Christmas Shopping in England – Part Three

Still don’t know what to get for a few people on your Christmas list? Not to worry, we’re here to help. Seeing as money is no object in the current economy (ha!), we thought we’d tempt you with luxuries that are sure to please any good little girl or boy at holiday time. Never mind Neiman Marcus and Tiffany’s, Number One London has put together it’s very own luxury gift catalogue. After all, one can dream . . . . . .

Red Letter Days offers a champagne flight for two over London for £299

After a short pre-flight briefing you’ll board a Piper Seneca twin-engine light aircraft for a fantastic half hour sightseeing trip. From take off in Essex you’ll follow the Thames west into the heart of the city, getting a view of the capital that most people only see on the opening titles of EastEnders. You’ll see the Millennium Dome, Tower Bridge, HMS Belfast, the towers at Canary Wharf, the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament, then turn north to fly over Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace and the royal parks, before heading back east to land in Essex. You’ll get an amazing perspective on the geography of the city and a bottle of champagne to enjoy once back on terra firma.

Rent Castle Moat House from Historic UK £974 – £2334 Per Week
This unique and wonderful turreted castle, dating from 1550 and brought up to date with great style, boasts luxurious and extremely spacious accommodation with romantic appeal. Divided into two dwellings in the last century and Grade II listed, its orignal leaded light windows, stone mullions, panelling and decorated ceilings are delightfully complemented by many pieces of craftsman built new furniture and contemporary soft furnishings and lighting. Enjoying views over the moat to surrounding woodland, Castle Moat House offers great tranquillity yet lies close to many places of interest and activity.

Visit Bath – On the Orient Express

Bath on the British Pullman – From US$530 per person

Travel from Victoria London to the historic city of Bath a la Hercule Poirot. The trip includes Brunch with Bellini on outward journey, guided tour, four course dinner with champagne and wine on return journey.
On arrival at Bath you will be met by guides who will accompany you on a coach tour of this delightful city taking in the sights of the city and the famous Roman Baths and Pump Room. There will be a little free time for you to explore Bath on your own or, alternatively, you may prefer to spend the whole time in Bath at your leisure.

Give Them a Dip in London’s Only Rooftop Pool

Unique among London hotels, The Berkeley boasts a pool with stunning panoramic views across Knightsbridge and Hyde Park. Use of the pool is complimentary with the purchase of spa services. We suggest the Day Spa Indulgence package

4 hrs £375

Body Skin Preparation 25 mins

Comfort Touch Massage 85 mins

Berkeley Elegance Facial 55 mins

Eye Supreme 25 mins

Mini-manicure 30 mins

 

  When all else fails, there’s always Afternoon Tea at the Ritz – £39 per person

Menu

Smoked Salmon Sandwiches

Ham Sandwiches

Chicken Sandwiches

Cucumber Sandwiches

Mature Cheddar Cheese Sandwiches

Egg Mayonnaise and Cress Bridge Roll

Freshly Baked Raisin and Apple Scones with

Devonshire Clotted Cream and Strawberry Preserve

Assortment of Afternoon Tea Pastries

Ritz Chocolate Cake

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Thanksgiving in London

When you think about it, it’s amazing that celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday in England took so long to catch on. After all, the pilgrims were English. Nowadays, many venues in the City are serving Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings. The Reading Room at Claridge’s and the Hard Rock Cafe in Old Park Lane (in the building that used to house Coutts Bank) are just two London restaurants that traditionally put on Thanksgiving menus. Here are a few others:

Babylon at the Roof Gardens (Kensington) – Overlooking the spectacular London skyline 100ft above Kensington High Street, diners at Babylon on Thanksgiving night (Thursday 26th November) can enjoy an evening of live American jazz whilst dining on a selection of sumptuous, seasonal dishes from the mouth-watering menu, with one or two extra special Thanksgiving themed dishes on offer. The talented vocalists and musicians from resident jazz band ‘The Ben Matthews Trio’ will be performing world-famous tracks from The Great American Song Book for an authentic and celebratory evening. From Cole Porter classics including ‘I Get a Kick Out of You’ to Harold Arlen’s ‘Stormy Weather’ and Rodgers and Hart’s ‘My Funny Valentine,’ Babylon diners will be transported to the smoky basement New York jazz clubs of the 1930s and 40s.

