Summer Sun

Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.

Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.

The dusty attic spider-clad
He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
And through the broken edge of tiles
Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.

Meantime his golden face around
He bares to all the garden ground,
And sheds a warm and glittering look
Among the ivy's inmost nook.

Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true,
To please the child, to paint the rose,
The gardener of the World, he goes.

- Robert Louis Stevenson, Summer Sun

 

 

I found a new poem today, one by Robert Louis Stevenson that I have not read. I have a beloved, splintered volume of A Child's Garden of Verses which was given to me 50 Christmases ago from my Grandmother. Between that book and my Mother's influence, I grew to love poetry. For a very long time I did not realize that there were more poems than contained in my one volume. And, I keep finding them!

Stevenson was born practically an invalid in Edinburgh, Scotland in on November 13, 1850. When his Child's Garden of Verses was published in 1885 he dedicated it to his childhood nanny, Alison Cunningham. The poetic verses were supposedly written while Stevenson was suffering from a spell of illness when living for a brief time in Florence, Italy. 

Stevenson's poems were published in a variety of collected works between 1885 and into the years following his death in 1894.

Swallows Travel To and Fro 

Swallows travel to and fro,
And the great winds come and go,
And the steady breezes blow,
Bearing perfume, bearing love.
Breezes hasten, swallows fly,
Towered clouds forever ply,
And at noonday, you and I
See the same sunshine above.

Dew and rain fall everywhere,
Harvests ripen, flowers are fair,
And the whole round earth is bare
To the moonshine and the sun;
And the live air, fanned with wings,
Bright with breeze and sunshine, brings
Into contact distant things,
And makes all the countries one.

Let us wander where we will,
Something kindred greets us still;
Something seen on vale or hill
Falls familiar on the heart;
So, at scent or sound or sight,
Severed souls by day and night
Tremble with the same delight -
Tremble, half the world apart

The Vagabond


From Songs 

of Travel (1896)





Give to me the life I love,
Let the lave go by me,
Give the jolly heaven above
And the byway nigh me.
Bed in the bush with stars to see,
Bread I dip in the river -
There's the life for a man like me,
There's the life for ever.

Let the blow fall soon or late,
Let what will be o'er me;
Give the face of earth around
And the road before me.
Wealth I seek not, hope nor love,
Nor a friend to know me;
All I seek, the heaven above
And the road below me.

Or let autumn fall on me
Where afield I linger,
Silencing the bird on tree,
Biting the blue finger.
White as meal the frosty field -
Warm the fireside haven -
Not to autumn will I yield,
Not to winter even!

Let the blow fall soon or late,
Let what will be o'er me;
Give the face of earth around,
And the road before me.
Wealth I ask not, hope nor love,
Nor a friend to know me;
All I ask, the heaven above

And the road below me. 


A Visit From the Sea



From Underwoods (1887)




Far from the loud sea beaches
  Where he goes fishing and crying
Here in the inland garden
  Why is the sea-gull flying?

Here are no fish to dive for;
  Here is the corn and lea;
Here are the green trees rustling.
  Hie away home to sea!

Fresh is the river water
  And quiet among the rushes;
This is no home for the sea-gull,
  But for the rooks and thrushes.

Pity the bird that has wandered!
  Pity the sailor ashore!
Hurry him home to the ocean,
  Let him come here no more!

High on the sea-cliff ledges
  The white gulls are trooping and crying,
Here among the rooks and roses,
  Why is the sea-gull flying?

Underwoods was dedicated to the numerous doctors that tended to Stevenson during his life life of frequent illness.

Requiem (from Underwoods, 1887)

Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I 
live and gladly die,
    And I laid me down with a will.

This be the 
verse you grave for me:Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

Stevenson and his American wife Fanny traveled to all of the European and exotic places that became the settings for his popular fiction. He died while in Somoa, in the South Pacific, and as requested, his tomb stone was engraved with his poem Requiem.

Find these and additional poems by Robert Louis Stevenson at 

www.poetryloverspage.com.

Margaret meets Margaret

It was a gray and threatening day up in the attic, but I went up with a mug of tea and a mission. Who was Margaret Elizabeth Sangster?
On the previous evening I was searching for springtime quotes to write in cards I had made to celebrate May Day. A floral card was as close to a May basket as I could fashion for far away family and friends.
I came across this:
'Never yet in springtime have the buds forgotten to bloom.'
Now, I will not suggest that I chose it based on the word 'forgotten' because a lot of us are ageing, albeit with style. It rang true as I thought about all of the blustery weather we have endured this past winter and perhaps secretly thought that spring would never arrive.
The quote was attributed to Margaret Elizabeth Sangster, an American writer born in 1838 in Brooklyn, New York and died in 1912 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. She wrote novels, short stories, poetry and hymns. She was the editor for Harper's Bazaar for a time as well as contributing to many varied women's and Christian periodicals: Ladies Home Journal, Hearth and Home , Christian Intelligencer, Harper's For Young People.
There are a few online sites that offer her biography and many of her works are available as free online books, one or two even available on Kindle.
So I spent the afternoon reading her Victorian musings on everything from God and Nature to Mothers and Brides. Most was expectantly sappy and I was constantly referred to as Dear Reader. Interestingly, however, I find that so much of the sappy-ness was not only expected to be sound advice, but still is sound advice.
I discovered the poem from which my May Day quote was taken, "Awakening."
Online sites I scoured were poemhunter.com and hathitrust.org and cyberhymnal.org. On the hymnal site are the words she wrote for the hymn 'The Ships Glide in At The Harbor's Mouth' and they are printed for you to sing along with as an organ meters out the melody.
As I was assuming that my quote was from a poem I began reading over the available poem titles. Some intrigued me, like "A Haunted House." It does not sound like a topic for a sappy Victorian poem, let alone an inspirational Christian poem. Perhaps she did not have an editor, or she was the editor. But, I enjoyed the poem at its conclusion.

