Category: Victoria Hinshaw

Travels With Victoria: From Lisbon to A Coruna, Spain



Lisbon from the Tagus River



Victoria here, recently back from a month in Europe, which started with a two week cruise up the Atlantic coast of Portugal, Spain and France, ending in Dover. We began our Cruise from Lisbon to Dover  by flying to Madrid to enter the EU, then on to Portugal. With an extra day to stroll the pleasant streets of Lisbon, we took a Metro (subway) ride to the waterfront. Once we found the spot where our ship would dock the next day, we toured the nearby National Army Museum.
I was very naughty and snapped a forbidden photo (without my flash, of course) of a Portugese uniform from the Peninsular War. (Why are many museums so eager to forbid pictures?)
In the courtyard of the museum, they were quite amenable to pictures.  Significant scenes from the military history of Portugal were executed in blue and white tiles. Magnificent.
The grounds of the Foundation Gulbenkian offered us a perfect venue for a morning stroll before we departed Lisbon the next day. The two museums, the institute, and the library on the grounds were the gift of the late philanthropist Calouste Gulbenkian, and they house great treasures of the world’s artistic and cultural heritage.



We left Lisbon on a sunny afternoon, cruising out of the Tagus River into the Atlantic.  We passed by three towers, representing entirely different architectural styles.  First is the monument to the discoveries, (e.g. Prince Henry the Navigator and Vasco da Gama) who led the way for European exploration of the globe, erected in the 20th century; next, the 16th century Tower of Belem, a real gem; and finally the contemporary Tower of Navigation, which guides traffic into and out of the Port of Lisbon.

 
After a day at sea, we arrived at A Coruna, Spain (aka Corunna), a charming city on the Atlantic, with a busy harbor and magnificent beaches.  We walked around the Ciudad Vieja (Old Town) and found San Carlos Gardens,  the beautiful park where  Moore is buried.  It is marked, “In Memory of General Sir John Moore who fell at the Battle of Elvina while covering the embarkation of the British troops, 16 January 1809.”  We also passed a small organization (closed, sadly, at the time) with another kind of memorial  to the British troops in the Peninsular Wars: The Royal Green Jackets.

It was a quiet Sunday in A Coruna with a few tourists in the plaza in front of the Palacio Municipal, a regatta out in the harbor, many families out enjoying the fresh breeze, and riding bikes around the extensive seashore from harbor to beaches to the soccer stadium. A small but picturesque fort guards the harbor (and helped turn away the raids of Sir Francis Drake) and on a western-most peninsula is the famous Tower of Hercules, a lighthouse with origins in the Roman Empire. Beside our ship, the fishing boats were all in port for Sunday, but the neighboring marina was a little busier with leisure boating.

Palacio Municipal
San Anton Castle



fishing boats in port

This beautiful beach wasn’t as empty as it looks in my picture!
Tower of Hercules

 I can well imagine a leisurely holiday here in A Coruna…but that will have to wait for a while.
Next Stop: Santander, Spain

Lady Butler, Battle Painter – A Surprise Discovery

Victoria here, working on a talk on our trip to Belgium last year (for the 195th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo) on a very rainy weekend, June 18-20, 2010.  Thousands of reenactors complete with regalia, horses, tents and camp followers were on display for thousands of tourists and observers, just like Kristine and her daughter Brooke, my husband Ed and me. We were all shivering as we tramped around the muddy fields, much like those soldiers would have done 195 years ago.
Turner, Waterloo, Tate Britain
I am presenting a talk on Waterloo: The Battle and the 195th Anniversary at a meeting of The Beau Monde chapter of the Romance Writers of America in New York City on June 28, 2011.  In the process of putting together my power point presentation, I came across many paintings of the events leading up to, during and following the battle.  A few of them might have been done, as was Turner’s, within days or weeks.  But most of the paintings were done later in the 19th century, feeding a British taste for celebrating the great moments of the Empire’s development.

