Well, dear readers, it has been a red-letter day for anyone in love with historical fashion. I’ve never heard so many grown women squeal like schoolgirls! From start to finish, it was an amazing treat. So let me walk you through it!

First off, we boarded our coach for the two-plus-hour drive north, winding through absolutely gorgeous countryside (including a short nip through Wales):

We passed through Hereford on up to Leominster (which we learned is pronounced “Lemster” by the natives and not “LEE-oh-minster” as we’d thought!). After winding down the country lanes, we arrived at the entrance gate to Berrington Hall, which looked far too narrow for our coach. Yet our driver managed to get us through three gates and over a cattleguard before one of the docents came frowning out to tell us we’d gone the wrong way in, as the coach park was in back and accessed by a different gate! Never mind that no one told the driver this when he called or that the first gate was not marked “NO Coaches!” Oh, well. We still managed to get to the proper place to park and headed in for our appointment with costume curator Althea Mackenzie, who is caretaker to the famous Snowshill collection (now at Berrington) and the Hereford Museum collection (more on that later!).

Berrington is a wonderful estate. Famous landscaper Capability Brown’s son-in-law built it in the 1780s, and it was the last landscape job Capability did. The outside of the house is rather austere, but that was done on purpose by the architect, who wanted to lead the visitor into a surprise jewelbox of perfectly symmetrical rooms with Wedgewood-style moldings and fittings. Here’s a short tour of a few of the rooms:

The opening hall is exactly as it looked in 1783, with the addition of two French tapestries added by the next generation of owners.

Detail of the Greek-inspired door trimming

One of the French machine-made tapestries (sorry it's a bit blurry; I am still getting the hang of the low light setting, since flash wasn't allowed!)

Next we entered the drawing room, another perfectly proportioned room, down to the matching mirrors, picture arrangements, curtains, and even symmetrical furniture. Jane Austen would have been right at home in this room:

The stunning ceiling of the drawing room

The back hallway is even more magnificent than the front entrance! This staircase leads up to the family rooms.

Here is what lights the staircase--a glorious glass dome!

A view under the dome from the balcony overlooking the hall below...

This is the back of the main house inside the courtyard.

One half of our group toured the house while the other half enjoyed the delights of the private study table with Althea. Then we switched off. I cannot show you any of the things we looked at from the stores, as they are all copyrighted by the National Trust, but when I am able to look up call numbers, I will post them so you can Google them for yourselves. Suffice it to say that you would short out your keyboards drooling if I was able to share pictures!

After we all finished at the study table, we gathered for luncheon in our own private Edwardian Tea Room below stairs:

Lunch was absolutely delicious with an assortment of sandwiches, soup, and scones with jam and Devonshire cream, and, of course, tea. Yum! We finished up and walked back through the grounds toward the coach:

Looking into the walled orchard/garden...

Beautiful allium!

Looking past the fountain towards the house...

A lone water lily in the fountain...

View across the velvety lawn in front...

This is called "The Triumphal Arch" and serves as side entrance to the grounds...

After boarding the coach, we buckled in for the short ride back to Hereford, where we were to meet up with Althea at the museum for still more up-close study. We were told to go to the main museum building, so we toured it for a bit and enjoyed its exhibits (lots of hands-on things for the children–hurrah!).

My girls trying out the play kitchen.

Too much fun!

This case contains original fabrics from the 1740s-1780s.

Detail view of the fabric. We saw such bright colors today--lots of pinks and greens especially from this period.

A purse "embroidered" with (are you ready for this?) beetle wings! Thanks to Stephanie for pointing this out!

After waiting a good 20 minutes and seeing no Althea, we asked again at the desk if she was expecting us and knew we were there. They decided to ring her up and found she was actually at another museum building several blocks away and expecting us there! Oy! So we packed ourselves off in a hurry to get to the museum’s resource center, which contains a simply mind-boggling number of storage bins, drawers, shelves, racks–you name it. Once again, I can’t show you anything we looked at, but you can see our ladies walking down the long corridor next to the storage cases:

What treasures lie in store?

These run on a neat trolley-type system that pulls the shelves apart along tracks so you can walk in between and get to all the drawers and bins. Althea gave us much more of her time than we deserved, and we oohed and ahhed for a good hour and a half. We could have stayed a week and not seen everything. This was absolutely the highlight of the day, with all our ladies getting to see things from different time periods and areas of interest. Never to be forgotten!