HIX at the Albemarle at Browns Hotel

HIX at the Albemarle at Browns Hotel – A delicious three course Thanksgiving Day menu celebrates the day with roast turkey with creamed sweetcorn and caramelised sweet potato and cranberry sauce.

Christopher’s American Bar and Grill – (Covent Garden) – Christopher’s can be found in an elegant Grade II listed Victorian Building located in the heart of theatre land.  The original Victorian features and high ceilings of the dining room also enjoys spectacular views of Waterloo Bridge and serves traditional and contemporary dishes from across the U.S.A.

Missouri Angel – (Tower) – Missouri Angel first opened its doors on Thanksgiving Day in 2007 in what was formerly the Angel Pub. Not in the mood for turkey? Try an aged ribeye steak carved from good old Nebraska beef. And don’t forget to order the pecan maple tart with vanilla ice cream and maple syrup for dessert, er, pudding. You can view the Thanksgiving Menu here.

Goodman

Goodman Mayfair – (Oxford Circus) – A good, ole Yankee steakhouse, Goodman prides itself on prime beef from grain-fed herds that are matured in a dry aging room on the premises. At Thanksgiving, Goodman offers roast Holy Farm turkey with creamed sweetcorn, caramelised sweet potato and cranberry sauce.

This Thanksgiving, Vicky and I are grateful for all of you. Our Visitor Map shows that we’ve been consistently averaging well over 250 hits a day and have had over 15,000 visitors since we began posting in April. The blog has loyal followers located all over the world, including the UK, Germany, India, Australia, Iceland, Thailand, Israel and Greece, to name but a few. Therefore, no matter where you live, we want to wish each of you a Happy Thanksgiving and offer you our personal thanks for your interest in Number One London.

Thank you!

JASNA in Portland OR, Part Three

 Victoria here, reporting on the final three break-out sessions I attended at the JASNA AGM. Mary Hafner-Laney’s (right) topic was “I was tempted by a pretty-colored muslin”: Jane Austen and the Art of Being Fashionable.  A capacity audience enjoyed her talk about fabrics and fashions of the regency era, the dresmakers and home-sewers, period patterns and costs.Mary had assembled collections of fabrics and excrpts from a fashion magazine, La Belle Assemblee, and showed her fashion doll, one of the techniques used by dressmakers to suggest styles to their customers. We had rather a mad dash at the conclusion of her talk for the excellent hand-outs she had assembled. Some of us will share ours at the December birthday luncheon.

 Next, I went to hear Sarah Parry, of the Chawton House Library, whose topic was “This roof was to be the roof of an abbey!”: What is Northanger Abbey?  Ms. Parry’s entertaining talk described a number of stately homes built out of abbeys, some of which Jane Austen certainly saw. The school she attended in Reading was housed in part of a former abbey.

Parry also told the amazing story of Fonthill Abbey, which was not an abbey at all, but a gothic fantasy structure erected by one of those eccentric characters in the period, William Beckford.  The tower was 276 feet high and eventually collapsed.

In the final round of break-outs, I attended the always-popular Susan Allen Ford’s talk on “Ingenious Torment: Reading Instructive Texts in Northanger Abbey.”  She told us of the many influences in Jane Austen’s novels of various books on proper behavior and advice to young ladies. Austen sometimes parodied the information in these instructive texts, as when Mrs. Morland, upon the abrupt rupture of Catherine’s romance with Henry, admonishes her simply to “live and learn.”

I can add some information to a previous post on Team Tilney.  I found a report on Austenblog from one of the participants, with lots more information, including the identity of Henry Tilney and the text of some of the presentation.

Click here to read and enjoy.

During the Evening’s Bal Masque, several interesting speakers gave talks that tempted many of us away from the dancing.  Elsie Holzworth of the Chicago chapter spoke about the connections between Jane Austen and Edgar Allen Poe.  Who knew?

But it is undeniable that their paths might have crossed while Edgar lived in London as a lad.  Jane Austen’s relatives lived near Poe’s home and the children might well have played together in the park. As so often with the details of Jane Austen’s life, we cannot be entirely sure, but the possibility is intriguing — little Edgar, perhaps listening to Jane reading a story to her nephews … or engaging in a lively game of baseball, as Catherine Morland was said to have done in Northanger Abbey.

