A Merry White Christmas!

The Lindenwoods Delight in Christmas Festivities!

 Lydia Lindenwood has been collecting some greens for the Christmas festivities.
How lovely her silk gown glows in the light!

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Byberry Cottage, home of Susan Fenimore Cooper, the authoress of "Rural Hours", published 1850.

This book, "Little Bird Red and Little Bird Blue, A Tale of the Woods" by M. Betham Edwards, originally belonged to Susan Fenimore Cooper's niece Susie Cooper. She received it as a Christmas gift in 1863.

Little Priscilla Lindenwood admires the dove on the Christmas tree.

The Lindenwoods of Corgyncombe are Queen Anne English wooden dolls made by talented dollmaker Kathy Patterson.

"Susie Cooper with a Merry Christmas"

The trim on Byberry Cottage reminds us of the lace on Lydia Lindenwood's gown!

 "December 19th, Long walk over the hills. We passed a cart standing in the woods, well loaded with Christmas greens, for our parish church. Pine and hemlock are the branches commonly used among us for the purpose; the hemlock, with its flexible twigs, and the grayish reverse of its foliage, produces a very pretty effect. We contributed a basket-full of ground-pine, both the erect and running kinds, with some glittering club-moss, and glossy pipsissiwa, for our share; it is not every year that we can procure these more delicate plants, as the snow is often too deep to find them."
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850,
by Susan Fenimore Cooper

The church the Coopers attended. How lovely it is in the new fallen snow!
Susan's father James Fenimore Cooper saw to the remodeling of the church in the Gothic Revival style in 1840.
The Cooper family is buried in the churchyard.

"December 25th, Christmas-day - But even under a cloudy sky, Christmas must always be a happy, cheerful day; the bright fires, the fresh and fragrant greens, the friendly gifts, and words of good-will, the "Merry Christmas" smiles on most faces one meets, give a warm glow to the day, in spite of a dull sky, and make up an humble accompaniment for the exalted associations of the festival, as it is celebrated in solemn, public worship, and kept by the hearts of believing Christians. "
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850,
by Susan Fenimore Cooper

The Lindenwoods and Tillie Tinkham, the seamstress mouse at Corgyncombe, decorating their Christmas tree with garland.

Susan Fenimore Cooper refers to snowflakes as "spangles". How delightful!

"Cold. Walked in the afternoon. It began to snow while we were out; but one minds the falling snow very little; it is no serious obstacle like rain. The pretty, white spangles, as they fell on our muffs, in their regular but varied shapes, recalled a passage in Clarke's Travels in Russia, where he admires the same delicate frost-work as a novelty. It is common enough in this part of the world. Since Mr. Clarke's day these pretty spangles have received the compliment of a serious examination, they have actually been studied, and drawn in all their varieties. Like all natural objects, they are very admirable in their construction, and they are very beautiful also."
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850,
by Susan Fenimore Cooper

"December 25th, Christmas-day - It is, in good sooth, Merry Christmas! The day is bright with blessings; all its hours are beaming with good and kindly feelings, with true and holy joys."
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850,
by Susan Fenimore Cooper

We at the Corgyncombe Courant hope our
Dear Readers had a very Merry Christmas!

Here is a link to a past post at the Corgyncombe Courant with other little dolls enjoying their Christmas tree:
Little Girls' Joys at Christmastide

Some of the photographs and some of the writings on this post are from previous Corgyncombe Courant posts that can be found here on the Corgyncombe Courant and from our web site and our previous postings elsewhere on the internet.


Our email:
atthecottagegate@yahoo.com

Photographs, images, and text copyright © 2000-2016 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson. All rights reserved. Photographs, images, and/or text may not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson.

http://corgyncombecourant.blogspot.com/2016/12/a-merry-white-christmas.html
copyright © 2016 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Carriage Ride at Hitty Beth's Towpath Cottage!

Meeting Hitty Beth's New Little Sisters!

Hitty Beth at Towpath Cottage invited the Corgyncombe Hittys over to see her splendid horse and carriage!

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What fun it always is to visit Hitty Beth and her Mum at Towpath Cottage!!!

Hitty Beth's Towpath Cottage

Riding in the carriage are Hitty Beth's sweet little sisters Hitty Abby and Hitty Emily. Between them is Corgyncombe's little bitty Hitty. Corgyncombe's Bobby, Hitty Diane and Hitty Bug walk alongside the carriage. Hitty Beth leads the horse.

Corgyncombe's Bobby helps Hitty Abby out of the carriage.
Hitty Diane thinks Bobby is quite smitten with Hitty Abby!

Bobby surrounds himself with Hitty Beth's farm animals.

Corgyncombe's new lad pets Towpath Cottage's horse.

Hitty Beth's little sisters Hitty Emily and Hitty Abby around the Christmas tree in the parlour at Towpath Cottage.

 

In the background is the stairway that Bobby rushed up at Hitty Beth's Valentine's party a couple of years ago. In his haste to rush up the stairs to pick out the nicest Valentine for Hitty Diane, Bobby fell down the stairs and had to sit out the party with an ice bag on his head!

The lovely fireplace in the parlour at Towpath Cottage.

Last year after Hitty Bug first arrived at Corgyncombe, she and Hitty Diane set up their little play kitchen for tea, all decorated for Christmas, at Corgyncombe. Hitty Bug is named Hitty Bug because we think she is as "cute as a bug".

