THE FARM AND A TRIP TO PENNSBURY MANOR

A busy day today.   It began with a trip to the farm.  I got a lot!

2 lbs. of red potatoes
4 peaches
2 lbs. of tomatoes
bunch of parsley
4 squash (8 ball and Cousa)
organic Spring Mix
1 baby watermelon
2 red peppers
3 cucumbers
1 dozen eggs
1/2 lb. baby Swiss cheese

Joe had a tomato, swiss and lettuce sandwich for lunch and said it was wonderful.

This afternoon Joe and I met my friend Carole and her family (including her cousin Lisa who she is staying with ) and we went to Pennsbury Manor.  Carole used to be one of my Sunday School students when she was a teenager and is the daughter of my former pastor.  She lives in Kentucky now, but is here with her three daughters visiting her family.  I haven't seen her in 10 years, so this was a wonderful treat.

We got there rather late and missed the last tour.  But we were able to walk around and since I have been there 7 times before, I was able to be the tour guide for everyone.  Mostly we saw animals, birds and insects.  It was more like a nature tour than anything else.


Here's a few of the better pictures.  We saw a little bunny in the vegetable garden.

I was trying to get another shot when he hopped away.  Rabbits are fast!

There was a dragonfly on one of the bushes.  We took a lot of pictures of it.  This was the best one.

Here's one of Joe and I.

Carole's girls were fascinated by this big chair.  This is Sami and Emily.

And little Lily.

We found a bush with tons of butterflies on it.

There was a barn with a goose in it.  A mean goose who chased us out of the building.

Outside was a peacock.  Even though he had shed his feathers last week, he was still magnificent.

This view toward the river was so beautiful.

We saw the oxen and the horse from a distance, but couldn't figure out how to get close to them.

We had a beautiful day.  Next time I have to get Joe there in time to take the tour.

PENNSBURY MANOR -- PART 2

Here's the conclusion of my trip to Pennsbury Manor.  I want to note that although the furnishings are authentic 300 year old pieces, they did not necessarily belong to the Penn family.  Apparently Penn's sons were not interested in the estate, sold off things and let it fall into ruin.

This is a portrait of William Penn's father.  It's hanging in the upper hall.

 This is William and Hannah's bedroom.   The box on the bed is a laptop writing desk.  (The guide called it the first laptop computer.  Ha, ha.)  Penn suffered from gout and many days could not get out of bed, so he worked on the commonwealth's business here.

This is his adult daughter Letitia's bedroom.  It was very pretty and feminine.

Here's the Great Hall.  The servants and slaves sat on benches at this table to eat.  When the Penns had company, they would pull the chairs up to the table and eat here.

This is a portrait of Queen Katherine, the wife of King Charles II.  The pewter charger on the left hand side is known to definitely belong to William Penn.  His initials are on it.

The red chest was where Hannah Penn kept her linens (tablecloth, napkins, etc.)  In the back you can see a linen press.  There were no irons, so this is how they got the tablecloths smooth and the creases just so.  The portrait on the wall is of Charles II.  We were moving right along and I didn't have time to take a picture of it.

 In a hallway between the Great Hall and a back room there were two little storage rooms.  This was the one on the right.

 And this was the one on the left.

 In the back room Hannah made medicines.  Apparently it was the job of the "lady of the house" to make sure all the tenants were healthy.

 In the bakehouse this lady is making something over the fire.  Can you guess what it is?

 Soap!  Which is pretty funny because we found out that they only bathed twice a year -- spring and fall -- and washed their clothes only three times a year -- spring, summer and fall.  Guess that's why there isn't very much soap being made.

In the cooking part of the building they were making bread and stew.  The fire was very hot.  I would not want to cook in a fireplace in the middle of summer.

These people were making a lemon cake and almond macaroons.  I was able to talk with the lady at length about 17th century cooking.  It seems they ate only one large meal a day between 2 and 4 p.m.  Their breakfast was whatever was left over from the night before.  Because there was no refrigeration all the food had to be consumed quickly so it wouldn't spoil.

When I saw this large cask I thought perhaps this was the laundry room.  But no, they didn't wash, remember?  This was the brewery.  They made beer.  Lots and lots of beer.  Every person drank about 5 quarts of beer a day.  The gentry drank the most potent, the servants the next, and the slaves and children the least potent.  Carole and I were guessing that because they didn't eat a lot, the beer kept their stomachs full.

Once outside we saw a peacock.

We saw some oxen and an Arabian horse.  The guide said they don't know if Penn owned Arabians, but he had white horses, so this is the representative white horse.

I don't think I've ever seen oxen before.

There were some sheep too.

There is a beehive in the herb garden.  Since they grew all their own fruits, vegetables and herbs it was a great way to pollinate their plants.  And they got honey besides.

