The Five-Month Pub Crawl: Town and Country

Please to remember

the Fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason, and plot!

I'm sure you all know this rhyme and understand the history of it. I, on the other hand, had completely forgotten the story. Guy Fawkes Day happened on November 5, as it does here every year, complete with burned effigies and loads of fireworks. Turns out it commemorates the discovery of a treasonous plot in 1606 to assassinate Protestant King James I and restore a Catholic ruler to the throne. Guy Fawkes was not, apparently, the instigator, but he was in charge of the gunpowder that was to be used to blow up the House of Lords, and when he was discovered he confessed everything before he was hanged, thus foiling the plan. All over England, there are parades, giant Guys are torched on top of bonfires, and fireworks commemorate the failed plot.

We didn't take part in this celebration, sadly. November 5 was wildly rainy and windy, and though I'm sure many Guys were burned, many more simply smoked sadly while the fireworks sputtered out and observers shivered in their macs and wellies. We did get a nice fireworks display from the roof across the street when it dried out the following evening, and we're still hearing the odd explosion now and then. Sort of like July 4th in the States, I guess, only wetter and with burning effigies.

We did take advantage of both town and country this fortnight, though. We hosted a second student tea at the apartment, and once again the scones were a great hit, though the tea itself was less so as I was in charge, not Klauser. I simply do not have the genes to brew a great pot of tea. But I think a good time was had by most, and an almost frightening amount of clotted cream was ingested.

after the martinis

So long ago that many of the aforementioned students were hardly born, Klauser purchased tickets to A Winter's Tale with Dame Judi Dench, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh. Last Tuesday we met him (Klauser, not Kenneth) and Sue for a fabulous early dinner at Brasserie Zedel and afterward went on to the theatre. The production was marvelous, and Dame Judi astonished us by her ease with the language and the way she drew us in as soon as she stepped onstage. It was a memorable evening. The play, should you wish to see it, will be broadcast live in cinemas that do that sort of thing (such as the Esquire or the Millerton Moviehouse) on November 25. It's worth seeing, though you won't get the gigantic martinis from Brasserie Zedel to go with it.

the Arab Hall, Leighton House

On Thursday we visited the house of Lord Leighton, in Kensington. He was a pre-Raphaelite painter who loved all things Middle-Eastern and Asian and collected beautiful objects that are now displayed in his house -- tiles, stained glass, and paintings by his pre-Raphaelite contemporaries. It reminded us of Olana in the Hudson Valley, for those of you who've been there, but was even more over-the-top (in a good way).

Winter
Cy Twombly

This past Saturday, we hopped on a train to the country to visit a colleague of Phil's, a retired academic on the board of the Joyce journal Phil edits. We got off at Lewes (pronounced Lewis), a pretty little town with a rich history about eight miles from the sea. Our hosts, Dorothy and Arnold, live in a beautiful 18th century house on a quiet lane. They fed us a lovely lunch, and then we spent the next 24 hours chatting, walking around town, and eating delicious food. Arnold also took us to Bexhill, a seaside resort town that was hosting an exhibition of a Cy Twombly series of abstract expressionist paintings on the four seasons. My knowledge of art after about A.D.1600 is negligible, so I had no idea what to expect. But I found the paintings, on loan from the Tate, remarkable.

On our strolls, we met our very first baroness. She looked exactly like someone's favorite aunt; we never would have guessed. And we saw signs for the local Guy Fawkes celebration, which had featured a 50-foot stuffed Guy who was burned in effigy, despite the weather. We were sorry to have missed it.

remains of the Cluniac abbey,
destroyed by Henry VIII

Lewes is the site of a ruined castle built not long after the Battle of Hastings, a gift from William the Conqueror to one of his nobles, and a ruined Cluniac abbey, the Priory of St. Pancras, from around the same time. It was the place where the battle of Lewes was fought, between King Henry III and Simon de Montfort in 1264, which de Montfort won. This resulted in a document similar to the Magna Carta, reining in the rights of the monarch, but the document disappeared and has never been found.

the Ouse River

Thomas Paine's house

The town is also the hometown of our own Thomas Paine, and contains Anne of Cleves' house, given to her by Henry VIII in the divorce settlement (though she never lived in it). The river that runs through it is the same in which Virginia Woolf drowned herself, about five miles upstream.

Lewes is full of beautiful gardens and pathways. It was a charming place to visit, full of history, and it reminded us that we do love the countryside.

But the very best thing were our hosts' pets.