Williamsburg Day 3

April 1st

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This is quite a lengthy post, but it truly was my favorite day!

It was slightly overcast today, but fortunately the sky held back, and it did not rain. We met the other family on the green of the Courthouse. The mom of the other family surprised Kristi and me by inviting us to go on a carriage ride with her girls. Thank you! While we were on the green, we decided to take pictures of us four girls by the cannon for Captain Innes - his “three pound cannons”. 

We walked over to the lumber house ticket office to await our carriage ride. Our team drove up. It was a beautiful open red carriage with two brown horses - Eli and Jeremiah. An open carriage - that meant that we would be fully visible in our costumes. Many people were taking pictures and waving at us, so we just keep smiling and waving. The weather was perfect. It was windy, but it wasn’t hot or cold. As we rode up the palace green, Mr. Monroe was walking by. He greeted us and wished us safe travels. After riding past the palace green, we turned onto Nicholson Street, and rode there for a while. As we passed the cart right’s shop, and young man exited from the yard, and crossed the street behind us. He tipped his had and called out “Good day ladies!” with a kindly smile. The other girls had never seen him before, so we figured perhaps he was new, and was still trying to make friends.  We turned onto a side street, then were clip clopping down Duke of Glouster Street. We rode past several shops, Chowning’s Tavern, the Courthouse, the magazine, and then back to the ticket house. Getting out of the carriage in a long skirt was quite arduous indeed, but I succeeded in climbing down the three rickety steps without tripping on my skirts and falling headlong. 

Our next activity was a private visit with Marquis de Lafayette in the Tucker house. Mama had me sit directly on his right. She actually had written up a little conversation in french that she wanted me to say to him - some nonsense about him asking me to marry him at Versailles. Naturally, I refused. He was a pleasure to listen too. Le Marquis was so enthusiastic for the American cause, and his french accent with little french phrases thrown here and there, enhanced the stories he told of his trip to America. Half way through the program, he asked us if we minded if he introduced us to a friend of his. Of course we all agreed, so he got up and went to a closet, opened it, then closed the door, then returned not as le Marquis, but as Mark Schneider. He had stepped out of character for us - a very special privilege for the guests of the Tucker house. 

Today was the agreed day for when we’d all eat at a tavern together. We decided to eat at the King’s Arms Tavern. While we waited for a table for eight I visited the milliners shop. I didn’t have much time to ask questions though for we were invited to the waiting room at the King’s Arms. While we waited, us girls randomly started singing hymns together, improvising the harmonies, to pass the time. We did not have to wait long however, and we were soon ushered into a large room with hunter green wallpaper, decorative ivory molding, and a large fireplace. A large table had been set for us in the center of the room. It was so nice to be all together in the beautiful room!

Our waitress, Susanna, was very kind, and when she found out I was gluten free, she brought me a side salad as an appetizer because I couldn’t have the bread offered to everyone else. She also speaks french, as well as another waiter, George, who gave advice about my offered trip to France. They loved our singing! Susanna had me make my order in french - it was fun! I was able to figure out most of the words. Shortly after we had started our meal, a man in colonial attire entered the room - presumably to entertain us. He was funny and slightly sarcastic. He gave us a colonial manners lesson, and was impressed with how much our family knew. One of the girls demonstrated a curtesy for him, which she did quite nicely. After his lesson was completed, he said farewell and left the room. He returned a moment later, and Mama called to him to ask a question, but he apologized and said he must run an errand but would return soon. He did return soon but with a sealed letter in his hand. The red wax was stamped with a large S. He handed it to Kristi, who held it while we asked him to sign our shirts. As soon as he was gone, we eagerly read the letter. On the outside was written “A Note of Thanks”. This is what it said:

Sirs and Mistresses,

A note of thanks to you and yours. I wish 

to compliment you on your spirit of history and hope 

we may cross paths in the future. 

Your excellent attention to detail and interest 

in history are a refreshing sight amongst some and 

their current state of fashion.

Should you ever have a need for assistance 

while here, I hope you will not hesitate to call upon me.

Yours, 

Mr. S.

