Saturday, April 9, 2011

Betty and the Real World

An Independent Woman:
Some Mitfords...sans Nazis.
She finds a job in The Lady repairing curtains--a job never to be found in far-off America where the tapestries aren't even old enough to have a chance to molder:
The magazine was founded by Thomas Gibson Bowles, the maternal grandfather of the Mitford sisters.  Mitford sisters?  They are characterized thus: Diana the Fascist, Jessica the Communist, Unity the Hitler-lover; Nancy the Novelist; Deborah the Duchess and Pamela the unobtrusive poultry connoisseur. 


Stourhead.  I seriously need to get my bottom over to Stourhead.  If an RDD swings by Stourhead (in any weather) there's certain to be a proposal in the offing.  Here's a drool-worthy list of all the most visited National Trust sites.  Stourhead is numbeo dos:
  1. Wakehurst Place Garden — 439,627 (administered and maintained by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)
  2. Stourhead — 351,358
  3. Waddesdon Manor — 348,308
  4. Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal — 339,326
  5. Attingham Park - 257,340
  6. Polesden Lacey — 256,493
  7. Belton House — 249,785
  8. Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge — 248,609
  9. Calke Abbey - 244,767
  10. St Michael's Mount — 240,557


A Summer Idyll:

Dear Rhenen, Why are you famous for bishops?
Kasper lives in Rhenen - it's on the Rhine. Phoebe says 'weren't there bishops there at one time?'  I did look around a bit but fail to get the cultural reference.  Any mention of bishops in the Rhenen wiki article are of a bishop of Utrecht who commissioned the defensive city wall (in ancient Europe defensive walls were two-a-penny) but that's not exactly information one could toss off, no? 
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 9, 2011 at 5:45 AM

    Betty Ross and I were married at Number 4 on the National Trust sites list. And we even got to spend the week in a National Trust property on the grounds, Choristers House.

    Yup, I'm bragging.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Betty DebbieApril 9, 2011 at 12:22 PM

    via email:
    Dear Betty Kiera,
    In the Middle Ages Rhenen was a kind of stronghold for the bishop of Utrecht, against the counts of Gelre. Rhenen lies very close to Gelderland, although it is still in Utrecht. The bishops then were very worldly and forever meddling in politics.
    Maybe that was what Phoebe had in mind?
    Kind regards,
    Cisca

    ReplyDelete
  3. Barb in MarylandApril 9, 2011 at 12:51 PM

    Betty Barbara here--
    Glad to see Betty Cisca chime in. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Bishops of Utrecht were the temporal rulers of a large chunk of territory during the middle ages.
    Our Betty was perhaps guilty of showing off a bit of local knowledge. I'm not sure that a British gal would be that conversant with Dutch Medieval history.

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