My regret at this AGM (as at all the others) is that I couldn’t listen to more of the presentations. For each of the five break-out sessions, there were six or seven speakers, any of which I would have loved to hear.  Now, I have next year to look forward to, in Fort Worth, TX, October 13-16, 2011, celebrating 200 years of Sense and Sensibility .
For more informations, click here.

Fanny Burney and the Emperor of all Maladies

Author and oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee’s debut book charts the history of cancer treatment over the centuries. Amazon said that the book is  ” . . . .  a sweeping epic of obsession, brilliant researchers, dramatic new treatments, euphoric success and tragic failure, and the relentless battle by scientists and patients alike against an equally relentless, wily, and elusive enemy. From the first chemotherapy developed from textile dyes to the possibilities emerging from our understanding of cancer cells, Mukherjee shapes a massive amount of history into a coherent story with a roller-coaster trajectory: the discovery of a new treatment–surgery, radiation, chemotherapy–followed by the notion that if a little is good, more must be better, ending in disfiguring radical mastectomy and multidrug chemo so toxic the treatment ended up being almost worse than the disease.”

It is impossible to consider the history of the treatment of cancer without recalling Fanny Burney’s harrowing account of the mastectomy she underwent during the Regency period. It is compelling, horrifying and immediate in its very personal nature. We reprint it for you here . . .

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT OF MASTECTOMY BY FANNY BURNEY

Fanny Burney (Madame d’Arblay) first felt pain in her breast in August of 1810. Cancer was diagnosed, and Baron Larrey, Napoleon’s surgeon, agreed to operate. To spare her suspense, she was given little notice. The “M. d’A.” mentioned is her husband and Alexander her son.

*** WARNING: The following mastectomy account may prove disturbing.

30 September 1811: I dressed, aided, as usual for many months, by my maid, my right arm being condemned to total inaction. A letter was delivered to me to acquaint me that at 10 o’clock M. Larry would be with me, properly accompanied, and to exhort me to rely as much upon his sensibility and his prudence, as upon his dexterity and his experience; he charged me to secure the absence of M. d’A: and told me that the young Physician who would deliver me his announcement would prepare for the operation, in which he must lend his aid: and; also that it had been the decision of the consultation to allow me but two hours notice.

Dr. Aumont, the Messenger and terrible Herald, was in waiting; M. d’A stood by my bedside; I affected to be long reading the Note, to gain time for forming some plan, and such was my terror of involving M. d’A in the unavailing wretchedness of witnessing what I must go through, that it conquered every act as if I were directing some third person. The detail would be too Wordy, as James says, but the wholesale is – I called Alex to my Bedside, and sent him to inform M. Barbier Neuville, chef du division du Bureau de M. d’A, that the moment was come, and I entreated him to write a summons upon urgent business for M. d’A and to detain him till all should be over. Speechless and appalled, off went Alex, and, as I have since heard, was forced to sit down and sob in executing his commission. I then, by the maid, sent word to the young Dr. Aumont that I could not be ready till one o’clock: and I finished my breakfast, and- not with much appetite, you will believe! forced down a crust of bread, and hurried off, under various pretenses, M. d’A. He was scarcely gone, when M Du Bois arrived: I renewed my request for one o’clock: the rest came; all were fain to consent to the delay, for I had an apartment to prepare for my banished Mate. This arrangement, and those for myself, occupied me completely. Two engaged nurses were out of the way – I had a bed, Curtains and heaven knows what to prepare – but business was good for my nerves. I was obliged to quit my room to have it put in order: – Dr. Aumount would not leave the house; he remained in the Sallon, folding linen! – He had demanded 4 or 5 old and fine left off under garments – I glided to our Book Cabinet; sundry necessary works and orders filled up my time entirely till One O’clock, When all was ready – but Dr. Moreau then arrived, with news that M. Dubois could not attend till three. Dr. Aumont went away – and the Coast was clear.

