Author: Kristine Hughes

LOOSE IN LONDON: HIGHGATE CEMETERY

After our morning at Kenwood, we still had a few particles of energy left…enough for a visit to Highgate Cemetery?  Well, we’d only know if we gave it a try.  So Kristine and Victoria climbed aboard a bus and trusted we’d remembered the right number — and voila!  Soon we were across the Heath and at the cemetery gates.  From here on, this is Victoria’s account. Kristine’s will come in her own inimitable style.

Entrance Gates in Swain’s Lane
We started out wandering in the East part of the cemetery, where individual rambles are allowed.
The paths are lined with memorials of all sizes and shapes.

I wonder if anyone has ever counted all the angels watching over the departed?
As we will see even more below, Mother Nature rules the area.
The draped urns on so many markers represent the soul and the image of grief.

Many kinds of crosses 
We moved slowly, fascinated by the sights, and soon we had to hurry back to the West part of the cemetery for our guided tour, beginning at the Chapel. As you will see below, there is a reason to require guides for this larger part of the cemetery. It would be very easy to get lost!
Victorian Stained Glass in the Chapel

Monuments of all varieties
Highgate Cemetery is maintained and managed by a Friends group which organized to preserve the grounds. Though some of the monuments and graves are maintained by families, many were abandoned long ago.  The Friends group keeps the natural growth under some control without trying to restore the appearance to that of the originals. It is also a wildlife refuge for all sorts of creatures, few of which ventured out while we humans were trudging around.
Areas on both sides of the cemetery are available for current burials, and among the Victorian monuments, you find recent graves here and there.  One of the most famous is below.
Alexander Litvinenko (1962-2006) is widely believed to have been poisoned by Russian agents in London.
Author Beryl Bainbridge, DBE, 1932-2010,
And many old ones…
The tomb of General Sir Loftus Otway, 1775-1854, hero of the Peninsular War
and family members
The Egyptian Avenue,
among the most exotic areas reflecting the Victorian imagination  of the cemetery creators.
Circle of Lebanon
The Family Catacomb of P.W. Talbot of 439 Haverstock Hill
Vault of author Radclyffe Hall 1880-1943 and her partner Mabel Batten
Hall wrote The Well of Loneliness, 1928; admirers keep fresh flowers here always.
This horse is one of the numerous animals adorning gravesites.

Our Guide tells us about the tomb of George Wombwell 1777-1850
known as The Menagerist, owner of a Victorian Traveling circus, 
interred below a statue of his favorite lion, Nero
Highgate was begun as a garden cemetery on the outskirts of London; by the mid-19th century, parish graveyards were running out of space.  In 1836, Parliament established joint-stock companies to build cemeteries. Stephen Geary (1797-1854) headed the group that laid out (so to speak) Highgate, planning to hold 30,000 gravesites

The slope on which Highgate was located had excellent views and clear clean air, contributing to the appeal of the site.

Victorian families acquired lots in the cemetery and sometimes adorned them with statuary before anyone died.  They often visited for picnics or just to admire their property. 
In preparation for this visit, I read Audrey Niffenegger’s interesting novel set at Highgate, Her Fearful Symmetry.  And I re-read Tracy Chevalier’s Falling Angels, also set at a Victorian burial ground. Both novels are fascinating for the subject matter and also for excellent prose styles.
RIP, Mary Nichols, and family. And all the other souls in this amazing place.

