May the Fourth Be With You

Friday 4^th May  (May the Fourth be with you)

Chichester Festival Theatre – The Way of the World

Cal's under the weather with the lurgy that I caught, so she's trusting me with the Blog update . . . beware :-)

After a long hard day at work, and a long hard day with a life of leisure, we headed off to the Chichester Festival Theatre to watch “The Way of the World” – a play by William Congreve staring Penelope Keith. We all know who Penelope Keith is, but we had no idea of who William Congreve is – in fact, we couldn’t even remember the name of the play until we got inside the theatre – all we knew is that during this visit to England we were not going to miss an opportunity to see Penelope Keith live in a play (10 years ago we missed on opportunity to see her live in Guildford). After driving all over Chichester we finally managed to find a place for a quick bite (OK, so it was KFC), and eventually the theatre (what about TomTom I hear some ask . . . it was working at the hotel, but then couldn’t find any satellites after we started out. I think we need a paper based back-up plan!!). Chichester is about 55 miles (90km) from Salisbury, and about 70-90 minutes . . . depending on traffic, and how many times you drive around the town!!!

Anyway . . . back to the play . . . the play was first performed in 1700 – the last year of the 17^thC that saw the death of Elizabeth I, James I on the throne and the execution of his son Charles I, an(other?) English civil war, the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, wars against the Dutch, and the establishment of a Dutch King on the throne with William of Orange. So this play is set at the end of this turbulent political and social time. It is a romantic comedy – although you wouldn’t know it by looking at some of the stuck-up theatre goers around us!!! I think we’ll call them kwankers (kulchral wankers).  I’m struck by the fact that in William Shakespeare’s day the theatre was something for the common man – the Globe theatre was situated in a part of town associated with prostitution, and seedy pubs – in fact, I seem to recall that there was some aspersion that the theatre managers were also the local pimps . . .

Mark was still suffering from the cold that had him off work for three days in the middle of the week, and had to work hard to stifle coughs, and disguise them as a laugh (at the appropriate time of course)!! Notwithstanding the stuck ups, and the coughs, it was still a good play, and we both enjoyed it. It was good to see Penelope Keith in action – even though she is in her early 70’s – hard to believe!! It was also hard to work out who was in love with who, and who had it in for who, but we eventually did and really enjoyed the play.

William Congreve is attributed with the following quotes:

A wit should be no more sincere than a woman constant.

Courtship is to marriage, as a very witty prologue to a very dull play. (both in the play)

Grief walks upon the heels of pleasure; married in haste, we repent at leisure.

Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.

If you want more information – take a look at: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/way-of-the-world/play-summary.html

Saturday 5^th May

Corfe Castle

On Friday, Cal also signed up with the National Trust, so a quick hunt through the books led us to Corfe Castle on Saturday (we also had seen elsewhere that Corfe was one of the South West’s prettiest villages). The SatNav took us on an interesting route, and I really hope that this isn’t the fastest way to get to the coast – it was just over 40 miles (65km) and took us about 90 minutes (Mark’s proposed shooting club is at Poole, just around the corner). Corfe Castle is at the Pin Drop “C”, and we went through three counties to get there from Wiltshire, through Hampshire to Dorset:

However, all was not lost as we saw at least three Badger Pubs along the way – scouting out a watering hole for the return journey (for those who don’t know – Mark likes the Badger brews, which include the Badger, Tangle Foot and Fursty Fox – see http://www.hall-woodhouse.co.uk/beers/badgerales/index.asp)

Along the way Cal also started playing pub cricket – you get as many runs as there are legs in the title, so the “Fox and Goose” gave Cal six runs. She was out when we encountered “The World’s End” . . . but Mark was out with a golden duck at the very next pub (The Farquharsen Arms no less – hmmm, he might have said something to the effect that he was Farqued after that). Cal ended the day with 36 runs, and Mark with 6 runs . . . still getting over the Farquharsen Arms.

It’s been pretty darned cold, and Saturday was no exception, so with both of us feeling a bit under the weather we weren’t going to spend a lot of time in the cold. We parked the car at the bottom of the hill (hey, see the pic taken at the World’s End Pub at the end of this post), and walked the 1/2 mile to the village – it was a bit of a climb, but very gentle. Cal then headed straight for the National Trust Tea Rooms and a large hot home made soup with a hunk of wholemeal bread . . . Yum. Mark was still full after yet another cooked English breakie day.

They live like this for the whole weekend

After that it was up to the castle for a wander around. The English love re-enactments, and today was no exception, with a re-enactment of a battle (skirmish) between the Saxons and the Vikings (which didn’t actually happen at Corfe Castle, but what the heck – it’s close enough!!). We had a good time chatting to some of the re-enactors – some of whom might just take this sort of stuff a bit too seriously, but what the heck, you should be passionate about something (although some of them don't look too happy :-).

Mark was pretty well done for when Cal discovered a stall selling bronze jewellery made in the traditional wax melt casting method – thankfully only coming away with a £30 hit to the wallet. See the following for pics of the re-enactors:

Cross between a German Shepherd and Huskie

Tonight’s dinner

Practicing and teaching the techniques to newbies

Playing with the kids (sticks, not swords)

A very brief history for you:

The first stone of Corfe Castle was laid more than 1,000 years ago. Since then it’s seen its fair share of battles, mysteries and plots. It’s been a treasury, military garrison, royal residence and family home. The castle dates back (only) to Norman times and there was earlier habitation dating back to the Celts.

978  One of the first events to happen here was the murder of King Edward by his lovely wicked stepmother Elfthryn, who wanted the throne for her son "Ethelred the Unready".
1068  William the Conqueror swapped a church in Gillingham for the land and the castle (which was only a hall then).

1138 Held by Baldwin de Redvers for Empress Maude against King Stephen (for those of you who read Cadfael). Stephen besieged the castle, but never took it.

12th Century Normans made Corfe the strongest fortress in the country Standing 21m tall and on the top of a 55m high hill. It was particularly popular with King John. He used it for various reasons eg imprisoning his wife and hiding his crown jewels. His son Henry spent a considerable amount of money modernising Corfe Castle and used it for entertaining in style.

1572  The last Royal owner, Queen Elizabeth I sold the castle to Sir Christopher Hatton

1643-1646 Lady Bankes defended the castle against the Parliamentarians while her husband was fighting for the King. Besieged twice, the castle was only taken by betrayal, and then destroyed so it could no longer be a threat

1981 The castle remained pretty well as it had for 3 centuries and was bequeathed to the National Trust (probably to pay death duties)

The following pics were taken around the castle, with one looking down on the village from the top of the castle. It was a very impressive fortification (and we saw a few 10 years ago) so much so, that the only way it was eventually taken was through treachery, murder and betrayal.

View of the town from on top

After cooling ourselves down (or was that simply being chilled to the bones again) it was time to head back to the Tea House for some soup for Mark and some creamed tea (tea with scones, jam and clotted cream) for Cal – oh, and the obligatory fridge magnet.

(Left) Cal at the Tea Room with the “Murder” placemat – there was also Betrayal, Treachery, Royalty, Loyalty and Romance (Mark had that one)

On the way back we stopped in at the World’s End for a pint of Badger for Cal, and a Fursty Ferret for Mark (the drop pin labelled “B” on the map. There was also a FIRE right next to us – yay, although it did start to put Cal to sleep, which she then proceeded to do on the rest of the drive back to the hotel (Mark was driving).

A very welcome sight !!

 And last of all - a picture of our "new" car