least, not in the first 20 chapters. (I have read through the scene where Margaret and her father dine with the Thorntons.) The director, Brian Percival, and screenwriter, Sandy Welch, have followed in the traditional romantic period dramas of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

So, you may ask, why discuss Gaskell’s North and South on a blog, essentially dedicated to the Regency era? Well, the problem lies in the fact I keep seeing Darcy and Elizabeth and Pride and Prejudice‘s influence in Gaskell’s passages. I am not suggesting Ms. Gaskell “borrowed” her ideas from my Miss Jane. On the contrary, the fault lies with me. I see Austen’s influence in story line after story line.

For example, in Chapter 7, “New Scenes and Faces,” I imagine Darcy realizing Elizabeth’s power over him when I read, “Mr. Thornton was in habits of authority himself, but she seemed to assume some kind of rule over him at once. He had been getting impatient at the loss of his time on a market-day, the moment before she appeared, yet now he calmly took a seat at her bidding.”

From the same chapter, Thornton’s first meeting with Miss Hale could easily have been Darcy and Elizabeth’s. “She sat facing him and facing the light; her full beauty met his eye; her round white flexile throat rising out of the full, yet lithe figure; her lips, moving so slightly as she spoke, not breaking the cold serene look of her face with any variation from the one lovely haughty curve; her eyes, with their soft gloom, meeting his with quiet maiden freedom. He almost said to himself that he did not like her,before their conversation ended; he tried so to compensate himself for the mortified feeling, that while he looked upon her with an admiration he could not repress, she looked at him with proud indifference, taking him, he thought, for what, in his irritation, he told himself he was–a great rough fellow, with not a grace or a refinement about him. Her quiet coldness of demeanour he interpreted into contemptuousness, and resented itin his heart to the pitch of almost inclining him to get up and go away, and have nothing more to do with these Hales, and their superciliousness.”

From Chapter 10, “Wrought Iron and Gold,” Thornton and Margaret have a heated discussion over the merits of living in the North versus residing in the South. I was reminded of Darcy and Elizabeth saying, “And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody.”
“And yours,” he replied, with a smile, “is willfully to misunderstand them.”

John Thornton and Miss Hale says, “You do not know anything about the South. If there is less adventure or less progress–I suppose I must not say less excitement–from the gambling spirit of trade, which seems requisite to force out these wonderful inventions, there is less suffering also…. You do not know the South, Mr.Thornton,” she concluded, collapsing into a determined silence, and angry with herself for having said so much.
“And may I say you do not know the North?” said he.

Later on, when Thornton means to shake Margaret’s hand in farewell, but Margaret is unfamiliar with the custom, I am reminded of Elizabeth’s refusal to dance with Darcy at Sir William Lucas’s house, and of Elizabeth’s initial “first impression” of Darcy. “When Mr. Thornton rose up to go away, after shaking hands with Mr. and Mrs. Hale, he made an advance to Margaret to wish her good-bye in a similar manner. It was the frank familiar custom of the place; but Margaret was not prepared for it. She simply bowed her farewell; although the instant she saw the hand, half put out, quickly drawn back, she was sorry she had not been aware of the intention. Mr. Thornton, however, knew nothing of her sorrow, and, drawing himself up to his full height, walked off, muttering as he left the house– ‘A more proud, disagreeable girl I never saw. Even her great beauty is blotted out of one’s memory by her scornful ways.’”

From Chapter 9, Thornton explains to his mother that Miss Hale has not set her sights on him. “‘Well! I only say, take care. Perhaps our Milton girls have too
much spirit and good feeling to go angling after husbands; but this Miss Hale comes out of the aristocratic counties, where, if all tales be true, rich husbands are reckoned prizes.’
Mr. Thornton’s brow contracted, and he came a step forward into the room. ‘Mother’ (with a short scornful laugh), ‘you will make me confess. The only time I saw Miss Hale, she treated me with a haughty civility which had a strong flavour of contempt in it. She held herself aloof from me as if she had been a queen, and I her humble, unwashed vassal. Be easy, mother.’”

Although the situation is reversed: Thornton is rich, but of the working class, and Miss Hale is poor, but of the genteel class. Despite her poverty, the lady does not view Mr. Thornton as a possible suitor, but he is enthralled with her with his first glance. In fact, Chapter 11 is entitled “First Impressions.” Must I say more???41VLgv9qigL._SL500_AA278_PIkin4BottomRight-4622_AA300_SH20_OU01_-150x150 

Posted in book excerpts, British history, George IV, Great Britain, Jane Austen, language choices, political stance, real life tales, Victorian era | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Georgian Celebrity: Dorothy Kilner, Author of Children’s Books

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Regina Jeffers

200px-Dorothy_Kilner_1755_-_1836 Dorothy Kilner (pseudonyms M. P. and Mary Pelham, 1755–1836) was a prolific English writer of children’s books during the late 18th century.