The Roll Call, purchased by Queen Victoria, The Royal Collection (portrayuing scene in the Crimean War)

Elizabeth Thompson, later Lady Butler (1846-1933), was born in Switzerland to English parents.  She showed early talent for drawing and painting. She was able to study in Italy, and in 1866, entered the Female School of Art in Kensington, London. Eventually in 1873, one of her paintings was exhibited at the Royal Academy, the epitome of achievement for British painters.  She went on to further success.

In 1877, she married General Sir William Butler, of Tipperary, and moved with him to many foreign posts having six children along the way. Upon his retirement, they moved to his estate in Ireland.  He was an Irish patriot, which did not endear him to the London establishment. Some of his disapproval might have affected Lady Butler, though she continued to paint all her life.

One of her most famous paintings, “Scotland Forever!” shows the Union Brigade, the Inniskillen Scots Greys, at the Battle of Waterloo.  It is widely reproduced and beloved of many.
The 28th Regiment at the Battle of Quatre Bras, 1815, is in Melbourne, Australia, at the National Gallery of Victoria. It was painted in 1875, and drawn from the accounts of Captain William Siborne.  It shows  the 28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot, on June 16, 1815, a battle leading up to Waterloo.

The Defense of Rorke’s Drift as commissioned by Queen Victoria and hangs in the Royal Collection.
It portrays a battle during the Zulu War in 1879.

Lady Butler was unusual among the painters of war scenes, most of whom were working long after the battles were over from written accounts. Obviously, she was a woman and most of the others were men.  Some observers also point out that she seemed to have more sympathy with the plight of the individual participants in the battles.  I do not have a broad enough knowledge of her work to endorse this view, but it seems to ring true.
Butler herself, in her autobiography, wrote: “I never painted for the glory of war, but to portray its pathos and heroism.”



The View from Downshire Hill

Through the courtesy of Hester Davenport and Jo Manning, I have read the little book of memoirs published by the late Elizabeth Jenkins (1905-2010), The View from Downshire Hill, a collection of reminiscences and vignettes of some fascinating personalities.  Miss Jenkins published many novels, biographies, wrote for the BBC, and was one of the founders of the Jane Austen Society. As a matter of fact, she was the last of the original group who first organized to save the cottage in Chawton, Hampshire, where Jane Austen lived from 1809 to just before her death in 1817. It was saved, and the society has grown and flourished, a model for many more Austen societies in North America, Australia and elsewhere.
Elizabeth Jenkins was born on October 31, 1905, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, and died ast the age of 104 last September. She studied at Newham College, Cambridge, beginning in 1924. Through the head of her college, Pernel Strachey (Lytton Strachey’s sister), Jenkins met Virginia Woolf. After Cambridge, Jenkins settled in Bloomsbury, London, and worked on her first novel. She was invited to visit Mrs. Woolf and her huband, Leonard, a visit repeated many times. 

 
 

 Jenkins found Virginia as fascinating as we imagine she must have been.  To quote the Telegraph’s obituary, published 6 September, 2010, Jenkins “found the famous writer ‘very beautiful’ and the ‘ineffably distinguished’ company ‘enough to take one’s breath away’. But after a few months she found herself frozen out of conversation, or addressed in ‘contemptuous and mocking’ tones. Scorned, she did not seek to meet Woolf again, even after the Bloomsbury figurehead subsequently inquired after her and described Virginia Water (1928) as ‘a sweet white grape of a book’.
 

Jenkins’ first novel was published by the first publisher she contacted, the famous Victor Gollancz who himself was a leading literary figure in the London of pre- and post World War II.  Of course this is the kind of situation, the lack of any rejection, that stirs some of us to great envy.  But even with considerable literary success, Elizabeth Jenkins had many boring and unfulfilling jobs in dull offices. Nevertheless she never stopped writing. And publishing.  Gollancz (1893-1967) also published Ford Madox Ford and George Orwell, among others. He was knighted in 1965.

