History Comes to Life

I subscribe to several genealogy email lists and quite often people will inform the list about some new database. Today I learned about a new database for children admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. I went to have a look and on the title page is the story of one little girl who spent several months in the hospital in 1871. In the story it told that she was born and raised at Oatlands Park in Weybridge, Surrey.
<http://www.smallandspecial.org/patients_annie-eastland.html>

Although this little girl is not a relation of mine. We do have a connection. Oatlands Park is where I stay every time I go to England. I just made my reservations for January. Now whenever I am there I will have a real sense of history. A little girl named Annie once roamed the same halls where I will be walking 130 years later. I know I am kind of a geek, but to me it makes the whole experience more meaningful.

Oatlands Park was originally a castle built by Henry VIII for his wife, Anne of Cleves, who never lived in the place. I think we are talking 1538. Eventually it became a royal hunting lodge. Various mansions were erected and knocked down over the years until 1856 when it became a hotel. The first time we stayed there we got the most spectacular room 40' x 40' with 20' ceilings. The bathroom was all white marble. There was a canopy bed, the kind you have to climb onto with a step stool and with drapes to draw shut. I have no idea how we ended up with that room as we were just paying a normal rate, but I really felt like I was in a Jane Austen novel that week.