Life
Dorothy was born on 17 February 1755, probably at Woodford, Essex. She was the youngest of five children of Thomas Kilner (1719–1804), public servant and landowner, and his wife, Frances, née Ayscough (1718–1768). The family moved to Maryland Point, then in Essex, in 1759. She was greatly inspired by a friendship that began in childhood with Mary Ann Maze (Mary Ann Kilner, 1753–1831).
This involved exchanging copious verse letters on religious and personal matters. When Maze married Dorothy’s brother Thomas Kilner (1750–1812) in 1774, Dorothy moved into their house in Spitalfields, London, and helped to bring up their five children. Both Dorothy and Mary Ann became prolific writers of books for children. The family moved to Margate in 1787 and to Dorothy’s father’s house at Maryland Point in 1789. Predeceased by most of her family, Dorothy became an invalid after a back injury in 1817, and her mind became unhinged in her later years, but she was looked after by her niece Frances and her grand-niece Maria. She died on 5 February 1836 and was buried in West Ham.

Writings

Title page from The Life and Perambulation of a Mouse

Title page from The Life and Perambulation of a Mouse

Dorothy Kilner published anonymously at first and then under the successive pseudonyms of M. P. and Mary Pelham, in line with general practice for female authors in that period. “M. P.” may have referred to her home town of Maryland Point. Both she and her sister-in-law were published by the London firm of John Marshall.

Dorothy’s most famous book was The Life and Perambulation of a Mouse (1784). Other titles included Anecdotes of a Boarding School, or an antidote to the vices of those Establishments (1790) and Little Stories for Little Folks (c. 1785). Kilner wrote clearly and well, but in an age when the moral element in children’s literature was still dominant. So her book The Village School (1795) is subtitled A Collection of Entertaining Histories for the Instruction and Amusement of All Good Children, and the stories feature a Mrs. Bell (the schoolteacher) and a Mr. Right (the parson). The book concludes: “From this fatal accident it is to be hoped, that every body will learn to be extremely cautious not to leave candles burning near linen, nor, indeed, any where, without constantly watching, that they may not do mischief.”

Nonetheless, her discernment of children’s character and amusements shines through.
Copies of the books of Dorothy and Mary Ann were found long after their deaths in a trunk in their Maryland Point home. Several titles continued to be reprinted for many years. The Life and Perambulation of a Mouse, for instance, reappeared in 1870 in a collection edited by Charlotte M. Yonge, entitled A Storehouse of Stories.

Posted in British history, Georgian Era, Great Britain, Living in the Regency, real life tales, Regency era, Regency personalities | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Happenings During the Reign of William IV: The Lewes Avalanche, the Deadliest Avalanche on Record in the UK

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Regina Jeffers
Lewes

Lewes

The Lewes avalanche occurred on 27 December 1836 in Lewes, Sussex, when a huge build-up of snow on a chalk cliff overlooking the town collapsed into the settlement 100 metres below, destroying a row of cottages and killing eight people. It remains the deadliest avalanche on record in the United Kingdom.

Background
The town of Lewes lies approximately seven miles north of the Sussex coast, situated on the River Ouse in a gap in the South Downs. Hills rise above Lewes to the east and west, with Cliffe Hill to the east rising to 164 metres above sea level. The hill has a precipitously sloping western edge which dominates the eastern panorama from the town. In 1836, a row of seven flimsily constructed workers’ cottages called Boulder Row, on South Street, stood immediately at the foot of Cliffe Hill. The total number of inhabitants of Boulder Row is unknown, but contemporary reports indicated that fifteen people were in the cottages when the avalanche struck.

December 1836

The winter of 1836–1837 was exceptionally severe across the whole of Great Britain, with heavy snow, gale force winds and freezing temperatures being recorded in locations all around the country from the end of October 1836 through to April 1837. Very heavy snowfall began across South East England, and in particular over the South Downs, on 24 December 1836, and continued unabated over the Christmas period. Strong winds at the same time created blizzard conditions, with reports of snowdrifts over ten feet high in some areas of Lewes. Unbeknownst to the inhabitants of the town, the accumulation of snow at the top of Cliffe Hill, driven by a particularly severe gale on Christmas night, had been forming into a large cornice overhanging its almost sheer western edge. On the evening preceding the disaster, a significant build-up of snow was observed falling from the top of the hill into a timber yard close to Boulder Row. The inhabitants were warned they could be at risk and were advised to leave their homes until the danger had passed, but for their own reasons they chose to ignore the warning.

