This little opining, wandering piece is an updated version of something I wrote when I was 22 – which was rather nauseatingly titled “my love affair with the English country side”. I swear. I still have the word doc. Clearly, I’ve gotten more Sophisticated and Cynical in the ten or eleven years since I wrote that piece for the first time.
For my College Graduation Trip, I decided to rent a car for a week and drive through the English Countryside in search of… I’m not really sure what exactly. Maybe in search of Mr. Darcy? (Guess what, ten years later I didn’t find him haha) Most likely not though. I graduated into an uncertain world. The job market still hadn’t really recovered from the 2008 crash and going into the creative fields I wanted to go into was unstable to say the least. I think the idea of driving through a place that had history, where countless other people have spent centuries in a transition period between their adult life and young life was appealing. The sense of grounding – and amongst the nature from the rolling hills of the downs in the south to the stark cliffs and expanse of heather in the north. As I write this it’s realizing I was more in search of a connection to the cinematic history. A search for the connection to those experiences portrayed in the films and shows I spent hours poring over and emoting over
My itinerary included cathedrals I had studied in my Medieval Architecture class, and shooting locations from movies like the 2005 Pride and Prejudice (the best one, I will fight on this as much as I adore the 1995 miniseries) and TV Shows like Downton Abbey, all while I tried to learn how to drive on the other side of the road. I’m honestly amazed I didn’t get any traffic tickets (Although I did make one harrowing left turn into traffic, that I legit had to pull over after and call a British friend – Hi Nicky! And have the subsequent panic attack). But - In 2013 we had a lot fewer period films to work with (and sadly no Bridgeton or The Crown, yet, but I have seen a few those locations I visited scattered in.)
I departed London in my cute little rental car. Had the panic attack maybe an hour outside of London. Where I promptly called said local friend– much to his amusement, as I detailed running over a traffic cone. But a stellar pep talk it was, as I was able to get back on the road.
My first stop was the Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent. I was still pretty wound up from my earlier experiences, and was still learning highway (or motorway, when in Rome, blah blah blah) etiquette. The following few sentences are copied directly from that nauseating word document: I finally got to Canterbury around 1pm, to see the cathedral. I will say, after the anxieties and stresses of driving being in the hallowed halls of a cathedral worked really well. [insert history & Thomas Becket stuff] But also to see a fairly hilarious tourist attraction based on The Canterbury tales. And also, to admire a fairly small, but busy English town. Next stop was Brighton. I sat in bumper to bumper traffic for hours.
This is objectively so funny to read. I wonder if any of you who are (hopefully! Reading this – aka not me shouting into the void that is the internet these days.) reading this can see the tonal shift – or at least see how much my writing has changed. It’s so earnest (and a bit pretentious if I’m being honest). At this point in my life I didn’t consider myself a writer. I was going into capital F Fashion. After this 7-day Journey I was due to fly home to New York and start a gig freelancing for New York Fashion Week with KCD and handling all the big shows they handle (For color, I’d end up being staffed on Jason Wu, Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler, Victoria Beckham and Tory Burch). I knew I was a good writer, having always done well in English classes, etc. But it wasn’t where I’d figured out that I actually wanted to be.
Anyways, back to Brighton. I guess I thought it would be a fun place to visit? The whole Lydia Bennet running away with Mr. Wickham from Brighton clearly ringing in the back of my mind. It was a really sleepy town for my taste, but I was also a twenty-two-year-old not spending my post grad trip on the French Riviera or whatever, so pot, kettle, I suppose. The Brighton pavilion was interesting from the nerdy, architectural perspective with the clear South Asian influences. I would have never admitted it to myself then, but I also loved the idea of it being King George’s naughty pavilion TBH.
The next few days were filled with stops in Chawton to see Jane Austen’s house museum (a bit kitschy, unfortunately), Followed by a visit to Winchester Cathedral, which was studied in the aforementioned Medieval Architecture class, but also where Jane Austen’s Grave is. I feel like I’ve learned more about the city in general (mostly from The Last Kingdom which is a wild German American co-production, and that lead guy is hot, in a Matty Healy kind of way honestly), since it was the HQ for English Kings prior to the Norman Invasion in 1066. Sorry? Did I not mention this piece would be filled with the random history facts? Welcome to the brain of a Gemini. JK. I’m zero percent sorry. If my brain has to retain all of these, you guys have to listen. I don’t make the rules lol.
The next stop was the very familiar Highclere castle from Downtown Abbey. It was just after the Third season would have aired, so they hadn’t gotten super Touristy yet, although there were a few knick knacks on display from the production.
From there it was on to Salisbury, with a walk through the cathedral and around the town. This stop courtesy of the 1995 Sense & Sensibility, which this picture below – was supposedly used as Exteriors for the girls’ trip to Town (aka London). I remember going to some cute little pub for dinner that night and being absolutely horrified by pub food. Next morning was a drive over to Wilton House, which has been used for Bridgerton, the 2020 Emma, Most of the Buckingham Palace interiors in the Crown, The Young Victoria (still one of my favorite movies), Darcy’s sitting room at Pemberley in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice, and even Season 2 of Outlander (which is particularly embarrassing that I didn’t know that given that I am related to one of the Producers) You should recognize this bridge from Bridgerton for sure.
Then then then – a long drive to one of the locations that to this day is one of my favorites: Stourhead house and gardens.
