Category: Uncategorized

CELEBRATING JANE AUSTEN IN MINNEAPOLIS

Victoria here. On May 14 Sue Forgue and I enjoyed the Spring meeting of the Minnesota Region of JASNA at the historic Woman’s Club of Minneapolis, where we presented our talk from the Louisville 2015 AGM “London High Society in Austen’s Novels.”

Above and Below, Minneapolis JASNA Regional Coordinator Candice Hern presides.
Later, Victoria posed at the lectern

The tea/feast was scrumptious.

In attendance were my cousin Julie and her granddaughter Marnie.

Candice charmed us with her exhibition of antique scent vials. These were used to hold samples of perfume and intended to be discarded. However, many have survived, probably due to their beauty and craftsmanship.  More on Candice’s Collections can be viewed on her outstanding website, here.

After the program, we drove over to the Minneapolis Institute of Art to see the Jane Austen Room.

Actually, there were two rooms from the museum’s collection of decorative arts. The paneled room was fitted as a library with exhibits and the books of Jane Austen and some of her comptemporaries for the reading pleasure of visitors.  Here Sue Forgue reads the text panels above the fireplace while an unidentified young lady sits and reads.

The main room was furnished as a drawing room from Emma Woodhouse’s home, Hartfield.

Not only were the furnishings perfect; there were also two special surprises portraying scenes from the novel Emma, this year celebrating its 200th anniversary.
Above, a card table, showing the letter game from Emma in which the word is “blunder.”
Below, Emma’s painting of Harriet Smith, by which Emma is hoping to interest Mr. Elton in her friend as a possible match. Thanks to Sue and her phone for these two close-up pictures.

A first edition of Emma, 1816.

Fashion plates from an 1816 magazine.

Marnie and Julie accompanied us to the MIA.
The MIA website is here.
The Jane Austen Reading Rooms, on display through October 20, 2016, are here.

WHAT KRISTINE AND VICTORIA SAW FROM THEIR SIDEWALK TABLE AT THE CLARENCE, WHITEHALL

Before we get to the sidewalk table, allow me to point out to you – as Victoria pointed out to me – that today’s post is a milestone for us: Number One London’s 1,500th Post! Unbelievable, and how fitting that today’s post should deal with recurring subjects on this blog – Horse Guards, cocktails and visits to London. Weapons and police are new themes, but one has to take the good with the bad and with luck neither of these will have to be referred to by us again. And now to today’s regularly scheduled post . . . . .

It was a warm day…and crowds filled the pavements in order to visit buildings during Open House London, a real treat, during which public and private structures that are usually closed to the public freely welcome visitors on a weekend each autumn. Join us now as we break for reviving cocktails at a sidewalk table at The Clarence in Whitehall, diagonally opposite Horseguards.

To say that sitting outside the Clarence puts one in the thick of things is a bit of an understatement, as these photos demonstrate. However, it’s a grand place from which to people watch and we enjoyed the break – until a mob of protestors arrived en masse, as you can see in the photo below. Unfortunately, neither of us can remember what they were protesting.

In time, they made their way down to The Clarence, where we were seated.

And that’s when the police van pulled up right in front of our table. 

We took it as our cue to leave once the armed cops jumped out of the rear of the van and took up positions pretty much right in front of our table. Even though we were forced to beat a rather hasty retreat towards Trafalgar Square in the opposite direction, we still say that it is worth scheduling your next London visit around the open dates. You’ll have opportunities to visit buildings otherwise never open to the likes of us — or only available at high prices.  For more information, click here. More visits in upcoming posts, sans law enforcement.

OPEN HOUSE 2014: THE BANQUETING HOUSE

OPEN HOUSE 2014: THE BANQUETING HOUSE

Almost immediately across Whitehall from Horse Guards stands the elegant Banqueting House by architect Inigo Jones, completed in 1622, influenced by the classical buildings created by Andrea Palladio and Renaissance styles in Italy.  Jones had traveled and studied there, and he was an innovator, the first to adapt Palladian styles in Britain.  The building was used for grand occasions: feasts, theatrical masques, and celebrations.  For more about Palladian architecture in Britain, click here.

Drawing of the building

The Banqueting House, Whitehall
The magnificent ceiling paintings are the work of Sir Peter Paul Rubens,
 who completed them in 1636.

At the center, is The Apotheosis of James I
commissioned by his son, King Charles I.

These are the only ceiling paintings by Rubens still in their original placement.

The main room is a double cube, mathematically precise as these
17th century ideal structures were.

Charles I was beheaded outside the Banqueting House in 1649 after the Civil War.
His son Charles II was returned to the throne in the Restoration of 1660.
Whitehall

At the top of Whitehall is Trafalgar Square; A statue of Charles I stands at the head of the street.

