Shakespeare Disneyland

On October 4th we took a group day trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, the town where Shakespeare was born and spent a lot of his life. This place is more tourist-y than anything I have seen so far, it's a little bit ridiculous! All day I felt like I was walking around Disneyland for Shakespeare lovers...more on that later. So, the first place we went was Mary Arden's Farm. Mary Arden was Shakespeare's mom and this is the farm where she grew up. The funny thing was that none of us had ever really heard of her so we were like, "sweet...Mary Arden...who's that?" So this picture is of us being super excited about coming to this random farm.

Despite my slightly cynical attitude, the farm was pretty cool. There were goats and pigs and geese, and a beautiful garden, and it was such a beautiful day that it would have been difficult not to enjoy this place.

This is one of the main attractions at the Mary Arden Farm, "Watch the Tudors Eat." And that is exactly what we did! We all crammed into this little room and watched these guys eat lunch while they had authentic Tudor conversations. The food looked surprisingly good but the conversation left something to be desired.

They had a whole bunch of falcons and owls in one section of the farm and they actually let some of the girls hold and feed the falcons. I was watching the Tudors eat at the time so I didn't get to hold the giant bird. I was a little disappointed but I saw this sign tucked away in a corner and it made me smile. I just thought it was so funny. Falconry...superb indeed.

This was a funny moment. We found this huge plaster cow that had a little udder and a bucket so you could actually milk it. It looked highly unsanitary but I finally worked up the courage to do it and I had just barely applied pressure to the nasty little rubber thing when all of this gross water sprayed out everywhere! It was quite a shock.

Isn't this the creepiest mannequin you have ever seen? I loved how they gave her such a manic smile as she is holding a scarily realistic dead chicken in her lap. Such an odd combination. Her head also looked like it was about to fall off her body.

Another weird looking mannequin. This little guy had a broken neck, probably due to some rude American tourist. I hope someday the Mary Arden Farm will be able to afford some less creepy props.

One of my favorite things about these places is looking around in the gift shops. There are always some interesting looking, but highly overpriced books that I am always tempted to buy. YOu ahve your typical Christmas tree ornaments, shot glasses, and thimbles. But on occasion you find something like cookies in the shape of Shakespeare's head! Alex said it tasted good and claims that it was worth the 3 pounds, but I think it would be a little unsettling to eat flesh colored frosting.

The next stop was the cottage where Ann Hathaway grew up. Notice the thatched roof and all of the beautiful flowers, this place was so gorgeous! Someday I am coming back to England in the spring or summer just so that I can see all of the gardens in full bloom.

A cool little Willow hut...I don't know what the purpose of this is. They had a ghetto little cd player inside that played readings of Shakespeare's love sonnets. Kind of cheesy, but it was fun because I felt like I was in a fort and I got to sit on the little bench for a little bit and enjoy some quiet time after an overcrowded tour of the cottage. Here is a little background on Shakespeare and Ann Hathaway for you: they both grew up in Stratford, "courted," and then when he was 18 and she was 26...yes, that age difference was abnormal for the time, she got pregnant and they got married.

This is the place. Shakespeare's birthplace for real. It was cool...I was a little "Shakespeared out," as Alex Fahey would say. It was just a lot of Shakespeare all in one day.

But then I found the most incredible Chrismas store of my life. The walls were covered in ornaments, Christmas music was playing, there were Christmas trees everywhere, it smelled like Christmas...I was so excited. I am a little embarrassed to admit that I enjoyed the Christmas store a little more than the Shakespeare stuff. But there you go, honesty is the best policy right?

Give a gnome a home! I had to take a picture with this. But I just want to clarify, I am not planning on being a crazy lady with a garden full of gnomes. I just plan on having one, maybe two tastefully placed little guys. It will be subtle, no fishing poles or ponds or anything. So I am not obsessed, I just think gnomes are cool ok?

Trinity Church is where Shakespeare is buried. It was half covered in scaffolding but my artsy photographic skills in this picture hid the construction pretty well, if I do say so myself. It was kind of cold and windy, but I was in a Christmas-y mood so the cold weather suited me just fine.