A Haunted House

It stands neglected, silent, far from the ways of men,
A lonely little cottage beside a lonely glen;
And, dreaming there, I saw it when sunset's golden
rays
Had touched it with the glory of other, sweeter days.

They say the house is haunted, and - well, it is, I
guess,
For every empty window just aches with loneliness;
With loneliness that tortures and memory that flays;
Ah, yes, the house is haunted with ghosts of other
days.

The ghost of childish laughter rings on the narrow
stair,
And, from a silent corner, the murmur of a prayer
Steals out, and then a love song, and then a bugle
call,
And steps that do not falter along the quiet hall.

The story of the old house that stands beside the
glen?
That story is forgotten by every one; but when
The house is touched and softened by sunset's golden
rays,
I know that ghosts must haunt it, the ghosts of
sweeter days.

Yes? Some of her works were quite idyllic featuring the countryside and pastures. Others painted grimy scenes of city sidewalks, but brightened by window boxes of "Scarlet Flowers."

Most anything mentioning the sea attracts my attention:

 

 

The Old Sailor

I've crossed the bar at last, mates,
My longest voyage is done;
And I can sit here, peaceful,
And watch th' setting sun
A-smilin' kind of glad like
Upon the waves so free.
My longest voyage is done, mates,
But oh, the heart of me,
Is out where sea meets skyline!
My longest voyage is done. . . .
But - can I sit, in peace, mates,
And watch the settin' sun?

For what's a peaceful life, mates,
When every breeze so free,
When every gale a-blowin',
Brings messages to me?
And is the sky so shinin',
For all it's golden sun,
To one who loves the sea, mates,
And knows his voyage is done?
And, can a year on land, mates,
Match with one day - at sea?
Ah, every wind a-singin'
Brings memory to me!

I've crossed the bar at last, mates,
My longest voyage is past,
And I must watch the sunset,
Must see it fade, at last.
My steps are not so light, mates,
As they were, years ago;
And sometimes, when I'm tired,
My head droops kind of low -
Yet, though I'm old and - weary,
The waves that dance so free,
Keep callin' to my soul, mates,
And thrill the heart of me!

 

And now Gentle Reader, advice from her practical manual, revised and republished in 1921 after her death, Good Manners for all Occasions: including etiquette of cards, wedding announcements and invitations : December Courts May.

An excerpt:

What is there in common between persons whose age is very far removed from equality? A tiny handful of years makes not much difference. A wife looks up to and adores a husband a few years her senior.

Ten, fifteen, eighteen, or twenty years of priority on the husband's side are no bar to a perfect marriage.

Bur thirty years or forty years are, of course, inadmissible, and when December with money bags weighing him down, courts May, with roses and lilies and never a cent, or she would not look at the old fossil, the proprieties are hopelessly violated.

... To be happy in marriage people must have many common interests, must be congenial through and through. Therefore, ye who are wise, eschew as you would the adversary himself with his panoply of hoofs and horns, that abominable contract know as THE MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE.

Well, I believe I have a great new wealth of information and resources for the fall Friday morning series 'Everything I know I learned over a cup of tea" ...

It was, a delightful afternoon.

 

 

Caskets in The Shop at the Hunter House Victorian Museum

The latest wholesale issue of Victorian Trading Company arrived at the museum last week and all of the volunteers gathered around to see what new items were being offered. The volunteers are some of The Shop's best customers, thanks in part to the discount the museum affords them.




As advertised on the front of their catalog, Victorian Trading Company prides itself in its selection of antique replica gifts, home decoratives and domestics, greetings/stationery, jewelry and accessories. In their jewelry selection this season is a  Victorian Jewelry Casket described as: Intricately detailed, the glass-lidded chamber will harbor your precious baubles while complementing perfume atomizers and other vanity-top lovelies. 6x2."
It does indeed resemble a sarcophagus with a glass lid. The oblong body, no pun intended, is an aged silver color with engraved details and a clasp. The feet appear to be a representation of a fleur-de-lis motif. Some definitions suggest that word casket is a corruption of the French cassette, small box; perhaps that explains the fleur-de-lis emblem that is associated with French royalty. The lily flower is also associated with purity and resurrection. And of course, the feet may not even be a fleur-de-lis at all; the picture in the catalog is rather small!



A casket for jewelry, you might muse. Today's society associates caskets with cemeteries. In earlier years and cultures caskets were containers, repositories for valuables, such as jewels and documents. During the romantic wave that swept over the Victorian Era, death became softened even romanticized. Graveyards, with their puritanical associations, grew into park like cemeteries. The word cemetery comes from a Greek word meaning sleeping space. In this peaceful resting place coffins transformed into caskets, a place to keep the earthly remains of loved ones.


After the discussion about caskets and coffins, graveyards and cemeteries and heaven and .... well, the question remained: do we purchase the jewelry casket for The Shop? And the answer: we haven't decided.
On a related note, the Victorian Era park like cemeteries we have in Norfolk and throughout the Commonwealth are quite lovely spaces and especially at this time of the year. It is not unusual at all to take a drive or a stroll in cemeteries. The art is magnificent. The nature is restorative. Get out of the car or off the bike and wander about to read the stones. Do please obey cemetery rules and regulations. If the cemetery has an office or even a gift shop, stop in for a tour map. If there is a donation box, consider leaving a contribution to help with future conservation and preservation efforts. Enjoy!

