Tudor Fever

August 29, 2009 We ventured with some friends (Listellos and Snows) to Kentwell Hall, a manor house about an hour from home. They were hosting a Tudor recreation

with about 100 people dressed in period costumes performing the typical tasks of this working manor home. These area all volunteers, I guess like our "Civil War Reenactors"; they love the period and are really into it: wardrobe, speech, the whole nine yards. They were preparing a huge feast for the lady of the manor who arrived on horseback. Then they sang prayers before sitting down to eat. (I want to know how you sign up to be the "Lady" instead of the scullery maid...) After touring the amazing house, filled with tapestries and furniture from the late-Tudor period (the family that owned the house were loyalists and backed Henry VIII when he decided to break with Rome, we headed to all the out buildings where Bronwyn and Madeleine got to make

bread in the bakery. They had a camera obscura, which was just a round room they could make totally dark, and then "magically" have a picture of the outside appear in color of the outside. Then we toured the extensive grounds where Ethan got talked into sampling "this tasty purple" flower by the resident gardener (he tasted onion for the rest of the day). We got to feed the fish in the moat, watch an archery training session, observe them making tools in the forge, dress up in period battle gear, and get sneezed on by a horse (this last event was unplanned). It was another perfect English summer day, and aside from being a little creeped out by the "Alchemist" who had all sorts of frightening things in jars, I wouldn't have changed a thing!