At 10.15 on the morning of Tuesday 27 December the cornice collapsed more extensively, producing an enormous avalanche of accumulated snow directly onto Boulder Row. The Sussex Weekly Advertiser, reporting the testimony of eyewitnesses, stated: “The mass appeared to strike the houses first at the base, heaving them upwards, and then breaking over them like a gigantic wave. There was nothing but a mound of pure white.” A rescue operation by townspeople succeeded in pulling seven survivors from the wreckage before hypothermia or suffocation could claim them, but eight other individuals were found dead. Their names are recorded on a commemorative tablet on the inside wall of South Malling parish church, one mile away, where the funeral and burial took place. The fatalities included people with the family names Barnden, Bridgman and Geer, while survivors included a young labourer Jeremiah Rooke, a middle-aged woman named Fanny Sherlock (or Sharlock) and a two year old child, Fanny Boakes, believed to be Sherlock’s granddaughter (the 1841 census records two individuals matching these names and ages living at the same address in South Street).

In the aftermath of the tragedy, a fund was set up by prominent townspeople to provide financial assistance to the survivors and families of the deceased.

Legacy
A public house called the Snowdrop Inn (named in commemoration of the incident) was built in South Street on the site once occupied by Boulder Row, and still trades under the same name today. The white dress being worn by Fanny Boakes when she was rescued was preserved and is now in the Anne of Cleves House museum in Lewes.

Posted in British history, buildings and structures, Great Britain, real life tales, William IV | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Happenings During the Reign of William IV: The Lewes Avalanche, the Deadliest Avalanche on Record in the UK

Just for Valentine’s Day…Favs Among Romantic Flicks

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Regina Jeffers

Thinking on the “romantic” holiday, I thought I would offer up some on my favorite ROMANCE movies. Likely, I will be curled up on the sofa this evening and enjoying several of these. Perhaps, you have favorites you would wish to mention below.

For these, I know the majority of the lines…

Pride and Prejudice with Matthew Macfadyen... Enough Said!

Pride and Prejudice with Matthew Macfadyen… Enough Said!

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - know all the song lyrics!

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers – know all the song lyrics!

Notting Hill - Hugh Grant at his best!

Notting Hill – Hugh Grant at his best!

Sabrina - played the part in community theatre production of Sabrina Fair

Sabrina – played the part in community theatre production of Sabrina Fair

Sweet Home Alabama "You're the first boy I ever kissed, Jake, and I want you to be the last."

Sweet Home Alabama “You’re the first boy I ever kissed, Jake, and I want you to be the last.”

Sleepless in Seattle - Can you too repeat all the lines from the Empire State Bldg. scene?

Sleepless in Seattle – Can you too repeat all the lines from the Empire State Bldg. scene?

These are sweet and satisfying…

Love Actually

Love Actually

10 Thins I Hate About You - the young adult version of Taming of the Shrew

10 Thins I Hate About You – the young adult version of Taming of the Shrew

The Cutting Edge - the best of the series

The Cutting Edge – the best of the series

Serendipity

Serendipity

Bridget Jones' Diary - fabulous tale based on Pride and Prejudice

Bridget Jones’ Diary – fabulous tale based on Pride and Prejudice

A Knight's Tale - Heath Ledger and a naked Paul Bettany as Chaucer

A Knight’s Tale – Heath Ledger and a naked Paul Bettany as Chaucer

Never Been Kissed - Michael Vartan!!!

Never Been Kissed – Michael Vartan!!!

These are tear jerkers…

The Quiet Man - when John Wayne returns her to her brother, I was hooked. What of you?

The Quiet Man – when John Wayne returns her to her brother, I was hooked. What of you?

Casablanca - a classic tale of love lost

Casablanca – a classic tale of love lost

Up Close & Personal - I turn this one off before Redford dies!

Up Close & Personal – I turn this one off before Redford dies!

West Side Story - the songs and the story remain a classic

West Side Story – the songs and the story remain a classic

The Notebook - such a sad, but fulfilling ending

The Notebook – such a sad, but fulfilling ending

Atonement - (sigh!) James McAvoy

Atonement – (sigh!) James McAvoy

Gone With the Wind -"Frankly, my Dear, I don't give a damn!"

Gone With the Wind -“Frankly, my Dear, I don’t give a damn!”