After a quick stop to get some water and other odds and ends, we headed back to Lacock Village for our evening meal at The Red Lion Inn, which is an absolutely charming spot (its exterior was used as the Meryton Assembly Room in the 1995 “Pride and Prejudice”).

Cozy!

Charming!

Ladies awaiting their suppers...

A happy (and delicious) ending to our wonderful day...

The Chicken and Stilton is not to be missed!

Great conversation and lots of laughter...

Nothing better than candlelight...

So we’ve finished out our day tired but happy. Tomorrow we travel southward to Exeter for still more historical costume at Killerton House and Rougemont House. If all goes well, I’ll be telling you about it tomorrow night! Sweet dreams!

I woke to birdsong outside the window and just couldn’t stay abed, so I quickly got ready and headed downstairs to shoot some early morning photos of our surroundings. A little backstory first: We were all originally slated to stay in Lacock Village together at two B&Bs. Sadly, one of the B&B owners was diagnosed four weeks ago with cancer and has had to close her inn while undergoing chemotherapy. (Keep Kay in your thoughts and prayers if you would.) Losing that lovely place meant a bit of a scramble to find lodgings for 11 of us very close to the tour date. Suzi and I called and emailed and called some more, and we were most fortunate to find that Rudloe House Hotel (just across the way from Box Hill, can you believe it?) had rooms enough for all of us. So we are ensconced six miles from Lacock Village near the village of Box. It means a bit more of a shuffle for our coach driver, but we’re just glad this all worked out on such late notice!

Rudloe is a Victorian house atop a hill, overlooking the surrounding countryside. As we drove up last night, the sun was blazing through, giving us an unmatched sky with pink clouds. I wish I’d had my camera out! This morning I made my way down front to greet the day, and here’s a little walking tour before we head to Berrington Hall!

After exiting the side door, I round the corner to see the ivy-covered walls of the front of the mansion.

There in the distance is the view, as the sun burns off the morning fog...

Let's head down the gravel path through the front gate...

Ah, the sun is coming through!

Beauty!

Now let's turn 'round and head back up the path to the house...

Enchanting...like a doll's house!

Looks like the sun will greet us soon...

Here you can see the architecture and the corner "Tower Room."

Hydrangeas by the door -- my favorites!

Well, I’m off to breakfast now and then to Berrington Hall in Hereford. It promises to be a marvelous day, and I’ll be sure to share the details later! Cheerio!

Well, we’re all here and accounted for (though finding folks at Heathrow this morning proved a bit of a challenge!). We went straight to the Victoria & Albert Museum for luncheon, then had a couple of hours free to see exhibits before meeting up for our private study session in the costume storage area. As with the Museum of London last year, we are not allowed to share photos of the objects displayed, but I can tell you we did lots of ooohing and ahhing! We saw a stunning 18th-century court gown, an 1880s day dress, and an ethereal Regency gown with silver thread embroidery. When I have time, I’ll look up the call numbers on the V&A site and post links so you can see, too! At left is a 1780s gown we saw last year (it was one of the inspiration pieces for my Ladies’ 1780s Portrait Dress pattern, now in progress).

After finishing at the museum, we boarded our coach for a rainy drive to Wiltshire, enjoying lots of visiting back and forth in the coach as we rode. The sun broke through the clouds in dazzling glory right at the end of our trip, casting that golden English glow over the countryside and lighting up the rain-wet trees and stone walls. It was stunning! Too bad I had packed my camera away by that point. If the weather holds tomorrow, I’ll be sure to get our gorgeous view.

Here are some highlights from today:

Back of a Grace Kelly gown on display at the V&A

Suzi showing Mom a photo of her bonnet for Bath. It's yummy!

Man's banyan coat made of a military toile, if you can imagine such a fabric!

Exquisite Victorian baby gown from the British Gallery at the V&A -- all lace!

My favorite gown in the British Gallery -- lots of amazing whitework on this trained Regency gown.

My girls peeking into a miniature room display, which was really astonishing in its detail.

Things to come... A bunch of us will be seeing the special Grace Kelly clothing exhibit next Monday afternoon!

That’s all for today. Tomorrow we head to Leominster in Herefordshire to see the Snowshill collection at Berrington Hall and enjoy the delights of the Hereford Museum costume collection as well! Cheers!

