Being still ‘newly’
arrived in Bucks we continue to be in something of a discovery mode taking opportunities,
especially at the weekend, to go out exploring.
Last Saturday was no exception so we made our way over to Hughenden
Manor, near High Wycombe, the one time home of Queen Victoria’s favourite Prime
Minister Benjamin Disraeli.
As we approached this grand, yet intimate National Trust house we were surprised by the number of cars having to use the overflow parking places and the queues at both the entrance reception and tea room. We soon discovered last Saturday was not a ‘normal’ one for Hughenden but a ‘1940’s’ theme day. This no doubt reflected its use during WWII as a special operations centre code named ‘Hillside’.
So we wandered through a field of brown tents erected on the front lawn full of war time memorabilia, bumped into ‘Red Cross’ nurses, Wing Commanders, Chaplains, humble Corporals and swanky American Marines in full uniform. I half expected Captain Mainwaring, from the Eastgate Home Guard, to come round the corner ordering us to take up our places at the Novelty Rock Emporium ready for the invasion with our one machine gun!
Well we did the tour and that was fascinating and we wondered around the grounds and that was beautiful – and we lingered by the 1940’s fashion show and had tea sitting near a ‘General’ wearing his Home Staff red lapels and that was just plain bazaar!
I suppose we got a ‘feel’ of the 1940s – especially when we heard the gun practice starting on the south lawn – but it was fleeting and momentary – soon we were back in the car returning from the world of yesterday to the present.
None of us can go back – even if we’d like to.
I sometimes think I would – and if granted those imaginary three wishes I’d at least use one of them spending a day meeting my relatives of a hundred years ago and another travelling a hundred years into the future!
Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of our life is the deliberate valuing of today rather than longing for yesterday or hoping for tomorrow. There may be very good reasons for the later two yearnings but we don’t do today justice if we over romanticise the past and place unreasonable confidence in the future. Spiritual writers call it ‘the sacrament of the present moment’ – the idea that here and now – today – God is present – offering us love, life and hope. Being consciously aware of that reality comes close, for me, of what it means to pray.
Last weekend I enjoyed Hughenden and the colliding worlds of Disraeli and Churchill – but today beckons. For as L.P.Hartley said in his novel The Go-Between: The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
With best wishes,
As we approached this grand, yet intimate National Trust house we were surprised by the number of cars having to use the overflow parking places and the queues at both the entrance reception and tea room. We soon discovered last Saturday was not a ‘normal’ one for Hughenden but a ‘1940’s’ theme day. This no doubt reflected its use during WWII as a special operations centre code named ‘Hillside’.
So we wandered through a field of brown tents erected on the front lawn full of war time memorabilia, bumped into ‘Red Cross’ nurses, Wing Commanders, Chaplains, humble Corporals and swanky American Marines in full uniform. I half expected Captain Mainwaring, from the Eastgate Home Guard, to come round the corner ordering us to take up our places at the Novelty Rock Emporium ready for the invasion with our one machine gun!
Well we did the tour and that was fascinating and we wondered around the grounds and that was beautiful – and we lingered by the 1940’s fashion show and had tea sitting near a ‘General’ wearing his Home Staff red lapels and that was just plain bazaar!
I suppose we got a ‘feel’ of the 1940s – especially when we heard the gun practice starting on the south lawn – but it was fleeting and momentary – soon we were back in the car returning from the world of yesterday to the present.
None of us can go back – even if we’d like to.
I sometimes think I would – and if granted those imaginary three wishes I’d at least use one of them spending a day meeting my relatives of a hundred years ago and another travelling a hundred years into the future!
Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of our life is the deliberate valuing of today rather than longing for yesterday or hoping for tomorrow. There may be very good reasons for the later two yearnings but we don’t do today justice if we over romanticise the past and place unreasonable confidence in the future. Spiritual writers call it ‘the sacrament of the present moment’ – the idea that here and now – today – God is present – offering us love, life and hope. Being consciously aware of that reality comes close, for me, of what it means to pray.
Last weekend I enjoyed Hughenden and the colliding worlds of Disraeli and Churchill – but today beckons. For as L.P.Hartley said in his novel The Go-Between: The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
With best wishes,
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