An Affair to Remember - "I really hope you've found happiness, and if you're ever in need of anything, like someone to love you, don't hesitate to call me."

An Affair to Remember – “I really hope you’ve found happiness, and if you’re ever in need of anything, like someone to love you, don’t hesitate to call me.”

North and South - a fabulous miniseries

North and South – a fabulous miniseries

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Georgian Celebrity: Ralph Allen, Reforming the British Postal System

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Regina Jeffers

Ralphallen Ralph Allen (1693 – 29 June 1764) was an entrepreneur and philanthropist, and was notable for his reforms to the British postal system. He was baptised at St Columb Major in Cornwall on 24 July 1693. As a teenager he worked at the Post Office. He moved in 1710 to Bath, where he became a post office clerk, and at the age of 19, in 1712, became the Postmaster of Bath. In 1742 he was elected Mayor of Bath.

Involvement in the Postal System
At the age of 27, Allen took control of the Cross and Bye Posts in the South West under a seven-year contract with the General Post Office, although he had no official title. At the end of this period he had not made a profit, only breaking even. But he had the courage to continue – with breathtaking success.

Over the next few years he reformed the postal service. He realised that post boys were delivering items of mail along their route without them being declared and that this was lost profit. He introduced a “signed for system” that prevented the malpractice. He also improved efficiency by not requiring mail to go via London.

Ralph Allen’s reputation grew, and he took over more and more of the English postal system, signing contracts every seven years until he died at age 71. It is estimated he saved the Post Office £1,500,000 over a 40-year period. He won the patronage of General Wade in 1715, when he disclosed details of a Jacobite uprising in Cornwall.

Quarrying of Bath Stone
With the arrival of John Wood in Bath, Allen used the wealth gained from his postal reforms to acquire the stone quarries at Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines. Hitherto, the quarry masons had always hewn stone roughly providing blocks of varying size. The resulting uneven surface is known as “rubble” and buildings of this type – built during the Stuart period – are visible throughout the older parts of Bath.

Wood required stone blocks to be cut with crisp clean edges for his distinctive classical facades. Ralph Allen and John Wood had some difficulty persuading the Bath masons to comply with these new practices. Many got the sack and Allen brought in more willing labour from Wood’s native Yorkshire. Allen built many cottages for his workers, but it was not an act of benevolent goodwill for local men as is often thought; it was a practical solution to house the strangers from Yorkshire who, as blackleg labour, were not welcome in Bath.

The distinctive honey-coloured Bath Stone, used to build the Georgian city, made Allen a second fortune. The building in Lilliput Alley, Bath (now North Parade Passage), which he used as a post office, became his Town House, and in 1727, he refronted the southern rubble wall, extended the house to the north and added a whole new storey. John Wood the Elder refers to this in his “Essay towards the future of Bath.” Allen was extremely astute at marketing the qualities of Bath Stone and erected an elaborately ornate building a few feet to the north of his house to demonstrate its qualities. The extension (as Wood refers to it) has become known as “Ralph Allen’s Town House” though whether it was designed by Wood is unproved and many local historians consider it unlikely. Allen continued to live there until 1745, when he moved to Prior Park, and the townhouse became his offices.Uk_PriorPark_Bath

Allen had the Palladian mansion Prior Park built for himself (1742) on a hill overlooking the city, “To see all Bath, and for all Bath to see.” He gave money and the stone for the building of the Mineral Water Hospital in 1738.

Allen had a summer home built in the English coastal town of Weymouth in Dorset, overlooking the harbour at number 2 Trinity street, opposite the Customs house. There is a plaque on the house to commemorate Allen. His Bath stone was used to build the Georgian style buildings in old Weymouth.

Commemoration
Ralph Allen is buried in a pyramid-topped tomb in Claverton churchyard, on the outskirts of Bath, which is the subject of a fundraising campaign to pay for its badly-needed renovation.

His name is commemorated in Bath in Ralph Allen Drive, which runs past his former home at Prior Park. Now a busy road from Combe Down village to Bath city centre, this was originally the route by which the stone from his quarries at Combe Down was sent on wooden sledges down to the River Avon. He is also remembered in Ralph Allen School, one of the city’s state secondary schools. Prior Park College, a private school for 11-18 year olds, is housed in Allen’s former home and incorporates a boys’ boarding house named Allen House.

The Ralph Allen CornerStone in Combe Down village opened in the autumn of 2013. This will house the archives of the Combe Down Heritage Society and will provide a community hub and information centre as part of the legacy of the project to infill the original stone mines underneath the village.