Hard to believe the 2010 Tour is already upon us. The year has just flown by! We are so excited about this year’s tour. We have a group of 15 lovely ladies going along, and I’m really excited that my dear mother will be with us this trip. We haven’t been in England together since 1988, so this will be a wonderful memory-maker.

Stay tuned for blog posts about the trip, as time permits (and when I have WiFi access!). I’ll be taking all the pictures myself this time (a rather daunting prospect!), so I’ll have to get the hang of using this new camera and formatting photos.

We’re going to be in London, Wiltshire, Hereford, Exeter, and Somersetshire this year, seeing historical garments from world-renowned collections and touring beautiful manor houses at the same time. I’m excited to meet curators who specialize in areas that are new to me (lacemaking, anyone?), and Suzi Clarke will be along as before to guide us through all these delights. Hope you’ll tag along here for all the fun!

All the checklists are crossed off, the tickets are purchased, and our group is set to cross the Pond and enjoy our time in beautiful England! I’ll be blogging about the tour each day if all goes well (and the Internet connection is reliable!), so be sure to bookmark the blog to “follow” us through Wiltshire, Hereford, Exeter, Somersetshire, and London. It’s going to be a fantastic journey!

…but if you would like to be placed on the waiting list in case of drop-outs, please let me know! We did have folks who had to drop out last year, which meant there were slots available later. I’ll be happy to keep you on the list if you’re interested. All the details of this year’s tour are at this link. Thanks!

Ever since I can remember, my parents served hot tea–not always a full afternoon tea, but definitely the steaming cupful with milk and sugar. Mom and Dad brought this tradition home with them from England on an early visit when I was little, and it stuck fast. Having grown up with “teatime,” I just naturally kept to it when I was married, and now I love to share it with my own children. Some days it’s just a hot cup during afternoon quiet time without ceremony. But, every now and again, we pull out all the stops and put on full afternoon tea. Today was such a day!

After our recent tour, sweet Amanda and Cari gave me a gift from Fortnum & Mason of loose-leaf tea, strawberry preserves, and tea biscuits. We broke these out today, enjoying the unmistakable fragrance that came when we opened the lid of the tea canister. Oh, this was going to be good! I pulled out our favorite “pink” china (a gift from my folks for my hope chest when I was 15), polished up the “Silver Beethoven” cultery, and laid out the tea tray with all we’d need.

Next, I tied on my favorite apron (a new find from the scrumptious Cath Kidston store in Bath!) and pulled out the ingredients for Suzi’s utterly delicious scones: self-rising flour, butter, sugar, salt, and buttermilk.

Let me tell you, I’ve tasted scones from all over, and Suzi’s are the best I’ve ever eaten. They have a moist texture and a slightly sweet, almost creamy taste. I’ve never had better. But don’t take my word for it! Here is Suzi’s recipe:

My mother worked in a cafe in Stratford on Avon, and was given this recipe by a French lady who ran the place. It was called “The Cobweb Tea Rooms.”

• 10 oz self-raising flour or 1 1/4 cups (You can use all-purpose flour with a raising agent – the best thing is to read the instructions on the packet for this, if you can’t get self raising flour.)

• 1.5 oz sugar (3 tablespoons)

• 1.5 oz. butter or margarine (I think about 3 tablespoons – equal weight to sugar.)

• pinch salt (don’t leave this out – it really helps.)
• about 1/2 cup sour milk or buttermilk, or milk curdled with lemon juice. Plain milk will also do.

Rub the flour, sugar, salt, and butter together until they look like breadcrumbs. Stir in the milk, very gradually, to make a firm, pliable dough. Don’t let it get too sticky. Roll out on a floured board to about 1/2″ thick. Cut in circles – I use a cutter about 2″ – 2.5″ across. Place on an ungreased baking sheet – you should get about 12 from this quantity.

Put in a hot oven, 200 degrees C (that’s about 400 degrees F), less for a fan oven, for about 10 minutes. I know this has to be different at altitude, but I don’t know by how much.

Serve with strawberry jam and thick heavy cream, or clotted cream if you can get it.

Now, I completely forgot to bring home clotted cream from England, so we had to make do today with whipped cream. If you’d like to try clotted cream (which is like a thick, rich, sweet butter), you can get it Stateside from the English Tea Store, which offers lots of exclusively British teas and treats.

Here’s our spread with the scones hot from the oven!

Care to join us?

Suzi's famous scones...

