点评:We came to England to visit areas where my wife's ancestors lived before emigrating to America in the 1600s. Cuthbert Fenwick, who was on the Ark, one of a pair of ships to establish the first permanent European settlement in Maryland, was from the Fenwick family of Northumberland. We found the ruins of the 12th century Fenwick Tower in Fenwick near Newcastle and moved on to Wallington Hall, which we'd read was built over the ruins of the Fenwicks’ next tower house. We were met by Annie and explained our interest. She told us that the first floor of the Fenwick Tower was the basement of Wallington Hall, and tours were regularly given, but not on the day we were there, but she’d see what she could do. And she delivered! Erin gave us a tour of the basement, and a lot of additional history. In stark contrast to the beauty of the Hall above, the basement looked like a medieval dungeon, with low arched stone ceilings. We are very thankful of Annie and Erin going above and beyond and providing us with the high point of our visit to England. Btw, there's also a cool story about one of the last Fenwicks to live here.
翻译:我们来到英国,探访我妻子祖先在17世纪移民美国之前居住的地方。库斯伯特·芬威克(Cuthbert Fenwick)曾乘坐“方舟号”(Ark)——两艘船中的一艘,在马里兰州建立了第一个永久性欧洲定居点——他来自诺森伯兰郡的芬威克家族。我们在纽卡斯尔附近的芬威克镇找到了12世纪芬威克塔的遗址,然后前往沃灵顿庄园。我们之前读到过,沃灵顿庄园建在芬威克家族下一座塔楼的遗址之上。安妮接待了我们,并向我们说明了我们的兴趣。她告诉我们,芬威克塔的一楼是沃灵顿庄园的地下室,那里经常有导览,但我们去的那天没有,不过她会尽力安排。她果然不负众望!艾琳带领我们参观了地下室,并讲述了许多相关的历史故事。与楼上华丽的庄园形成鲜明对比的是,地下室看起来像一个中世纪的地牢,有着低矮的拱形石质天花板。我们非常感谢Annie和Erin的热情款待,她们让我们的英国之行达到了高潮。顺便一提,这里还有一个关于最后一位居住在此的芬威克家族成员的精彩故事。