Henry Fielding used Allen as the model for Squire Allworthy in the novel Tom Jones.

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Georgian Celebrity: John Wood, the Younger ~ Completing His Father’s Dream of Bath

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Regina Jeffers

The Royal Crescent

The Royal Crescent

John Wood, the Younger (25 February 1728 – 18 June 1782) was an English architect, working principally in the city of Bath, Somerset. He was the son of the architect John Wood, the Elder. His designs were highly influential during the 18th century and the Royal Crescent is considered to be one of the best examples of Georgian Neo-Classical architecture in Britain.

Biography
John Wood was born in 1728, the year his father moved to Bath, and was baptised in Bath Abbey. He was trained by his father and as a young man worked on several of his father’s projects, including Liverpool Town Hall. In either 1752 or early 1753, he married Elizabeth Brock. They had two sons together and at least eight daughters.

Wood died at Eagle House, Batheaston (his home in later years) on 16 June 1781 and was buried beside his father in the chancel at St Mary’s Church, Swainswick. He was deeply in debt, partly due to financial conditions relating to his father’s earlier building speculations.

Works
Wood began his independent career by developing and extending his father’s work in Bath. His first major project consisted of completing the Circus (his father died less than three months after the first stone was laid). His next achievement was the designing and building of Gay Street to connect Queen Square and the Circus, his father’s greatest triumphs.

Wood spent the next few decades designing new buildings, terraces and architectural set-pieces for the city of Bath. It appears he did not share his father’s interest in druidism and freemasonry, but his designs show certain inspirations and themes which reflect 18th century fashions and philosophies.

During the 1770s a new more severe neo-classical style was becoming fashionable. Wood pioneered this new style in buildings, such as what we see at the Hot Bath (built using the Doric order), the Royal Crescent, and the Bath Assembly Rooms.

These buildings contrasted with the more decorated and embellished style preferred by his father. Whilst John Wood the Elder’s Circus includes superimposed orders and a detailed frieze, the Royal Crescent – designed by his son – has a single order and plain decoration throughout.

The site Wood chose for the Royal Crescent also shows that he was interested in creating a proto-romantic dialogue between his buildings and the surrounding countryside. Previous buildings and set-pieces in Bath were all intensely urban and inward looking whereas the Royal Crescent was fully open and looked out on to open fields. This is not always apparent today, but when it was built in 1775 the crescent was situated right on the edge of the city with no nearby buildings to block residents’ views of the countryside. The Royal Crescent is among the greatest examples of Georgian architecture to be found in the United Kingdom and is a Grade I listed building.

Reputation and Assessment
John Wood the Younger is a key figure; not only in the history of Bath, but also in the history of British 18th-century architecture. When John Wood the Elder died, Queen Square and the Circus were isolated showpieces in Bath. His son connected these buildings and went on to create and inspire a new city quarter filled with elegant Palladian and neo-classical structures. Wood’s clean, neo-classical style inspired other Georgian and Regency era architects in Bath such as John Pinch the Elder, John Pinch the Younger, and Thomas Baldwin. The Royal Crescent is his greatest achievement and was one of the first designs of its type. It was imitated in Bath and also in later English towns such as Buxton, Brighton, Bristol and London

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Georgian Celebrity: John Wood, the Elder ~ Architect of Bath

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Regina Jeffers
John Wood the Elder

John Wood the Elder

John Wood, the Elder, (1704 – 23 May 1754, Bath), was an English architect, working mainly in Bath.

In 1740 he surveyed Stonehenge and the Stanton Drew stone circles. He later wrote extensively about Bladud and Neo-Druidism. Because of some of his designs he is also thought to have been involved in the early years of Freemasonry.

His notable work in Bath included: St John’s Hospital, Queen Square, and Prior Park. Wood also designed important buildings outside Bath, including the reconstruction of Llandaff Cathedral, Buckland House, The Exchange, Bristol, and Liverpool Town Hall. He has been described by Nikolaus Pevsner as “one of the outstanding architects of the day.”

Early Life
Wood was born in Twiverton, a village near Bath, which later became a city suburb. His father George Wood was a local builder. Baptised in St. James’s Church (now demolished), he received a good but basic education at King Edward’s School; however, the school records of that period no longer survive.

During his teenage years and early twenties, Wood worked for Robert Benson, the first Baron Bingley at his estate, Bramham Park, Yorkshire. He then became involved in speculative builds on the Cavendish estate in London.

