Picture 1: house where Jane Austen died in Winchester, July 1817.
Picture 2: ruins of Wolvesey Castle.
Picture 3: view of Winchester from the top of St. Giles' Hill (unfortunately it was a very grey day).
Picture 4: interior of Winchester Cathedral, showing Quire in foreground.
Picture 5: row of icons behind the altar, etc.
Picture 6: Mom in a red telephone booth on the Chorister's Green in Salisbury.
Picture 7: sculpture in front of Salisbury Cathedral called "Walking Madonna," made in 1981.

Today was a long day! Up early for a delicious breakfast with a nice Australian couple also staying at the B&B who are on a 5 WEEK EUROPEAN TOUR. Part of me is jealous but part of me knows that I would get very tired of having structured, planned days one after the other for that long.

We finished up Winchester today, walking by the house on College Street where Jane Austen and her sister, Cassandra, lived for 2 months before Jane died in 1817. Then we spent some time exploring the ruins of Wolvesey Castle. I had no idea that Winchester was so important for a large part of England's history but it apparently had 3 castles during the medieval period in addition to the huge Cathedral! Then a climb up St. Giles' Hill for a view of the city and a thorough walkthrough of the Cathedral. There's currently a nice Jane Austen exhibit around her grave in the Cathedral giving a nice outline of her life, and of course there's the grave itself and a bronze memorial window in the wall. Ah, and the illuminated Bible upstairs in the Cathedral was magnificent - such painstaking work! Oh, I forgot to mention that we went through the City Museum before going into the Cathedral which proved to be an excellent rundown on most of the history of the city (we missed the Tudor and Stuart periods which are housed in Westgate a few blocks north).

Ack, and I also forgot to mention our visit to the Winchester Friends Meeting as we walked through the city after coming down from St. Giles' Hill! Mom and I were just walking along and happened to see a small sign pointing off down a sidestreet that said "Quakers' Meeting House." Interest piqued, we followed and found a rather large Meetinghouse set in a beautiful garden. Not really expecting anyone to be there in the middle of the day on a Thursday, we tried the garden gate and found it open...tried the front door and found it open. We signed the Visitors' Book in the vestibule and then heard a sound of movement in a nearby room. Mom knocked and we surprised the Warden (Resident Friend) who welcomed us in for tea - apparently she has only been in that position for 2 months and we were her first off-the-cuff visitors. We also met the gardener and she gave us some great tips for things to do in Winchester and Salisbury, none of which we have time for. :) We talked with the Warden for a little bit about programs at the Meeting, and it's much more community-involved than our Meeting in Annapolis. Inspiring and definitely something for me to think about as I consider becoming involved in the more urban Friends Meeting of Washington this year.

After Winchester we traveled a bit northwest to Chawton and Jane Austen's house. It was so fun to see where she lived and see all of her furniture, jewelry, dishes, etc.! We spent a good amount of time there because of course we had to read every single plaque and label. After Chawton, we drove to Salisbury, checked into our B&B here, and walked around the Cathedral and downtown briefly before finding a pub for dinner. So we are right on schedule and quite glad to spend two nights in a row in one place!