The Tring about Hertfordshire

Tuesday and Wednesday I was at a retreat for work in the town of Tring Northwest of London in the county of Hertfordshire. Prior to the trip, I only knew Hertfordshire as the location of the Bennet’s house in Pride and Prejudice, where they discuss London as if it’s some huge distance: Lizzy has never even been and she’s in her 20s; Lydia runs away to London and their father goes to find her and is away for like weeks and they act as though hearing from him is incredibly unlikely because it’s just so far. Today you can reach Tring from central London by train service that runs every half hour and takes 40 minutes, which is why the future is amazing. I mean that and not dying in childbirth or having your estate entailed away from you and whatnot. That too.

The retreat was at Pendley Manor, which is pretty much as old-timey and spectacular as it sounds. They claim the manor has a history dating back to 1066 when William the Conqueror confiscated the land and gave it to his brother-in-law, which seems to sort of be stretching the truth, since whatever building was on it in 1835 burned down and they didn’t start the current building until 40 years later. I mean, I don’t want to be critical because it’s still a pretty old and impressive building, but presumably the land existed before William the Conqueror showed up and this building didn’t exist until 800 years later, so this seems either too early or too late a point to start the history of the place, although I suppose they mean recorded history.

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A professor at dinner was trying to explain how the spiralling chimneys are Tudor style (which I would have guessed because they look the same as the ones at Hampton Court), but then something else is more Victorian style so they must have redone it later. Windows? Columns? I can’t remember now. Architecture: not really my area.

And, at the risk of making this all about famous books, you know that part in the 4th Harry Potter where they all go wizard camping and there is a giant tent that you are supposed to realize belongs to some ostentatious rich family (which I believe later turns out to be the Malfoys) because it has peacocks wandering around? Apparently that is actually a thing here. The couple of dinners and nicer buildings that I’ve been to have all had peacock statues. This place had live peacocks.

Anyway, this was the fancy room I had to myself:

The retreat was great. I heard a lot about what other people are doing and ran into another recent transplant from Toronto (we’re taking over).