We sliced our scones in half and dolloped whipped cream on top, followed by a generous teaspoon of Fortnum & Mason’s strawberry preserves:

Absolutely delicious! We savored every bite and enjoyed the amazing tea fresh from the pot. My girls adore the ritual of a proper afternoon tea, complete with cloth napkins and beautiful silverware. I am thankful to my parents for always bringing home the best of foreign lands and for taking my siblings and me all over the world when we were growing up. It’s one thing to travel and just be a tourist; it’s another thing to study each culture you move through and come to appreciate and enjoy its own unique traditions and pastimes. Going through England and Germany as a teenager and staying for a goodish stretch in South Africa was a great gift. So was driving all over the United States and Canada and visiting in different homes. Each family has a culture, too, and it is so good to learn what is important to others and what they treasure. I feel my life is infinitely richer for the gift of “studious travel” given to me by my parents. They whetted my appetite for more. My husband and I desire to give our children this same gift as the years go by. On my next trip across the pond, I’ll be taking my daughters. I can hardly wait to share my love of England with them first-hand!

But you don’t have to hop in a plane or board a ship to dip into foreign places and learn from them. There are books galore that will take you on journeys, show you exotic ports, and even let you step into another household and see how life is lived there. Over the years, I’ve picked up books at used book stores, flea markets, and all kinds of yard sales, including lots of “coffee table” eye candy. These books have influenced my decorating style, my color choices, and even my taste in literature and food. Here’s a stack of some of my favorite (well-worn!) books on English living:

I never tire of dipping into these and enjoying a glimpse into someone else’s well-loved home. If there’s anything that describes the English house, it’s certainly “cozy.” Little nooks for reading, warm kitchens, wide hearths, groaning bookshelves–these are England to me. Pots spilling over with flowers in abundance, gardens crammed with color, roses climbing old stone walls–these, too, are England. And how much richer our lives have been from bringing these things home, whether from a trip or from the pages of a book! This last journey over with our lovely tour group was an opportunity to share the things we love with others, and we are so glad we had the opportunity to do it. It’s a pleasure we hope to repeat with our children and with friends many times in the coming years. Perhaps you’ll come along next time and drink it all in? I’d love to have you! Thank you for sharing “my” England with me through this blog and indulging my lifelong delight in all things English. Until next time….

UPDATE (10/22): Congrats to Julia G., who won the last Jane Austen goody packet! Thanks to all of you who played the blog. trivia game!

We had three winners in two days for the Trivia Contest Giveaway. Congrats to Jennifer M., Kathryn Y., and Shannon R.! I still have one more card/key ring set to give away, so feel free to take a crack at the Q&A if you haven’t already!

Warmly,

Jennie

PS – Be sure to check Lindsay’s photographs over on the Deep South Images blog. She’s been posting!

Okay! Now it’s time to sharpen your wits and see how closely you’ve been paying attention! I’ve got four little giveaway packages from the Jane Austen Centre in Bath. Each package contains a commemorative keyring and a keepsake card celebrating the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s move to Chawton Cottage (card is blank inside and includes an envelope):

I have two of the cards on the left and two of the ones on the right, plus four keyrings. First four people to send in correct answers win a card and a keyring!

So, without further ado, here are the questions:

1. What was the first official event of the 2009 London Historical Costume Tour?

2. Which two ladies got to serve as models at Shakespeare’s Globe for “Ophelia’s” costume?

3. Which famous 19th-century church did my family attend the first Sunday?

4.  What was our first stop on Monday the 14th?

5. Which play did we see at Shakespeare’s Globe Monday night?

6. Who got to model Cathy Hay’s fabulous oak leaf gown?

7. What was the name of the special 1950s exhibit at Kensington Palace?

8. Who was our guest speaker at the Fan Museum’s Orangerie on Wednesday?

9. Name the two places we stopped to tour on our way to Bath.

10. What was the name of the group that performed Sunday night in Bath?

11. Name one BBC miniseries that used Lacock Village as a location.

12. Name two of the inns/pubs in Lacock Village.

Okay, that’s it! The first four people to send in correct answers will win! (Please don’t post your answers in the comments — be sure to use the feedback form.) I’ll announce them here on the blog as soon as I have them.

Several of our ladies got into these videos, though you have to know where to look to find them. You’ll enjoy the clips anyway!

BBC News story on World Record for Most People in Regency Dress (Click to view.)

Video on YouTube about the Promenade:

Video of Bath Minuet performing!