This, indeed, was a dreadful interval. I had no longer anything to do – I had only to think – TWO HOURS thus spent seemed never-ending. I would fain have written to my dearest Father – to you, my Esther – to Charlotte James – Charles – Amelia Lock – but my arm prohibited me: I strolled to the Sallon – I saw it fitted with preparations, and I recoiled – But I soon returned; to what effect disguise from myself what I must so soon know? – yet the sight of the immense quantity of bandages, compresses, spunges, Lint – made me a little sick: – I walked backwards and forwards till I quieted all emotion, and became, by degrees, nearly stupid – torpid, without sentiment or consciousness; – and thus I remained till the Clock struck three. I rang for my Maid and Nurses, – but before I could speak to them, my room, without previous message, was entered by 7 Men in black, Dr. Larry, M. Dubois, Dr. Moreau, Dr. Aumont, Dr. Ribe, and a pupil of Dr. Larry, and another of M. Dubois. I was now awakened from my stupor – and by a sort of indignation – Why so many? and without leave? – But I could not utter a syllable. M. Dubois acted as Commander in Chief. Dr. Larry kept out of sight; M. Dubois ordered a Bed stead into the middle of the room. Astonished, I turned to Dr. Larry, who had promised that an Arm Chair would suffice; but he hung his head, and would not look at me. Two old mattrasses M. Dubois then demanded, and an old Sheet. I now began to tremble violently, more with distaste and horror of the preparations even than of the pain. These arranged to his liking, he desired me to mount the Bed stead. I stood suspended, for a moment, whether I should not abruptly escape – I looked at the door, the windows – I felt desperate – but it was only for a moment, my reason then took the command, and my fears and feelings struggled vainly against it. I called to my maid – she was crying, and the two Nurses stood, transfixed, at the door. Let these women all go! cried M. Dubois. This order recovered me my Voice – No, I cried, let them stay! The maid and one of the nurses ran off – I charged the other to approach, and she obeyed. My distress was apparent for M. Dubois himself now softened, and spoke soothingly. Can You, I cried, feel for an operation that, to You, must seem so trivial? Trivial, he repeated – taking up a piece of paper, which he tore, unconsciously, into a million of pieces – he stammered, and could not go on. No one else attempted to speak, but I was softened myself, when I saw even M. Dubois grow agitated, while Dr. Larry kept always aloof, yet a glance showed me he was pale as ashes. I knew not, positively, then, the immediate danger, but every thing convinced me danger was hovering about me, and that this experiment could alone save me from its jaws.

I mounted, therefore, unbidden, the Bead stead – and M. Dubois placed me upon the mattress, and spread a cambric handkerchief upon my face. It was transparent, however, and I saw the Bed surrounded by the 7 Men and my Nurse. I refused to be held; but when, Bright through the cambric, I saw the glitter of polished Steel – I closed my Eyes. A silence the most profound ensued. Again throug
h the cambric, I saw the hand of M. Dubois held up, while his forefinger first described a straight line from top to bottom of the breast, secondly a Cross, and thirdly a Circle; intimating that the WHOLE was to be taken off. Excited by this idea, I started up, threw off my veil, and I held my hand under it, and explained the nature of my sufferings, which all sprang from one point, though they darted into every part. I was heard attentively, but in utter silence, and M. Dubois then replaced me as before, and, as before, spread my veil over my face.

My dearest Esther, – and all my dears to whom she communicates this doleful ditty, will rejoice to hear that this resolution once taken, was firmly adhered to, in defiance of a terror that surpasses all description, and the most torturing pain. Yet – when the dreadful steel was plunged into the breast I needed no injunctions not to restrain my cries. I began a scream that lasted unintermittingly during the whole time of the incision – and I almost marvel that it rings not in my Ears still! so excruciating the agony. When the wound was made, and the instrument was withdrawn, the pain seemed undiminished, for the air that suddenly rushed into those delicate parts felt like a mass of minute but sharp and forked poniards. When I felt the instrument cutting against the grain, while the flesh resisted in a manner so forcible as to oppose and tire the hand of the operator, who was forced to change from the right to the left – then, indeed, I thought I must have expired. I attempted no more to open my Eyes, – they felt as if hermettically shut, and so firmly closed, that the Eyelids seemed indented into the Cheeks. The instrument this second time withdrawn, I concluded the operation over – Oh no! presently the terrible cutting was renewed – and worse than ever, to separate the bottom, the foundation of this dreadful gland from the parts to which it adhered – Again all description would be baffled – yet again all was not over, – Dr. Larry rested but his own hand, and – Oh Heaven! – I then felt the Knife rackling against the breast bone – scraping it! – This performed, while I yet remained in utterly speechless torture, I heard the Voice of Mr. Larry, – (all others guarded a dead silence) in a tone nearly tragic, desire everyone present to pronounce if anything more remained to be done; The general voice was Yes, – but the finger of Mr. Dubois – which I literally felt elevated over the wound, though I saw nothing, and though he touched nothing, pointed to some further requisition – and again began the scraping!