Charles I (1600-1649)




A TOUR GUIDE IN ENGLAND: BOOKS KRISTINE SAW ALONG THE WAY

Having just returned from England on Number One London Tour business, I can tell you that great things are in store – stay tuned for complete details of the tours we’ll be offering in Spring/Summer/Fall 2017. In the meantime,  I thought I’d share with you a few of the interesting book titles I saw along the way. Click on the text links for more info on each title.

DO YOU KNOW ABOUT? THE LONDON LIBRARY

The London Library in St, James Square

Aaah, the London Library. The Holy Grail of research libraries as far as most historians are concerned. The oh so hard to get into Valhalla of archives. Such is the mystique that has been built up about the Library, one is certain that access into it’s hallowed halls is as difficult to attain as a ticket to Almack’s had once been. So, when Victoria and I were in London in September over Open Houses Weekend, we put the London Library in St. James’s Square at the top of our list. This would be our chance to finally see the inside of this venerable institution. Unfortunately, we didn’t know that one had to sign up for the Library tour prior to the date, but the very nice lady at the reception desk invited us to take a seat and to wait for the next tour to start. If the anticipated numbers did not show up, we would be more than welcome to join the group.

So we waited. And we eagerly eyed all who entered. Surely, we’d see the likes of world famous historians, household name authors and mayhap an Oxford don or two. Not a bit of it – everyone who entered the Library looked quite ordinary. Many of them looked to be students. When a pair of particularly young seeming male students walked by, Victoria whispered, “How do you think they got in here?”

“Don’t know,” I whispered back. “How did any of these people get in here?”

“The entrance fee is supposed to be really expensive, and besides that, you have to provide references. What sort of references could a pair of seventeen year olds have?”

“I think you’re making it harder than it really is to get in here. I mean, we have references.”

“We do?”

“Yes,” I hissed, “of course we do. We’re both published authors, aren’t we? And we have the blog, which has been up and running on a regular basis for six years now. That should demonstrate a serious academic bent. At the very least it proves that our interest in researching 19th century Britain is more than a passing fancy.”

“I don’t know,” Victoria said, “I think you have to have like three references from people who are already members of the Library.”

“Are you sure? Maybe you’re confusing it with White’s Club.”

The next tour group began to form and, miraculously, Victoria and I both got in. Joy! I must say, we really were given a behind the scenes tour: we were shown through many of the rooms and miles of stacks. We went up floor by floor to the attics and down again to the basement, all the while being surrounded by books we longed to get our hands on. The pictures below will give you some idea of the Library’s holdings.

Upon our return to the States, I went online to seriously investigate exactly what membership in the London Library involved. Unsurprisingly, I soon got distracted – the Library has an online catalogue of its holdings called Catalyst, that will not only search for books and journals in the Library, but will also search for titles and in many cases the content of the Library’s eJournal and database collections, as well. So, again unsurprisingly, I searched for the Duke of Wellington.

And got 6,614 results.

I also found online guides to various collections: The Food and Drink Collection,  A Guide to the French Collections, Guide to the Topography Collections. Many more can be found on the Library’s website. 

At long last, I got around to the membership page – Individual annual memberships are £485 or forty pounds per month. Victoria was correct, you do need a reference, or Referee, but they do not necessarily have to be a Library member:



Referee: Applicants are asked to give the name of a referee, who should be someone to whom you are known personally (but not someone living at the same address) and whose position can be verified if necessary (e.g. a member of a prof
essional body, an academic, teacher, current member of the Library etc.). 

And there are alternatives to an annual membership for those who are just visiting the UK, shown below. Can’t wait to let Victoria know – we actually do know several people in the UK who might vet us and we could always split the membership fees and share the online membership. Now it’s just a question of how long it will take me to get through over six thousand results for the Duke of Wellington. 

Daily and Weekly Tickets

Daily & Weekly Tickets

  • A limited number of temporary tickets are made available for non-members who wish to consult specific material from the Library’s collections which is not available in other publicly accessible national, specialist or public libraries
  • Daily tickets £15.00. Weekly tickets £50.00. (Cash or cheque payment only)
  • Advance booking required
  • Tickets are for reference use of the Library only
  • Applicants will need to produce two identification documents – one including a photo (eg passport, driving licence, travel card, student card, ID card) and one including confirmation of their current address (eg driving licence, recent bank statement or utility bill, official letter). Visitors to the UK are required to produce confirmation of their address while in the UK.
  • Contact Book Enquiries in the first instance to enquire about the materials you wish to consult. Contact Reception thereafter to make a booking








Temporary Overseas Visitors Membership

Temporary Overseas Visitors Membership

  • £243.00 for 4 months
  • Available for visitors from overseas with no permanent address in the United Kingdom. In addition to the subscription fee a deposit of £243.00 is payable on admission, refundable at the expiry of the membership, or earlier, provided that the membership card is surrendered and that all loans have been returned