Style and Vision
Through reading, site visits and practical experience Wood developed his unique ideas in order to create a master plan for his home town of such ambition it is almost overwhelming. Through his continual self-education, Wood refined his architectural beliefs and by his mid-twenties had combined his passion for Palladianism (a type of classical architecture) with his obsession with Ancient British history, and almost certainly Freemasonry.

Wood set out to restore Bath to what he believed was its former ancient glory as one of the most important and significant cities in England. In 1725, he developed an ambitious plan for his home town, which due to opposition, he developed outside the existing city walls. Wood created a distinctive image for the city, one that has greatly contributed to Bath’s continuing popularity.

Wood’s grand plans for Bath were consistently hampered by the Corporation (council), churchmen, landowners and moneymen. Instead he approached Robert Gay, a barber surgeon from London, and the owner of the Barton Farm estate in the Manor of Walcot, outside the city walls. On these fields Wood established Bath’s architectural style, the basic principals of which were copied by all those architects who came after him. Wood created one of the greatest attractions in the world, recognised by UNESCO for embodying a number of outstanding universal values, including the deliberate creation of a beautiful and unified city.

Speculative Building

In the heart of Bath is Queen Square–a square of Georgian houses designed by John Wood, the elder in the early 18th century and paid for by Beau Nash. The square was designed to join the houses in unison and give the impression that together they formed one large mansion when viewed from the south facing side. The focal point of Queen Square is the obelisk at the centre, which commemorates the visit of Frederick, Prince of Wales.

In the heart of Bath is Queen Square–a square of Georgian houses designed by John Wood, the elder in the early 18th century and paid for by Beau Nash. The square was designed to join the houses in unison and give the impression that together they formed one large mansion when viewed from the south facing side.
The focal point of Queen Square is the obelisk at the centre, which commemorates the visit of Frederick, Prince of Wales.

At Queen Square, Wood introduced speculative building to Bath. This meant that whilst Wood leased the land from Robert Gay for £137 per annum, designed the frontages, and divided the ground into the individual building plots, he sub-let to other individual builders or masons. They had two years grace in which to get the walls up and the roof on, after which they had to pay a more substantial rent.

As Bath was booming, most plots were reserved before the two years were up, providing the builder with the necessary income to complete the house. Ultimately this meant less work and risk for Wood; in addition he received £305 per annum in rents, leaving him a healthy profit of £168 – the equivalent today (in terms of average earnings) of £306,000.

Bath Architecture
Along with his son, John Wood, the Younger, Wood is known for designing many of the streets and buildings of Bath, such as St John’s Hospital, (1727–28), Queen Square (1728–36), Prior Park (1734–41), The Royal Mineral Water Hospital (1738–42) the North (1740) and South Parades (1743–48), The Circus (1754–68), and other notable houses, many of which are Grade I listed buildings.

In 1716 the architect William Killigrew was commissioned to rebuild the St John’s Hospital, which had been founded around 1180, by Bishop Reginald Fitz Jocelin making it among the oldest almshouses in England. Construction continued after 1727 with John Wood, the Elder undertaking the building, as his first work in Bath, when he was age 23.

Ralph Allen’s Town House was commissioned by Ralph Allen who commenced building it in or shortly afer 1727. Opinion is divided as to whether John Wood the Elder designed the “Town House,” however, the ostentatious decoration is not a style he uses elsewhere in Bath. Wood, in his “Essay towards the future of Bath,” says — while Mr Allen was making the Addition to the North Part of his House in Lilliput Alley, he new fronted and raised the old Building a full Storey higher; it consists of a Basement Storey sustaining a double Storey under the Crowning; and this is surmounted by an Attick, which created a sixth Rate House, and a Sample for the greatest Magnificence that was ever proposed by me for our City Houses.

North Side Queen Square

North Side Queen Square

Queen Square was Wood’s first speculative development. Wood lived in a house on the square. Numbers 21–27 make up the north side, which has been described by Nikolaus Pevsner as “one of the finest Palladian compositions in England before 1730.” The west side (numbers 14 – 18 and 18A, 19 & 20) was designed by John Pinch in 1830 and differs from Wood’s original design as the central block is in Neo-Grecian style. 16-18 is now occupied by the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution. The south side (numbers 5-13), which was originally left open, is now occupied by a hotel.

In 1742, Wood was commissioned to build a home for the mayor of Bath Ralph Allen, on a hill overlooking the city of Bath. This building is Grade 1 listed and has housed Prior Park College since 1830.

