Day Twenty - Nine Saturday June 27
Last day, last everything, the Day of Lasts. But I'm going out with a bang, today was an amazing journey to new sights and future walking dreams. What a GREAT TRIP! Nothing like travel and living a huge story ( yours, others and where they intersect) to expand your brain and heart.
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| I Like Her |
Henry VIII's 4th wife, Anne of Cleves, was a newbie German princess, born in Dusseldorf, unfamiliar with the ways of the English Court and Henry VIII's passions of books and music.
Her personal interests were of no importance to Henry, since the marriage was a diplomatic maneuver, arranged by Thomas Cromwell. Due to Henry's break with Rome in 1533, England was in danger of being completely isolated from Europe. Henry feared the world would gang up on him and attack.
It made perfect sense to form an alliance with the then Netherlands and an easy and convenient way to do so was for Henry to marry the daughter of the Duke of Gerlander. The King hoped to create an alliance between England and other non-catholic states as backup.
This is Anne of Cleves' house in Lewes. Lew-is, not Loos. It took me a while to get that answer. Anne never lived here, but it was given to her along with a slew of other properties, and she rented it out. Not a slumlord at all!
Henry and Anne married on January 6, 1540 - Henry had been without a wife for over two years since the death of Jane Seymour. Henry realized almost immediately his mistake and so set about nullifying the marriage, on the grounds of non-consummation. The couple's first night as husband and wife was not a successful one. Henry confided to Cromwell that he had not consummated the marriage, saying, "I liked her before not well, but now I like her much worse." He described her as having unpleasant body odor and sagging breasts. Do you think she's ugly? I really don't.
The house is an excellent existing example of a typical medieval 15th C home. Why can't we build houses like this?
Henry had also become attracted to a lady in waiting of the late Queen's - Katherine Howard - who would become his fifth wife. Despite her unfair treatment, Anne co-operated with the King throughout the shabby affair (smart cookie), as she would only be causing trouble for herself. Women were catching on.
Anne agreed to everything Henry wanted and was able to walk away.
It turned out Henry liked Anne. They had a good relationship as friends, playing cards, giving advice, talking, sharing ideas. After the divorce, Henry awarded her the honorary title, 'The King's Sister', and gave her houses and land as compensation. She was given Hever Castle in Kent, which had once belonged to Anne Boleyn. She lived in comfortable obscurity in a small house in Melton Mowbray (now a pub) until her death in 1557. She is buried in a hard to find tomb at Westminster Abbey. I need to go there one day.
There is a tale that in the old kitchen there is a marble table which, according to legend, threw to the ground the swords laid down on it by the knights on their way to murder Thomas Becket.
Lewes is a charming town on the edge of the South Downs, which are just stunningly gorgeous. It has pubs, tea shops, period buildings, extensive gardens, winding streets on steep hillsides and a castle with views.
Bowling leagues.
View to the South Downs from the Lewes Castle tower
No, I did not know......
15th C bookshop... not the books but the building. Note the corner carved figures.
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| What Are the Handles in the Doorways For? |
Part of the adventure of driving around is taking the back roads and coming across something like this. This is Streat Place, built around 1607 in a little parish of STREAT.
Yep, someone lives there and we stalked them like paparazzi. They have a pool in the back with a cover that rolls over it to keep the water warm.
Luckily no one sicced the dogs on us while we stuck our cameras through the gate.
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| Streat Parish Church With a View |
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| Their T Shirts Say "Go Slow" |
The Streat Church did have one unique feature.... one of the graves was a clue to an internet GeoCaching game. I found this out when I went on line to find out who this guy was, since he is one of the few contemporary burials. Here's the clue.
"Find WREN Herbert Cowley and note two dates
19AB 19CD.The cache can then be found a short distance away, situated where there are extensive views of the South Downs, at N50 55.A(C+B)A W000 04.(C-A)(D-B)D The cache has a log book only but no pen, so please bring one with you"
Let's go back!
One thing I really like to do is be nosy. I like to pry into other people's houses , not yours, but dead people from another time. I like to see how they lived, where they created.
So I couldn't resist Virginia And Leonard Woolf's house in Rodmell - MONKS HOUSE. Now owned by the National Trust, it exists as Leonard left it in 1965, 20 some years after her death. All the furniture and paintings, knick knacks, photos, doggy door, everything that makes up the sum of a life is still there.
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| Upper Door to Her Bedroom |
The couple didnt live here all the time, they had a house in London, but they came here on weekends. He would garden and she would write. They were visited by a slew of friends - TS Eliot, EM Forster to name a couple - and her sister Vanessa Bell.
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| Her Writing Shed in the Garden |
"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
We were joined by feminists, wannabe authors and bohemians as they descended upon this place of their pilgrimage. She was never a favorite of mine but I do love seeing her home. Woolf suffered from severe bouts of mental illness throughout her life, thought to have been the result of what is now bipolar disorder. On March 28, 1941, she filled her pockets with stones and drowned herself in the River Ouse nearby, at the Southease bridge where we happened to walk today. Her body wasn't found for another 20 days .
Best to get a biography and read about her, their unconventional marriage and the Bloomsbury group. I plan to.
She left her husband a suicide note which can be read on line, a bit of it says:
Dearest,
I feel certain I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do.
Her voice goes on in her novels and her spirit we can now keep alive by visiting her home in this quiet laid back village on the South Downs. When was the last time you read "A Room of One's Own"? Maybe it’s time to read it again, with new eyes.
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| Her Desk and Glasses in the Garden Shed |
We ended the day with a short 3 mile walk that Virginia probably took many times, and which I later found out was her last.
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| A Painting? Rodmell from the River Ouse Embankment |
The Southease swing bridge, built in 1710 where Virginia ended her life.
Lewes 4 miles away, that's the castle, zoomified!
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| Southease Church |
Not much happening in Southease, but it has a pretty church with an unusual round tower dating from around 1150. I should have gone inside, there are wall paintings from the 1200's. But the day was flying by and eventually you have to call an end.
Inspiration comes at the oddest times, here's to 2017!
I have had some wonderful places to sit and put together my thoughts and photos, and I agree with Virginia Woolf that you need an inspiring place, a place of your own separated from the house and the room, a corner. Windows always motivate me. This morning I was thrilled to look down on the "duck swamp" and see baby Coots had been born. They were no bigger than a golf ball, all fuzzy and swimming around looking for mommy.
The baby Coots Would Wiggle to Make the Water Ripple Around Them. |
Good Luck Little Guy!
The light is finally fading, 10PM! I'll miss these long evenings. I can't believe this trip is over. Time is funny that way, you plan, you set a date, the moment comes then it's gone. I'm all packed up and ready to face Heathrow and the long flight home. |
