Day 22: Call me Elizabeth B.- No, E. Bennet

Today was the BEST day!  I know I keep saying that but really.... today was another dream come true.  It started out with an early trip to Jane Austen's house!  We saw the church in Chowton (pronounced cha-ton) that she worshipped in weekly and the house that she lived in during the time that all of her novels were published.  It was magical.  All inside the house there are facts about her life and quotes from famous people about her and her novels.  I loved reading everything I could about her!

How could I go to Jane Austen's house without buying one of her novels?  I bought three!  I already own most of them but I didn't own Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park so I bought those and also a compliation of three books including Lady Susan, The Watsons, and the unfinished Sandition.  I am girly enough that I bought a bookmark with a quote from Mr. Darcy with a heart that says "I love Mr. Darcy" with Colin Firth's picture on it.  I love it! :)

(Kayley and I with our purchases)

(Me happy with my sweet bookmark!)

Our next stop was a beautiful place.  Possibly the most beautiful place I have ever seen.  It's definitely my most favorite garden I have ever seen.  It's called the Stourhead Gardens.  Have you heard of it?  Maybe you haven't but if you've seen the newest Pride and Prejudice movie you will recognize these scenes...

“In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” 

"I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed upon to marry."

And then this moment in the movie.... AHHH!  I think I mentioned that a big group of us girls watched this movie last night and basically all FREAKED OUT at this part!  It is my favorite part of any movie. (Interesting fact I learned today- the Pride and Prejudice crew was at Stourhead for a week only to shoot this scene.  It rained every day of the week they were there EXCEPT for the day they filmed.  Ironic- right?)  So you can imagine how excited I was to see the exact spot where this happened.  What I didn't realize was the significance of Stourhead Gardens as well.  It is drastically different from the other gardens I've seen at Hampton Court and Versailles.  These were highly uniform and perfectly manicured.  During the 18th century, the thought in literature and art was shifting towards the picturesque, sublime, dark, shadow, and irregularity.  This was during the Enlightenment period and is shown at Stourhead Gardens because it is manicured but made to specifically look unmanicured, like wilderness, and like a place a hermit could live.  It has been described as "a living work of art where all is grand or simple, or a beautiful mixture of both."  I got that majestic feeling when I was there.  My friend Seth would appreciate all of the different variety of plants they had there (I think over 600 different types of trees?) and the ways in which they were used. 

On the coach ride to Stourhead, I was reading some of Wordsworth's poetry for an assignment.  He wrote during this time period and is HUGE into nature.  In one of his works, Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, he wrote something that applied to how I felt at the gardens:

"Knowing that Nature never did betrayThe heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,Through all the years of this our life, to leadFrom joy to joy:  for she can so inform The mind within us, so impressWith lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor allThe dreary intercourse of daily life,Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturbOur cheerful faith, that all which we beholdIs full of blessings."

Isn't that beautiful?  Now here are the pictures I took!  I put quite a few one here but not all the 135 that I took.  Pictures can't capture the serenity that I experienced her, nor the elation I felt at the Temple of Apollo (where the Pride and Prejudice scene was filmed) but I hope you can taste a drop of what it felt like to me.  You should listen to THIS song while you look at these pictures:

(Myself and Katherine- I'm really enjoying becoming friends with her!)

(Views from the Temple of Apollo)

(Cree from our group acting as Mr. Darcy and me acting as Elizabeth Bennet- Do you think I could play the part?)

(Pictures from our walk around the lake there)

(Some caramel, chocolate, shortbread that Amanda and I got at a little farmhouse country store at Stourhead.  So yummy!)

We took a trip to Bath afterwards, named for the Roman baths that we built there during the time the Romans ruled England.  Jane Austen lived her for a large part of her life and hated it.  A few of her novels, including Persuasion take place here.  We saw the actual baths and tried the bath water there.  It was very mineral-ish.  We also were supposed to see the Royal Crescent (a famous apartment building) but we accidentally saw the Royal Circle (an easy mistake to make) instead.  We ate at an Irish Pub for dinner and the guy asked us for our ID cards.  We were just this little American girls there looking for cheap food and I didn't really understand him because he was Irish... a little awkward.  Like he asked if I wanted "Ace."  I didn't know what that was so I just shook my head yes.  I had already asked him "what" so many times that I didn't want to ask again.  It turns out that ace= ice.  Ha.

Can you tell that I LOVED today?  I love the city of London and I grow to love the countryside and country towns more and more each time I visit them!