Surrey side is the south side of the river.
24.
corantoe and lavolta
: Renaissance dances, the first characterized by quick running steps (‘courante’), the second a dance for a couple, involving high leaps.
25.
Princess Marousha Romanovitch
: later referred to as Sasha, this charac ter may partly have been suggested by ‘La Muscovite’, whose pastel portrait hangs in the sitting-room at Knole and who is addressed in Charles Sackville’s poem ‘Arno’s Vale’ (
Knole,
p. 173); but Woolf’s main inspiration was Vita’s great love, Violet Trefusis. On 13 October 1927 Virginia wrote to Vita: ‘Tomorrow I begin the chapter which describes Violet and you meeting on the ice… Do give me some inkling what sort of quarrels you had. Also, for what particular quality did she first choose you?’ The same letter links Vita (rather than Violet) with emeralds, however: ‘I want to see you in the lamplight, in your emeralds’ (
Letters,
III, p. 430).
26.
Je crois avoir fait… la sienne
: Sasha’s French here was supplied by Vita who, like Orlando, was bilingual in French and English. She was apparently translating Woolf’s phrases, ‘I think I met a gentle man of your family in Poland last summer’, and ‘The ladies of the English Court ravish me with their beauty. Never have I seen so graceful a lady as your Queen or so fine a head dress as she wears.’ Vita also supplied the translation of ‘rigged up like a Maypole’ (see p. 28), as well as a number of other phrases that Woolf did not finally use (
Letters of Vita,
26 April 1928, p. 284).
27.
George Villiers
: (1592–1628) was King James’s favourite, later made Duke of Buckingham.
28.
the Tower… Royal Exchange
: the Yeomen of the Guard, known as‘Beefeaters’, guard the Tower and wear a distinctive red Tudor uniform. The Temple Bar, the gate between Westminster and the old City of London, was topped with iron spikes, on which the heads of executed rebels were displayed. The Royal Exchange was built as a money market in 1564, on the corner of Threadneedle Street in the City.
29.
a white Russian fox
: Nigel Nicolson suggests that this refers to the Russian bear-cub given to Vita by Ivan Hay when she was nineteen; it had to be put down (
Vita,
p. 41). Orlando had earlier compared Sasha to ‘a fox in the snow’ (p. 26). Virginia later described Violet Trefusis (whom she did not meet until 1932) as ‘like a fox cub, all scent and seduction’ (19 January 1941,
Letters,
VI, p. 462).
30.
the arras… at home
: Vita wrote of the Leicester Gallery that ‘the tapestry sways, and the figures on it undulate and seem to come alive (
Knole,
pp. 14–16); but Nicolson identifies this with the tapestry in the Venetian Ambassador’s room.
31.
the philosopher is right
: Robert Burton takes this view in his
Anatomy of Melancholy
(1621), but as an Anglican he would have disapproved of the Anabaptists, a radical sect who aroused great fear since they did not believe in the sacraments (including baptism) and were permitted to conform outwardly.
32.
palanquin
: a canopy.
33.
sennight
: in seven days’ time (archaic).
34.
the cross of St. Paul’s
: a deliberate anachronism – old St Paul’s had a square tower that was burnt down in the fire of London of 1666. It was rebuilt with a dome and cross by Christopher Wren (see also pp. 38, 117 and 157).
35.
stags… bucket
: this happened at Knole once according to Nicolson. Vita described a stag wandering into the banqueting-hall on one occasion during the summer when the doors were left open (
Knole,
p. 4).
36.
cony catchers
: Elizabethan slang for ‘confidence tricksters’ (literally, rabbit catchers).
37.
Punch and Judy show
: a traditional children’s show performed with glove-puppets in a small booth, in which Punch first beats, then kills, his wife Judy. Orlando is watching a street performance of Shakespeare’s
Othello
(as the index reference shows).
38.
Methinks … should yawn:
24.
corantoe and lavolta
: Renaissance dances, the first characterized by quick running steps (‘courante’), the second a dance for a couple, involving high leaps.
25.
Princess Marousha Romanovitch
: later referred to as Sasha, this charac ter may partly have been suggested by ‘La Muscovite’, whose pastel portrait hangs in the sitting-room at Knole and who is addressed in Charles Sackville’s poem ‘Arno’s Vale’ (
Knole,
p. 173); but Woolf’s main inspiration was Vita’s great love, Violet Trefusis. On 13 October 1927 Virginia wrote to Vita: ‘Tomorrow I begin the chapter which describes Violet and you meeting on the ice… Do give me some inkling what sort of quarrels you had. Also, for what particular quality did she first choose you?’ The same letter links Vita (rather than Violet) with emeralds, however: ‘I want to see you in the lamplight, in your emeralds’ (
Letters,
III, p. 430).
26.
Je crois avoir fait… la sienne
: Sasha’s French here was supplied by Vita who, like Orlando, was bilingual in French and English. She was apparently translating Woolf’s phrases, ‘I think I met a gentle man of your family in Poland last summer’, and ‘The ladies of the English Court ravish me with their beauty. Never have I seen so graceful a lady as your Queen or so fine a head dress as she wears.’ Vita also supplied the translation of ‘rigged up like a Maypole’ (see p. 28), as well as a number of other phrases that Woolf did not finally use (
Letters of Vita,
26 April 1928, p. 284).
27.
George Villiers
: (1592–1628) was King James’s favourite, later made Duke of Buckingham.
28.
the Tower… Royal Exchange
: the Yeomen of the Guard, known as‘Beefeaters’, guard the Tower and wear a distinctive red Tudor uniform. The Temple Bar, the gate between Westminster and the old City of London, was topped with iron spikes, on which the heads of executed rebels were displayed. The Royal Exchange was built as a money market in 1564, on the corner of Threadneedle Street in the City.
29.
a white Russian fox
: Nigel Nicolson suggests that this refers to the Russian bear-cub given to Vita by Ivan Hay when she was nineteen; it had to be put down (
Vita,
p. 41). Orlando had earlier compared Sasha to ‘a fox in the snow’ (p. 26). Virginia later described Violet Trefusis (whom she did not meet until 1932) as ‘like a fox cub, all scent and seduction’ (19 January 1941,
Letters,
VI, p. 462).
30.
the arras… at home
: Vita wrote of the Leicester Gallery that ‘the tapestry sways, and the figures on it undulate and seem to come alive (
Knole,
pp. 14–16); but Nicolson identifies this with the tapestry in the Venetian Ambassador’s room.
31.
the philosopher is right
: Robert Burton takes this view in his
Anatomy of Melancholy
(1621), but as an Anglican he would have disapproved of the Anabaptists, a radical sect who aroused great fear since they did not believe in the sacraments (including baptism) and were permitted to conform outwardly.
32.
palanquin
: a canopy.
33.
sennight
: in seven days’ time (archaic).
34.
the cross of St. Paul’s
: a deliberate anachronism – old St Paul’s had a square tower that was burnt down in the fire of London of 1666. It was rebuilt with a dome and cross by Christopher Wren (see also pp. 38, 117 and 157).
35.
stags… bucket
: this happened at Knole once according to Nicolson. Vita described a stag wandering into the banqueting-hall on one occasion during the summer when the doors were left open (
Knole,
p. 4).
36.
cony catchers
: Elizabethan slang for ‘confidence tricksters’ (literally, rabbit catchers).
37.
Punch and Judy show
: a traditional children’s show performed with glove-puppets in a small booth, in which Punch first beats, then kills, his wife Judy. Orlando is watching a street performance of Shakespeare’s
Othello
(as the index reference shows).
38.
Methinks … should yawn:
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