Yellow Blooms in the Garden

One of the most pleasant moments of the day is opening the black iron gate into the museum's garden and entering under the trellis of a Lady Banks rose.
The spring garden is sparse, but the new green of leafing trees and rose bushes and grass is complemented by the joy of the yellow marsh marigold, daffodils and forsythia.
I am neither a horticulturist nor a gardener, but I love flowers and trees and have learned many of their names and attributes even if I did not inherit my mother's green thumb to actually cultivate them. My mother always had a yard in bloom and in later years had two yards in bloom, hers and the museum's.
A great deal of what is currently in the museum's garden came either from her garden or was planted by her. The forsythia is a hardy shrub, thankfully, as the one in the garden was traumatized when someone ran into the brick wall from the parking lot a couple of years back. The landscaper rescued it and put it back in place with the hope that it would survive. And survive it has.
The yellow forsythia blooms before it leafs out. The plant was named for the British botanist William Forsyth (1737 - 1804), a founding member of the Royal Horticulture Society in 1804. He has been credited as the royal gardener for the gardens at Kensington Palace and St. James's Palace.
Britain's Queen Anne, who reigned between 1702 and 1714, worked to have the Kensington Palace Gardens established as a public flower garden. Her flower of choice, so it has been noted, was the jonquil.
Jonquil, daffodil, narcissus ... I know, there are 27,000 different daffodils in 13 classes according to The Daffodil Society (UK). I grew up calling these playful flowers jonquils. I read a somewhat amusing note on a gardener's site/page that claimed that the daffodil is only referred to as jonquil in 'the south.' Well, then.
I do not want to get too scientific about this - my apologies to anyone offended - because I just want to enjoy the beauty of the blooms and the spaces they populate. It is always the best of winter surprises when a few pop up and burst into color. Chances are they will be under snow the next week.
Again, my mother always referred to the bulb as the jonquil or narcissus. I knew the name Narcissus from Greek mythology. (Narcissus was a beautiful god who would sit by still pools of water and admire his reflection. Once he went down to embrace his reflection, thinking it was the most handsome of gods, and fell in - drowned - tragic. Thus, people who become enamoured with themselves are often described as narcissistic.)
I do not believe I even heard the term daffodil until I was introduced to William Wordsworth's poem 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.'
 

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

 

Just a few years ago I walked through parts of the Lake Country in England where William and his sister Dorothy lived. It was late spring, but there were some end of the season blooms weathering it out. I felt as though I had arrived at the end of a pilgrimage of sorts.

The daffodil has been named as the birth flower for the month of March. (Who gets to name birthstones and state reptiles and such?) In various sources noting the language of flowers, the daffodil means respect, regard, the flower of death, and the most poetic, ' you are an angel.'

I picked up a beautiful old post card at an antique store several years ago (probably longer than that now as the price penciled on the back is $2.00); it depicts a bouquet of daffodils with the sentiment:

Daffodils (Regard) 

That come before

The swallow dares,

And take

The winds of March

With beauty.

 

Now, to the most exciting information I read just today: The Daffodil Society (UK) Established in 1898 as the specialist society of Great Britain for all who are interested in the Genus Narcissus, is holding its Annual Show in Coughton Court, Warwickshire - just outside of Stratford upon Avon - on April 19 and 20th. The official website for the society refers to the event as 'Yellow Fever;' which is a little ominous for folks in Tidewater, but ...

AND volunteers are needed to help with the weekend's events.

AND, according to the website's information: No Daffodil Society show is complete without the traditional fish and chip/ chicken and chip supper on  Friday night.  We are delighted that the NT is prepared to provide this for us at 7pm on Friday 18 April. Numbers are critical so ensure that you book with the Society Secretary well in advance and no later than Thursday 17 April 2014. Prices are being finalised and will be on the website shortly.

 

www.thedaffodilsociety.com/wordpress.  Check it out. I think we've still got time, and we've still  time to reserve a fish and chip dinner!

The Pleasure of Your Company ...

Our website, our blog, our everything is undergoing change, hard for traditionalists like me. Call it spring cleaning, if you will.
The museum re-opens for the new season (number 26)  this Wednesday, April 2. Often on April Fools Day we offer free admission; this season we are offering an Open House on Saturday April 5 and Sunday April 6. There is no admission fee. We want you to be our guest and enjoy the beauty and splendor of the Hunter's Home. Please visit with us on Saturday between 10 AM and 3:30 PM or Sunday between 12:30 PM and 3:30 PM.
The Shop at the Hunter House Victorian Museum has been replenished with lovely spring inspired items in the season's soft pastels. There are only a few Easter items, but they are as sweet as can be; think foil covered chocolate bunnies and chicks, only these are not chocolate. They would be delightful at place settings on your spring dining or tea table, or sitting in your windowsill, or in a floral arrangement, or peeping out of an Easter basket. Use your imagination!
Spring is for the birds, and not just Robin Red Breast and Jenny Wren. You'll find bird cages adapted for pillar candles (or whatever else you fancy), matching plates and mugs with depictions of familiar backyard birds, hummingbird ornaments that have far more uses than simply hanging on a Christmas tree (although, feel free to buy ahead for the holidays), tea towels and hand towels.
Introduce spring into the dining room with cheerful yellow or blissful blue table runners adorned with white embroidered butterflies.
Fairies ~ they are everywhere you look! Sweet, whimsical, imaginative.
Of course, there are new items for the tea table, along with our signature Miss Eloise's Afternoon Tea blend and Hunter House's Cottage Rose Whipping Cream Scone mix.
The Shop at the Hunter House Victorian Museum is open for shopping anytime that the museum is open for touring, Monday through Saturday from 10 AM until 3:30 PM and on Sundays from 12:30 PM until 3:30 PM. Simply ring the front door bell and ask to be shown to The Shop.
If you are not on our mailing list but would like to receive fliers with the museum's special events, please send us an email or call us: 757-623-9814. You can also check the website, since you are already here; but do check back often as there are special events all through the year.
I have been working on a creative writing project that only allows the use of lists in answers to the prompts. One prompt last week was: Where do you take your out-of-town guests? You know my answer!
Another prompt this weekend was: List Your Favorite Home Town Businesses. Hmmm ... The Hunter House Victorian Museum certainly is home town, established by Norfolk's Eloise Dexter Hunter. It stands practically at the entrance of the Historic Freemason District, where you can stroll and admire dozens of other 'historic' homes. And the museum's gift shop is also home town.
Do join us soon as we celebrate the Victorian Era in our 26th season.