In addition to novels, Jenkins wrote many biographies, the first being of Lady Caroline Lamb, a wild young woman whose shocking behavior with Lord Byron and whose society connections in regency England made her a perfect subject for a life story.  Jenkins followed this work with a still-admired biography of Jane Austen in 1938. Two years later, she was a co-founder of the Jane Austen Society, as mentioned above. Today, the rescued cottage is known as Jane Austen’s House Museum and has an excellent website.

Probably the most admired novel by Jenkins is The Tortoise and the Hare. The Telegraph wrote, “…tales of human intrigue were to recur throughout Elizabeth Jenkins’s fiction, notably in her best-known novel, The Tortoise and the Hare (1954), about the gradual collapse of an apparently perfect marriage. The title refers to the two women competing for the affections of a wealthy barrister, Evelyn. His beautiful wife, Imogen, seems to have little to fear from a stout, capable neighbour, Blanche. But as her own insecurities overwhelm her, Imogen can only watch as Blanche’s dull charms win the day. Like her other works, The Tortoise and the Hare relied on Elizabeth Jenkins’s subtle portrayal of complex human relationships. By the end of the book, the author makes it clear that though Imogen is suffering, she has collaborated fully in own her pain. “

Another great author and friend of Jenkins was Elizabeth Bowen, whose novels and short stories are admired. I have to admit I have not read many of them, but I have alsways wanted to add them to my TBR pile, along with Elizabeth Jenkins’ novels and nonfiction.

Though I am eager to read more of Elizabeth Jenkins’ life, we are fortunate indeed to have this fine book, The View from Downshire House, random recollections which really whet our appetites. In fact, I can quote Jane Austen’s Emma:  “It was a delightful visit – perfect, in being much too short.”

Elizabeth Jenkins 1905-2010

I feel sure that Elizabeth Jenkins would have liked the headline on her New York Times obituary: “Woman of Letters.”

Fun with Sense and Sensibility

Victoria here.  At a meeting of our Jane Austen Book Group, re-reading Sense and Sensibility, we tried a new technique.  Since all of us had read the book many times, MANY times, we decided to forego a general discussion and have each member share her favorite passage. Austen lovers probably won’t be surprised that several of us chose similar passages.

The excerpt that at least five or six chose appears in volume I, chapter 2.  Fanny Dashwood talks her husband, John Dashwood, out of fulfilling his deathbed promise to his father to take care of his step-mother and three half-sisters (Elinor, Marianne and Margaret). 

At first John Daswood decides to give them three thousand pounds, but Fanny is able to shave this down to an occasional gift of game from the Norland estate. This scene was beautifully scripted by Emma Thompson and acted by Harriet Walter and James Fleet in the 1995 film version of the novel. But we concentrated on the written word. 

At one point, John D. considers giving his mother an annuity, an annual payment. Here is the specific sentence that captivates lovers of Austen’s dry wit. Fanny points out, “People always live forever when there is an annuity to be paid them.”

Though she, her husband and her son are turning the Dashwood ladies out of their comfortable estate of Norland and allowing them to move to a smaller cottage several counties away, Fanny resents their retention of some of the china and silver.  And, to justify her parsimonious view, she says, “Their housekeeping will be (cost) nothing at all  — they will have no carriage, no horses, hardly any servants and will keep no company. Only conceive how comfortable they will be!”

KateWinslet as Marianne

When Marianne is saying goodby to her home, the Norland estate (I, 6), she emotes upon the house — and the trees.  “Dear, dear Norland…perhaps I may view you no more! And you, ye well-known trees!…No, you will continue the same: unconscious of the pleasure or the regret you occasion and insensible of any change in those who walk under your shade! But who will remain to enjoy you?” typically, Marianne is overly emotional. Several chapters later (I,16), Marianne notices the autumn leaves and recalls Norland with fondness.

“Dear, dear Norland,” said Elinor, “probably looks much as it always does at this time of year. The woods and walks thickly covered with dead leaves.”

