Somerset

We are back in London for all of one day before we fly off for a week in Corfu. I hope we will have wi-fi there.

In Somerset, we visited two manor houses, both used in the filming of Wolf Hall, Cothay Manor and Barrington Court. Both were located miles down single-lane roads with tall hedges to either side. If you have driven in southwest England, you know what I mean. Occasionally a slightly wider place in the road allows cars to edge past at 0.5 mph and 5 cm clearance. I was grateful our friend John Hare was driving.

Cothay Manor was hard to find, but well worth it. Most of the fabric has been little changed since the 16^th century. The walls in many rooms had wall paintings. Ariel gave us a thorough 90-minute tour. Photography was not allowed inside, so I include a photo of the entrance with its lavender bushes.

Barrington Court had cool chimneys, but no interior furniture. It did have eight or nine costumes from Wolf Hall. Here’s Holley, looking over a costume for Anne Boleyn.

Apart from all this architectural research, we shared lots of laughs with Paula Gosling and John Hare, slept in a four-poster bed, and we stopped at the Discworld Emporium in Wincanton to pay our respects to Terry Pratchett and buy gifts.

Exploring Midland Elizabethan Houses

            We spent the week visiting buildings built or rebuilt in the Elizabethan era, from the grandeur of Hardwick Hall to Anne Hathaway’s cottage. Both of those are fairly well known and frequently visited. Indeed, I had visited both several decades ago.

New to my eyes was Kirby Hall in Lincolnshire, built by a gentleman named Henry Stafford, then purchased by Sir Christopher Hatton, one of Queen E’s favorite courtiers. Its story, like that of Wollaton Hall in Nottingham, and Hardwick Hall, was that the owner built or expanded the house not only to impress everyone, but in hopes that Queen Elizabeth would stay with them during one of her summer progresses. In all three cases, she did not visit, and the expense of building left the owners in debt. It is partially in ruins, but the bay windows and the garden are its knockout features.

The jewel to my mind was Little Moreton Hall, in Cheshire. Built and extended at various times during the 16^th century, it had the good fortune not to remain in the same family throughout the following centuries.  Why? Because the noble families who owned Burghley House and Hardwick Hall looked around in 1680 or so and said to themselves, “This room is soooo last century. Let’s tear out all this linen fold paneling and hire an Italian artist to paint the walls and ceiling with allegorical scenes of us cavorting with the Roman gods.” And the same thing happened in the 18^th century. Then indoor plumbing, gas lights, and electricity was installed. Or the family tore down the entire building and erected a Palladian-inspired house. Or they went broke and the building fell to ruins.

On the contrary, Little Moreton Hall was abandoned by the Moretons, but rented out to a tenant farmer, who lived in parts of it, while storing equipment, hay, and such in the rest.  The result is a fairly intact 16^th century gentry manor house.

For my purposes, Edward Hunter was much more likely to have grown up in a house like this, and visited similar, than to be invited to the prodigy houses like Wollaton and Hardwick. In Little Morton I also found a doublet I thought suited me well.

We are spending the weekend in Somerton with mystery writer Paula Gosling and her husband John.

Kentwood Hall and Cambridge

Saturday Holley and I set off in a tiny Peugeot (about 10 ft. long) to visit as many Elizabethan sites as we can in ten days.
Our first stop was Kentwell Hall, built around 1540, near Long Melford.  This was a particularly appropriate place to start, as about 50 re-enactors had gathered there to stage a Michaelmas celebration.  I have found re-enactors to be keen researchers, very knowledgeable about whatever role they assume. I took the opportunity to speak to the guards at the gate about swords, daggers, muskets, and calivers. They also described their own clothing and the fashions of landsknechts. The guards were of the opinion that shaking hands had not arrived as a custom in England by 1588. Am I to believe them or a historical fiction author? Neither could quote me a published source. Can anyone reading this?

Holley discussed fashion, child raising, and inheritance with the lady of the manor. We saw the lord and lady served dinner, eating with their serviettes over left shoulders, at the same table as their servants and pages. 

We discussed cheesemaking with dairymaids, bread making with the baker, and the cost of spices with the cook. Kentwell Hall recreates Tudor life full time in late June and July most years and offers visitors an excellent opportunity to become lost in the past.

Sunday we moved on to Cambridge, where we visited Saint John's College where Edward Hunter, my protagonist studied for a few years in the 1560s before abandoning a career in the church (much to his mother's disappointment). Its Great Gate and the east and west ranges of the First Court remain much as he would have seen them. He would have also been impressed with the fan vaulting in the ceiling of Kings College Chapel. Leaping ahead 500 years, we drank some pints at the RAF bar in the Eagle, filled with its own history of British and American pilots who singed their squadron numbers onto its ceiling.

Monday, typically English weather returned as we visited Peterborough Cathedral. I had forgotten Katherine of Aragon was buried there, and its apse has the fan vaulting as well. On to Burghley House, its exterior much as Lord Burghley designed it in the 16th century, but the interior all "modernized" in the 1680's,  then again in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

Autumn 2015 update

Won't waste time with apologies for not blogging, but will dive in. Rebellion is finished and reedited and with an agent. The beginning of Massacre  just won a prize in the action/thriller category at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' conference. I am in the planning stage with Serenissima, a novel in which Edward Hunter goes to Venice to discover a conspiracy against Philip Sidney.
I am in London, about to start a ten-day research trip visiting Elizabethan great (and not so great) houses. Also intend to research craft beers and ales. Have seen three plays in the past week: Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, Mr. Foote's Other Leg, and Beaux' Stratagem-all outstanding. London feels so comfortable--old haunts and old friends.
Writing thoughts: I have begun reading both S. J. Parris' series of 16th century thrillers featuring Giordano Bruno and Edward Charles' Richard Stocker novels Daughters of the Doge and Courtesan of Padua. All good reads, and full of historical detail, the sort I put in and then pull out to try to get my word count down.  This makes me question the wisdom circulating at the last Historical Novel Society conference: "Novels must be under 100, 000 words. Resist the temptation to give too much historical information." I am glad Parris and Charles did not limit themselves in this way.

Welcome.

Welcome one and all to the uneasy juxtaposition of 21st century technology with 16th century characters and settings. My fascination with Elizabethan England began with reading and watching Shakespeare's plays, and developed during 23 years in London. Sir Francis Walsingham's network of spies throughout Europe cried out for their stories to be told, so I set about imagining what one of them might have experienced, thought, and felt.
On this blog you may learn more about me and my stories, and join me as I become lost in the past.