I was a little disappointed to find that the scaffolding and construction was in full force inside the church, but there was an orchestra rehearsing for a Vivaldi concert inside so that made it more than ok. We had tickets to see "A Winters Tale" for the Shakespeare class later that night, otherwise I would have attended the concert. Sitting in the church and listening to the music was definitely a highlight of my day. I played the violin for 5 or 6 years when I was younger, and I played in a community orchestra for quite awhile. I haven't played for years but hearing those violinists and watching the musicians all work together to create such beautiful music was really inspiring to me. I plan on starting up with the violin again once I get back to BYU...although I don't think I will ever be as good as these guys were.

In the back of the church they had this big memorial to Shakespeare. Everyone wanted his bones to be moved to Poets Corner but he had a curse inscribed over his tomb that pretty much ensured that his remains would stay put.

"Good friend for Jesus sake forbear

To dig the dust enclosed here!

Blest be the man that spares these stones,

And curst be he that moves my bones."

Westminster Abbey and MJ

On Friday, October 2 we went to Westminster Abbey! At this point we have been to a few abbeys but this one was definitely one of my favorites. Although it was built in 960 AD by Benedictine monks, it really became important in the 13th century. Around this time the abbey was set apart as the burial place for the celebrities of the time...monks, saints, kings, queens, and other significant people. However, its main function is as a place of worship and that is still true today.

Inside the abbey there are a few little chapels for different saints, the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, etc. I thought that was really cool, and they are all very ornately decorated with individual features in each one. Since it has been a famous burial place since the 13th century there are a TON of monuments, tombs, plaques, memorials...it's crazy. There are huge sections of the floor that are completely made up of tombstones inscribed with names and dates that are barely legible since they have been walked over so many times. There were a lot of interesting little things that I learned about Westminster (you gotta love those long-winded audio tours), but my favorite thing by far was Poets Corner!!!!!

I downloaded this picture off the internet...unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. This is a small section Poets Corner. But before I talk about that let me show you something cool. See those two arches on the right side of the picture? Can you tell that there are pictures painted on the wall behind them? Those aren't just pictures my friends, they are religious medieval murals. Isn't that awesome??? Some guy uncovered them in 1936 when they took a couple of memorials down for cleaning and you can still see all the colors. We tend to think of medieval, gothic, and classical architecture and art in terms of the old stone, marble, and muted colors that it possesses today, but in it's time these places were vividly painted in bright colors. Murals, mosaics, and other surviving art hint at those color schemes...I wish I could have seen these places in their prime. They must have been incredible!

Ok, so Poets Corner. The excitement that I felt in this place really gives away the true extent of my nerdiness, but at this point I've just got to embrace it. This is the section of Westminster where significant literary figures, and some composers are either buried or memorialized. There are a bunch of names carved into the floor, lots of statues, busts, plaques, memorials...I probably could have spent a good hour just looking at all the people represented here. They're all there: Handel, Wordsworth, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Keats, Byron, Shakespeare, Milton, Longfellow, Percy Shelley, Tennyson, Dickens, Chaucer...and so many more. It was awesome.

After our tour in the abbey we had to hurry over to the National Gallery to meet with the Humanities class to look at some art. Isn't it awesome that we get to have a class period in the National Gallery? We have been studying this art for a few weeks and then we get to just hop on the Tube and see it all in person. I love this place! Anyways, we couldn't resist this photo op...I thought this was a pretty good, standard London picture.

This guy outside the National Gallery was the perfect conclusion to a great day out. He had headphones in, so I'm not quite sure what he was dancing to, but I'm pretty sure it was Michael Jackson (judging from his moonwalk and Jackson 5 t-shirt). I wish I could upload the video, this guy was rocking out, sweating up a storm, and totally in the zone...it was absolutely hilarious!! We watched him for a good 5 or 10 minutes but I was too scared to put money in his hat. He kept kicking his legs up right next to it and since his eyes were closed there was a very real possibility of getting kicked in the head.