       George Eliot may sound like a male name; however, it’s actually the pen name of a female Victorian author. Mary Anne Evans (a.k.a. George Eliot) was one of the leading authors of the Victorian Era. Even though women authors had started publishing works under their own names, Mary Anne Evans persisted in using a male pseudonym. Her reasons behind doing this are unknown, but there are theories as to the use of a pen name. The first is that she believed the works of female authors were never taken seriously as most women wrote frivolous romances. The second is her want of privacy due to her somewhat unusual life. George Eliot lived for over 20 years with a married man and conducted herself as his wife. Later, after her life partner had died, she married another man who was nearly 20 years her junior. Some people say that she believed her private life would affect the sales of her novels.

       Throughout her career, George Eliot translated several works, wrote poetry, and published seven novels. Her first novel, “Adam Bede”, became a favorite of both Princess Louise and Queen Victoria. In fact, the Queen was so impressed by the beautiful scenes in the novel, that she commissioned an artist to paint a serious of scenes from the book. Queen Victoria became an avid reader of George Eliot’s works and eventually George Eliot was introduced to the Queen in 1877.

       Eliot’s novel “Adam Bede” became one of the most widely read novels of the Victorian Era. She was praised by critics for using a rural setting and writing with a political view. In “Adam Bede” she tells the story of a love triangle played out against the background of infanticide. The trial in the book was met with rave reviews for its realism. All of her subsequent novels became hits as well.

       Today, George Eliot novels are read in high school and college courses throughout multiple nations. Each of her novels has been developed for film or television.

The Victorian King Arthur

Have you ever heard someone say “Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all”? This is a quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson. Tennyson served as Queen Victoria’s Poet Laureate from 1850 until his death in 1892 (the longest tenure of any poet laureate). In fact, he was the first person ever to be elevated to the British peerage for accomplishments in writing. Some of his most popular works include “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, “The Lady of Shalott”, and “Mariana”. The work that has had the most impact on any Post-Victorian Era is “The Idylls of the King”, which chronicles the events of the infamous King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Published between 1856 and 1885, these poems replaced all previous versions of the story in popularity and became one of the quintessential works on the subject.

Tennyson’s work is the first to develop all the characters related to the story. He sought to create King Arthur as a gentleman that any Victorian man could strive to live up to. He included the Victorians’ renewed interest in courtly love or the idea of “pure” love, as well as his belief that it was difficult or near impossible to achieve. This he symbolized through the love of Arthur for Guinevere. Idylls shows the unconditional love that Arthur has for Guinevere. She is ultimately unable to return this type of love and flees to a convent after having an affair with Lancelot; though Arthur forgave her. Tennyson also goes on to develop poems dedicated to every knight that sits at the round table and how they came to be there. The amount of work Tennyson put into Idylls created an epic that authors of every age since have looked to as the source for their own version of these tales.

In the past 20 years alone, there have been multiple works of fiction along with movies and television shows that have used Tennyson as their starting point for King Arthur. Readers may enjoy Nancy McKenzie, Marion Zimmer Bradley Rosalind Miles or Stephen Lawhead. If you prefer films, there is First Knight; The Mists of Avalon; or Excalibur. Even Disney has done a few Arthurian movies. They have done The Sword in the Stone; A Kid in King Arthur’s Court; and Avalon High. Channel Stations have now started developing their own series. Starz has Camelot and BBC has Merlin.

On a side note: Archaeologists believe the man on whom the legends of King Arthur are based was a Briton/Roman general who lived in the 4th or 5th century.  The general Artorius helped the Britons drive out the Saxons and served as a counselor to the kings, but never became king. 

Lanuage of flowers

If anyone has seen our flyer for the upcoming events at the Hunter House, then you will know that we have decided to focus on flowers throughout the summer. Nowadays, we send flowers for birthdays, Valentine’s Day, or perhaps to smooth things over after a fight. The Victorians, on the other hand, used flowers to convey so many emotions that they created a language for flowers assigning a meaning to every flower. Simply by giving someone a well thought out bouquet you could tell someone you loved them, you sympathized with them, you hated them, you just wanted to be friend, you thought they were lying, and so on; even something as simple as telling someone you agreed with them.
Prior to the Victorian Era, flowers still had meanings. They were used as symbols of a religion or deity, usually Christian, Greek, or Roman. There is also a story behind the origin and meaning of each flower. Being a person who enjoys all kinds of stories and tales, I could pick a few flowers and let you know the stories behind each. However, in the interest of space and the fact that I’m supposed to be focusing on the Victorian meaning of flowers, I’ll just have to let that go. Since we will shortly be coming up on June, which is also referred to as “wedding month”, I thought I’d focus on the meaning of the flowers inside an average Victorian wedding bouquet.
A typical wedding bouquet usually consisted of one large rose in the middle, surrounded by other flowers. There could be other roses in the bouquet as well, but there was usually a larger on in the middle of the bouquet. A rose symbolizes love. The color of the rose indicates the type of love a person would wish to convey. Red roses are for romantic love. The story behind how roses turned red is Greek in origin. It’s a great story regarding Aphrodite (goddess of love) and Persephone (goddess of the underworld) competing for the love of Adonis (a mortal). In a nutshell, the story says that Aphrodite blocked Adonis from going to the underworld to see Persephone. So Persephone had Adonis fatally wounded so that he would be forever locked in the underworld with her. Aphrodite rushed to his aid while Adonis was dying and scratched herself on a white rose bush, turning them red. White roses symbolize purity in love or spiritual love (white roses were associated with the Virgin Mary). Yellow roses symbolize a decrease in love and often refer to infidelity. Yellow roses were not used in Victorian wedding bouquets.
Next to the large rose, the most common flowers in a bouquet were baby’s breath, pansies, ivy, dahlias (not black), peonies, and primroses. Baby’s breath is a symbol of festivity and happiness. Pansies are meant to convey happy thoughts. Ivy is for fidelity. Dahlias are used to express commitment. Peonies mean that one has hope for a happy marriage. Primroses are said to also be a sign of love and also youthfulness.
The primrose was one of the most fashionable flowers in the Victorian Era. Queen Victoria had them grown in her private gardens. She would often send bouquets of primroses to Prime Minister Disraeli. Upon Disraeli’s death, she sent a wreath of primroses as a token of affection. The other most popular flower in Victorian times was the violet. The meaning of violets is modesty, but the Victorians liked the scent so much that violets were the most common flower to find at the street markets.
After reading all about flowers here, we hope you will come see the decorations we have planned in the museum during our flower related events. If you’re like me and love the stories behind the meanings of flowers, you might enjoy this book: The Language of Flowers by Sheila Pickles.

