I spent last weekend in Detroit, my hometown visiting friends, family and various appointments. Detroit has wonderful places for families, like the Zoo, Detroit Institute of Arts, The Henry Ford and Greenfield Village. Due to snow my Sampler Guild Christmas party was cancelled. Although disappointing it turned out to be a special day. My close childhood friend, who I was staying with, and I decided to visit Meadow Brook Hall in Rochester, Michigan to view the Christmas decor. The last time I remember visiting was a wine tasting event almost 20 years ago. Before that my family would make random holiday visits for car shows, etc. on the estate when I was in grade school. I loved Meadow Brook's Knole cottage (as any child would) and the Tudor styling of the great houses', 88,000 square feet with its' 110 rooms, as the website now boasts. In reflection of the day, I realize this is probably where my love of the English Country Manor House and literature began. Built by Matilda Rausch Dodge Wilson, in the English style of the 16th and 17th centuries, and finished just before the depression of the 1920's, it is a feast for the eyes. All constructed of American materials, Tiffany glass and Rookwood tiles, (no Pewabic, surprisingly). Matilda was insightful, intelligent and created a wonderful legacy of the pioneering history of Detroit. I found in the library, the carving of her favorite author, of all people Mark Twain, one author I simply can not make through more than one chapter....what a disappointment...
but wait...........
on a shelf, eye level to the left of Twain's likeness....and left still of his book....
Jane Austen's entire leather bound and embossed canon......
How frustrating, no pictures are allowed and nothing touched, everything as Matilda and her family would have left them...I'm dying now to know who's edition's were they? Did Matilda enjoy Jane Austen too? Or were they Frances or Barbara's, her daughters. Actually Matilda's story reads almost like an Austen heroine....What a wonderful delight to find JA, in a familiar location from my past, just waiting to be found..........Happy Birthday Jane.........
