Forty-eight paintings on show; Brother is a “good scout”; a pet spider; Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend; another spider – with bananas; Nuthatch behaviour; Dr Barnardo’s Homes; the reason for the velvet gown, and Gran dances the last waltz.
On October 21st 1955, Gran tells us that tomorrow will be a full day:
…for I leave home …for London where later I visit the British Empire Naturalists’ Association Jubilee Exhibition at Kensington Museum, in which my flower paintings and Jane’s collection of birds’ feathers will be on view. I shall stay at Kingston for the night and go on to the London B.E.N.A. field outing on Sunday…
The journey by train early the following morning frustrates her; to start with, the train is six minutes late, and, she adds:
…throughout the journey, steamy windows within the carriage, smoke from the train without on one side, and the fact that I could not get a corner seat, all contrived to restrict my observations to the very minimum.
She is met by brother Norris at Waterloo and they proceed together to the Museum, where Gran finds that, “forty-eight of my sixty-five wild flower paintings were on view, and Jane’s bird feathers too. I did not catch any comments on the feathers but the paintings were well-received”. She describes, over eight pages the “tremendous amount of work” that had been put into the exhibition by the organisers and various Branches throughout the country, and we learn that her brother Norris is on the Council of the B.E.N.A.
Her botanist acquaintance from the past summer, Mr Kimmings, is present, Gran writing that his:
…coloured slides of various plants were beautiful beyond description, and he spoke to me affectionately of the “White Lady of Hampshire” as he calls the albino E. leptochila, which he photographed at Hursley.
Book 54
The B.E.N.A. outing on the Sunday is primarily a search of the Box Hill area for fungi. Gran describes it over several pages; she records that she is sorry that a “poisoned toe” prevents Norris’ friend Fin joining them, and that they have a rather damp time, lunching in the shelter of a hedgerow near Ranmore, sitting on their macintoshes. Her favourite fungus found that day, she writes, is:
Geaster triplex (Earth Star), which I had often seen illustrated but had never found before. It was growing among fallen beech leaves, and I was delighted when I found one myself. It was perfect, and Brother tried to photograph it, though the light was not good.
At the day’s end, Norris drives Gran back to Waterloo for her homeward journey. There they meet Jock, Julian and Ricky, newly returned from Chandler’s Ford, and Norris, before getting himself back to his home in Putney, drives them to their bungalow in Mill Hill. “What a good scout he is!” writes Gran – using a term of hers which is utterly characteristic.
Jock’s mother is ill at this time, and although there is no evidence that they were close friends, Gran visits her in hospital, in Winchester on October 6th:
…and was pleased to find her very bright and cheerful. I was thankful that I was not in her place, for I should feel most embarrassed in a ward full of other women. I am not of a gregarious nature!
Gran is “in town” again a few days later:
I had to go to town this afternoon, always tiring to me, but I managed to get my blank Christmas cards for painting myself and yielded to temptation when I saw copies of “The Hampshire Avon”, by Brian Vesey-FitzGerald reduced from twelve and six to half-a-crown. Too good an opportunity to miss!
She seems to have a “pet spider”:
Our spider in the kitchen appears to be hibernating. She took no notice of the last bluebottle I gave her a few days ago and has now abandoned her web in the window and retired beneath the ledge above it where she remains huddled all the time.
Music on the wireless is almost always a pleasure for Gran. On the last day of October she listens to a Grand Hôtel programme, “in which Réne Soames sang the serenade from The Fair Maid of Perth as near to Heddle Nash’s perfect rendering as anyone else I have heard”. But she also records the following:
A wireless programme of music was interrupted for an announcement from Clarence House. Princess Margaret has decided not to marry Group-Captain Peter Townsend. Since he has divorced his wife (though he is innocent) the Church would not recognise his marriage to Princess Margaret, and she, helped, as she said, by his constant support and devotion, feels that, according to the Church’s teaching, marriage is indissoluble and therefore only a civil ceremony would be possible, and she must put her duty to the Church and Commonwealth before all other considerations.