Preston--Church History Tour

When we got to Preston we met up with our guide, Peter, and immediately started in on our church history tour. We congregated in “market square,” next to a large obelisk.

This square would have been the life blood of Preston back in 1838 when Heber C. Kimball, Joseph Fielding, and Willard Richards would have arrived. Preston was Gordon B. Hinckley’s first mission area as well, and market square is where he preached for the first time, and was absolutely terrified to do it. As I stood in that place I was in awe. It wasn’t particularly beautiful, we were actually in the middle of a street fair type of thing and there were lots of people around, it was noisy, dirty, and just a normal town. What struck me was the significance of this place to the restoration of the gospel. My ancestors all come from England and Wales, so in that way I am directly affected by the missionary work that originated there. In the days leading up to this trip I have been praying that I could feel the spirit in these places and really appreciate what I would be seeing. I feel blessed to have felt the spirit of that place.

Anyways, it started to rain so we all went into this museum where they had an exhibit that showed what Preston was like back in the 1800s. Honestly, it was super nasty and I am so glad that most places aren’t like that anymore. Up to the 1900s Preston was a major place for the cotton industry. The damp climate and the easy accessibility to the canals made it an ideal location for production and export of cotton. Unfortunately all of the mills created horrible living conditions for the poor people. The medieval layout of the town was altered once the Industrial Revolution came around and the planning was just really bad. All of the houses were crowded together, the sanitation was awful, and those factors combined with the working conditions in the mills resulted in a high mortality rate. In 1837, 50% of children under the age of 5 would die, and the average age of death was 18 years old. The gap between rich and poor was huge and there was a lot of strife and striking in Preston. It just wasn’t a very happy place to be.

Still, the missionaries had great success there and I think it is obvious that much of that success is due to the bad living conditions and difficult lives led by the working class. Those people were ready for the gospel; they really needed that light and hope in their lives. I can only imagine the joy they must have felt when they learned of the Plan of Salvation, eternal families, and the comfort that the Holy Ghost brings—especially in light of the path their lives were probably on.

The adversary was aware of what was taking place, and on Wilfred Street we saw the spot where Heber C. Kimball was stricken by evil spirits and witnessed the “battle between good and evil for the souls in the British Isles.” I didn’t really like being there. To this day that house is still referred to as being haunted, and some people call it the “House of Devil.” This whole thing just proves what a big thing was about to happen. I imagine that Satan wasn’t about to go down without a fight, and the missionaries definitely had their fair share of adversity, but truth always prevails!

We continued walking through the town and Peter pointed out a lot of interesting little features and spots of historical significance, and told us lots of stories about people involved in the early days of the church in Preston. One of my favorite things was seeing the Ribble River where 9,000 people gathered to see the first 10 baptisms.

My feelings of this day are summed up in this entry I made in my journal the night after seeing Preston. “It is so incredible to be in the places that are so significant to the church. I keep thinking, ‘Wow, Heber C. Kimball actually stood in this spot and saw that building!’ Learning all of this history has really helped me to gain a deeper appreciation for the early saints and the missionaries. The trials and tribulations they endured were so beyond anything I can imagine—but at the same time, so are the spiritual blessing and experiences they received.” We ended the day at the temple in Chorley, which I thought was highly appropriate. The temple grounds were beautiful and peaceful, it is truly the House of the Lord!

Haworth and the Bronte parsonage

The first stop on our trip was Haworth. This is where the Bronte sisters grew up and wrote their novels and where Patrick Bronte, their father, had his parsonage. The family moved here in 1820.

There were four Bronte children, three girls--Emily, Charlotte, and Ann, and one boy--Branwell. There were two other girls but they died at a young age.

Their mother, Maria, died just a year after they moved and since the children were still very young her sister moved in to care for the family. The kids were very close and the sisters were incredibly loyal and loving to their brother. All four of the kids were artistically talented, especially Branwell and Charlotte. Growing up, they would write stories for each other, a habit that prepared the girls for the novels they wrote as "young ladies." The girls are all published novelists-- Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre, Emily wrote Wuthering Heights, and Ann wrote Agnes Grey.

