Hellfire, tattoos, and clowns = the perfect weekend!

Well it has been an interesting week! Donovan got a sty in his eye and it got so huge and swollen but thankfully it has gone down!

On Friday we went to the Hell Fire Caves! (most of these next paragraphs are taken off the Internet) These caves were extended in the 1740’s by the infamous Sir Francis Dashwood, founder of the notorious Hellfire Club. His aim was to provide an extraordinary addition to his landscape gardens, no doubt inspired by his Grand Tours of Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Many of his fellow dilettantes were building great Estates and landscaping gardens and temples above ground but no others dared venture underground in this way. The chalk was used to build the main road from West Wycombe to High Wycombe (where we live). This also provided employment to the Villagers of West Wycombe following a succession of harvest failures. The achievement is a true feat of engineering and quite remarkable considering they were all dug by hand. You can still see the individual pick axe marks on the walls.
On his return from his travels Sir Francis established the famous Hell-fire Club which subsequently held chapter meetings in the Caves and whose members included Lord Sandwich, John Wilkes and other senior aristocrats and statesmen. Sir Francis later became Chancellor of the Exchequer. Benjamin Franklin was a close friend and visited West Wycombe often. During the secret Hell-fire Club meetings a lot of sh** went down! The "ladies", who attended the meetings, usually wore masks in order to remain anonymous, and with a badge with the words “Love and Friendship”. They had to be of a “cheerful, lively disposition to improve the general hilarity”. Often the "ladies" wore Nun outfits so no one would know who they were.

Here are some pics:

The church:


The hallways:


Freaky little children in the caves:


Ghostssss oooo shining faceeee (Dad)



That is Sir Dashwood's house:


The view from the mosoleum:


Entrance to Hell Fire caves:


Inside of the mosoleum:


The mosoleum:


Check out Sir William Stanhope! He was a member ;-)



The "meetings":


The River Styx:


This video is taken in the center of the cave which has a really high ceiling and where you can actually hold your own dinner party! This is located right under either the church or the mosoleum--I forget!


They caught a Donovan!


The outside of the caves:


Yummy milk shakes...I had the Homer Simpson one obvi--it was cookie dough flavor! Yummy!


What a great day! That evening, Donovan's friend Adam came in from London. We had chicken quesadillas for dinner and just had a nice evening watching DVDs and chilling out. The next morning, Donovan got a tattoo! It's a tattoo on his bicep of his fathers name, date of birth, and date of decease. Here are some pics:

Oww!



Donovan getting his 5th tattoo!!!





Eeek! I got a little light headed so I had to sit down. Guess my parents can relax that I'll never get a tattoo...

Anyway, on Saturday I worked at the pub for 8 hours. Adam stayed over again that night and we drove him to the train station this morning. Today we went to the circus! It was a last minute decision and I guess it was fate because when the clown needed to pick someone to throw knives at...out of the whole audience...guess who he picked?! You guessed it---Donovan! Now, it was not allowed to take picture or videos there but I snuck a few anyway...they are pretty crappy but hopefully you can get sort of an idea... (Donovan is the one in the white shirt and shorts...err...the one handcuffed to the white board...)









LOL! Donovan heard the lady who was assisting the clown say, "Could we have chosen a bigger gentleman?!" For those who don't know, Donovan is 6 ft 4.5 in (can't forget the half!). I think the boards where the knives were thrown were supposed to be on either side of his head...not his neck!

Well, that's all for now! I'll blog again soon! Cheers!