Category: Victoria Hinshaw

Victoria  here.  I don’t know about you, but after laughing myself silly over Kristine’s posts about her recent trip to England, I am driven to start planning for my next jaunt.  I’ve been trying to get across the pond almost every year but due to the Jubilee and the Olympics and the crowds expected, I decided to pass on 2012.

What a mistake!  Instead I was glued to my tv, iPad and computer trying to take in all the festivities (and feeling sorry for myself because I was not there).  Did you feel the  same way when you saw the Queen cruising down the Thames with the flotilla of boats?  Or when the British won medals in many sports, particularly the equestrian events?  Or especially when the Queen came parachuting down from a plane over the Olympic stadium?

So I just can’t miss 2013!  Like Kristine, my usual traveling companion is my husband, who has seen a lot more of stately homes and art museums in England than he probably cared to, but he’s a good sport and declared himself up for some more.

You realize, gentle readers, that Kristine and I have traveled together and would have absolutely no qualms about filling every day with sights to warm the hearts of every Anglophile. And eating only at teatime — or when we are so exhausted we have to crash at a pub. Good thing there is always one nearby!

But Kristine and I can’t always go together, and our husbands have a claim on some priorities!  All of which is an introduction to my delicious choices ahead.  I will have seven days in England, following a trip to Prague, Dresden, and Berlin this summer.  I have never been to the former two and not to Berlin since the 1960’s when it was still divided into zones, even preceding the infamous wall.  Of course I was a mere baby, but I remember it well.

I am trying to put the various places I want to visit in some sort of coherent schedule.  There are several places northeast of London that are high on my agenda: Cambridge, Holkham Hall, and Houghton Hall, maybe Sandringham. 

I’ve been searching through the websites of many London attractions which will have special exhibitions I want to see — and a few spots on London outskirts that I have ever managed to visit, like Marble Hill House and Ham House.

I have a pile of old magazines from Britain that I will consult…and I scour libraries for the newest and some of the oldest travel guides.  Planning a trip is wonderful — can I fit everything into my time schedule?  Stay tuned for further musings.

One of Georgette Heyer’s best mysteries — in fact, I believe her very best — is a Christmas-set story, entitled Envious Casca.  It’s a favorite of mine (Victoria’s) and a Christmas book I want to recommend.

Of course, since it is a murder mystery, don’t expect a great deal of yuletide cheer. In fact, as you might assume from its genre, most of the characters are rather unpleasant and Lexham Manor may not be the house you dream about occupying in the quiet countryside.

The title Envious Casca  comes from lines in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar:

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
You all do know this mantle: I remember
The first time ever Caesar put it on;
‘Twas on a summer’s evening, in his tent,
That day he overcame the Nervii:
Look, in this place ran Cassius’ dagger through:
See what a rent the envious Casca made:

Thus we knew from the start that stabbing was the method of murder, and there may be a clue to the perpetrator — a friend? a relative?

One might also consider this a typical country house mystery.  A dysfunctional family gets together for the holidays — various strains are evident from page one.  If you enjoy an intriguing whodunit, you might give this a try for those hours after a big dinner when you are reaching for slumber…

Unlike many of Heyer’s, it is not a historical but set in her own time period, the 1930’s, and you might compare it with similar works by English mystery mistresses such as Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie. The actual publishing date was 1941. The novel features one of Heyer’s continuing characters in her mysteries, Inspector Hemingway of Scotland Yard.

Georgette Heyer (1902-1974) wrote dozens of novels and short stories, some in collections, others in periodicals.  She has been the subject of several biographies, the latest of which by Jennifer Kloester, will be available in paperback from Sourcebooks in January, 2013. It was published in the UK in 2011. Also available as an e-book soon.

The Naturalist’s Diary 1826 October

At the beginning of this month, or latter end of September, some summer birds of passage, of which the swallow is the first, take their departure for warmer regions. The time of their leaving this country varies in different seasons; it is sometimes protracted till the end of October or the beginning of November, and swallows have been seen, in mild weather, to congregate previously to taking their departure, so late as the middle of December. A great diversity of opinion has existed respecting the torpidity and migration of this bird; it is an established fact, that, although the greater part of the swallows that visit England quit the country before the approach of winter, many remain and continue in a state of torpidity till the enlivening sun of April wakes them from their long sleep.

The throstle, the red-wing, and the field-fare which migrated in March, now return; and the ring-ouzel arrives from the Welsh and Scottish Alps to winter in more sheltered situations. About the middle of the month, the common martin disappears; and, shortly afterwards, the smallest kind of swallow, the sand-martin, and the stone-curlew, migrate. The Royston or hooded crow (Corvus cornix) arrives from Scotland and the northern parts of England, being driven thence by the severity of the season. The woodcock returns, and is found on our eastern coasts.

Small birds now begin to congregate, and the common linnet is the first to lead the way. Various kinds of waterfowl make their appearance; and, about the middle of the month, wild geese quit the fens, and go to the rye and wheat lands to devour the young corn; frequently leaving a field as if it had been fed off by a flock of sheep.

Rooks sport and dive, in a playful manner, before they go to roost, congregating in large numbers. The starling sings. The awk or puffin visits for the purpose of incubation, some of the rocky isles of Britain, in amazing numbers.

That singular appearance in nature, the gossamer, occurs in this month. Amid the floral gaieties of autumn, may be reckoned the Guernsey lily, which is so conspicuous an object in October, in the windows and green-houses of florists in London and its vicinity.

 In mild seasons there are many flowers still in blow in this month. Generally speaking, however, the ‘last day of summer’ has passed away.

Hips and haws now ornament the hedges. The berries of bryony and the privet; the barberry, the blackberry, the holly and the elder, from which an excellent winter wine may be made

—with sloes, bullaces, and damsons, are now in great plenty.—Blackberries also are ripe in this month, and the collecting of them affords an agreeable pastime to the younger branches of the peasant’s family, as well as some small profit to the parents. These are the fruits of the poor;–they who are more highly favoured with the gifts of fortune revel on the patrician peach and nectarine, the pine and the grape, whose purple clusters contrast so beautifully with the dazzling white of the silver epergne.

But these transient pleasures, –the rose-crowned bowl,–the smiles of beauty, the music’s enchanting voice,–soon, too soon, flit away from our grasp and leave us nothing but the memory of a former day, those ‘blossoms of the past.’ During the months of October, November and December, at the fall of the leaf, insects become less numerous, but many of the Hemiptera may be found in the woods, by beating the ferns and underwood, also many very beautiful Tineae and Tortrices; and aquatic insects may be taken in ponds, in great numbers. Roots of grass, decayed trees may again be resorted to.

October, like the proceeding month, is generally spent by the sea-side or in traveling over the varied surface of the United Kingdom. The lakes of Cumberland are an object of high attraction to the lover of the picturesque; the Highlands of Scotland also have a strong claim on his notice, and are frequently visited by our tourists in search of the sublime and romantic scenery of Nature. Scotland, indeed, is eminently entitled to our attention; and whether we take a trip by steam to the ‘modern Athens,’ and return by the land-route through the northern counties of England, or extend our journey and sail on the placid bosom of Loch Katrine, or climb the Alpine heights of Ben Nevis, we shall be amply repaid for the fatigue and expense of the tour.