The building for the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases was designed by Wood and built with Bath Stone donated by Ralph Allen. It was later enlarged, firstly in 1793 by the addition of an attic storey and later in 1860 by a second building erected on the west side of the earlier edifice. It is a Grade II listed building. There is a fine pediment, in Bath stone, on 1860 building depicting the parable of the Good Samaritan.

North Parade was part of a wider scheme to build a Royal Forum, including South Parade, Pierrepont and Duke Streets, similar to Queen Square, which was never completed. Wood designed the facade, of Bath Stone, after which a variety of builders completed the work with different interiors and rear elevations.

Wood Street was built in 1778 an has been designated as a Grade I listed building. The street was designed by John Wood, the Elder and built by Thomas Baldwin in the same style as the adjacent Queen Square.

His final masterpiece was the Circus, built on Barton Fields outside the old city walls of Bath, although he never lived to see his plans put into effect as he died less than three months after the first stone was laid. It was left to his son, John Wood, the Younger to complete the scheme to his father’s design. Wood’s inspiration was the Roman Colosseum, but whereas the Colosseum was designed to be seen from the outside, the Circus faces inwardly. Three classical Orders, (Greek Doric, Roman/Composite and Corinthian) are used, one above the other, in the elegant curved facades. The frieze of the Doric entablature is decorated with alternating triglyphs and 525 pictorial emblems, including serpents, nautical symbols, devices representing the arts and sciences, and masonic symbols. The parapet is adorned with stone acorn finials. He demonstrated how a row of town houses could be dignified, almost palatial. The uses of uniform facades and rhythmic proportions in conjunction with classical principles of unerring symmetry were followed throughout the city.

Death and Legacy
Wood died in Bath and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s church, Swainswick. Many of his building projects were continued by his son John Wood, the Younger including; Royal Crescent, Bath Assembly Rooms and Buckland House.He also finished The Circus.
There is an off-campus dormitory complex belonging to the University of Bath named John Wood Complex, on Avon Street.
Bath is now a World Heritage Site, at least partly as a result of the Wood’s architecture

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Georgian Happenings: Changing the Face of Bath One Brick at a Time

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Regina Jeffers

The Triumvirate Which Changed the Face of Georgian Era Bath
By Regina Jeffers

The beginning of the 1700s in England saw the expansion of the middle class and a stronger economy. As such Bath had known a steady period of growth, but when Queen visited the city in 1702 (and then again a year later), the fashionable crowd took notice. Although the Bath of the early 1700s remained smaller than other “bathing holes,” such as Tunbridge Wells, Daniel Defoe said, “We may say now it is the resort of the sound as well as the sick and a place that helps the indolent and the gay to commit the worst of murders–to kill time.”

Bath Abbey rose from a close and crowded resort town within the curve of the River Avon. One could find a crowded fish market at the East Gate on the river quay. Jacobean buildings sported gables and leaded windows. Sally Lunn’s house between Abbey Green and the Parade is said to be the city’s oldest house and is typical of the style of the Jacobean façade.

Sally Lunn's house

Sally Lunn’s house

Unfortunately, the eighteenth century, society in Bath was not what one might term “first tier.” The hot baths attracted the infirmed and all those who thought to “cure” them. Hooligans and gamblers and those who practiced deceit polluted the city. It was Richard ‘Beau’ Nash, the Master of Ceremonies of the Corporation, who changed the city. Nash was named to the unpaid position after the incumbent had lost his life in a duel. He was a man known to possess an excessively high opinion of himself, but he was also seen a very practical gentleman.

“Almost immediately Nash forbade dueling and the wearing of swords in the city; persuaded the Corporation to repair the roads, to pave, clean and light the streets, to license the sedan-chair men and regulate their behavior. He engaged a good orchestra from London and was responsible not only for the building of a new Pump Room, but a large public room, Harrison’s Room, for dances as well as gaming on what is now Parade Gardens. He outlawed private gatherings and strictly controlled the public ones, and drew up a rigid list of rules to which everyone–and that included dukes, duchess, and even the Prince of Wales–had to conform. It might not have worked had not the age been one in which people were amused by such things: half the amusement of Bath was in obeying the ‘King,’ who was no doubt unaware that he himself was part of the fun. Besides, it worked. Bath was civilized and ‘different’–rather than a large, smart holiday camp.” (Winsor, Diana: Historic Bath)

John Wood the Elder

John Wood the Elder

It was the architect John Wood, who changed the face of Bath. His “Grand Design” for the city was executed in segments. He began with Queen Square, first leasing the land, and then designing the square before sub-letting the sites for individual houses to builders, who could design the interiors as they wished, but who were compelled to follow Wood’s exterior design. Queen Square was completed within seven years. “It should be seen as the forecourt of a palace, the north dominating what was then a formal garden of parterre beds with espaliered limes and a low balustrade. Wood also designed the obelisk in the centre, raised by Beau Nash as a tribute to the Prince of Wales, with an inscription by the poet Alexander Pope.” (Winsor)

In the heart of Bath is Queen Square–a square of Georgian houses designed by John Wood, the elder in the early 18th century and paid for by Beau Nash. The square was designed to join the houses in unison and give the impression that together they formed one large mansion when viewed from the south facing side. The focal point of Queen Square is the obelisk at the centre, which commemorates the visit of Frederick, Prince of Wales.

