Cottages and Castles

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We took a coach out today to Osborne House, Queen Victoria’s “summer cottage” on the Isle of Wight, though of course the house itself is as big as Blenheim Palace. We explored the grounds a bit first. Out back stands a Swiss cottage the size of a small barn, which was used by the children to learn domestic skills. Even though they would never be normal children, Prince Albert wanted all of his children to understand how a normal English household was run, including cooking and gardening. The children also had their own museum and a field set up with barracks and trenches for war games—the ultimate play ground. The grounds are a lot more simple than Blenheim Palace. It feels a lot more liveable here.

Inside Osborne House was a study in contrasts. On the one hand, the lower level hallways are positively packed with art, particularly classical nude statues which seems odd to see in a Victorian house—who would actually want to live around all of that? It was all extremely grand and impressive—I didn’t know what to do with it all. But on the other hand, there was also art everywhere of children and mothers, especially on the upper floors, lots of family portraits and cherubs. Victoria and Albert were very family oriented people, and they came to Osborne to try to pretend to be a normal family. I could feel that longing for simply family togetherness all throughout the house, in spite of the grand displays of foreign art.

Next we coached over to Carisbrook Castle, a nice medieval ruin, very picturesque with purple flowers climbing up the sides of the stone walls. After doing a brief turn about the castle, I spent most of my time sitting inside the chapel catching up on my writing and staying out of the now pouring rain. There were lots of school groups visiting the castle and I was interested to hear a lot of their conversations about the church. One little girl pointed to a statue of Charles I asking if that was Jesus. Another boy said he didn’t think he should have to go in because he wasn’t religious. When the group leader told him he should still be able to appreciate it, he stated, “Well, it is very creative.” The atmosphere of these old churches is interesting; most of them seem to have many purposes other than serving as a place of worship. This one, for instance, was primarily a war memorial, with plastic poppies covering the roped off chapel and names of WWI soldiers carved into the wall. This all seems a little odd to me, but I suppose it shouldn’t, considering the number of activities that go on in a Mormon church building. I don’t know—it just feels a little sad that so many churches are primarily used as historical artifacts, concert halls, and art galleries instead of as places of worship.

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