Out at a Christmas lunch.
After having a huge plate of prawns, cockles, mussels, oysters, blue cod, chips and salad, I had this! A chocolate sundae! I'm sitting in my chair and probably won't move for several hours. I'm not going to feel guilty!
Mums journey carried on from yesterday's posting. In 1929 things were very different.
She was in Stratford and the Memorial Theatre to Shakespeare had burnt down a couple of years before. They were in the process of reconstructing it then and she said the plant included "Shakespeare on top. Falstaff grinning at the side then Prince Hal on the crown, Richard II as a skull , thinking over the Fate of Kings and Lady MacBeth."
I think it has recently been modernised and is quite different.
She left Stratford, "We had just a perfect drive today in glorious weather. After a good breakfast of the usual bacon and something, we fuelled the bus and set out for a lazy jaunt Eveshavenwards.[sic]..Warwickshire or leafy Warwickshire as it is called, is indeed very beautiful at this time of year, at any rate. Everywhere trees, elms with green all up the trunks, oaks, birches etc."
Talking about Evesham and the Abbey, "We climbed the tower to get the view of the Cotswolds and of Evesham but scrambled down as fast as the steep stairs would allow to avoid getting the din of the carellon at 12! That day, this played (automatically)“Barbara Allen”[
http://youtu.be/087p-Wpkyog]. We walked around the park and along the river’s edge where people boat then saw the foundations, or some of them, of the old Abbey and a beautiful arch.
I hadn't heard 'Barbara Allen' but looked for it and there it was so I put the connection in here.
Then she discovered Broadway: "Continuing our drive, we passed through various picturesque villages until Broadway which capped the lot! (Worcester, by the way). One winding street with the village green to the right as we entered and along both sides the quaintest yellow cottages imaginable. All are of Cotswold stone and most are very old. Some have slate roofs or stone or thatch, some gabled, some not. Some lawn in front and others right on the street. There’s Mary Anderson’s home, the Lygon Arms where Charles Ist is said to have stayed. It’s been an Inn since the 15th Century. Lots of others just as interesting. I read that F D Willit, an American artist has or had rooms here and Sargents picture< Coronation Lily Lily was painted here. I wished I could draw or paint – all we could do was buy a postcard and fill in the rest in our minds. "
I still don't know who Mary Anderson is!
She drove through Mickleton and back to Stratford where there was a market on and bought: We went home with damned socks – very necessary but highly ridiculous in such a famous spot as Stratford!
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Lovely words continue. I haven doubt you will figure out all about Mary Anderson. If I remember correctly (and I usually don't) I think you paint, don't you? Did your mom encourage you in that endeavor?
Love the description of Broadway - I drive through quite regularly - sounds like it hasn't changed that much except in the main part of the village the cottages are now shops rather than residences.