I have been looking at this picture for days now, thinking that I should post it but never knowing what to write about in connection with it. I finally have it though. I am currently working my way through Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. If you know me well then you probably know that I have a love for Jane Austen, particularly Pride and Prejudice, which I have read so many times that my copy (which is only four years old) is beginning to fall apart. Over the past year or so, I've been working through the rest of her novels and dearly loving them. I am just over halfway through Mansfield Park and Fanny's brother William has just come to visit. William is a midshipman and has been at sea for seven years. His ship comes to port in Portsmouth, which is where he and Fanny are from (although Fanny hasn't been there since she was ten). Now, I've seen the BBC version of Mansfield Park already so I have very dfinite impressions of the settings and characters and how they appear. Whenever Portsmouth or any other harbour town is mentioned this picture is the sort of thing that comes to mind. Weathered wood, fog, grey skies, patches of bright paint. It's really rather lovely. This particular image comes from Fortress Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island and is precisely what I think Portsmouth would look like. Fill the streets with Victorian English sailors and voila, you have one of the locales in Mansfield Park. Since I love Cape Breton and actually have a fondness for foggy days (although it was mighty cold there) and also love color, this image has a particular attraction for me. There is something so perfect about the pop of the red shutters against the grey weathered wood in the misty air. Lovely.
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