| Holiday Time at Lyndhurst
Other Tours: First
& Second Floor - Gardens
 A
long time ago in a land far away . . . Virtually every culture has
tales that have been handed down through the centuries. Passed on
through a tradition of storytelling, there are often several versions
of the same story; what is always true is that these tales take
us to a time and place one can only visit in the imagination.
The story of a young woman treated
badly by her stepsisters who is transformed into a princess (Cinderella)
was first written down in 9th century China. Charles Perrault collected
several of the traditional stories and published them as Stories
or Tales from Times Past, with Morals, better known by its secondary
title of Tales of Mother Goose, in 1697. Perrault's stories
included Sleeping Beauty, Red Riding Hood, Puss
in Boots, and his version of Cinderella.
For a Fairy
Tale Holiday the rooms of Lyndhurst are decorated to represent
different tales with clues to the stories for children of all ages.
Enjoy melodies of the season, indulge in hot cider and cookies,
and finish your shopping at the holiday boutique.
DINING ROOM: A. J. Davis designed
both the dining room and the furniture where a feast is ready for
Beauty and the Beast (1756).
HELEN GOULD'S OFFICE: Gerda
suffers through several adventures before rescuing her friend
Kay from the ice cold world of the Snow Queen (1844).
ANNA'S BEDROOM: A pile of mattresses
is used to test the true nobility of a girl in the Princess
and the Pea (1835).
Cautionary lessons were embedded in
Grimms' Children's and Household Tales published in 1812,
and in many of Hans Christian Andersen stories written between 1835
and 1872. The less charming, sometimes gory (Red Riding Hood
being eaten by the wolf), aspects of these tales are routinely left
out of current versions. Later books, Alice in Wonderland
(1865), Alice Through the Looking Glass (1871), The Wonderful
Wizard of Oz (1900) and Peter Pan (1904-1911), were written
specifically for children, reflecting the evolution of a different
attitude to childhood in the nineteenth century.
EAST GUEST ROOM: Peter Pan
(1904) must persuade Wendy to re-attach his shadow before
he teaches the children to fly to Neverland where they encounter
pirates, Indians and a crocodile.
WEST BEDROOM: The Three Bears (1831) come home to find
someone has eaten their porridge, sat in their chairs, and is napping
in their bed.
By the nineteenth century when oral
traditions were fading and inexpensive printed books were available
to an increasingly literate audience, collections of the old tales
were gathered by the Grimm brothers and others. Such stories were
not necessarily for a children's audience. Their popularity was
swift and widespread. The 1868 catalog of George Merritt's Lyndhurst
library includes two bookcases filled with juvenile books for his
four children; one was Alice in Wonderland.
 
OFFICE: One of Jay Gould's most notorious business coups was
cornering the gold market on "Black Friday", September
24, 1869, making this room a perfect setting for Rumplestiltskin
(1825) to spin straw into gold. However his price is the first child
of the girl he helps make queen -- unless she can guess his name.
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