Osborne House

We saw Victoria's retreat at the Osborne House. I've become interested in Victoria and just today finished a biography of her by Lytton Strachey (one of Virginia Woolf's circle.) I think I will make a little shrine to her with some postcards I bought of Her Royal Highness and the Prince Consort. They had nine surviving children, and Albert died at 42--by then he looked about 25 years older than he was--but Victoria Regina (VR) lived to 82 and a new century. I am beginning to see why John is fascinated by the Victorians. So much of both our Mormon and our American culture is influenced by them. I also bought a book with beautiful pictures by the pre-Raphaelites and other Victorians about the Victorian reinvention of the Arthurian legends. As a feminist it's fascinating too--the reinvented cult of chivalry and woman-worship, which was so convenient for keeping women in their place on a pedestal. The Angel in the House--Virginia Woolf said that in order to write, to breathe, the live, she had to kill the Angel dead, but she's still very much alive in Mormon Relief Societies. (1997)

Babies everywhere! A blossoming of babies, particularly marble babies. I counted nine on one candle sconce. And baby parts—baby marble arms and legs. Babies sleeping, babies kissing, dead babies (one suspects). Along with the Albert worship, the domestic happiness/grief turned sentimental is particularly odd. “Sickening, ain’t it,” I said to Bren. It is, a little, but I also must respect her emotions and fixations—I think they are real, or at least started out that way.The grounds are a huge playground for children, a delightful toy/school/land-and-seascape. How fun it would have been to be a cousin or grandchild at that place. Maybe not so fun to be a prince or princess. I don’t know though. Albert and Victoria between them may have been the wonderful parents they were purported to be. (2003)