Here's Something Victorian I Bet You Didn't Know...

Did you know that the Coca-Cola beverage was invented in the Victorian Era? I surely didn't, until the director of the museum asked me to research it. The original formula for Coca-Cola was created as a medicine to cure morphine addiction. The inventor of the original formula, John Pemberton, was a chemist who also served in the Confederate army. In April 1865, he was injured in the Battle of Columbus. Like most injuried soldiers of the Civil War, he was given daily doses of morphine for the pain (the addictive properties of morphine were not discovered in the 1860s). Also like most injured Civil War veterans, Pemberton became addicted to morphine. He started trying to use his chemistry skills to create a medicine that would cure morphine addiction. The original formula was actually a coca wine made from the coca plant and mixed with French Wine. However, when prohibition began in Atlanta in 1886, he was forced to change the formula so that it was non-alcoholic. That is when Coca-Cola was born. The name was settled on because it tells everyone the two main ingredients, coca and kola. Coca is a plant from which cocaine is extracted and kola is a nut from which we get caffeine.
The first advertisements for Coca-Cola sold the beverage as a patent medicine for 5 cents that was said to cure morphine addiction, headaches, and impotence. By 1888, John Pemberton had 3 different Coca-Cola mixtures on sale in drugstores across Atlanta. He sold the formula to 5 separate businessmen. However, the one who turned it into a worldwide phenomenon was Asa Candler who would later become mayor of Atlanta. Candler eventually bought the 4 other competing companies to become the sole owner of Coca-Cola.
The formula of Coca-Cola has changed several times over the years. They have created Cherry Coke, Lime Coke, Lemon Coke etc. Several different countries have even developed their own local tastes, but the 2 main ingredients have always been coca and kola nut. Once the addictive properties of cocaine were discovered, the fomula was changed to use the leaves of the coca plant after the cocaine had already been extracted, leaving only the flavor of the leaf behind in the beverage.
Now that the world has become very different from Victorian Era culture, Coke has become even more popular. In 2011, John Pemberton started his own Twitter feed. He now has 55,0o0 followers. The Coca-Cola Facebook page has thousands, if not millions, of fans. Coke sponsors athletes, movie theaters, and all other kinds of entertainment. It is no longer just a beverage, it has become a permanent part of people's lives and our culture.

Memorial Day

I love old cemeteries with shady magnolia trees and iron fences. Days like today - breezy and only about 80 degrees - are the best days to get out and wander down the aisles and paths. The dogwoods have long bloomed out, but their graceful limbs wave in the breeze, fanning those in need of respite from the heat. Robins perch atop gravestones, ornaments in themselves. Brown thrashers, camoflauged against the dark tree trunks, pick through the underbrush. A patch of Queen Anne's lace and the remnant of an old rose pop up here and about.
The older cemeteries truly are parks, and they are welcoming. Their aged beauty embraces, asks you to stay a while ~ much as you would stop before a piece of sculpture or an eye-catching painting in a museum. Art and poetry, sculpture and stained glass, even music I have heard in cemeteries. There are several locals that take to the quiet park settings to read and sketch and to play their music. I have walked and could see no one, but could hear the strains of a flute.
As a youngster, Saturdays usually included a stop at the cemeteries to tidy up the lots, replace greens and flowers and scrub the stones. It was also a time for me to let my imagination go - I would visit lots other than my family's (they were not very interesting). I walked up the stone steps and through the fence as though expected. I sat upon stones to chat with the small angels, leaving them with a handful of buttercups. I would look for my name (first name) on stones, and read other names, deciding if I would rather be named Edith or Emily or Virginia. I like Margaret the best, thank you Mama and Daddy.
On a recent visit to our newest cemetery (1902), I noticed how it had grown up, how it, too, was beginning to acquire that aged beauty. Oddly, that provided a sense of peace for me.
My family has been a powerhouse of women, women who remember, women who hand down the stories, women who protect the family history, women who retain the duty and honor of visiting the cemeteries. Memorial Day is not osberved only on May 30.

Springtime Fun

With the arrival of springtime, the museum has been in full swing preparing the house to receive visitors. The whole area is out and about going to the beach, taking bike rides, or going on picnics in the park. Now that we are all in the midst of our springtime events, I thought I would take this opportunity to let you all in on some Victorian picnic ideas. Typical Victorian picnics were not just a blanket and a picnic basket. Oh no, if you had servants picnics were a grand scale event. Imagine you lived in the country and had numerous servants at your disposal. You didn't have to carry the food, set up the tents or blantkets, or even walk to the appointed destination.

First, being a good socialite, you would work out the details of the event with your cook to decide what you and your guests would eat. Next, you and your friends would organize where you would have your picnic and organize your servants to have the tents and blankets set up and the food laid out in proper style. Then, you would have your coachman drive you and your friends to the destination. After all, walking in the hot sun would definitely not be fashionable. Once you reach your destination and eat the food that has already been set up for you, all you have to do is lay about in the spring air.