We were quite surprised and pleased to receive such a letter! After we had enjoyed dessert, a large serving of vanilla ice cream in a meringue bowl with fresh strawberries, we decided that the parents would go to a program at the Hennage Auditorium, and the girls would go to the Charlton stage to see a program and visit a friend of the other family. I had wanted to go to a special tour of the Fife and Drum building, but it had filled up. The group let me break away for a few minutes to go back to the milliners shop. I spent a few minutes inside, but the lady inside seemed rather impatient to answer all my questions, so I decided to come back the next day. I was notably cheerful as I walked down the street to meet the other girls. I saw one of the generals walking down the center of the road. I gave a quick curtesy, for I didn’t expect him to see me for I was off to the side. But to my surprise he stopped, and gave me a full bow. I quickly when back into the curtesy position and held it for a respectable length, then walked on. Continuing on, I saw Mr. Monroe on his horse. I have him a curtesy as well, and he tipped his hat and called “Good day, Madam!” I responded with “Good day to you!” and moved on again. It’s very encouraging to receive such polite greetings everyday. I believe it’s one of the reasons I like Williamsburg so much. I met the girls at the Charlton stage where we watched the performance. It was about how hard it was for the interpreters to deal with slavery and how visitors keep judging them. Mr. Prentis was in it, and afterwards, we got him to sign our shirts! (Before, he seemed annoyed with us). To our surprise, he was very kind and thanked us multiple times for being there. I also had Mrs. Elizabeth Randolph sign my shirt. After this, we had the pleasure of meeting one of the other family's dear friends, “Aunt Betty”. She used to work in Williamsburg as Mrs. Randolph, but due to continuing health issues, the foundation had to let her go. She is very sweet! We went on a walk around the city with her. We passed the cart right’s shop again, and the young man once again called out a greeting to us. He looks like a blonde version of Ben from the Felicity movie. As it grew near to five o’clock, I was growing anxious to get back to the Raleigh to see the beginning of “On to Yorktown and Victory!”. But Aunt Betty said she couldn’t stand to see that performance again. So the group moved on in the opposite direction. I was miserable as I heard the starting of the fife and drum music, but I moved on with the rest for I had been told to stay with the group. I confided in Kristi how I was feeling, and she decided to do something about it. We were to meet the adults at the Mary Dickinson store, so she asked the rest of the group to wait there while we went to see the program on the green of the Courthouse. They agreed, and sat outside the shop talking. Kristi and I hurried to the green. To my delight, I saw that it was the senior fife and drum core! Before we had only seen the junior core, which was very good, but the senior core was so much more amazing. They were in their proper red and blue uniforms with tan breeches instead of the hunting shirts and a rainbow of different colored breeches worn by the junior core. They looked so professional standing on the  green. We had missed the beginning of the march, but were just in time for the address from the general - the same one who had greeted me on the street. The Marquis was there. He cantered out on the green on his beautiful horse. It was very impressive. We followed close behind as the core marched back down Duke of Glocstsr street. Kristi felt sorry for me, and videoed the entire march. They did several patterns as they walked which added to the performance. At the end, Kristi even stood in front of the group for the video, which I imagine was rather intimidating. 

When they were done, we wanted a picture with one of the members, but felt weird asking a boy. 

So we walked up to a girl who was standing nearby. We praised her music and told her how much we appreciated it, and asked if we could take a selfie with her. She was amazed, and more then happy to take a picture with us. He mom even offered to take one on the tavern steps, and she handed us her drumsticks. We were instant friends. We are musicians, she is a musician. We love history, she loves history. She was dressed in costume, we were dressed in costume. 

She was quite impressed that I had made my dress. 

We talked and talked, but then we had to go for Mama and Daddy would be worried about us. To my delight, she said she would be here tomorrow, so we could talk more! We agreed, and exchanged email addresses. We were so excited that we ran when we saw Mama and Daddy sitting outside the post office and hurried to tell them everything that had happened. Everyone was so happy for us! We walked to the Raleigh for our next activity, “Escape the King”. Only us girls were to participate in this activity. All we knew was that you get locked into a room by a British soldier, and have one hour to find clues to escape. There were eight other people participating. One was a little girl, and the rest were older men and women, including a FBI agent we had met earlier. A young lady came out of the tavern, took our tickets and told us the rules, and gave us some advice for solving the mystery: Don’t get frustrated, talk amongst yourselves, and don’t force things to open. We were ushered into the dark entry hall. There were 3 doors, and a staircase. Involuntarily, we formed a line down each wall. The lady said “I believe your host is ready for you”, walked between our two lines, and knocked loudly on the door at then end of the hall, and quickly ran back to the front door. There was a loud rustling noise coming from inside, then the door flew open and a very tall, and truly scary British officer walked out. I had to fight back a smile for two reasons. First, the officer was Mr. Prentis, and secondly, the atmosphere was down right cool. Several people actually laughed, but I quickly suppressed my smile and imagined I really lived during the Revolution, and was about to be interrogated by a British soldier who wanted me to be dead. He paced up and down our line in silence several times. I forced myself to made eye contact with him, which was one of the hardest things to do. This officer, even though he the same man who played the role of Mr. Prentis, was scary. His eyes were piercing, and it seemed as though he could read your mind.
He laughed at us in a teasing manner, and insulted the Patriot cause.
He told us we were all suspected of treason. Our neighbors had turned us in.
His general was going to interrogate us in one hour.
He ordered us us into another room,
and told us to put our belongings in a chest by the door.
He reminded us that he would be watching us,
and that we only had one hour before our interrogation.
He slammed the door, locked it and laughed on the other side.
The young lady host stood quietly watching us from one corner of the room. 

SPOILER ALLERT. I DON'T EXPLAIN EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS ACTIVITY, BUT IF YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN IT IN YOUR NEXT TRIP TO CW, SKIP THIS PART!