Poor, courageous, unhappy little Princess Margaret and poor devoted and gallant Peter Townsend! May God bless and comfort them both, for, though they have undoubtedly done the right thing, they are bound to be heartbroken, and they have my most sincere sympathy, respect and admiration. I trust that now, the public and the press will leave them both in peace and at least let their unhappiness be a private concern.
Diana Fowler and Gran cycle to Romsey on November 1st to see if the Salmon are leaping at the Sadler’s Mill Weir. They see only three or four attempts, all unsuccessful, in the two hours they have to spare, before returning to The Ridge from where they leave to attend a Southampton Natural History Society meeting, “where”, she says, “Mr Oliver Hook gave a most interesting talk, with colour films, on Lundy Island, named, from the Norwegian, Puffin Island…”
Lovely as she thinks the island sounds, after the talk, she bemoans the fact that, “there are fifteen miles of rough sea to be crossed to reach it!” – and there are other parts of the country she would choose to visit first.
She collects her finished evening gown in Southampton the next day, saying:
I am pleased with it – warm in texture and in colour, and an attractive style. The only thing is, I think I am more fitted to the woods or the saltmarshes than to a hotel ballroom, but possibly I shall surprise myself – and others!
“Suitable accessories for my evening gown, and a delightful, if rather extravagant costume for Jane”, were bought a few days later.
On the 3rd, she is back in Southampton yet again, preparing flowers for the liners in dock, but she leaves early for home where, she recounts:
A surprise awaited me! Mr Smith, from the Post Office had come over to know if I would be interested in a large spider which he had in a bunch of bananas! Mother took a box over, and amid some amazement from other customers, and with a certain amount of respect for the unknown species of spider, they lured it into the box, after removing two bananas behind which it was lurking. On one of these were its eggs, carefully covered with a silken shroud. It was a beautiful spider, larger than most, if not all, of ours, with heavy brown markings on body and legs.
I had only a cursory glance, since it was very much alive and I did not want to lose it, but I have posted it, with the eggs, to Barry, who will, no doubt, be able to find out its identity from Mr Savory. It would seem that our interest in nature in all its forms is well-known in Chandler’s Ford. Within a week I have posted a moth, two flowers and a spider to Barry! This last I labelled conspicuously “live spider – open carefully”.
The Remembrance Day Service on the 6th, at Compton Church, Gran finds as moving as ever, and after describing the details of the Service, writes:
Immediately after the Silence, I could hear the “Last Post” and “Reveille” in the distance, played by the trumpeters at Bushfield Camp, but in the mood which the Remembrance Service creates, the sound seemed that of heavenly trumpets proclaiming the triumph of our glorious dead and I felt the ever-ready tears fill my eyes.
Diana’s confirmation takes place that evening at St Nicholas’ Church, North Stoneham, and Gran, attending, says:
This too was a beautiful Service, conducted by Bishop Lang, assistant Bishop of Winchester… Among the girls was a young Negress, whose expressive, dark eyes, never left the Bishop’s face while he was speaking, but afterwards they met mine and her face lit up when I smiled at her. I received a really brilliant smile later as I passed her on leaving the Church.
The saga of the “pet” spider in the kitchen is added to on the 9th, Gran writing, “…at breakfast time it was seen to be much smaller than recently and, upon investigation, was clinging to a mass of eggs completely covered in silk. It will be interesting to watch developments”. And of the spider she posted to Barry, safely arrived but not yet shown to Mr Savory, Barry tells her in a letter that: “She, the spider, is flourishing, and had eaten two flies and an earwig but had rejected a cranefly! Barry wants me to try to trace the origin of the bananas but so far I have been unable to do so”. With the spider information from Barry, comes the news that “Ricky, aged ten months, took his first two steps!”
