Addendum

The town where I am staying had a little surprise for me.

I have never posted twice on the same day, but after I returned from a day of walking to and from and around Chawton, an entirely separate opportunity still awaited. Tired as I was, I chugged up the Alton high street toward the train station, because while planning this trip, I just happened to notice that they had a vintage attraction there called The Watercress Line. This is the real station, and real steam engine train that inspired the children’s favorite television series Thomas the Tank Engine. This would have passed well beneath my radar, so to speak, except for the fact that when he was three years old, my grandson loved Thomas the train, and my daughter made him a Hallowe’en costume that made him look like he was sitting in the train as the engineer, with a little cap. I still have the picture she sent of him, and she was so, rightfully, proud of the costume. It was the last time I have spoken with her, thirteen Octobers ago.

Seeing it when I was in France still planning this trip hit me like a body blow. But I could not, would not ever ignore it, and so, at the end of a day visiting Jane Austen, I saw that the station closed in just half an hour and hustled up that hill.

Thinking to just get a photo, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that people were just about to board for the last run of the day. They come from everywhere to experience the romance of steam train travel, it seems. I saw a man very nattily dressed, and discovered he was the porter. 

As the people boarded, he explained that the engine was further down and was just about to back up and couple with the train cars. So as it did, he answered my questions and showed me the coal bins and the water tanks, and I saw the engineer who was easing Thomas toward the coupling. I made a video of all this, but for some reason this site cannot seem to handle videos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Thomas was successfully hooked up, the passengers continued to board, and I walked down the platform to get more video of the train as it departed.

Standing alone down there, I found that I choked up as soon as I began to narrate the video, and it took a significant effort to narrate what was truly a wonderful treat. The whistle blew, and the puffs of steam made just that sound we all expect, and the black coal smoke came up from Thomas’ smoke stack, and they were off. The engineer in his blue coveralls waved kindly at me as they passed.

That night, at my lodgings at the Swan Inn in Alton, (extant in Jane’s day and with very kind staff) I had watercress salad with my dinner. I discovered that watercress was an extremely important crop in the late Victorian era, and children were made to eat watercress sandwiches for their health. It grows around here exceptionally well because of the very clear water that comes from the chalk soils. They still grow it south of town. Watercress must be the most charming crop on which to have a monopoly that I have ever heard of.