Penn had his own barge which he kept in a boathouse.  I thought it was interesting that it was built in Southwest Harbor, Maine where my brothers and sister and her family live.  They used to work for a company that built yachts.  I will have ask them if this is the company they used to work for.

And here's Penn's barge.

 It was a great day.  It was windy and got cold toward the end of the tour so we were happy to get back into the car.  Since Joe has never been there hopefully I can take him with me next time.

CHARTER DAY AT PENNSBURY MANOR

Yesterday was Charter Day in Pennsylvania.  It is the anniversary of March 4, 1681, the day King Charles II of England gave a land grant to William Penn to found the colony of Pennsylvania. 
 
The following is from the Pennsylvania State Achives:
"Essential to Penn was freedom of worship. He had become a member of the Religious Society of the Friends of God, commonly called Quakers. They did not attend services in a parish church, but met in private homes and plain meeting houses.  They worshiped in silence unless a Friend were inspired by the Holy Spirit to speak. They permitted women to address their meetings. They refused to swear oaths and were pacifists. As a result, the English magistrates physically abused, fined, and imprisoned them. Penn himself was confined in the Tower of London at times."

On June 24, 1680, Penn asked King Charles II for a charter for land in America. The only available tract in eastern North America lay west of New Jersey, north of Maryland, and south of New York, an area that England had conquered from the Dutch in 1664 and which the King had given to his brother James, the Duke of York. After appropriate discussions, the King granted Penn's request.

William Penn traveled to the New World with the charter to a 26-million-acre tract of land to start his dream of a "Holy Experiment" free from religious persecution. He met with the local Native American tribes to ask for peace and for their blessing to settle the land. Penn plotted out the village of Philadelphia between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. His focus then turned to building a manor house.

The manor is located along the banks of the Delaware River, between the river and Van Sciver Lake. Construction at Pennsbury was begun soon after Penn's arrival in the colony in 1682 and completed in about 1686. In addition to the house, there were separate buildings for baking and brewing, a large stable, a boathouse, and numerous farm buildings. Penn's plan was to establish the sort of gentleman's country estate that had been his home in England.

Pennsbury Manor, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 28, 1969. 

My friend, Carole, and I left our husbands home, had a "Girls' Day Out", and went to Pennsbury Manor's free day of celebration.  All of the outbuildings had costumed guides and they showed us how various things were done in the 17th century.

 This is the view from the parking lot.  How beautiful it must have been when Penn saw it for the first time in 1682.

Statue of William Penn in front of the Visitors' Center.

The main road to the manor house with all the outbuildings.

A carpenter at the woodworking shop.

The smokehouse.

This is the well outside the manor house.  My sister and I visited Pennsbury when we were little and both had our picture taken holding onto the handle.  Ah, the memories.

The view from the front of the house.

Front garden of the manor house.

Another view of the garden.

The back garden from an upstairs window.

The best parlor where Hannah Penn served her guests tea.  The picture on the wall is of William Penn's grandfather.  The rug is on the table.  Rugs were so valuable that people would not put them on the floor to be walked on and have food spilled on them.  They showed them off on the table.

William Penn's office where he met with dignitaries from England and representatives from the Native American tribes.  The Native Americans were so impressed with him and his honesty in dealing with them that when they wanted to compliment someone, they would say he was like William Penn.

A 300 year old clock.  The green tiles around the fireplace are original to the house.

Some more of the green tile around the fireplace in the porch (or entrance hall).  The original house fell into disrepair and was torn down in the late 1700s.  This recreation was built in the 1930s from descriptions in Penn's letters.  Since he was away from home so much, he sent his workers detailed descriptions of what the house should look like.

If Penn really liked you and wanted to continue his business discussion with you, he would take you into this room which adjoined the office.  You would be served refreshments and continue your conversation.  As the first governor of Pennsylvania he did lots of business from these two rooms.

This is the guest bedroom.  The walls are covered in silk.  Love the colors.  It was so bright I don't know how anyone could sleep in there.

And here's the bed.  There must have been lots of mosquitos around living that close to the river so at least they provided netting to keep you safe from malaria.

This is Hannah Penn's sewing/drawing room.  When ladies came to call she would bring them to this room to visit.  The panes of glass that look reddish are because the glass is so old and it has changed color.

This is Hannah's comfortable (?) chaise lounge.  Obviously comfort wasn't a big thing in the 17th century.

William Penn remarried after his first wife died.  Hannah was his second wife.  When she came to America she was pregnant.  Penn had 15 children, but only the youngest, John, was born in America.  He was given the nickname "the American."  This is John's nursery.  There is a device to dry his stockings by the fireplace and his pewter baby bottle was heated there as well.

Here is John's cradle, the nurse's bed and believe it or not a rocking potty chair.  OK.  Yeah, I like rocking on my potty chair too.

There is more to show and I will post those pictures tomorrow.