A lot of aspects of their childhood come through in their books, and the isolation that they must have felt growing up in such a remote location seems to be a theme in both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. (I haven't read Agnes Grey yet but I'm pretty sure it's about a lonely governess...much like Jane Eyre). The girls worked as governesses once they got older, and Charlotte also worked as a school teacher at the little school next to their house.

Branwell had a lot of pressure to follow in his fathers footsteps and was encouraged to be a professional artist. It is said that he found his father a hard act to follow and unfortunately he never really made it. After a string of about 12 failed careers (and love affairs) he turned to drinking and drugs and died in 1848 at the age of 31.

Emily also died in 1848, at the age of 30, from tuberculosis. Anne followed in 1849 at the age of 29.

Charlotte outlived all of her siblings, although she died in childbirth only 5 years later. She married Arthur Nicholls, her father's curate, and her dad was not very happy about it. They had a loving, happy marriage and Arthur and Patrick must have warmed up to each other because Arthur stayed in Haworth to care for his aging father-in-law. Patrick outlived all of his children, dying in 1861, after which Arthur moved back to Ireland.

Tower of London

I guess I'm pretty lucky because this year I got to spend my birthday at the Tower of London! I thought it was so cool, especially since I was only expecting one tower- not an entire castle. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised to see that I wouldn't be wandering around in the same tower all day long.

The first thing we did when we got there was run over to see the Crown Jewels before the place filled up with tourists. Our group was the only one in there so we got to take our time and drool over the jewels as long as we liked. It was amazing! I couldn't take pictures inside but here are some that I downloaded. My favorite thing was seeing the giant diamond in the sceptre thing. It is 530 carats...and so pretty and sparkly. I wish I had taken better notes...but that's really all I remember about it.

All of the tours at the Tower of London are given by Yeoman warders, also known as "beefeaters." These warders used to be in charge of guarding the Crown Jewels and keeping an eye on the prisoners but now they are more of a tourist attraction than anything else, although they take their responsibilities very seriously. Our guide was really funny, he put on a good show.

This is a picture (courtesy of Elliot), of the infamous Ravens. The Ravens have been there since King Charles II and according to legend, once the Ravens are gone the tower and the monarchy will crumble. I think there are about six of them there right now. They all have names, their wings are clipped so they can't fly away, and there is a Yeoman designated as "Ravenmaster" whose sole responsibility is to care for them and feed them raw meat. Sounds like a pretty cushy life if you ask me (for the bird and the Ravenmaster).

The Tower of London as a whole is a fortress, but back in 1028 when William the Conqueror came he built the White Tower which is the main tower that people refer to today.

Not only did the Tower of London serve as a royal palace and a fortress, it was also a prison. Many famous historical prisoners were held captive here, including Guy Fawkes, Sir Walter Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth I (before she was the queen), and Sir Thomas More. The prisoners where held in the "Bloody Tower" and when you go in there you can actually see where they carved stuff into the wall. Most of it is in Latin so I couldn't really read it, but it was amazing to see. I don't know what kind of tools they had but I imagine this took a very long time.

Before we entered the complex our guide showed us Tower Hill which is where public executions took place. He said that everyone in town would attend the beheadings, bringing children, picnic lunches, and making a whole day out of it. However, only the lower class criminals would have been beheaded in public. Characters like Anne Boleyn, for example, got to be beheaded on "Tower Green," a private little lawn inside the complex. This is the spot where Anne Boleyn was beheaded. I thought it was interesting that rather than having her head chopped off by an ax, which is the usual practice, she got to be beheaded by a Frenchman with a fancy schmancy sword. I guess that's what you get for being royalty.

This is a section of the original Roman wall. As you can see most of the wall didn't make it, but I was fascinated by thinking of how much history this little piece of wall has been witness to.

