Ideally, we would publish every review we receive, whether positive or negative. However, we won’t display any review that includes or refers to (among other things): But 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.”

Across the garden and 27-hectare (66-acre) riverside parkland, the villa’s grotto has been transformed to its 18th-century appearance, and previously inaccessible woodland areas have also been opened up. 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.” 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. All of the people invited on Hugh Anthony’s birthday picnic end up getting “lost”. None of them with the exception of Grandmother’s party arrive at their preordained destination. But all of them are enriched by their experiences, they all attain something vital to their well being, even if like the Dean they didn’t at first know that this was necessary.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. English Heritage reinstalled the serpentine paths and replanted the avenues of trees from the house to the river, “recreating the vista that the owner and her guests enjoyed”, and established wildflower meadows in the wider park. A ninepin bowling alley has also been restored following its excavation.

Goudge's first book, The Fairies' Baby and Other Stories (1919), was a failure and it was several years before she authored Island Magic (1934), which is based on Channel Island stories, many of which she had learned from her mother, who was from Guernsey. After the death of her father, Goudge and her mother went to Devon, and eventually wound up living there in a small cottage. There, she wrote prolifically and was happy.After the death of her mother, and at the wishes of Goudge's family who wished her to live closer to them, she found a companion who moved with her to Rose Cottage in Reading. She lived out her life there, and had many dogs in her life. Goudge loved dogs, and much preferred their company to that of humans. She continued to write until shortly before her death, when ill health, successive falls, and cataracts hindered her ability to write. She was much loved. It was difficult to come up with a star rating for this book. If I were only evaluating its artistic/literary merit, it would be a solid five stars. If I were only evaluating its morality/worldview/theology, I would give it three stars. So I’m sort of averaging them to give it four. Food & beverage services at this property may be limited or unavailable due to Coronavirus (COVID-19). The story starts with Henrietta waiting on the platform for Hugh Anthony to return for the holidays from boarding school ending their first separation from each other, and chronicles the delights of a summer in the countryside surrounding the tiny city where Elizabeth lived out the first few years of her life.

The Dean recaptures his innocence and love of his fellow man, Hugh Anthony loses some of his pride and arrogance. Grandfather rescues another soul in distress, Jocelyn and Felicity lose their car and find fairy land, and Henrietta, well Henrietta finds her hearts desire. 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. These guidelines and standards aim to keep the content on Booking.com relevant and family-friendly without limiting expression of strong opinions. They are also applicable regardless of the sentiment of the comment. 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.

Save time, save money!

I just finished rereading The Blue Hills, a delightful novel by Elizabeth Goudge. Published in the UK as Henrietta’s House, it is a sequel to A City of Bells, which I reviewed here. But where A City of Bells is aimed at adults (although it does include two children in its ensemble cast), The Blue Hills is more of a fairytale that will appeal equally to children and adults.

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. Each review score is between 1-10. To get the overall score that you see, we add up all the review scores we’ve received and divide that total by the number of review scores we’ve received. In addition, guests can give separate ‘subscores’ in crucial areas, such as location, cleanliness, staff, comfort, facilities, value for money and free Wi-Fi. Note that guests submit their subscores and their overall scores independently, so there’s no direct link between them. In response to Coronavirus (COVID-19), additional safety and sanitation measures are in effect at this property. Anyone else who spots something suspicious can always report it to our Customer Service team, so our Fraud team can investigate. 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.

Returns Procedure

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. Ocr tesseract 5.2.0-1-gc42a Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.9727 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-NS-1300390 Openlibrary_edition Goudge’s insight and the beauty of her descriptive writing are joined here by the sense of wonder and delight displayed in The Little White Horse and several of Goudge’s other children’s books. Yet this remains a book for all ages. Goudge’s observations on the human spirit are no less cogent for being couched in the language of fairytales, where giants keep their hearts in paper bags, birthday wishes come true, and adventure brings each one closer to their better self. Goudge was awarded the Carnegie Medal for The Little White Horse (1946), the book which J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter stories, has said was her favorite as a child. The television mini-series Moonacre was based on The Little White Horse. Her Green Dolphin Country (1944) was made into a film (under its American title, Green Dolphin Street) which won the Academy Award for Special Effects in 1948. 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.