Governor's House in Hyde Park

08/19/2022

There is last minute availability with a 30% discount for the Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility weekend September 9 - 11. We've had three delightful Jane Austen weekends in a row and I'd like to finish off the summer with a full house. Please call the inn for details.

07/20/2022

I've been weeding the peppermint in the garden and it looks very happy with a little new soil and lots of water. The other day I presented my guests with a big teapot of peppermint tea from the dried leaves and it was very popular.

07/16/2022

I watched the new Persuasion in Netflix last night. My advice is, don’t bother.

Persuasion is a classic. A delightful romance with a happy ending. Set in a time from the past where heroes in dashing uniforms and young ladies in charming gowns manage to find happiness despite the constraints of polite society. Why wouldn’t someone want to make such a movie? The question is

Who should be allowed to tamper with a classic?

There are reasons why something is a classic. It is universal and timeless. It is constructed, not unlike a beautiful symphony or a great opera, with many parts and transitions that need each other to make it hold together, balance, and be perfect. Jane Austen was a master of that art. There were never extraneous words. She had enough respect for her readers to let them know the characters by their words. She showed us their foibles subtly, but clearly and with delightful humor. She didn’t have to make her points repeatedly, have them explained.

This new movie entitled Persuasion is not Jane Austen’s Persuasion. It’s been dumbed down, ruinously modernized with inappropriate words and actions, and filled with extraneous words to explain what it could not portray through the characters. All humor was missing and several parts of the plot. The terrible reviews did not prepare me for how truly bad it is. There were times when I actually gasped at something a supposedly early nineteenth century person was doing. I didn’t get through the little trailer at the beginning without knowing the writer hadn’t a clue about proper behavior of that time when a man and complete stranger spoke to Anne as she walked along. The nonsense about seating at dinner was appalling. It was quite absurd to have Anne go for a swim, alone no less, when at that time even very few sailors could swim, much less a young lady. I could go on.

I believe I heard that the director, or maybe writer, intended to make Austen accessible to modern young people. All that was accomplished was possibly making those modern young people think Austen is nothing special. What a shame to completely miss the humor of the speeches by Sir Walter and his daughter Mary as they make themselves so foolish. What young people today need is to learn to think. The last thing they need is to have the character of Anne explaining everything to them. True, there is a narrator in much of Austen’s work, but a good writer of a screen play should follow the excellent example of Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility and let the characters do the work with clever dialogue that illustrates who they are as they move the action along.

Some people shouldn’t be allowed to tamper with a classic. Much less trample a classic!

07/06/2022

The lavender is blooming in the herb garden. Despite a winter without enough snow to protect the plants during the coldest days and my hang to trim off a lot of dead branches, it's looking beautiful with bright purple flowers. Let's hope it stays like this until the Jane Austen weekend in character in early August so we can make lavender bottles.

05/14/2021

Vermont is green again and we are welcoming guests!

Here are our special events:

Jane Austen weekend: Persuasion, June 25 -27
Afternoon tea party and tea etiquette talk, July 4 ,2 p.m.
Jane Austen weekend: Pride and Prejudice, July 9-11
Jane Austen weekend: Persuasion, August 8-10
Jane Austen weekend: Weekend in Character, August 13-15
Children’s instructional afternoon tea party, August 19, 2 p.m.
Jane Austen weekend: Persuasion September 10-12
Jane Austen weekend: Pride and Prejudice October 22-24
Downton Abbey inspired weekend, December 3-5
Downton Abbey Etiquette Dinner, December 4, 6 p.m.
Children’s instructional afternoon tea party, December 12, 2 p.m. Jane Austen weekend: Pride and Prejudice, January 21-13
Jane Austen weekend: Sense and Sensibility, January 28-10

01/06/2021

In 1814, Byron said, “If I always have books to read, I doubt I would ever feel the need to go out into society.” Without our usual society, books certainly were sanity-savers in 2020. But at Jane Austen weekends at the Governor’s House I’m hoping to again offer both with some of the best books from Byron’s time and, as Jane Austen wrote, the society of “clever well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation.”

Schedule of Jane Austen weekends at the Governor's House in Hyde Park, all subject to COVID travel restrictions. Accepting tentative reservations.

series 13: Persuasion:
June 25-27
August 6-8
September 10-12
Weekend in Character
August 13-15
series: 14: Pride and Prejudice
July 9-11
October 22-24
January 21-23, 2022
series 15: Sense and Sensibility
January 28-30, 2022
other dates to be announced

07/08/2019

Jane Austen Weekend : Emma
August 16 - 18
Regency dinner party
English country dancing
Afternoon Tea
Discussion of Emma
Lots of great conversation!

07/01/2019

After a long winter and a very wet and rather cold spring, I'm happy to say that the garden has lots of flowers in many colors amidst the bright green. The herbs are coming slowly, but as you can see the poppies and white coral bells are tall and beautiful.

06/24/2019

Guests at the Governor's House were welcome to join in to something called Hyde Park Fun Day. They found chalk designs along the sidewalks that invited them to jump and twirl instead of just walking through town. There were games and free cookies in various places. And there were interesting historical signs scattered throughout the village. This one is on the front lawn of The Governor's House.

06/19/2019

I am very enthusiastic about this video that one of my most enthusiastic guests shared. I not only agree with what it says, I've been sharing the same information with curious guests for years. I would add to two small points. When spreading clotted cream and jam on scones, as with spreading butter or jam on any kind of bread at any meal, the bite-size piece should be held down on the edge of the plate and not in the air. And whether you are stirring front to back with a sugar cube or in a circular motion with only milk or granulated sugar, it should be done gently with no sound. Please do come and show me what you learned while you enjoy having tea at the Governor's House.

http://www.englishcreamtea.com Top 10 tips of best manners & etiquette for eating your or - by etiquette expert Jane Malyon (G...

06/12/2019

Something wonderful has been happening at the Governor's House. A pair of robins built a nest high up atop one of the columns on the back portico. The nest is just a few feet away from two second floor windows. I was worried about the unseasonably cold weather; there was even a frost warning one night. All my guests were careful to leave them undisturbed, one couple happily walking all around the house to get married under the apple trees in blossom in the back yard. And now there are four little birds and we can watch up close as both parents take turns returning with worms in their beaks to feed them. They are very enthusiastic eaters and the parents make many trips. The first photo is still hatching the eggs. If you look closely at the second you might find one bird waiting in the sugar maple tree with a worm. And the last two were during lunch. I hope they won't learn to fly too soon.

02/14/2018

Thanks to everyone who sent birthday greetings. I am happy to report that my computer crisis is now over and I actually got and appreciated the messages! Thank you.