Each January, Historic Kenmore presents Twelfth Night at Kenmore, a dramatic theater presentation that imagines the first Christmas that Fielding and Betty Washington Lewis spent in their newly built home. The play is set in January 1776 and that year is not a time for the usual celebration. War brings fear, doubt, and frustration to the Lewis family and their friends.
The 2019 edition of Twelfth Night at Kenmore took place January 11 and 12. Here are a few photos from the performances.
Snow begins to fall on Kenmore.
Rachel Sargeant as Lucy Thorton Lewis greets visitors in the Passage.
Rae Ehlen as Fielding Lewis (L) and Wilson Johnson as George Weedon (R) share the latest war news.
Anne Lloyd as Mary Washington (L) and Corinn Keene as Nancy Alexander Lewis (R) discuss how the war endangers their loved ones.
Ashlee James as Rachel, the washerwoman (L), and Gladys Perkins as Hetty, the cook (R), talk about the wisdom of running away to freedom promised by the British.
Barbara Cochran as Betty Washington Lewis.
Michael S. Taylor as John Lewis.
Singing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.”
Marcus Salley as Pompey, the blacksmith, tends a fire.
Sam Fulton as Henry Mitchell, Fredericksburg merchant, alone in the Drawing Room.
On Friday, January 11, Saturday, January 12, and Sunday, January 13, Historic Kenmore will again present Twelfth Night at Kenmore, a dramatic theater presentation set in 1776.
This production depicts the first Christmas that Fielding and Betty Washington Lewis celebrate in their newly built home. It is not the usual joyous atmosphere, however. The Revolutionary War brings fear, doubt, and frustration to the Lewis family, their friends, and Kenmore’s enslaved community. Here are some photos from last year’s performance.
John Lewis (Michael S. Taylor) encourages Betty Washington Lewis (Barbara Escamilla Cochran) to reveal who the Twelfth Night king and queen shall be.
Betty Washington Lewis (Barbara Escamilla Cochran) welcomes guests to her home and offers a holiday toast.
Patriots George Weedon (L-Wilson Johnson) and Fielding Lewis (R-Rae Ehlen) worry about the latest war news.
Hetty, an enslaved washerwoman and house servant (Ashleé James), overhears Weedon and Lewis discussing Dunmore’s Proclamation, which promised freedom to slaves who fought for the British.
Mary Washington (Anne Lloyd) admonishes Nancy Alexander Lewis (Corinn Keene) to be mindful of her duty as a Patriot woman.
Rachel, an enslaved cook (Gladys Perkins), clears the dining room table after the ball’s grand meal is complete.
Having heard about Dunmore’s Proclamation, Hetty wonders how she might escape slavery and join the British cause in the hope of gaining freedom.
Fielding Lewis, Jr. (Sam Fulton) and George Weedon debate the wisdom of suspending horse racing in Fredericksburg as part of the effort to stay focused on the war effort.
The Lewis family sings “The First Noel.”
Henry Mitchell (Preston Simms) talks with Pompy, an enslaved blacksmith (Marcus Salley) and wonders whether he might as well become a Loyalist since his neighbors already seem to think that he is one.
Lucy Thorton Lewis (Cynthia Palmer), wife of John Lewis, acted as a guide for the evening and narrated our story.
Lucy Thorton Lewis (Rachel Sargeant), wife of John Lewis, acted as a guide for the evening and narrated our story.
The “Twelfth Night at Kenmore” cast.
Performance dates: Friday, January 11, Saturday, January 12, Sunday, January 13
Performance times: 3:30 p.m., 4:00 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 6:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Happy Holidays! George Washington’s Ferry Farm & Historic Kenmore are closed today for Christmas Eve and tomorrow for Christmas Day. Both houses will reopen for tours for five more days this year before closing on New Year’s Eve and beginning their annual two-month closure during the months of January and February. If you are unable to visit this holiday season, please enjoy these photos giving you a festive glimpse inside each home.
To learn more about visiting Kenmore and Ferry Farm, click here.
The holiday season has arrived at Historic Kenmore, bringing with it our annual display in the house of colonial wintry traditions from greenery to lovely desserts. Two years ago, I explored the mysterious origin of Betty Lewis’s hedgehog cake and even made a pretty passable replica. This year, there is another dessert on our table at Kenmore that I have been eager to talk about and even taste, syllabub.
