Tab 11: Anne's Land

“Call me Cordelia.”
-Adrienne to Marco, who didn’t

If you don’t like Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, just keep moving. This blog entry is not for you. If you think you and your bosom buddy might get a thrill from reading the following perfectly tragical blog, or that reading it might give you some scope for the imagination, then read on kindred spirit, read on!

Today was Anne of Green Gables day! Cavendish is the home of all the Anne sights and the area that was the inspiration for the fictional Avonlea. Unfortunately, the white way of delight, the violet vale, and birch path are not clearly marked in the real world. We got lost on the way. However, after some minor car-fighting (where I did not break a slate over Marco’s head), we ended up at Green Gables.

Green Gables (now operated by Parks Canada) was the inspiration for the setting of Anne of Green Gables. In real life, this farmhouse was the home of David Jr. and Margaret Macneill, brother and sister, who were cousins of Montgomery’s grandfather.

The house has been furnished according to descriptions in the book, including Anne’s bedroom. Note Anne’s carpet bag on the chair and the dress with puffed sleeves hanging on the closet door!

We walked in the Haunted Woods,

saw where Montgomery lived with her Macneill grandparents (after her mother died when she was 21 months old and her father moved to Saskatchewan)... sadly, only the foundation remains...


and then walked along Lover’s Lane.

After all that walking, we were tired and so had a break to have some raspberry cordial. I just love bright-red drinks, don’t you?

I have to say, I was surprised that the Green Gables mecca wasn’t crowded at all. I’d been warned about the bus-loads of Japanese tourists but the whole place was relatively uncrowded. No overly perky Anne and Gilbert greeting people. No Diana Barry running around drunk and barfing following a current wine incident. No one yelling at old gossipy women saying they were fat and clumsy and probably didn’t have a spark of imagination. No one nearly dying of croup. For all this, visitors had to use their imagination, which was nice.

In fact, it was quite civilized and full of historicality.

It started to get a bit busier around noon but that is when we left for Montgomery’s birthplace in New London.

Montgomery was born in this little house in 1874. We saw the exact room where she was born, saw her wedding dress and accessories, and looked at her personal scrapbooks.

Next it was off to the Anne of Green Gables museum at Silver Bush, which Montgomery called “the wonder castle of [her] childhood.”

Montgomery’s Aunt Annie and Uncle John Campbell lived here. After her grandmother died, she moved to this house and spent many happy days here. The house is still owned and operated by the Campbell family. Notably, Montgomery wrote Anne of Green Gables in her bedroom on the second floor. On July 5, 1911, she was married in the parlour in front of this mantle:

People still get married here today! Apparently, people from Japan and the US are particularly fond of it. Modern marriages also take place in front of the mantle and they play the same pump organ that Montgomery had played when she got married.

I think I have to call Casa Loma…

Right beside the mantle is the bookcase that was inspiration for Anne’s window friends. The left pane was for Katie Maurice. The right, for Lucy Gray.

The lake near Silver Bush was the inspiration for something special:

I think even Marco enjoyed himself. At the end of the touring, he agreed his life was not a perfect graveyard of buried hopes, after all. The iron had not entered his soul. In fact, the whole experience may have even given him a thrill (although small).

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Village Pottery (not an Anne site)

a shop which (of course) sells pottery and also something else

Meet my new friend, Fibrensemble handspun, hand dyed wool from Romney sheep, made by Louise Lortie in PEI.

After all the Anne mania, Marco and I drove back to Charlottetown and had lunch at the Olde Dublin Pub

where we fortified ourselves...

for… ANNE THE MUSICAL!!!

The musical was awesome. Cheesy swing dance numbers? Yes. Bad sets? Of course. Rhyming "parrot" with "carrot"? Unfortunately. But it was just ridiculous enough to be wildly enjoyable. There's a reason it's Canada's longest running musical. Even Marco had an excellent time. Seems he may be a kindred spirit, after all. ..

See you tomorrow at the beach.