“Oh,” cried Marianne, “with what transporting sensations have I formerly seen them fall!…Now there is no one to regard them. They are seen only as a nuisance, swept hastily off, and driven as much as possible from the sight.”

“It is not everyone,” said Elinor, “who has your passion for dead leaves.”

Hugh Laurie as Mr Palmer

My personal favorite passage is another that involves some of Austen’s wonderful minor characters who give such richness to her novels.  Mr. and Mrs. Palmer, the sister and brother in law of Lady Middleton — and daughter and son in law of Mrs Jennings — provide many moments of delightful comic relief.  In I, 20, Elinor, observing Mr Palmer’s usual ill-humor, thinks: “His temper might perhaps be a little soured by finding, like many others of his sex, that through some unaccountable bias in favour of beauty, he was the husband of a very silly woman; but she knew that this kind of blunder was too common for any sensible man to be lastingly hurt by it.”

Winslet (l) and Emma Thompson as Elinor

Another favorite scene is the discovery (III,1 aka 37) by the emotional Marianne that Elinor had been keeping secret  the fact of Edward Ferrars’ engagement to Lucy Steele.  Marianne berates herself for her self-indulgent outbursts…and then wonders how Elinor could have been so calm instead of giving in to her sorrow.  Several passages are cited to show Marianne’s regrets and Elinor’s disappointment, and underline the contrasts in their two personalities.

All of us at our Jane Austen Book Group agreed that Sense and Sensibility deserves its two hundred years of admiration.  Jane, we decided, would be pleased.

The JASNA AGM on the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s first novel will be held in Ft. Worth, Texas, October 14-16, 2011, at the Renaissance Worthing
ton Hotel.
Hope to see you there!!

Victoria in England 2011

Penshurst Place, Kent

Yes, both Kristine and I confess we are unrepentant when it comes to spending our time and money on trips across the pond to England.  Many of you do the same.  We work hard to book ourselves into a variety of cities and London neighborhoods,  lots of museums and other historic attractions, gardens for wandering, evenings in the theatre or concert hall, and wonderful meals… and, believe it or not, time in libraries and archives.  My upcoming two weeks in England will be no different … castles, stately homes, gardens, museums, several different hotels…and archives at the University of Southampton and Hatfield House.
Upon our arrival in Dover, I hope we can visit Walmer Castle. We “did” Dover Castle a few years ago, and this time, I want to see the Duke of Wellington’s home when he was in residence as the Warden of the Cinque Ports, less than ten miles north along the Channel coast.

We have a stop planned at Penshurst Place, in which many centuries of British History are enveloped…as well as a great slice of architectural history. And stunning gardens, which I hope will be in full bloom in early June.

While we are in London, we want to re-visit the Victoria and Albert Museum, this year to see the Cult of Beauty exhibition, which comes highly recommended by Jo Manning and many others.
Last year, at the V and A, I enjoyed the Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill exhibition, in which many of his treasures were reassembled and shown while the house itself was undergoing a thorough renovation.  This year, I intend to see the finished house, just a short train ride from London in Twickenham.

Next I head to Southampton to visit the Archives in Hartley Library at the University of Southampton.

And while I am in town, I will make time to see the sights, though I understand that the house in which Jane Austen once resided is long gone.  Parts of the city walls, however, still stand, and the famous port should be interesting to see. 

After a short stay in London again, I will go to Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, to study diaries in their Archive. Hatfield has an amazing history and renowned gardens. I wrote about a previous visit to Hatfield on this blog, August 13 2010.

My final stop will be in Windsor, where I will visit the brand new Museum of Windsor and, if the stars are in perfect alignment, visit with our friend Hester Davenport, author of biographies of Mary Robinson and Fanny Burney, and an expert on Windsor history, among other achievements.

Then it will be time to fly home. And start planning the next trip (anticipation is more than half the fun). I will report more fully after I return, and perhaps, along the way.