LOOSE IN LONDON: KRISTINE MUSES ABOUT HIGHGATE CEMETERY

Highgate Cemetery is another of those places that have been on my bucket list for years. I’ve always wanted to visit, but somehow never had the luxury of time in order to add it to past itineraries. So, after Kenwood House in the morning, Victoria and I headed over to Highgate via the bus. The bus itself was another thing I’d never done before – whilst navigating my way across London and England via the tube and railway seems easy peasey, the bus system mystified me before Victoria took me in hand and explained all the vagaries of the process. I admit I’m still a bit puzzled, as often during the coming weeks Victoriawould say that the approaching bus wasn’t the one we were waiting for, but let’s get on anyways. Huh? Why are we getting on a bus that isn’t ours? It doesn’t matter, she’d say, climbing aboard. I, of course, followed. Blindly and like a trusting sheep. Granted, we always reached our destination, but I still don’t have the whole bus thing down in my head, so I doubt I’ll be using it again if I’m in London without Victoria (quelle horror!).
The weather was glorious – warm and mild, with bouts of watery sunshine. And I was still wearing my fur lined boots. That morning, Victoria had found me sitting on the side of my bed, applying cushioned bandages to my feet.
“What are you doing?” she’d asked.
“Covering my blisters. Then I’m going to put on socks and then my boots.”
“Not those fur lined boots again!”
“Have to. They’re the only shoes I’ve got with me that don’t cause me to scream in pain with every step.”
“Do you really need all those band aids?” I raised my as yet unbandaged foot so that she could get a better look. “Holy Crow! I had no idea your feet were that bad!”
“Thus the fur-lined boots. And the fact that I’ve got no shame in wearing them in the middle of a balmy English summer. We have so much to do, none of which I want to miss out on, so band-aids it is. As Wellington said, `A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.’”
“He did not. Wellingtondid not say that.”
“You don’t think so?” I said, ripping open another plaster. “I’ll bet he did. Many times. Think about it.”
“Okay, he might have said something along those lines, but who really said it?”
“John Wayne. And maybe Winston Churchill.”
So now here we were, on the bus traveling from Kenwood House in Hampstead towards Highgate Cemetery. As we rode, I thought about what Victoriahad said at Kenwood – that I always expect there to be people at these sites who are dressed in period costume. Sometimes, no kidding, I do find myself a tad disappointed in the reality of a place. I do expect period people to be present. Georgiana should be strolling the grounds at Chatsworth, complete with straw bonnet and a saucy tilt to her chin. Brummell should be sauntering up St. James’s Street with a walking stick in hand and clever insults at the ready. A carriage or two, along with a fresh pile of horse manure, would not go amiss. It would add to the period ambiance. As would a regiment of foot practicing squares in Hyde Park. Or milkmaids standing round Green Park with their cows nearby. I want to eat ices at Gunter’s and present my card at Apsley House, preferably to FitzRoy Somerset himself. I’d like to be able to visit Almack’s in order to see, first hand, just how lousy the refreshments were. I want to look up in the sky and witness balloon ascents. And go to the Exeter Change. I want a waterman to row me across the Thames to Vauxhall Gardens. If I met Caro Lamb and Princess Lieven, would they be as awful as I imagine they were? Would the original Earl Grey tea really taste like the 21st Century blend? How long would I last without Bacardi rum? Did Queen Victoria really bray like a donkey when she laughed? Was Prince Leopold really drop dead gorgeous at the time of his wedding to Princess Charlotte? 
“Our stop is next,” Victoriasaid, bringing me out of my reverie. We were almost at Highgate Cemetery– I’d finally be able to strike it off my bucket list. And it would most certainly not disappoint as the place would be filled with period people. Granted, they’d be dead and buried and not on view as they strolled the paths, but technically they’d still be there. 

 Highgate Cemetery Coming Soon!

2015: A YEAR OF COMMEMORATION

2015: A YEAR OF COMMEMORATION

Hillingford 
Foremost for us at Number One London is the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo, when the Duke of Wellington. with his Anglo-Allied Army and joined by the Prussians, defeated the French Grand Armee of Napoleon Bonaparte, June 18, 1815.
The Barons and King John
2015 is also the 800th Anniversary (Octocentenary?) of the Magna Carta, signed June 15, 1215, one of the foundation documents of individual liberty.  
Churchill by Ambrose McEvoy, ©NPG
One hundred years ago, Britain was embroiled in World War I. Seventy-five years ago, the Battle of Britain was underway.  And fifty years ago, on January 24, 1965, Winston Churchill died at age 90.
You may be certain that we will write about all these commemorations at Number One London.
Happy New Year!

SHAKESPEARE IN PARIS AND MILWAUKEE 2014

Never let it be said that I didn’t celebrate the 450th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare in 1564.  Victoria here, with some embarrassing admissions.  Last April, I was still in Florida packing to return to Milwaukee so the date celebrated in Stratford-on-Avon, April 23, which may or may not be his actual natal day — passed me by without even the perusal of a sonnet or two.

William Shakespeare 1564-1616

I was busy all summer with family and preparation for our trip to France and tour of England…so I managed to miss Shakespeare in the Park, annual performances here in Milwaukee, plus I didn’t get to Spring Green, WI, for the American Players Theatre – always excellent and frequently Shakespeare.

But I did see some Shakespeare in Paris!  SEE being the relevant verb.   Didn’t hear any! One morning we visited the Musée Delacroix where an exhibition of Shakespeare works by artist Eugène Delacroix was on display.  The museum is small, but since it is located in his studio — atelier — it is a special treat.

Eugène Delacroix  (1798-1863)
1865 sculpture by Antoine Etex (1808-1888)
 Delacroix self portrait as Ravenswood (Scott) — or possibly Hamlet
Museum image , c. 1821
On loan from the musée du Louvre Departments of Paintings

Romeo and Juliet
Hamlet and the ghost
The exhibition had many of the plates created by Delacroix for his illustrations of Shakespeare’s works, to which the French artist was dedicated.
Studio from the Garden
Delacroix Studio Garden
Place de Furstenberg, near the musée Delacroix 


Can I count walking past the Globe in London last August? Well, not really, though I have visited it several times on other trips.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, I s
ort of closed out the 450th anniversary of Will’s birth by attending a hilarious version of:

Yes, Virginia, there is a Shakespeare!
The four actors who cavorted through this performance of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (Revised) were inspired — by Will or by the tradition of slapstick I am not sure.

Will and friend
Taking bows at the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre
Well, I admit these few events are a pretty pitiful commemoration of the 450th — but I’ll have another chance at proving my delight in the bard in 2016 — the 400th anniversary of his death.