Display of desserts popular in the 18th century inside the Passage at Historic Kenmore.
Syllabub is no longer the favorite staple dessert it once was two hundred years ago. I decided to investigate this fluffy confection to learn its history and to attempt to recreate it. You may find that it’s worth reviving this old classic for your upcoming holiday celebrations!
One of the earliest references to this frothy treat is from a 16th century Tudor drama called Thersytes, when a character states, “You and I…muste walke to him and eate a solybubbe!”[1] It continued to be mentioned through the 17th and 18th century in plays, poetry, art, diaries and cookbooks. From poet laureate Ben Jonson to famous diarist Samuel Pepys to pioneers in household management like Hannah Woolley, Eliza Smith, and Hannah Glasse, they all knew and appreciated this sweet treat.[2]
Through the centuries, syllabub evolved to suit changing taste and convenience.
One of the oldest and most legendary syllabub recipes was informally known as “under the cow”.[3] To make it, a poor dairymaid was supposed to milk a cow directly over a bowl of sugar, sack (a white fortified wine), brandy, and cider to create a “fine frothy top.” Then she was to let it sit for a few hours in a cool place. It sounds simple, rustic, and even pretty tasty. However, this recipe was more fantasy than reality and incredibly impractical. Despite being unsanitary, it doesn’t seem to work and splits the milk in a most unappetizing way.[4]
If you don’t have a live cow, another syllabub recipe, also rather dubious, was the so-called “Poured or Teapot” approach[5]. This method called for the maker to fill a container with milk and then, from a substantial height, pour it into a bowl of sugar, wine, cider or bandy, and a bit of lemon to create a light and frothy mixture. This could actually work, if the maker used a heavily enriched cream (similar to modern heavy whipping cream). Otherwise, it also tended to create an unpleasant curdle. [6]
The two former methods, if they worked, were supposed to create a syllabub that was more of a drink and that was pretty heavy on the spirits. By the 18th century, however, the “Whipt syllabub” became the most popular style of syllabub. It contained less alcohol and was used as a topping instead of as a drink. The recipe called for the whipping of cream, wine, lemon juice, sugar, and sometimes egg whites. As the froth started to develop, the maker spooned it off into a sieve and let it dry. After drying, the maker placed the little clouds of froth on top of a glass of sweet wine or jelly.[7]
“The Sense of Taste” (mid-to-late 1740s) by Philippe Mercier includes some “Whipt syllabubs” on the table. Credit: Yale Center for British Art
I decided to try this fourth style and used a recipe for my experiment called an “Everlasting syllabub” found on page 276 of Mrs. Eliza Smith’s cookbook The compleat housewife, or Accomplished gentlewoman’s companion, published in 1773.[8] Betty Washington Lewis owned this book, which is listed on the 1781 probate inventory of Kenmore. Additionally, I picked this recipe because I don’t have access to a cow, didn’t want to create too much of a mess, and wanted to create a dessert rather than a liquor-infused drink.
RECIPE
18th century recipe To make Lemon Syllabubs Take a quart of cream, half a pound of sugar, a pint of white wine, the juice of two or three lemons, the peel of one grated; mix all these, and put them in an earthen pot, and milk it up as fast as you can till it is thick, then pour it in your glasses, and let them stand five or six hours; you may make them overnight.
Recipe using modern measurements and a mixer and that makes less syllabub: 2 cups heavy whipping cream, chilled 1 cup white sugar ½ cup white wine or apple juice for non-alcoholic ¼ cup of lemon juice 2 tsp of grated lemon zest Nutmeg to sprinkle on top
Whip the cream and sugar (slowly tbsp. at a time) in a bowl until the cream begins to thicken. Add white wine, lemon juice and zest and continue to whip until light and fluffy and just holds a peak. Make sure that all the sugar has dissolved and does not give the syllabub a grainy texture. Serve chilled with a dash of nutmeg or lemon zest. Makes 12 servings.
Syllabub can sit in the fridge for a few hours but you may get some separation of the wine and cream.
Everlasting syllabub creates a fluffier mousse that is great on its own or as a topping on jellies and trifles. The recipe is quite simple and requires heavy cream, white wine, lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar. This is all beaten together until it is almost the texture of modern whipped cream. The ingredients are relatively inexpensive and it took less than 15 minutes to create and serve.