If you had a larger party involved, there are many games and acitivities you could do after eating. One of the most popular Victorian picnic games is Blind Man's Bluff. A game which is played by blindfolding one person, spinning them around, and then letting them try to catch one of the other participants. The trick is that the other players have to stay within a certain radius to the "blind man". Once the blinded person has caught someone, he or she must guess who they have caught without taking the blindfold off. They can feel clothing, hands, and/or faces. If they are correct, then the person they caught has to be the blind man. If not, they remain the blind man until they guess correctly.


Even though Blind's Man Bluff is one of the most popular games at a grand scale picnic, there are other activities such as cards, horsebacking riding, cricket, or even dancing if you hired some musicians. The activities are really what make the picnic grand. Grand picnics were more for the upper class societies. Even still they were adventures outside rather than just eating outside as we do today. Picnics today are still great fun, but next time you go on a picnic just imagine how much better it would be if you got to spend the whole day playing and not have to do a bit of the work involved.

Ornament Traditions

Chirstmas at the Hunter House is upon us again. The house is busy with people figuring out ways to decorate the house to everyone's delight. Our decorations are unique since we always focus on the Victorian Era. This year is no different. Many people don't realize that a lot of our Christmas traditions come from Germany. As you may know already, Queen Victoria married Prince Albert. Albert was from Germany and brought many of the Christmas traditions with him when he came to England. To name just a few: the Christmas tree, the carol Silent Night, and Nutcrackers. This year we have decided to make our decorations all about German traditions. To kick things off, we will be having a German Christmas market in our house. This will be Saturday and Sunday, November 20-21. There will be local vendors selling their wares and German goodies available. One of the items available at the market, will be genuine Olde World Glass Ornamaents.

Glass ornaments are one of the biggest traditions of Germany. Blown glass ornaments have been made in Germany since the 1500s. It was in the Victorian Era in 1870 when they were first exported to Britian. America also imported German blown glass ornaments after F.W. Woolworth discovered them on a trip to Germany in 1880. In those days, the inside of the glass ornaments were made to look silvery by using either mercury or lead. As people discovered that mercury and lead were not healthy to use, they changed the inside to be a combination of silver nitrate & sugar water to protect the makers and the owners of the ornaments. The majority of glass ornament makers lived in an area in Germany called Lauscha.

The glass makers in Lauscha improved their craft for many generations, but the industry became in danger of becoming obsolete after World War II. Once the war was over, the Allied Forces divided Germany amongst themselves. Each country gaining power and control over one section of Germany. Lauscha is in East Germany, which became controlled by the Soviet Union. The Soviets believed that the traditions of Germany needed to be wiped out in order to ensure that they had learned their lesson after the War. Glass Blowing was one of many past times the Soviets sought to destory. The molds that were used to make the ornaments for generations were found and destroyed. Many in Lauscha hid the glass molds and still others that were trying to keep their family heritage escaped to Neustadt (a city in American occupied Germany).

Today, there remains a popular German glass company that still makes ornaments. The company is called Inge-glas ornaments or is often referred to as Glas Inge. It is named for a lady who remained in Lauscha Germany and managed to save nearly all of the glass molds her family had for generations before her. When her family escaped Lauscha and went to Neustadt, she stayed behind. She broke all of the glass molds she had in half. She would send a box full of one half of each mold to her grandson, which a note telling him they were toys. When the Soviets looked through her mail, they only saw her sending broken molds to her grandson to play with. Later, she would send the second half of each mold in the same manner. Her son and grandson would them put the molds back together. In this way, she helped save the German glass making tradition. Her son and grandson started making ornaments again and selling them both in Germany and abroad. Neustadt became the new center for German glass blowing.

If you have an Inge-Glas ornament, it may be marked with a star crown. This emblem was stamped on every ornament they made until 2000. In 2000, they set up distribution sites in other countries besides Germany and did not keep the same emblem. Today, there is not an emblem on any of their ornaments. However, they remain a collector's item. Each year a new ornament is created to represent the traditions of today.

I'm Feeling Sad

Some days it feels as though there is a problem or a crisis in the lives of everyone I know. What a huge pity party we could throw! Then there are days when everyone I know is just rolling along, living their lives, things are good.
Life is good, so many say, and I will agree. However, I have just discovered that a special gal died fairly recently. I must have been out of town, or our newspaper perhaps did not carry the obituary as she was living in Richmond, Virginia.
It is hard to dscribe the sadness I felt when I realized that author Emyl Jenkins passed away in April. It was not sadness so much for me, but for us, all of us who read her writings and would continue to read them, looked forward to more to read. For all who called her friend, or even acquaintance.
I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Emyl as she wrote Southern Christmas. The Hunter House Victorian Museum is featured there and it was a treat to spend several days with her. We had the opportunity to share our lives, our stories and our love of The South; we found we were kindred spirits.
Emyl was gracious and generous; she was humorous and hospitable; she seemed almost family to me.
Her warm and gentle spirit will be missed in this world. I still feel sad about that, but if we will, we can carry forth her spirit.
If you have not had the chance to meet Emyl through her books, especially Southern Christmas and Southern Hospitality, do! If you love old treasures, read her appraisal books, and her fiction Stealing With Style set in and amid antique treasures.
I am so thankful that Emyl walked through my door and briefly into my life.