This is the White Tower. While we were here they had a huge display of King Henry the VIII's armor. It was pretty cool to see, and interesting to note how his suits of armor got bigger and bigger. Near the end of his life he got so big that they could hardly squeeze him into armor at all...I can't imagine anything more uncomfortable. The royal family lived in the top floors of this tower and sometimes prisoners were kept in the basement.

The fortress was surrounded by two concentric walls and a moat. Being located right on the Thames River, this was a main entrance for awhile. It is called Traitor's Gate because it became a convenient place to bring the prisoners in from Westminster.

It was an amazing day in an amazing place!

Open Air Painting

A very simplistic definition of “open air painting” is a painting that is done outdoors of are of landscapes and natural scenes. According to the “Corot to Monet” exhibit, open air painting was largely impressionistic. They were recreating their sense of the world with new techniques and mediums. There is a lot more blending of color, watercolors, and one technique that I noticed was the use of a lot of little brush strokes like in Corot’s “Evening on the Lake.”

Open air painting and communities of painters at the Barbizon School, for example, contributed to the Impressionism further developed by Monet. They painted rural scenes and landscapes and their work led to artists like Monet depicting real life scenes.

Bathers at La Grenouillere, The Beach at Trouville, The Gare St-Lazare; all of these are works by Monet that evolved from the earlier works of open air painting. As European landscape painting developed further it focused on natural elements like weather, the movement of light, movement of water, clouds, and, as previously stated, depictions of real life particularly in rural settings. Something I noticed about the paintings in this exhibit is that they aren’t just of pretty, peaceful, pastoral scenes. Those artists got out there and painted what they saw, what they felt, and tried to capture the raw emotions of nature. Being out in the open air, directly communicating with the environment brought landscape painting to a whole new dimension and this is what evolved into Impressionism.

DOVER!!

DOVER BEACH

By Matthew Arnold

The sea is calm tonight,

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits;

on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

Come to the window, sweet is the night air!

Only, from the long line of spray


Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,


Listen! you hear the grating roar


Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, 


At their return, up the high strand, 


Begin, and cease, and then again begin,


With tremulous cadence slow, and bring 


The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago 
Heard it on the Agean, and it brought


Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow 


Of human misery; we


Find also in the sound a thought, 


Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith 


Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore


Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. 


But now I only hear


Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, 


Retreating, to the breath 


Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear


And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true 


To one another! for the world, which seems 


To lie before us like a land of dreams, 


So various, so beautiful, so new, 


Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, 


Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; 


And we are here as on a darkling plain 


Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, 


Where ignorant armies clash by night.

1867

Our trip to Dover was pretty memorable, I had such an awesome time! In the bus on the way there Dr. Paxman taught as a little bit about castles, all stuff that I probably should have already known but I must have forgotten. Anyway it was all super interesting and I was excited to apply my new found knowledge to Dover Castle!

Here are a few things I learned:

1. Castles served 3 different purposes, defense against foreign attack, defense against domestic attack (for when the townspeople hate the King), and as a status symbol for the King to show off how much power and wealth he has, as well as how much control he has over his people since they are the ones who help pay for it and build it.

2. Nobody can really say when a castle was built because the initial design was always built upon for 100s of years after, depending on what renovations or additions were necessary. Because of it’s placement on the coast and it’s close proximity to the coast of France (26 miles away), Dover Castle was under continuos military construction. It was even used during WWII as a headquarters communication point. It was during that time that they added a hospital and dug secret military tunnels all around it.

3. Castles are typically built concentrically with 2 outer walls so that attackers have a harder time breaking through and getting in to the “keep” which is the main, residential area of the castle. The 2 outer walls have angled holes in them (skinny little arrow holes that you can shoot out of but that are nearly impossible for someone to shoot through from the other side), murder holes to drop stones and hot tar through onto the people below, battlements, flanking towers, matriculations...the list goes on.

4. William the Conqueror introduced a period of great castle building in which 500 castles were built in one generation. Keep in mind, however, that a lot of those castles were built only for defense and it wasn’t until later that they were built up and refined into private residences.