After taste-testing my refreshing treat with several colleagues, we arrived at a consensus that this indeed is a dessert that needs revived for our holiday celebrations. It is light, fluffy, and citrusy and would be a great palate cleanser after a heavy dinner or a nice change from dense baked goods. For families with children, a non-alcoholic version can be made by replacing the wine with apple juice.
The syllabub we made topped with lemon zest and nutmeg.
Our experiment was a success and many of you may now have a new dessert gracing your holiday table, if you can keep from eating it all yourself.
[2] Day, Ivan. “Further Musings on Syllabub, or Why Not ‘Jumble it a pritie while’?” Historic Food, https://www.historicfood.com/Syllabubs%20Essay.pdf; Pepys, Samuel. “Sunday 3 August 1662.” The Diary of SamuelPepys, https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1662/08/03/; Woolley, Hannah. The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet Stored With All Manner Of Rare Receipts For Preserving, Candying And Cookery. Very Pleasant And Beneficial To All Ingenious Persons Of The Female Sex. Duck Lane near West Smithfield, Richard Lowndes, 1672. J. Buckland, et al. 1773, pg 114; Glasse, Hannah. The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy. London, Company of Bookfellers, 1747, pg 218.
[3] MacDonell, Anne. The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened. London, Philip Lee Warner, 1910, pg 120.
Visit Kenmore this holiday season for an exhibit of highly detailed, replica dollhouses – including the mansion – and miniatures in the Crowninshield Museum Building. Share memories of your dollhouse with your family as you explore life in miniature! Put your mind and eye to the test with our “I Spy Miniatures” challenge – fun for young and old alike!
Dollhouses on display at the 5th Annual “A Wee Christmas at Kenmore.”
“Log Cabin” by Featured Exhibitor Kathy Opdycke
“Mary Poppins” by Kathy Opdycke
“Asian Roombox” by Vickie Prosser
“Assorted Miniatures” by Linda Pool
“Assorted Miniatures” by Peggy Severson
“Earl’s Boat Shop” by John Earl
“Jane’s Bakery” by Mary Stevenson
“Japanese Fish Seller” by Julie Silvester
“Matryoshka Dolls” by Anna Jennings
“Santa’s Gingerbread House” by Vicky Bickel
“Santa’s Gingerbread House” mail
“The Double Dragon” by Jocelyn Barth
“The House of Many Corners” by James Opher
“The Toy Chest of Whimsy Street” by Joanna Borgman
“Uoonique Christmas Shop” by Becky Watson
“Wild Blue Stables Barn” by Haley Anne DeBoeser
Kenmore’s hours are Monday – Saturday from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. and Sunday from 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Kenmore is closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Exhibit ends on December 30. Admission to Kenmore and exhibit: $12 adults, $6 students, under 6 free. Exhibit only: $6 adults, $3 students, under 6 free.
Over the years, we’ve often discussed how colonial-era Christmas celebrations and decorations were different from our own modern-day versions (read here, here, here, here, and here). Each year, throughout the month of December at Historic Kenmore, we depict the Twelfth Night festivities possibly enjoyed by the Lewis family because, in the 1700s, the main holiday celebration took place in January at the end of the Christmas season, rather than on Christmas day. We show an elaborate dessert table, loaded with fanciful sugar creations and treats, waiting for midnight revelers to partake during a break from music and dancing. We place simple jars of greenery around the house, and show a large punch bowl at the ready to serve holiday visitors. There are no Christmas trees or mentions of Santa yet – those would come later, in the 19th century.
Dessert table from overhead in the passage at Historic Kenmore.
Punch bowl and tumblers in the drawing room at Kenmore.
This year at George Washington’s Ferry Farm, we have a new challenge: how do we show the Christmas season in the Washington house? The Washington family lived at Ferry Farm in the 1740s when Colonial Virginia was a more rustic place. While the Washington family was living in a far better situation than most of their neighbors, they still couldn’t imagine the luxuries that the Lewises would know at Kenmore 40 years later. So what was Christmas like for the Washingtons?
The Washington house replica at Ferry Farm as snow flurries fall on a December day at the end of 2018.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of information from that early part of the 18th century to give us much detail. The Christmas season was rarely mentioned in correspondence or journal entries, and so we can surmise that the lack of mention means that the holidays weren’t an especially unusual time in the lives of most early Virginians.