Shakespeare: The Victorian Idol

William Shakespeare is arguably the most quoted and most immortal writer in all of history. He wrote most of the phrases we use even in the course of today's speech. To name of few, the green-eyed monster, the long and short of it, and give the devil his due. Shakespeare wrote during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, a woman with significant power. As a result his plays have female characters that are strong willed, free thinkers, and often times rebellious. When Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837, England had another powerful woman at its helm. A woman who was not bound by the same social rules as an everyday, average woman. In Shakespeare, Victorians found willfull and strong female characters that mirrored their monarch. They loved the idea of Shakespeare's independent women. One Victorian writer was so enthralled by these characters that she imagined their lives before Shakespeare wrote about them. She even wrote a book, Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines, which became a popular book for young girls. The editors of the time period also tried to preserve the "innocence" of a young girl and thus produced editions of Shakespeare's plays where any phrase that could offend or ruin a young girl was removed.

Not only did young people like the master bard's plays, writers of the Victorian era looked to the works of Shakespeare for guidance and inspiration. For many, the draw of Shakespeare's works came from the fact that his plays cover such a wide range of genres and human emotions. His works show not only tragedy, history, and comedy; but also love, betrayal, revenge, murder, fantasy, sorrow, etc. It wasn't until the Regency and Victorian eras when the idea for the novel became a reality. Those that wrote the novels we remember and respect today, often copied or quoted Shakespeare throughout their works. Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Herman Melville are three widely famous authors that used Shakespeare as a guide. In Jane Austen's first novel, Sense and Sensiblitiy, Marianne Dashwood quotes Shakespeare's sonnet 116 to describe her love for Willoughby. Marianne uses this sonnet to justify her decision not to hide her feelings in anything she does. Later in the novel, the same sonnet is used to describe the loss Marianne feels after she is set aside by Willoughby. Charles Dickens fashioned his characters using Shakespeare's model for character devlopment. Many of his characters are satirical or parodies for the social occurences in his time. The title for his work Twice Told Tales is a quote from Shakespeare's King John. Lastly, Herman Melville's character of Captain Ahab is often referred to by critics as a Shakesperean tragic character. In his works, Melville wrote almost like a playwright by using sililoquies instead of dialogue. Other writers also quoted Shakespeare in their work, but to list them all would take a really long time. But to give you a general idea as to how often the bard was quoted in this time period, let me tell you that George Bernard Shaw called literature and society's dedication to Shakespeare "Bardolatry".

As the Victorian era came to an end in 1901, the novel was in its glory and authors were continuing to quote Shakespeare in their work. As the novel progressed into silent movies and later into films, Shakespeare's plays and sonnets remained the pinnacle works to adapt. Over the years, there have been countless productions of his plays on the silverscreen. However, recently there has been the idea to take Shakespeare to a younger and cooler audience. Leading to adaptations that have Macbeth taking place in a restuarant; Othello taking place in a high school; Romeo & Juliet with handguns; and The Twelfth Night at a boarding school socceer field. I guess what you can take away from this posting is that no matter what time period comes next, Shakespeare's works will stand the test of time somehow. Every generation since he lived has bent his work to their own cultural inclinations.

As a side note, this blog was inspired by our Shakespeare on Love picnic. It will be held, Tuesday evening, July 13 at 6:00pm. We still have places available - please call the museum for reservations. 757-623-9814.

Picnics and Parades ~ An Old Fashioned Memorial Day

Today it seems as though Memorial Day is the beginning of summer, rather than the summer solstice on June 21. Memorial Day marks the opening of pools and beach rentals. That is not the way our grandparents and theirs observed the day.

Memorial Day or Decoration Day was a day filled with parades and picnics. The entire town or city followed the marching bands and military units into the oldest of cemeteries. There they listened to music and speeches and then made their way to their family plots and unfurled a blanket and unbuttoned the picnic hamper.

The cemetery was almost a public park with natural areas and scenic vistas and a variety of sculpture. It was designed to be peaceful and quiet, well except for those bugles and trombones on parade days. Memorial days were most likely the busiest of visiting days in the cemetery.

With all of the festivity and then the work of tidying up the lots and placing flowers on the graves, visiting with neighbors, sustenance was a necessity.

In Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management (1859), Isabella Beeton wrote of picnic menu items including: sweetened stewed fruit with plain pastry biscuits, cold plum pudding, cold meats, pigeon pie, lobster, fresh jam puffs, baskets of fresh fruit and cheese. She also includes breads and butter for tea. Beverages should include ale, wine, brandy, lemonade and soda water.

She warns of items not to be forgotten: cork screws, a bottle of vinegar, a stick of horseradish and a bottle of mint sauce. And of course, wine glasses, teacups and saucers and lump sugar and milk. (This info comes from a wonderful reference by Susan Williams: Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America)

The Victorians used convenient hampers and even make-shift ones of boxes, partitioned on the inside into compartments. Today it is much the same; all manner of baskets and hampers and totes can hold our picnic items. If you are in the market for a new tote of sorts, check out Picnic at Ascot, Inc. They have back packs and collapsible market baskets. The Impulse Wine and Cheese Set consists of: 2 cotton napkins (5 designs from which to choose), 1 corkscrew, 1 wood cutting board and one cheese knife. It closes up into a neat 8 1/2 X 12 packet and weighs, empty, one pound. The neatest item I saw was an ice cream tote!! Now you can take along your half-gallon of Bryers and it'll stay cold! No need for an ice cream maker.

One of the most popular picnic items today must be fried chicken. If you want something other than fast food fried chicken, here's a recipe ~ the secret is soaking the breasts overnight in buttermilk and frying in your grandmother's seasoned cast iron skillet. This comes from the humorous book Some Day You'll Thank Me For This: The Official Southern Ladies' Guide to Being A 'Perfect' Mother by Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays:
6 chicken breasts buttermilk 2 eggs 2 cups whole milk 2 cups flour
salt and pepper to taste pinch of garlic powder 1/4 t. baking powder
fat for frying ( Crisco, vegetable oil or combination)
Soak breasts overnight in buttermilk.
Beat eggs and milk; dip chicken in mixture.
Combine flour, seasonings and baking powder in a brown grocery bag and shake to mix.
Shake the chicken one piece at a time until well coated.
Heat enough of the fat in the skillet to almost cover the chicken.
When you drop the chicken in, the fat should sizzle.
The art if frying chicken involves the grease, which must not burn the chicken but cooks it at an even, medium-hot level.
Do not crowd the chicken when frying.
Turn only once, when golden brown on one side.
Remove from the skillet and drain on a brown grocery bag that has been covered with a layer of paper towels, approximately 20 minutes.