My dearest Esther, not for days, not for Weeks, but for Months I could not speak of this terrible business without nearly again going through it! I was sick, disordered by a single question – even now, 9 months after it is over, I have a headache going on with the account! To conclude, the evil was so profound, the case so delicate, and the precautions necessary for preventing a return so numerous, that the operation, including the treatment and the dressing, lasted 20 minutes! a time, for sufferings so acute, that was hardly supportable – However, I bore it with all the courage I could exert, and never moved, nor stopt them, nor resisted, nor spoke. Twice I believe I fainted; at least, I have two total chasms in my memory of this transaction, that impede my tying together what passed. When all was done, and they lifted me up that I might be put to bed, my strength was so totally annihilated, that I was obliged to be carried, and could not even sustain my hands and arms, which hung as if I had been lifeless: while my face, as the Nurse has told me, was utterly colourless. This removal made me open my Eyes – and I then saw my good Dr. Larry, pale nearly as myself, his face streaked with blood, and its expression depicting grief, apprehension, and almost horror.

* * * * * *

Fanny was born 1752, the daughter of a physician. She lead a unique life and, thankfully, documented her experiences at court and amongst the highest society in her diaries. Passages from these are cited in many works on the Georgian and Regency periods, as they contain much minute detail not found elsewhere. In 1786, Fanny was appointed Second Keeper of the Wardrobe to Her Majesty Queen Charlotte. Her father, upon being introduced to the Prince Regent, spent time discussing music with him. In addition to her social duties, Fanny was a novelist, whose works, including “Cecilia” and “Evelina” were favorites of Jane Austen’s. The operation related above, whilst horrific, was obviously a success, as Fanny lived until 1840.

Suggestions for further reading:
Burney, Fanny, Diary and Letters (18c), ed. C. Barrett, 1905
——-The Early Journals and Letters, vol. 1, Univ of Toronto Press 1989 ISBN# 0-7735-0538-5
Chaplin, Arnold, Medicine in England During the Reign of George III, AMS Press ISBN 0-404-13244-8
Loudon, Irvine, Medical Care and the General Practitioner 1750- 1850, Oxford 1986

JASNA in Portland OR, Part Two

Victoria here with a short post on the break-out session I co-presented on Friday, October 29, 2010, at the JASNA AGM in Portland, OR. Kim Wilson, author of Tea with Jane Austen and In the Garden with Jane Austen, (right) and I spoke on “About Those Abbeys: In fact, literature and landscape.”
Starting with a brief history of monasticism in England and the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, we then focussed on what happend to the former abbey buildings and why they were considered so spooky — and/or picturesque.


When the abbeys and priories were closed, their land (about one-fourth of all of the nation’s arable land — the REAL reason Henry seized them) was sold and most of the buildings adapted for other uses or semi-destroyed. At right, Lacock Abbey, converted into a stately home and now run by the National Trust.

Ruined abbeys, castles and wild landscapes appealed to the writers of gothic fiction, so popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  Mrs. Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho is the novel Jane Austen parodied in Northanger Abbey.  Terrible secrets are hidden in the ruins, dangerous forces threaten the innocent heroine, but all comes to a happy ending when she is rescued by a worthy hero.  Such stories were all the rage in JA’s day and many were set among the imagined clanking chains, ghostly moans and dark passages of ruined abbeys.

Stoneleigh Abbey, an estate inherited by Jane Austen’s relatives, was built on the property of an ancient abbey, and landscaped in the early 19th century by Humphrey Repton. Jane Austen visited here and mentions Repton’s schemes for landscapes in her novels.

 Stoneleigh is open to the public today and part of the tea shop is located in the old abbey undercroft.

We know that Jane Austen visited Netley Abbey in Hampshire while she was living in Southampton.  It was a popular venue for picnics and walks, as were so many of the abbey ruins spread over the entire British Isles. One of the most famous, below, is Tintern Abbey, maybe best known from the paintings of Turner.
More reports from Portland coming soon.