Arrival at Chawton House

To get to Chawton, one takes a train from Waterloo Station in London to Alton (about 1:15 hours). Lickety-split it seems, one is in the countryside. From Alton, a taxi will deliver you to Chawton for under 7 GBP.

Once at the house, I was announced at the gate. "Yes, we've been expecting her", was the response. Phew, I hadn't imagined this wonderful opportunity. The gate swung open, the taxi crunched up the gravel drive, and the very kindly Sarah Parry came out to greet me (out that door at the bottom of the tower that you see up the drive).

 Photo above shows the gravel drive up the main house

(Stable to the left); St. Nicholas Church that Jane Austen attended

(and where her mother and sister are buried) to the right.

 Claire, the housekeeper showed me to and around the Stable Block (now a beautiful house where the Visiting Fellows live).

Stable Block at Chawton House (left): my room is in the attic of the far peak at the back overlooking the garden. The 4 VFs (Visiting Fellows) at the house are from the US, The Netherlands, England and Canada.

After I made a bit of lunch in THE most beautiful kitchen I have ever cooked in (and ate it in the private garden), I met with Sarah for the tour of the main house. Her tip was 'everytime you go through a door, expect to step up or down'...this speaks to the additions made to the house over the centuries. Sarah introduced me to Morwenna, perhaps THE most helpful person on the planet, who showed me how to access the library collection. I've selected my work space looking east out the windows to where the sheep are grazing; While gone to get my computer charger, Morwenna had done a search based on the term 'cookery' and had a print out of over 35 references waiting for me (how great is that?!). She told me that the couple of dozen books I requested will be at myworkspace when I arrive back on Tuesday. One imagines this sort of help...CHL makes it real!

For the textilians in the crowd, you'll appreciate this laundry room. If you are not a textilian, you'll get a sense of how important such a space is to textile artists since this is the only interior shot I have taken so far. I did some flower pounding on cotton this morning in this room with dropped petals I picked up during a turn about the garden last night.                                                                                    

And for a look at what I was doing while in London this past week without Internet connection, here is the William Morris Pub at Merton Abbey Mill (near Colliers Wood). This lovely building was part of the Liberty Print workshops (the collection of buildings extends to the right for about 200 feet along the River Wandle). William's workshop no longer exists....sadly. I found a brass plate near the water's edge overgrown with grasses and strewn with garbage indicating the former location of his workshop. Arrggh, a National Trust Museum begging to be created!!!!

And just before heading out to Merton Abbey, I visited the Museum of London (all National Trust Museums have free entry) to see items in the collection that I had read about for a Textile Art History paper. The book was about the findings from an excavation along the Thames of a dump site dating from 1150 to 1500. The site turned out to contain lots of clothing (mostly wool) that was well preserved in the mud. This sock....(some of you know that I love to knit socks) is dated at 1540. I spent a long time at this display case figuring out how they did it all those years ago... 

And as I sign off to go to bed, all I can say is London is one heck of a noisy place at night!