The West Indies

I love this quote, and I’m not entirely sure why. Perhaps because I love Fiona Shaw’s performance as Mrs. Croft in the 1995 BBC version of Persuasion.

“I have crossed the Atlantic four times, and have been once to the East Indies and back again, and only once; besides being in different places about home: Cork, and Lisbon, and Gibraltar. But I never went beyond the Streights, and never was in the West Indies. We do not call Bermuda or Bahama, you know, the West Indies.”

Mrs. Croft to Mrs. Musgrove about her travels with her Admiral husband
Persuasion, volume 1, chapter 8

This goes out to my sister, who just celebrated her tenth anniversary with a cruise to Bermuda.