We all started searching the room to see what we could find. We found several clues in the first ten minutes, but couldn’t make much sense of them. I noticed five boxes. Four were locked with tumblers, and the last had a key whole. Kristi and I figured out that we needed to find five letter codes to open the boxes, and then get out of the room! But everyone was so busy working on there own thing, that they didn’t realize that until half our time was up. Mary and Jessica were doing splendidly. Mary found a secret drawer under a table that contained a piece of paper with printing on it. Part of the title read “Virginia”. On the back was written “4 of 6”. We figured that the rest of the pieces of paper were locked in the boxes. Mary was able to pick on of the locks to get the box open, and we found another piece of paper, numbered like the first one. This confirmed our theory, and we hurried to find more clues. After we had been locked in the room for half an hour, the officer came back. He walked in, and watched us. He saw us working with some playing cards which contained clues, and laughed. “You American are always playing games.” He stopped laughing.  It’s the only thing your good at.” After several more comments like that, he left the room. I started thinking about one of the clues we had received twice. It said “Watch the lady, kiss the tyrant.” What could that mean? “Watch the lady” I repeated over and over again to myself. Just then, I remembered that Kristi had found a watch in a chest of clothes. I called to Kristi “Where’s the watch?!” She took it out of the trunk again. “Quickly!” I said, “Does it have a lady on it?” She said that it did. I quickly took the watch and inspected it. I could tell it was magnetic for the chain was sticking to it. I took it to a picture of King George 111 and pressed the watch all over the portrait. Nothing happened. We later found a small picture of the king on the box that Mary had opened by lock picking. The watch opened the drawer, but we had already gotten clue from it. Time was running out. We slowly were able to open the locks using other clues. By the time we had fifteen minutes left, we had only found three of the six pieces of paper. The officer entered again, and offered us freedom if we would only bow to the king. We refused and kept workng. He laughed again and said “Americans. So predictable. I’ll have the gallows prepared then!” Mary called out some sarcastic remark, and he left the room, banging the door behind him. The time raced by and we were working painfully slow. He came in again and gave us the five minute warning. I was in despair. I knew I wouldn’t die, but it was the shame I was afraid of. Having to exit that tavern and tell everyone that I had failed to escaped the king, would be awful. Everyone was working away feverishly on the clues we had left. I looked at the four pieces paper that we had and put them together. Certain letters were circled. I began to form them into words. I was able to come up with “yournames”. Before that, there was  a G and an I. The FBI agent looked at what I had gotten, and read it as “Sign your names”. What? Sign our names? We needed to find a key, not sign our names. The last lock was stuck fast, and even with the right code, Kristi and Mary couldn't open the lock. We had only seconds left - we could hear the officer coming. I quickly signed my name. Everyone was arguing “Why should we do that?” But we made them sign anyway. It was a Virginia declaration of independence. By siging it, we were telling the officer that we were willing to die rather than bow to the king. The last person had just signed her name when the officer burst through the door. We all were silent. I watched is eyes carefully. They changed from "I'm going to have you killed, you traitors" to ”Wow, did they really do that?" then back to "I'm going to kill you” again. The lady host told him that we had all signed our names, and were willing to die for the cause. He grabbed the paper and crumpled it up. "Follow me" he ordered. “That’s discouraging,” Kristi said, but I had a sense of triumph. I knew we had done the right thing. The officer stood by the door of another room as we entered and once  again, I forced eye contact. We were ordered to sit down. The officer’s mood then changed to almost apologetic. He told us that he was an American spy posing as a British officer. We needed to be tested in order to become spies ourselves, and we had passed the test. He then left the room. 

IT IS NOW SAFE TO READ AGAIN

We were some very proud girls after that engagement!

We took pictures with signs reading “We escaped the King!”. I saw our parents watching from outside a window. I gave them a thumbs up. We came outside as four very happy girls. We quickly told them everything - we were so excited! I asked if we could celebrate at a tavern, so we decided to go to Chowning’s tavern for an evening snack. While we waited, some of us girls went to the market house, which was still open, and bought “tokens” for the trip. They were legitimate tokens - little metal disks imprinted with different images. I purchased two: one had a fifer and a drummer on it (to remember meeting our new friend) and the other had a cannon on it (after all, we are the three pound cannons!). I couldn’t fine one for Escape the king, but we still have pictures. 

I had never been to Chowning’s  before. It is a little loud, and got a little rowdy as the night wore on, but we had fun anyway. There was live music from a violinist and guitarist. 

Mr. Edward Chowning came to our table and talked with us a great deal. He recited us some of his poetry, and taught us a table game. We also met his brother, Josiah Chowning, who owns the tavern. Low and behold, he is the same man who played Joshua Hardcastle two years ago! To my relief, his British accent had been fake, and now he was a tavern keeper. I forgave him for the things he said that made me so mad last time. We had them sign our shirts, which they gladly did.

We stepped out in the evening air, and decided that us girls would walk to the Governor’s palace, and the rest of the group would go get the car and meet us there. We sang softly as we walked down the street. We stopped in front of the palace to take pictures. 

selfies...

A man walked up to us and said he enjoyed our singing, and told us we looked like lovely, etherial spirits floating down the street. 

We ended the evening by driving down DoG street (that's allowed after 10pm! :D ).