Henrietta's House

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Coming from a Christian author, this is disappointing to me. Nowhere does the Bible teach that “sins committed for love are half-way to becoming virtues.” On the contrary, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that real love “does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.” Stealing “for love” isn’t actually loving; and it isn’t halfway to anywhere, it’s just wrong—because stealing is wrong. It bothered me that this issue was handled the way it was, especially in a book for children. That’s not a “moral lesson” that I want my children learning. When I searched for books related to Wells Cathedral in England, this author showed up. Officially a children's chapter book, published in 1942 but set closer to 1900 (and clearly a book of its time), "The Blue Hills" is a mix between Cathedral personnel and descriptions and a fairy tale. Henrietta, the central character, is thrilled that her brother is coming home from boarding school to the Cathedral Close where they live with their grandparents. On Hugh Anthony's birthday the grandparents, Dean, Canon, a missionary spouse, cousin and wife, and drivers, along with assorted dogs and horses, set out for a picnic in the nearby woods. Everyone is encouraged to state their own wish for the day and in magical ways they all come true. It is a gentle story, a sequel to Sister of Angels and City of Bells, a tapestry woven with words around the charm of an Edwardian summer, when as Elizabeth says ” this story is set at the beginning of the present century, and in those days the world was often silent and sleepy, and not the bustling, noisy place that it is today.” ( Goudge 1949.). She is of cause referring to the 20 th century and not the 21 st. Swear words, sexual references, hate speech, discriminatory remarks, threats, or references to violence

If you haven’t read A City of Bells, I recommend reading it first. (I reviewed it here.) You can certainly read The Blue Hills as a standalone, but the experience is richer if you have met and come to love the characters before. At the beginning of the book, Henrietta, the main character, sees a dog at the train station where she’s waiting to meet her adopted brother. The dog has chewed off his label, so no one knows who owns him, and the railroad is waiting for someone to come claim him. Henrietta feels sorry for the little dog, and she knows that her adopted brother is dying to have a dog for his upcoming birthday, so she steals the dog and gives him to her brother as a birthday present. Later, she feels terribly ashamed of her actions, and the narrator even says, “she gave up her soul for lost.” The dedication reads;- ” For Dorothy Pope. There were once two little girls, one had fair hair and lived in the Cathedral Close of Torminster and the other had dark hair and lived in the blue hills above the city, and they were friends. Now that they are grown up they are still friends, and the one who lived in Torminster dedicates this little book to the one who lived in the blue hills, because it was she who saw the White Fishes in the cave. ” ( Goudge 1942. ) Please note, if you have booked an individual room you may be allocated a room without a window or natural day light. One golden afternoon, Henrietta Ferranti, along with her family and friends, sets out for young Hugh Anthony's birthday party, and he's going to celebrate with the people he loves best, young and old alike. The day begins with a wish and ends with a revelation after a magical mystery tour. A procession of landaus and victorias, plus one motor car, are bound for the Blue Hills and Hugh's picnic. Whatever the reason, each of the horses and ponies carrying them mysteriously lost on its way to the Blue Hills.Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge was born on 24 April 1900 in Wells, Somerset, in Tower House close by the cathedral in an area known as The Liberty, Her father, the Reverend Henry Leighton Goudge, taught in the cathedral school. Her mother was Miss Ida Collenette from the Channel Isles. Elizabeth was an only child. The family moved to Ely for a Canonry as Principal of the theological college. Later, when her father was made Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, they moved to Christ Church, Oxford. I thought at first that the caves Elizabeth writes about so vividly were the ones at Wookey Hole, especially as the Old Man in the ruined house could have been a metaphor for the Witch of Wookey. with his wax figurines and pins. But there are no recorded sightings of cave fish in Wookey, and the caves themselves weren’t open to the public in the time that Elizabeth lived here. A delightful, more juvenile read, almost a fairy tale (indeed, it does end with the words "happily ever after"). Loving family, eccentric characters (including a modern equivalent of an evil wizard), woodland adventures, underground escapades and mystery and philosophical reflections sprinkled throughout, with of course, a most happy ending. She went to boarding school during WWI and later to Arts College, presumably at Reading College. She made a small living as teacher, and continued to live with her parents. During this time, she wrote a few plays, and was encouraged to write novels by a publisher. As her writing career took off, she began to travel to other nations. Unfortunately, she suffered from depression for much of her life. She had great empathy for people and a talent for finding the comic side of things, displayed to great effect in her writing. In 1941 as the story was being written, British troops were fighting in the desert against Rommel, the Germans were taking on the might of Russia and The Americans were about to enter the war after the massacre at Pearl Harbour. A gloomy time, with no end of the war in sight and on the home front the introduction of clothes rationing. What better place and time to escape to than the opulence of Wells in a time before either World Wars had blighted her generations life.

In response to Coronavirus (COVID-19), additional safety and sanitation measures are in effect at this property. It contains many of her childhood memories from the way that hat elastic hurts the chin, to stately picnics in the hillsBut instead of repenting and confessing and finding forgiveness, Henrietta simply keeps her guilt and shame buried inside her until the end of the book, when she finds out that the little dog she took was actually her own dog. Her father had bought him as a present for her and was sending the dog by train to the vet. So then there is a discussion among some of the characters about whether or not her action should be considered stealing. After arguments offered on both sides of the question, her grandfather (a clergyman) ends this discussion by saying, “And certainly sins committed for love are half-way to becoming virtues, and so, Henrietta, we’ll say no more about it.”