A Step into the Past...

The 'unexpected visit to the doctor's' (ending in the forced wearing of bandages,) - 'relocated' (somewhat abruptly,)  a proposed Hostessing of a Victorian Tea right out of my Tea Parlour!  The group of Ladies felt it would not be kind to allow me to have to serve them Tea, (as well as having to Bake for them!) under the 'sad' conditions.... So, alternative arrangements saw us pay a visit to a Victorian House Museum, instead. 

I was not complaining.  It was a visit - which on a previous occasion - I had had to forgo!

A number of years ago -the Quilter's group I belonged to at that time, paid a visit to "Lindfield House" -  But, I was ill that day, so I did not have the pleasure.  I suppose, in retrospect - I could have gone on my own at any given time after that day.. But, it is never the same is it?  Always a fun thing to do, when you can share side comments and enthusiasm and passion about something with others of like-mind, isn't it??

Dressed as near as possible to 'Victorian'  (not difficult, actually since all things Victoriana live in our stores again!!).   I was dressed, indeed - as a very much more Modern Victorian - with pretty finger-less black lace gloves added to 'embellish' the said tragic bandages - 'Tea and a Tour' at Lindfield was an experience I was determined to enjoy.  And, so I did...!

Katherine Love, is the third generation of the family to inhabit the sprawling 22-roomed Herbert Baker designed house.  She lives and breathes Victorian charm, gentility and authenticity into your 'step back into the past'!  Choosing to dress and assume the part of a Parlour-maid, who appears at once both retiring - as well as efficient in manner;  Katherine walks you through time as you meander in and out of the eerily furnished rooms!   One almost expects to hear the voices of those who may just have left the self-same rooms only just seconds before  you are entering them!

I was able to indulge every fibre of my being and Romanticise away,  to my heart's content!  The ambiance of the house, the smallest of details right down to the Victorian Ladies' Newspaper in the main bedroom's verandah alcove - where the Lady of the House would perhaps have received a Lover (if she had one!) to the boiling urn in the kitchen, together with the delightfully light scones the 'Parlourmaid" set before us for tea, to the musty quiet and bookish smell permeating the Library - it all spoke such volumes to my soul.  I simply lost myself (very happily!) to that 'other time'. 

Sheer bliss for my writer's self ... I do declare!  My soul felt f-e-d!

Now... before I do get so carried away 'with the fairies' that there is little hope to retrieve my senses ever again - I am quite aware that not everyone thinks this to be so wonderful.  However,  even those Ladies in our party, who perhaps but for my suggestion, had had no intention of ever visiting Lindfield, had to agree that the experience had been worthwhile. 

I am perfectly as modern in my outlook on Life  as the next person - having grown up in the liberal 60's and 70's ! (It is my 'Nurtured half" which begs this intrusion and   'immersion'  into the past.)  I ache for a return of some things from the past - I do!  Let's be honest here and face facts.  There is a part of modern society that is brashly wanting of even the smallest modicum of all gentility of late - and 'visiting the past' makes it all the more starkly  obvious - and still I hanker for it.

There is nothing sacred in the 21st century - and that is a little sad.  The comparison for me would be like comparing a Lady who wears a pretty garment, and flashes a little bare skin (in just the right quantity) to entice one to look at her more closely - as opposed to someone who is starkly naked and has bared all (including the contents of her empty soul and mind) for all to see.  One can only find it all lacking in taste, somehow!......Give me Victoriana and my spirit soars!