In the heart of Bath is Queen Square–a square of Georgian houses designed by John Wood, the elder in the early 18th century and paid for by Beau Nash. The square was designed to join the houses in unison and give the impression that together they formed one large mansion when viewed from the south facing side.
The focal point of Queen Square is the obelisk at the centre, which commemorates the visit of Frederick, Prince of Wales.

Next, Wood built his “Royal Forum.” The Parades are a series of historic terraces built around 1741. The Royal Forum was to include North Parade, South Parade, Pierrepont, and Duke Streets, but was never completed. In the last year of his life, John Wood, the elder, began the Grand Circus, but it was his son John Wood, the younger, who brought the project to fruition. A Roman amphitheatre turned into domestic architecture, the Circus is made up of three segments and 33 houses, all of three storeys, with Roman Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns. The younger Wood linked the Circus to the Royal Crescent with his design of Brock Street.

North Parade

North Parade

Between 1767 and 1775, the paving stones were laid and 30 houses rose to form the Royal Crescent. He also oversaw the completion of the Hot Bath and the Bath Assembly Rooms. These buildings contrasted with the more decorated and embellished style preferred by his father. Whilst John Wood the Elder’s Circus includes superimposed orders and a detailed frieze, the Royal Crescent – designed by his son, has a single order and plain decoration throughout.

The Royal Crescent

The Royal Crescent

The site Wood chose for the Royal Crescent also demonstrates his interest in creating a “dialogue” between his buildings and their settings. Previous buildings and set pieces in Bath were all intensely urban and inward looking whereas the Royal Crescent was fully open and looked out on the open fields. This is not always apparent today, but when it was built in 1775, the crescent was situated right on the edge of the city with no nearby buildings to block residents’ views of the countryside. The Royal Crescent is among the greatest examples of Georgian architecture to be found. Outside of Bath, Wood’s most notable works include Buckland House in Buckland, Oxfordshire, and General Infirmary in Salisbury.

The third man to change the face of Bath was the assistant to the postmistress, one Ralph Allen, a savvy businessman and philanthropist. Allen developed a powerful friend in the form of Marshall George Wade. Allen had shared with Wade the news of a large cache of arms stored in the area, and as Wade meant to squash the Jacobite insurgence in the west country, he took an immediate liking to Allen. Later, Allen married Wade’s daughter. Allen developed several profitable postal routes, earning him high sums from the Postal System. He invested in the new Avon Navigation company, which was designed to make the river navigable to Bristol. In 1726, Allen developed stone quarries on Combe Down.

Allen built simple houses for his workers, which can still be seen as part of Combe Down village, and what is now the village recreation ground was once his quarry. Allen also built a railroad to carry the stone blocks to the river and canal wharf at Widcombe. Earning a fabulous living, Allen built his home Prior Park, which was designed by Wood the Elder, to highlight the beauty and quality of Bath Stone. At Prior Park, Allen entertained writers, statesmen, poets, and actors. Henry Fielding’s character Squire Allworthy in Tom Jones is based on Ralph Allen.

The Palladian Bridge at Prior Park

The Palladian Bridge at Prior Park

“Almost anyone who was anyone visited Bath to take the waters and gossip in the Pump Room. It was a sparkling century, with aspects both sordid and brutal, but never lacking in vigour, wit and style. Bath was part of it all. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the gaming tables had long been forbidden and the old king buried more than forty years, the city had changed. Tobias Smollet wrote in 1771 that ‘a very inconsiderable proportion a genteel people are lost in a mob of impudent plebians…’

“Nevertheless, Bath was still elegant and fashionable, if a trifle less frothy and fizzy – more of a medium sherry than champagne. ‘Enchanted castles raised on hanging terraces,’ observed Smollett’s Lydia Melford. Its population had grown to more than 30,000; it had spread far beyond the old walls to incorporate surrounding villages and hills. It was now one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.” (Winsor)

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