Obviously, it is where they filmed THIS SCENE. And it’s just as magical in person. It was heavily humid and overcast when I visited, and luckily not raining but it was the first time I did feel that hint of magic I was after. The idea that someone had been here, and they had made a movie that engendered such strong emotions in me. To this day. I think me, in my 30s, has a much similar attitude to Elizabeth Bennet compared to what I did in my early 20s.
In going through the photo diary to be able to recreate this narrative, here’s a very dangerous while driving on the motorway shot of Stonehenge. I’d been before. But idk why this felt funny to me at the time. Maybe it’s the idea that one of the wonders of the world is just casually in view from the motorway, and people drive past it every day. And it’s just there. Finally made it to Oxford where I’d be spending two nights, and cosplaying as an Oxford student. Obviously, Oxford University is the model for Hogwarts, and very much where His Dark Materials is set and shot. Both the atrocious 2007 movie and the creepy AF HBO series from a few years ago. Oxford is idyllic in a way that is hard to describe. And especially after Saltburn – I would definitely consider doing a Master here. I loved all the students around punting around the river. For the record – I’ve seen this on a tiktok – but there’s a scene in Harry potter about punting students. It is THIS. Not what most Americans assume as a football kick 😜
Another favorite? The next stop on this bizarre tour: Blenheim Palace. Its film credentials are not anywhere as impressive as its history, but they include: The Amazing E! show The Royals, Bridgerton, the recent Cinderella with Lily James, The Bond Film, Spectre, And I think that one Transformer’s movie? The one with all the WWII revisionist nonsense. I never saw it so can’t speak really. Also, apparently HP & The Order of the Phoenix?? My brain exploded so now I have to go and watch the movie again “in the name of research”.
Brief Pause while I go do just that.
Blenheim is cool though because it also has a bit of an American history – in the form of the Gilded Age New Yorker – Consuelo Vanderbilt who married the Duke of Marlborough. Next stop was Cambridge, ofc also a Uni town. This is also where I have a core memory – I wandered into a little print shop and bought this 25£ print of a girl behind a glass of Champagne. I still have it. It’s framed and hanging in my apartment now. As I bought it, the woman in the shop asked me “Are you a Young Lady of Fashion?” There was something about the phrase that tickled me. I can obviously remember it nearly eleven years later. And boy did she nail me on the head. I didn’t even know how true that statement would come to be.
But, continuing on, and Leaving Cambridge was a stop at Burghley House, aka the home of the most superb Judi Dench –ergh, I mean, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. The murals in that receiving room where they shot that scene are unreal. But history nerd that I am, loved (still loves TBH), that this house was built by Elizabeth I’s alleged Spymaster. I left that to drive up to Hardwick Hall aka…. MALFOY MANOR!!!!!!!! Bess of Hardwick honestly sounds like a badass, and would have loved to hang with her. It’s also supposedly where Mary Queen of Scots was under house arrest (who, according to my Mother we are beyond distantly related to, but I don’t believe it to be honest). Though, Bess and Mary Supposedly spent their time together Knitting so IDK.
This is where I had to make a return to Cambridge instead of continuing on North to Derbyshire, because I had left my passport in the safe of the little hotel I stayed at in Cambridge. And it is this incident that makes me triple check hotel safes when I leave nowadays. But this little detail meant as I returned on my drive further north, I got to see the changing landscape. I did pull over at one point and stop in a field of Heather, which in August was literally the most gorgeous purple. I’m a professed city girl, but DAMN, sometimes nature is beautiful guys.
The last two (and final stops) were Haddon Hall and Chatsworth in Derbyshire. My base was the cute lil village of Bakewell, where I stayed, but is also name checked in Pride & prejudice (the actual novel – which means Jane Austen probably drove through there at one point to be able to write it into a novel). Haddon Hall, a supremely Gothic pile has played host to crews while filming the Princess Bride, Elizabeth with Cate Blanchette, the Jane Eyre which brought Michael Fassbender to everyone’s notice, and ofc our Holy Grail. It’s that hilarious scene where Elizabeth gets the letter about Lydia’s Elopement and can’t get a word out and keeps running around in circles.
Obviously, Chatsworth was really the Crown Jewel in this whole trip, maybe more or less my reason for planning a week’s worth of driving Itineraries for me. It’s beyond fucking gorgeous. I still can’t even talk about how amazing it was. I honestly probably felt like the fictional Elizabeth, seeing her love’s home for the first time. And, as mentioned before there is speculation that Jane herself toured this way back when, as it is unofficially believed to be the actual inspiration for Pemberley. They’ve also shot The Duchess with Kiera Knightly (where she plays the Duchess of Devonshire, and the family still owns the house), Death Comes to Pemberley, The Crown, as well as a super sexy scene in Peaky Blinders, which was a bit shocking.
I really never wanted to leave. But I had to complete the grueling four-hour drive back to London (Weirdly it was the longest car ride I had ever taken at that time; my family had not been big on road trips growing up). And an eventual plane ride back to New York, where I dove into the next chapter of my life as a 2010s equivalent of a yuppie. But clearly, this trip had some deeply emotional and sentimental place in my heart. I’ve wanted to recount this trip for a long time, but haven’t really found a way to do it, especially given how long this piece ended up being (more than double what my other substack pieces have been!). As I’ve finished it and keeping in mind this took nearly eleven years to write, I’ve realized this post was for me more than anything. And I know substack isn’t supposed to be like LiveJournal, but sometimes that’s what you’re going to get from me. I did say this would be full of musings.
XOXO,
Casey