family snapshot

A morning stop in Guisborough, North Yorkshire.

An ancient market town that is Not Much Today.

But significant for the Dent fam.

Arriving in Guisborough, grim.


Guisborough is located just north of the North Yorkshire Moors.


 It was from here that my great-etc. grandfather John Dent set
off for America in 1658, settling in the new colony of Maryland.


And obviously his descendants were not quite as adventurous
as he, as they are all still in Maryland, ugh.


 But Guisborough is Not That Great Either,
so I understand now why he left.


 The town plunged into an economic depression
in the 16th C., with my man Henry VIII's
Dissolution of the Monasteries.


Gisborough Priory was the fourth-richest monastic house in
Yorkshire by its dissolution in 1539-40, and a main source of
jobs for the local community.  Its loss was devastating.

This economic depression undoubtedly led John to emigrate to
America at age 18, accompanying his uncle Thomas Dent.


Pretty courageous, but I will still never forgive them.


Thomas achieved success in Maryland, becoming a
justice, sheriff, coroner, alderman, and assemblyman.
He also purchased a tract of land in Charles County,
which he named "Gisbrough."


John Dent, along with his Maryland-born wife Mary Hatch,
was a well-known liberal in 17th C. Maryland.
He participated in the overthrow of Lord Baltimore in 1689,
and sent one of his sons back to England
to receive an education at Cambridge.

How cool is our coat of arms ?
Quarterly, 1 and 4, argent, on
a bend between two cottises engrailed 
sable, three lozenges ermine.  
All surmounted by a fire-breathing white tiger head.


The best part is our motto, patientia et perseverantia.
 With patience and perseverance -- words to live by.


Legend goes that the monks of the Priory planted
these trees in a circle.  {They're really 18th C. but let's ignore that.}
 Felt very pagan to me; love.


In the archway of the Priory, looking out towards the Moors.


Dad under the Priory arch.


The Priory was founded in the 12th C. by the Bruces.
As in the later kings of Scotland.
All that remains is the east end, 14th C.
Imagine that huge east window !


Me under the Priory arch; Yorkshire in my blood.

Parish Church of St. Nicholas, where my ancestors were
baptised, married, and buried.  Sadly closed for a wedding !


So we hit up the churchyard.






The graves have been rearranged.


But I found Dents !


Later than my known seventeenth-century ancestors.


But undoubtedly relations.


Including an Elizabeth Dent.


Difficult to see, so I've underlined it here in teal.




Found some Wilkinsons too, who I thought were also relations.
Thomas Dent married a Rebecca Wilkinson
three years after his arrival in Maryland.
Turns out, however, that Rebecca was Virginia-born, like me.
She was one of the earliest English children born in the colony.
After Thomas's death, Rebecca remarried and moved to England.


In Memory.

 

Although not very exciting, it was cool to see Guisborough.
And being able to understand why John and Thomas left it.
As one of my English friends once said,
"Your ancestors were the adventurous ones!"
I guess that's where I get it from too.
xx

sweetest thing

Being at Chatsworth and Haddon Hall, we couldn't pass up a pit stop in the tiny market town of Bakewell, Derbyshire.

Bakewell is the only town within the Peak District National Park.

Very British.

A quaint and quiet little place.

Most famous for THIS.  Real Bakewell Pudding, aka the most insanely delicious dessert I have EVER had in my life.  This is not to be confused with the mass-produced Bakewell Tart.  Bakewell Puddings are only made and sold in the town of Bakewell.  They feature a base of buttery flaky pastry, covered in a layer of strawberry jam, with an egg and almond paste custard filling on top.  Worth a trip to Bakewell just for these.

xx

wide sargasso sea

From Mr. Darcy's house in the morning to the home of the superior English literary gentleman, Mr. Rochester, in the afternoon...

Haddon Hall, about fifteen minutes away from Chatsworth, in Derbyshire, has traditionally been used as Thornfield Hall in Jane Eyre adaptations.  {This is the best version, in my opinion.}

Haddon is one of the seats of the Duke of Rutland, 

presently occupied by the Duke's younger brother, 

Lord Edward Manners, and his family.

It is a lovely spot, so near to Chatsworth yet surprisingly 

little known.  Which was just fine, because after the crowds

of Chatsworth, it was nice to see this somewhat wild and 

slightly run-down country manor in the Derbyshire Peaks.

 

"We now slowly ascended a drive, 

and came upon the long front of a house..."

"Of proportions not vast, though considerable: 

a gentleman’s manor-house, not a nobleman’s seat."

"To be sure it is pleasant at any time; for Thornfield is a fine old hall, rather neglected of late years perhaps, but still it is a respectable place."

First to the medieval (12-14th C.) chapel...

"The church, as the reader knows, was but just beyond the gates."

The main attractions are wall-paintings from the 1420s.

St. Christopher with Christ face the doorway.

Bats live in the chapel roof, which causes a challenge for conservators caring for the fragile wall-paintings.  In England bats are protected species and it is against the law to remove them, even if they are harming the building! You could hear them squeaking in the roof.

A trio of skeletons.

And a Victorian child effigy, of Lord Haddon, died aged nine.

"She proposed to show me over the rest of the house."

"And I followed her upstairs and downstairs, admiring as I went..."

"For all was well arranged and handsome."

"Yes; this is the dining-room."


With an amazing Tudor painted ceiling.

A Tudor Greyhound.

And a Tudor Rose.

These carved figures are, according to tradition, portraits of
Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.

 

Heraldic sg.

"The large front chambers I thought especially grand."

"Though dark and low..."

"Interesting from their air of antiquity."

"Rows of venerable chairs, high-backed and narrow."

 

"All these relics gave to the third storey of Thornfield Hall
the aspect of a home of the past: a shrine of memory."

 

"I liked the hush, the gloom, the quaintness."

Nineteenth-century diamond graffiti.

The best long gallery in Britain.

"Mum" looking at the gallery.

Heraldic sg.  The peacock on the left is the badge of the Manners
family; the boar on the right is that of the Vernon family.

These quarries are intentionally warped to provide
a beautiful textural quality to the windows --
a style known as Bombay Glass.

"'Sit,' he said; 'the bench is long enough for two.'"

"Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine."

"Many call me discontented. I couldn't help it: the restlessness
is in my nature; it agitated me to pain sometimes.”

“Would it comfort, or would it wound you
to have a similar painting?  Tell me that." 

"To the window... I followed, taking care to stand on one side,
so that, screened by the curtain, I could see without being seen."

"She was one of the ladies who sang: 

a gentleman accompanied her on the piano."

"Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from 

the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised

by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones."

"Embroideries, wrought by fingers that
for two generations had been coffin-dust."

A tapestry of rich and royal hue.

Outside.

 "A great meadow, from which 

these were separated by a sunk fence."

"I was yet enjoying the calm prospect and pleasant fresh air, yet listening with delight to the cawing of the rooks, yet surveying the wide, hoary front of the hall, and thinking what a great place it was."

"An arch in the wall, lined with ivy; it contained a rustic seat."

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: 

I am a free human being with an independent will." 

A change of scenery, a taste of greenery.

 

I'm like a trend.

I'm back and forth.

Like a modern Lady Jane.

Blame my ever-changing mood.


Can't stop my domino effect.


"While all the flowers in this old garden awake and expand..."


"No nook in the grounds more sheltered and more Eden-like."


"Perhaps, if I walk softly, I can slip away unnoticed."

"Like barriers of separation from the living world; but yet quiet and lonely hills enough, and seeming to embrace Thornfield with a seclusion I had not expected to find."

 

When that big house burned down all around her,

in the smoke and the fire...

xx