Miss Lavendar and the Last Wednesday in August
Anne of Avonlea Week 4
I have many favorite characters from the Anne series, and Miss Lavendar is one of them!
On their way to tea at Mr. Kimball’s, Anne and Diana take a wrong turn and find themselves at a “romantic old lane.” Diana says,
“Oh, I know where we are now. That is the little stone house where Miss Lavendar Lewis lives…Echo Lodge, she calls it, I think. I’ve often heard of it but I’ve never seen it before. Isn’t it a romantic spot?”
“It’s the sweetest, prettiest place I ever saw or imagined,” said Anne delightedly. “It looks like a bit out of a story book or a dream.”
“I think her parents gave her the only right and fitting name that could possibly be given her,” said Anne. “If they had been so blind as to name her Elizabeth or Nellie or Muriel she must have been called Lavendar just the same, I think. It’s so suggestive of sweetness and old-fashioned graces and ‘silk attire.’”
In a series of events that Mrs. Lynde would call foreordained, Miss Lavendar and her long-lost love Stephen Irving get married. Anne is pleased to have had a hand in it.
“…even so, it’s nice to think one was an instrument used by predestination. Yes indeed, it’s very romantic.”
“When’s the wedding to be?” she [Marilla] asked after a pause.
“The last Wednesday in August. They are to be married in the garden under the honeysuckle trellis …the very spot where Mr. Irving proposed to her twenty-five years ago. Marilla, that is very romantic, even in prose.”
Walk through a Yorkshire Lavender Farm with one of my favorite YouTubers, Miranda Mills! The Lavender Farm starts at about 14:30, though the entire vlog is fun to watch!
My family and I watched the 2015 live action Cinderella this past weekend. Enjoy a song from the movie called Lavender Blue here.
What did you think of Miss Lavendar, Echo Lodge, and Charlotta the Fourth?
I would love to know! Reply to this email or comment on the post in Substack.
I’m delighted you’re here!
~Stephanie
I read LM Mongtomery’s bio last summer and I can see why the “last Wednesday in August” was what she picked for this story. It’s summer’s final celebration, a great hurrah, a victory that has seen the seasons of life in many cycles and has chosen to celebrate while it is still summer. It’s such a heartwarming part of this novel. It’s so satisfying.
The Miss Lavender story is one of my favorites of the many little interwoven tales in the Anne books. It is very romantically satisfying and I love Miss Lavender, Charlotte the Fourth, and Paul! It's so funny how Miss Lavender & Charlotta eat based on their whims.