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Published: March 31st 2019
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Government House Dining room 1805
By-gone elegance for the Lieutenant- Governor Our morning began with another lecture by
John Mullan, this time entitled “Persuasion and Self-delusion”. Although his talks are entertaining and well referenced, I did not totally agree with him. I thought some of the characters were not self-delusional but trying to talk themselves into accepting difficult circumstances. Something to ponder, which means the conference is indeed a success.
Later in the morning, we boarded the bus to go to
Government House for a reception with the
Lieutenant Governor, JJ Grant. After a brief tour of the well-proportioned Georgian home, we were ushered into the ballroom, set up with rows of chairs. The aide-de-camp welcomed us, and then announced that the Lieutenant Governor was unavoidably called away due to a personal matter; later we learned that sadly his son had died unexpectedly. As protocol dictated, the aide-de-camp read the Lieutenant Governor’s speech exactly as written, using the first person singular. Odd, but reasonable.
Patrick Stokes, our conference organizer, spoke briefly in thanks. The main talk was given by the head of the Nova Scotia region of the Jane Austen Society of North America. She explored the role of dance and dress in Austen’s works, complete with a small dance troupe performing a Regency dance
Uniacke House
Not too large for owners, children and servants – so reminiscent of our own Calgary “
Sprigged Muslin” dancers.
The reception stage of this event over-lapped our lunch reservation. We all politely ate a tea sandwich or small piece of cake, and left fairly quickly. Ryan Duffy’s restaurant had taken the trouble to create a Regency lunch such as Jane Austen might have eaten, with modern options for the less adventurous. Unfortunately, service was very slow, and the portions were very large. I was glad to have ordered the salad, rather than the heavy “
White Soup”, which was a favourite in Regency times. My main course featured a whole (!) haddock, lightly coated and fried. The Nova Scotia white wine called “
Tidal Bay ”, was the perfect accompaniment. My attempt to channel Jane Austen was to have a
Bath Bun for dessert, although I didn’t like it any better than the one I had in Bath, England – too doughy and bland.
Completely off schedule, we drove about 45 minutes into the
Annapolis Valley, which looked lush with green fields, leafy bushes and groves of trees. We turned into one of the original estates, now the
Uniacke Estate Museum Park.
Richard Uniacke, a very successful politician and lawyer, built the large Georgian manor house as a
summer retreat in the early 1800’s. The significance of its location was demonstrated by the master bedroom overlooking the post road, a highly regarded communications route in the days of horse travel. Virtually the entire estate and the contents of the house were given over intact when it became a museum – all the rooms are authentic to when the Uniacke’s were raising their twelve children. Even with such evident wealth, the congregation of so many children in the largest rooms and shared bedrooms must have created constant chaos.
The bit of drizzle from earlier had dried into a soft sunny afternoon, and we enjoyed the wide porch that overlooked a nearby lake and the well-tended lawns. To walk out onto the lawns was to get wet ankles, but photos must be taken, thus feet get wet.
Once back in town, Deirdre and I avoided the line-up at the elevator by going for a walk around the block. On the way we stopped at Pete’s grocery, once a local business. With hummus as a snack rather than having dinner, we relaxed in our room. Mid-evening we went down to the hotel’s pub and ordered the sampler tray of
Uniacke whale oil lamp
The historic reason for hunting whales was for the oil. local beers. I liked the “Double IPA” better than the red ale.
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Isabel Gibson
non-member comment
Protocol and practical suppers
Isn't that a lovely insight into what would be -- for me at least -- the opacity of proper protocol. Of course the approach with the speech makes sense, after one sees it, but I'd never have thunk of it. And a snack in place of another full-on meal also seems right, although I don't always think of that either. :-)