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Monthly Archives: July 2010

Coming Home

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Notes from the road. I arrived in England late last night and decided that on the way I’d make note of interesting things and conversations I observed on the way.

Nice idea, but since I kept falling asleep (did I mention I had to get up at 2:30 am to get to the airport?) I don’t have a lot to report. First, Reagan National Airport at 3:30 am is a truly horrible place, but I could have guessed that. The first leg of the flight was to Toronto, my first venture into Canada, or strictly speaking, a Canadian airport. The security people were charming. Really!

I started reading the third Stieg Larsson book on the plane, highly recommended. And then I went to sleep a lot. But we were lucky enough to fly over England with very little cloud cover and I was amazed at how much rural land there was (unless we were passing over France). You could see what were once iron age hilltop forts and I think–but I’m not sure–that we were over Dorset and the west of England, which would make sense. Lots of medieval field patterns and once a stretch of what must have been a Roman road. We passed over London and you could see the Thames loop around just as it does in the maps, which always surprises me, but I’m not sure why.

So today I’m going up to London on the train and then to Greenwich for the RNA Conference, and after that to Hampshire and Chawton next week. There should be photos. I’d hoped to get one of my extremely ancient father, who is looking very patriarchal and bearded, but he’s gone for a lie down.

And that’s about all the news so far. I highly recommend daytime flights to England, btw. You have to get up so early to get to the airport you’re out like a light on the plane and then you go to bed when you arrive. A great sleeping experience.

What are you doing today/this week? What are you reading?

Don’t forget A Damned Good Contest!

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Independence from Great Britain

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“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Preamble of the Declaration of Independence.

Yesterday Americans celebrated the 234th anniversary of the approval of the wording of the Declaration of Independence (not its signing as is commonly believed). We celebrate this as the beginning of our country, although there were many years of hard fighting to go before the United States of America existed as separate from mother England.

In spite of our problems as a country, it is extraordinary that we have been as successful as we have been at living up to these principles of all “men created equal” with equal right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And I’m filled with pride at how well we have done, though it has taken 234 years to get this far and we still have a way to go. Discrimination is still practiced, I’m sad to say.

But today for Risky Regencies, I’m thinking about what it must have felt like to those “colonists” who considered themselves Englishmen and suddenly found themselves forming a separate nation. They could not have known that this country would succeed. How much trust could they put in this fledgling government? It must have been a very exciting but hard time for all.

During the Regency, in addition to the Napoleonic War, England fought in America again, in what we call The War of 1812. This time the United States of America declared war on England for impressing American citizens into the Royal Navy and for England’s military support of Native Americans who were preventing American expansion into the Northwest. Ironically it was this war that really solidified America’s independence from England. After America’s victory, England respected America’s sovereignty.

A few years ago I attended the annual Battle of Bladensburg (of the War of 1812) reenactment at Jefferson Patterson Park in Maryland with Mary Blayney (see her interview here July 18) and I took a photo of this authentic British reenactor!

I wonder how many people in the US still had split loyalties. Were they all solidly American, as we would like to believe? Or did some of them hope the War of 1812 would put this country again under English rule? One also wonders what would have happened if Wellington had been sent to the US instead of Spain.

Another question. Why aren’t more Regency Historicals using the War of 1812 in their stories?

Visit my website today for a sneak peek of Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Lady and for a new contest. And come back again on Thursday for Diane’s Blog.

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Packing and its joys

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Posting late from a household full of angst. I’m off to the UK next week to attend the RNA conference, visit family and Chawton, and in between writing frantically and trying to wrap things up at work, finding things.

Now I firmly believe that there is an imp in my house that goes around moving things. Here’s my success rate of finding vital travel items:

  1. Fancy shoes. Second of pair found. Thrown into suitcase immediately to avoid imp action.
  2. Camera. Found. USB cable? Turned office upside down, called Fuji (“yes, we can get one to you in 7 to 14 business days”) and a local camera store who don’t have one but can provide me with something that may or may not be like a flash drive and may or may not work on a Mac. Husband went into his lair and found USB cable immediately, coiled and stowed safely since the huge snowstorm (February) when he’d downloaded pics.
  3. Talking of which … surge protector/convertor. Found.
  4. Yoga pants. I wasn’t intending to take them, but this was a bonus find.
  5. Collection of short-sleeved black t-shirts. Come on, imp, they were all I could find all winter long. Where are they now?

I suppose I should be grateful that I don’t have to pack something like this gorgeous late Georgian-early Victorian writing slope although my elderly laptop probably weighs about the same (full description here).

In addition, I don’t feel compelled to pack a huge traveling medicine chest just in case. Regency researcher Nancy Mayer has a great article on what the Regency lady might take on her travels here.

And here’s a deluxe traveling medicine chest taken by intrepid Cornish explorers Richard and John Lander when they discovered the sources of the Nile in the early 1830s. Lots of Epsom Salts because you can’t explore if you’re not regular.

And reading matter: I’m happy to report that I have acquired the huge, heavy third Stieg Larsson book for the long plane ride. (Did you see Nora Ephron’s very funny parody for the New Yorker?) It’s only that I’m too busy that I haven’t got into it yet.

Do you have any books you’re saving for travel or vacation this summer? Tell us about your summer reading and what you’ll be doing.

A Damned Good Contest is still open and awaiting your participation!

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Save Our Libraries!

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I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
Jorge Luis Borges (1899 – 1986)

Google ‘libraries in crisis,’ as I just did, and you’ll be hit with a massive amount of stories of libraries facing fiscal meltdowns all across the country. My own library, the Brooklyn Public Library, has been running a campaign to raise $500,000 because of budget woes.

A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life.

Henry Ward Beecher (Liberal US Congregational minister, 1813-1887)

This is just terrible. (And I have a mug from the Brewster Ladies Library, in Massachusetts, with that Beecher quote on it. I got it from my dad, who volunteered there, and at all of the other Cape Cod libraries he could get to).

It’s been shown that during financial crises, people utilize the libraries more than ever, for the free computers, internet and job assistance as well as borrowing books, DVDs and CDs so their leisure time is more enjoyable.

And yet during such crises public offerings such as the library are some of the first to get their budgets slashed.

An AP story talks about how even schools are cutting library funding, with perhaps close to 20% of schools having fewer library personnel when school reopens in the fall.

Really? We want our kids NOT TO HAVE BOOKS?!?

Okay, so I know we’re all in agreement about how awful this is. What are we going to do?

Earlier this year, I gave $50 to the Brooklyn Public Library (I also owe $5 in fines, but that’s something else). If you are able to, how about finding a library in your area and donating something–money or books–and then posting back here about what you did? We will all applaud your efforts, and likely as not your library will make good use of your donation and the crisis will be that much less.

And thank you!

(Janet will return tomorrow in my place; she had some pesky work tasks pop up, so asked me to fill in).

Megan

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