Interestingly, we actually know more about the seasonal happenings of an even earlier time – that of the very first colonists to arrive in the New World during the 1600s. Because those early colonists were religiously devout, they observed the sacred aspects of the season strictly, even in the harsh environment they found themselves in after crossing the ocean. There are a number of holy days, feasts and saints’ days that occur throughout the Christmas season, and marking each of them with church services, large meals or simply readings and recitations comprised the holiday period for those early Virginians. With a few exceptions, decorations, special foods, small gift-giving, music, parties and the other secular trappings of the holiday would be largely confined to the late 18th century celebrations known to places like Kenmore. The Washingtons at Ferry Farm probably fell somewhere in between these earlier and later extremes.
Although the Washingtons probably decorated even less than the Lewises, we do have the opportunity at Ferry Farm to show one aspect of early 18th century Christmas that we cannot show in a traditional antique-filled house museum – the use of fragrant herbs.
For most colonial era churches, incense was an expensive and not easily obtained luxury. To mimic its pleasant smell during holy days, parishioners strew fragrant dried herbs on the floors of the sanctuary. As the herbs were crushed under foot, they added a pleasant holiday aroma to the room. Sage, rosemary, and thyme were the most commonly used herbs but lavender and rose petals might also be added.
Herbs strewn on the floor of the Hall Back Room in the Washington house.
This practice of strewing herbs on the floor was adopted in private homes, too, especially when a household didn’t have a church nearby and services were conducted at home. Sachets of herbs might also be hung from doorways and windows, and small bundles of herbs might be occasionally tossed into the fire to add to the scent. The practice served to sanctify the house, but also gave people a break from the never ending parade of bad smells they encountered on a daily basis.
Another common practice among parishioners in decorating their churches was to place sprigs of holly and mistletoe in the muntins of the windows. Like the strewing of herbs, sprigging the windows found its way into the home and likely was the only greenery early 18th century colonial Virginians like the Washingtons used to mark the season.
Although a depiction of a tavern from later in the 18th century, this engraving shows the practice of sprigging the windows at Christmas time still continues. A ball of mistletoe also hangs from the ceiling. Settling the Affairs of the Nation. Engraving; Bowles & Carver, publishers; London, 1775.
At Ferry Farm, because the Washington house is filled with reproduction furnishings, we can use both real herbs on the floors and real sprigs of greenery in the windows. It may be much less than our 21st century eyes are accustomed to, but the Washingtons would have recognized these signs of the season right away.
Sprigged windows in the Washington house.
This holiday season, we invite you to visit both Ferry Farm and Kenmore to experience these sights and, for the first time this year, the smells of the 18th century’s evolving Christmas celebrations as marked by the Washingtons, the Lewises, and their fellow early Americans. To learn about visiting Ferry Farm and Kenmore during the holiday season and to see a list of special holiday events, click here.
Meghan Budinger
Aldrich Director of Curatorial Operations
It’s the 32nd year of a a long-standing holiday tradition: the Gingerbread Contest & Exhibit at George Washington’s Ferry Farm! This year’s theme is “Cartoon Adventures.”
“Snoopy’s Christmas Love” by Gloria Tignor
“A Minon Christmas”
“Yabba Dabba Doo” by The Feeback Family
“A Charlie Brown Christmas” by Ni River Special Education
“Hobbit House” by Chancellor High German Club
“Cartoon Advent Calendar” by Ms. Redelman’s Class at Courtland High School
“Rapunzel” by Angela Saathoff
“Frosty the Snowman” by Samantha Wainwright
“Grinch’s House” by CJ Crocker
“Scooby Doo Miner 49er Chase” by Susan Dodson
“Transformer Making a Snow Angel” by Misha Sanborn
“Calvin & Hobbes” by The Szlyk Family
“Calvin & Hobbes” by The Szlyk Family
“Whoville” by Ms. Bekah’s ECSE 3 Class
“Calvin & Hobbes Winter Wonderland” by Jessica Kamuar
“Charlie Brown’s Christmas”
“A Christmas in WhoVille” by The Jackson 5
Adults and children alike will enjoy the sights and smells of these festive creations displayed at Ferry Farm! Ferry Farm’s hours are Monday – Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. and Sunday from 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Ferry Farm is closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The gingerbread exhibit ends on December 30. General admission to Ferry Farm and the exhibit is $9 adults, $4.50 students, under 6 free while admission to the exhibit only is $4.50 adults, $2.25 students, under 6 free.