It's not fast food, but I can smell it frying now!

And They're Off...

Anyone who follows horse racing knows that the Kentucky Derby was May 1st. As the Derby is an American tradition which started in the Victorian Era, what better way to celebrate the fastest two minutes in sports than with a festive afternoon tea filled with all the delights of Churchill Downs. There's just one problem, when we decided to have the tea we realized we didn't know quite as much about the Kentucky Derby as originally thought. So I sat down to do some digging on the subject. Imagine my surprise when the research proved to be one of the most interesting days I've spent at the Hunter House Victorian Museum. I thought I'd be learning about the history of the race, the food served there, and the motivation behind women wearing the most elaborate and outlandish hats to such an event. Instead, I spent the afternoon delightfully learning about the history of the word 'dude'.
So, I guess now you're wondering how I got from the derby to 'dude'. Well, I started with reading about how the race was started by the grandson of William Clark, that's right half of the Lewis and Clark team that explored America. Col. M. Lewis Clark traveled to Europe where he experienced the thrill of horse racing. Upon his return, he decided to create a horse race that would capture the intrigue of Americans. Clearly, he succeeded. However, knowing the history behind the race lead me to ask the question "why drape the horse in a blanket of roses?" I then started in search of the answer. This tradition started when a New York social elite came to the race, bringing with him one red rose for every woman in attendance at the race. This social leader, Evander Berry Wall, had the distinction of being labeled 'King of the Dudes'.
Being a child of the 1980s myself, I have been using dude for pretty much my entire life. I had never thought that the word was used in the late 1800s. Obviously, I had to find out why Mr. Wall was a 'dude'. I found that the word dude first appeared in print in the 1870s as a derogatory word. When Mr. Wall became King of the Dudes, a dude was an "ill-bred and ignorant, but ostentatious man from the city who was unfamiliar with life outside a big city." It was taken further when dude ranches were created as a place for a 'dude' to go outside a city and learn about cowboy life. Outside of dude ranches, the word fell out of use until the 60s, when it was resurrected by surfers as a way of greeting. The word has evolved again since then. Now, not only is it used as a greeting but it is also used to express emotions. By simply saying the word 'dude' in a different tone of voice, someone can express sympathy, support, or even disapproval. However, today people do not use the word as an insult.
Even after all that research, I'm still not quite sure how the word evolved from an insult to what it is now. However, I do know that the word isn't likely to go away anytime soon. After all, it has infiltrated our whole system of pop culture. Ever heard of "Dude, Where's my Car?", "Hey Dude", or "Dude, Looks Like a Lady"?

Don't forget about our "Run for the Roses" tea, Sunday, May 16,2010 at 2:00pm. We still have spaces available. Admission fee is $15.00 per person. Please call 757-623-9814 for reservaions.

Painted China

I know how much fun I had just coloring in the Rose of Sharon at the top of this poem with my watercolor pencils; how much more delight the china painters must have when they create such delicate and exquisite designs on their porcelain.
Imagine, having quiet hours in the morning after breakfast or solitary hours in the afternoon to sit alone at the work table, brush in hand and a palate of rose and sage and buttermilk.
“And what shall I paint this morning, the cluster blooms of the Lady Banks Rose crowning the arbor?”
I have a passion, many say obsession, for china. I want my china plates and tea cups to be beautiful and I want some in every pattern, a new pattern everyday. I do not want to hide them behind cupboard doors or in the back of the pantry. I want to see them and admire them; to me they are art. And yes, I do have plates hanging on my walls, even in my bathroom.
None of my dear old aunts painted china. My grandmother was an artist and several others in the family had (have) artistic talents so we all came to appreciate such beauty even as we did not create it ourselves.
And now I have the opportunity to learn this Victorian era past time, right now in fact, as there are several artists from the China Painters of Tidewater in the museum’s master bedchamber and nursery demonstrating their craft and skill for our visitors. From my third floor office I can hear chatter and laughter from the ladies and guests below.
Suzie Tuberson has agreed to teach me how to paint holly, a favorite design of mine. She, and the others, assures me that I (and you) need not be artists in order to paint beautiful porcelain.
When Suzie first approached me with the idea of an exhibit/special event with the museum, I immediately thought of tea cups and saucers and plates. I did not consider larger paintings on tiles or portraits and lamps. I have seen some amazing pieces in the last two weeks.

Charmed, I'm Sure

I am just about to purchase my seventh charm bracelet, actually eighth counting the very first bracelet from my youth. Several gals I know are collecting the new fashionable bead charms.
Friends of the Hunter House Victorian Museum have recently begun collecting teapot charms. A Charming Little Tea was held at the museum a couple of weeks ago and guests received a toggle clasp (what a great invention!) bracelet and then had the opportunity to purchase charms fashioned into teapots from glass beads. A Virginia artist creates these delightful charms ~ check out Tiny Teapot Jewelry at www.teapotjewelry.com.
So now, I have another bracelet, thank goodness because I have several charms for it already. I enjoy looking for the sentimental charms - souvenirs of places I have visited, mementos from special occasions, charms for my family's story.
The most recent charm I have purchased is a baby carriage; it will go on the family bracelet as I am expecting my first grandchild this summer.
Speaking of summer, I have a beach bracelet with seaside charms. When I cannot be on the beach, I can finger my bracelet and remember the sun and the sand and the shells and the cottage. In my mind I'm goin' to Carolina...