這一次剛好有朋友來劍橋找我，他之前是在這裡唸碩士，所以我跟他一起去Grantchester, Botanical Garden, 以及King's Backs之後，好像把劍橋該去的地方都複習過了，所以我們決定要從劍橋外面找一些漂亮的景點逛逛。
上了National Trust的網頁，查到劍橋三十分鐘公車車程距離有一個叫Anglesey Abbey的mansion + garden。所以挑了天氣大晴的一天，我們出發去Anglesey Abbey。
這是他們mansion外面好像釘十子架的一顆樹。我覺得蠻恐怖的，笑說他們樹不乖就釘在十字架上，供來賓觀賞。
花園以及房子內部，到處都是希臘羅馬式的雕像，而且大部份都是屬於運動或是狩獵型的雕像。這個房子之前的主人到老沒有娶妻，讓人馬上聯想到，他可能是1920年代的同志，不能自由戀愛，只好一輩子不娶妻，只能用希臘美男子的雕像來安慰自己。
我非常喜歡上面這一張照片中的牧羊女，手中拿著shepherd's hook。最近教英文時剛好教到John Milton的Lycidas。這是一首融合希臘羅馬牧羊詩，基督教，以及英國田園詩傳統的大作。牧羊詩裡的牧羊女通常都很高傲，牧羊男整天對著她唱情歌，她卻都不理會。我的email的名字其實就是當初讀牧羊詩非常羨慕那個世界的女生取的。
接下來是他的圖書館。這應該是最漂亮的兩個房間之一了。但是到處擺放的圖像，大部份都是英國歷任國王、王后，這些人也不見得是以好看聞名，所以又不是自己的祖宗，而且這個房子的主人其實是美國人，實在不太了解為什麼他要放英國的國王的圖像。
上面這一張照片是主要的dining room的照片。其實dining room蠻空蕩蕩的，有一點寂寞。Tour guide跟我們說他們的 pre dinner drinks只有十分鐘，還包含三分鐘從pre dinner drinks的房間走到這裡(超遠的，還在不同的樓層)。晚餐時間只有一小時。劍橋的formals大致上保留中世紀英國貴族的用餐習俗。我們的pre dinner drinks是半小時，用餐本身是一小時到一個半小時，然後post dinner drinks是一兩個小時。
這一次學到一招：pre dinner drinks是50% gin + 50% grapefruit juice。從來沒有在任何 formal上喝過這樣的pre dinner drinks。決定要記起來，跟Social Secretaries說，等天氣熱一點，我們的MCR Formal的pre dinner drinks就用這種drinks。
最令我印象深刻的就是他們的forrest path。小徑兩旁長滿daffodils，英國的陽光好像又特別的漂亮，能夠把daffodils的黃，以及樹的綠完全帶出來。
這時我跟我朋友一直爭論，daffodils 跟narcissus有什麼不同。原先我們以為嘴比較尖的是 narcissus，後來又想可能是黃色的是daffodils，然後白色的是narcissus。回家之後查wikipedia才知道，原來daffodils就是narcissus。
最後，附上Dorothy Wordsworth的一則跟daffodils有關的日記，之前在台灣讀的時候都沒有什麼感覺，現在重讀，腦海中就浮現出Anglesey Abbey的這個小徑。
When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow Park, we saw a few daffodils close to the water side. We fancied that the lake had floated the seed ashore and that the little colony had so sprung up. But as we went along there were more and more and at last under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road.
I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about and about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake, they looked so gay ever dancing ever changing.
This wind blew directly over the lake to them. There was here and there a little knot and a few stragglers a few yards higher up but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity and unity and life of that one busy highway. We rested again and again. The Bays were stormy, and we heard the waves at different distances and in the middle of the water like the sea.
接下來，是William Wordsworth很著名的一首詩，I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud，也稱之為Daffodils。
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
what wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
