JASNA tour - driving round and round, prawn tea sandwiches, maps and Lyme Park..

The first morning of our UK  JASNA tour, the 15th, St. Swithin's Day, was perhaps the longest drive of the tour. There is a rhyme, since Elizabethan time, which roughly interpreted, if it rains on St. Swithin's Day then it will rain 40 more and if it is fair so it will be 40 more.  Amazingly it was only a few hours before our first stop - Stamford, a set for the 2005 version P & P (as it is claimed). Very unlike the US, where you can drive over 12 hours and never leave the state!  The inhabitants of Stamford were friendly and very happy to discuss filming the movie and how sand needed to be procured to cover the roadway etc. It is not believed that Jane ever visited Stamford so sadly it really does not apply to my project. But, what do I remember most... my introduction to a prawn tea sandwich, yes what a very different experience! I loved it and have been fiddling with my own take on it since!

It was extremely difficult for me to comprehend driving on the left side of the road. Rotary's (roundabouts) are absolutely nuts! Signs were not in places expected, cars came from directions not expected, and you find yourself quietly praying under your breath, 'thank you God for having my first experience driving in a foreign land in a motor coach'. Eventually when that wore off, all I could think was.. I desperately need a map to see where the ... I am. Because once you leave the the main highway the two lane roads slowly become narrower and narrower to a bit over one comfortable lane for two small cars to pass.. Eventually cars needed to pull off the road or enter a drive for our motor coach to pass. It is a bit surreal traveling roads that may not be to terribly different than they were 200 or more years ago. Which brings me to how useful maps have always been to travelers. Part of a young girls education was geography and there are many fine examples of embroidered globes and maps up to JA's time and a few decades past, especially of England. Below is a small sample map stitched and painted in one of Catherine Jordan's classes. The actual completed map was much larger of Jamestowne commemorating the 400th anniversary of its founding. The background borders were stitched in double-running (Holbein stitch) and some cross stitch over one thread.  The land, sea and green/vegetation were applied in a permanent paint, finally the satin stitched sails and flags were stitched in place. A very fun class, Catherine also teaches dyeing classes and many other forms of surface embroidery and finishing. Note the edges were finished in picot and a three sided stitch.

Our second stop, was Hamstall Ridware, Staffordshire, and to the church of St. Michael, Jane's cousin Reverend Cooper whom we were told she visited several times and a possible model for Mr. Collins. The original smaller church was erected by the Norman's of sandstone, the much larger church was added later. The Rev. Cooper is interned there. The original chalice which was wrapped in cloth and lost in a siege, was recently found by a farmer in a ditch. The glass work was done in Victorian times and would not have been there during Jane's. What caught my eye... seat cushions and kneelers covered in wool needlepoint every where. Several patterns and lovingly taken care of, but again not of Jane's time.

We stayed in Buxton for three nights, record heat, no air, thank you St. Swithin...but 'what great estates'. Our second day was a tour of the Peak District and Lyme Park, who's exterior was used in the 1995 P & P. It was a short but nice hike in the heather of the Peak's. I have many useful pictures here. Lyme Park is breathtaking, the grounds and gardens, did you know there is a Lyme tree? It is very possible Jane visited Lyme Park and could have inspired Pemberly, some say 10,000 a year would not have been able to maintain it, and I have to agree, especially when there is Wickham to pay off!