Merry Christmas to Hitty Beth, Hitty Abby and Hitty Emily, and their Mum!
Fondly,
Diane, Sarah and the Corgyncombe Hittys


Some of the photographs and some of the writings on this post are from previous Corgyncombe Courant posts that can be found here on the Corgyncombe Courant and from our web site and our previous postings elsewhere on the internet.

Our email:
atthecottagegate@yahoo.com

Photographs, images, and text copyright © 2000-2016 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson. All rights reserved. Photographs, images, and/or text may not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson.

http://corgyncombecourant.blogspot.com/2016/12/a-carriage-ride-at-hitty-beths-towpath.html
copyright © 2016 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Autumnal Roses, St. Nicholas Tea, and Van Alen House!

The Queen Bestows a Diamond Upon Tillie Tinkham!

 Laura Lindenwood holding a rosebud from one of the David Austin roses at the Corgyncombe gardens.

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David Austin Rose "Mayflower" in the autumn at Corgyncombe.
This rose has a delightful old fashioned rose scent!
My daughter Sarah and I descend from several of the Pilgrims who came on the Mayflower in 1620.

 

Priscilla enjoys a cup of goat's milk and "Pink Lustre Violet Jelly" cookies.

David Austin Rose "Mayflower" at sunrise with beads of dew still upon its petals.

An October snow at Castle Corgyncombe.

The kitchen fireplace at the Van Alen house, circa 1737, in Kinderhook, "York State".

Amongst some of our early ancestral Dutch families is the Van Alen family.

Laura made some gourd soup for the holidays.

"It is snowing decidedly. We shall doubtless have sleighing for the holidays."
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850, by Susan Fenimore Cooper

Susan oft' times used the word "decidedly"!

"The domain of Santa Claus has very much extended itself since his earliest visits to the island of Manhattan, when he first alighted, more than two hundred years ago, on the peaked roofs of New Amsterdam, and made his way down the ample chimneys of those days."
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850, by Susan Fenimore Cooper

A bowl of chocolates in the Van Alen kitchen.

"But Santa Claus is not a sensible man; he is a funny, jolly little old Dutchman, and he and the children understand each other perfectly well."
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850, by Susan Fenimore Cooper

St. Nicholas Day was December 6th.
Wilma made a Dundee cake for St. Nicholas Tea.
She enjoys tea with Elspeth.

Making clove oranges, also called pomanders, especially near Christmastide, is a most fragrant tradition at Corgyncombe Cottage. After the cloves have been put in all round the fruit, it is rolled in an orris root and cinnamon mixture. Orris root is a ground powder from the rhizomatous roots of Iris Florentina.

Tiles round the fireplace at the Van Alen house.

When lit, the Advent wreath creates such lovely shadows and light on the ceiling at Corgyncombe.

A receipt for Dundee Cake is in "The Tasha Tudor Cookbook".
I never add the citron nor the raisins as called for in the receipt, but add more than the called for amount of currants and in addition to the almonds in the receipt, add walnuts.
This combination makes the most delicious Dundee cake!

In her cookbook Tasha Tudor says to decorate the top of the Dundee cake with cherries and almonds. I have always decorated my Dundee cakes in a different pattern than those that I have seen Tasha illustrate. I use the cherry as the center with almonds or other nuts around the cherries forming flower-like shapes. I also use the currants to decorate the top of the Dundee cake.

"At present they can only fancy Santa Claus as Mr. Moore has seen him, in those pleasant, funny verses, which are so highly relished in our nurseries:

"His eyes, how they twinkled! His dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses - his nose like a cherry ;
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow.
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face, and a little, round belly,
That shook, when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly;
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf;
And I laughed, when I saw him, in spite of myself."
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850, by Susan Fenimore Cooper

Tillie Tinkham, the seamstress mouse at Corgyncombe, has a rose for the Queen.
The Queen will bestow upon Tillie the diamond as big as Tillie's shoe.

Little mouse, little mouse, where have you been?
Gathering roses to give to the Queen.
Little mouse, little mouse, what gave she you?
She gave me a diamond as big as my shoe.
~ Adapted from an old nursery rhyme

Little Alice Parsons in ribbons and lace, with her Mother, who looks like a fairy godmother as she holds a little slipper.
In this fairytale like scene, the Mother's gown and the little slipper take on a radiant luster as little Alice holds a book and looks intently at the little satin slipper.
Perhaps her Mother was telling her the story of Cinderella!

Nearby the dollhouse is our old fashioned table top Christmas tree like my Grandmum always had! The tree is surrounded by an old fashioned fence; it looks like a park in the distance from the house. In front of the dollhouse are little trees and another fence.
The address 863 Park Avenue is above the door.

Alice and her family lived at the real life 863 Park Avenue, built in 1908, and this dollhouse was  found at their old estate in Connecticut. The estate was the family's summer home, the rest of the year they lived in Manhattan, New York.

Some of the photographs and some of the writings on this post are from previous Corgyncombe Courant posts that can be found here on the Corgyncombe Courant and from our web site and our previous postings elsewhere on the internet.

Our email:
atthecottagegate@yahoo.com

Photographs, images, and text copyright © 2000-2016 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson. All rights reserved. Photographs, images, and/or text may not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson.

http://corgyncombecourant.blogspot.com/2016/12/autumnal-roses-st-nicholas-tea-and-van.html
copyright © 2016 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~