The behaviour of a Nuthatch – a bird that Gran remembers seeing with wonder for the first time when she first moved to the Ridge twenty- seven years ago – intrigues her. She watches it retrieving pieces of cheese, which she put out in the garden more than two days ago, from between the roof tiles of the house next door, where it has clearly cached them. Gran had noticed that the bird always took the food away from the feeder, never observing it actually consuming what it gathered.
November 15th:
During the morning I went to Sherborne House School to see a film and some coloured slides shown by Miss Barnaby, the Southampton representative of Dr Barnardo’s Homes, to stimulate the interest and energies of the pupils. For some years the school supported a child in one of these Homes but she has now gone out into the world, and Sherborne House wants to adopt a new baby as their special protégée. How the parents can part with some, indeed all, of these adorable little people I cannot imagine, but I know that it is sometimes tragedy and not wanton heartlessness that prompts it.
Gran adds that Dr Barnardo would surely feel well-rewarded by the growth of his dream, and that, “His Homes now have over four thousand children… and the latest ones provide for brothers and sisters to be together so that they shall not grow up apart”.
We learn that evening the reason for her purchase of the beautiful deep red velvet gown. She says: “I did no writing, for tonight I went to the Wessex Masonic Ladies’ Festival at the Polygon Hotel, and knew I should be very late home”.
This is what she thinks of the evening event, to which she presumably went with her husband. Grampa was a keen Mason:
It was a pleasant experience, for once in a while, but I should not like to do it too often. The babble of voices before the reception and dinner was worse than a Magpies’ “Parliament”, and I am used to the silent places, but the dinner was good and I enjoyed watching the dancing, though I came to the conclusion that backless dresses are not suitable for those of us who are no longer young, and I was glad mine had long sleeves and a bodice that covered my aging shoulders and back!
She enjoys some of the singing by the baritone John Harvey, but two of his songs, “Hi there and Spare a dime, were American and did not appeal to me at all”, she writes. There is some “beautifully executed” exhibition dancing by Harold and Elizabeth Webb, whose lovely clothes Gran describes, and also some:
…speeches – rather boring, but an appeal for the Masonic Hospital was well-received. In a draw for this later I won a very nice heat-resisting tray, framed in unstained polished wood. I actually danced the last waltz – the first time for twenty-seven years! Then “Auld Lang Syne” was sung and it was over save for God Save the Queen.
The night is starlit as they come home, and the following day is glorious too, so, in spite of getting home in the small hours, Gran is up early and cycling to Upham “to get some dry materials for Bob Fowler for his Christmas novelties”.
Gran tells us a little more about Dr Barnardos. saying:
Jane has been a member of the Barnardo Helpers League for between fifteen and sixteen years and has won all their awards, but had lost her Silver Knife, so I recently wrote to Headquarters to know if they would replace it if we paid for it, and to explain that now she was away at College she was not able to do as much for the Homes as before. I have always noted how very friendly and personal are their letters to me when I have sent up the contents of the Sherborne House boxes, and I think the reply to my recent letter is well worth recording: –
“Thank you very much indeed for your kind letter. We are deeply conscious of all the splendid service, which your daughter has rendered to this work over such a long period of years, and are delighted to send another knife to replace the one which she has lost. We do not charge for our Awards, but ask our friends if they would care to put a small sum in their collecting boxes to help defray the cost.
I am also very pleased to find that Miss Goater is due for her Star and Ribbon, which is attached to the Long Service Badge, and I do hope she will accept the enclosed as a small token of our appreciation of all that she has done for our work.”
There is more, wishing Jane all success at College, and ending, “With our warm good wishes, yours sincerely, Nancy J. Simpson”.
Article series
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 1)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 2)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 3)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 4)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 5)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 6)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 7)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 8)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 9)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 10)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 11)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 12)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 13)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 14)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 15)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 16)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 17)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 18)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 19)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 20)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 21)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 22)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 23)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 24)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 25)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 26)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 27)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 28)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 29)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 30)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 31)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 32)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 33)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 34)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 35)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 36)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 37)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 38)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 39)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 40)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 41)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 42)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 43)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 44)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 45)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 46)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 47)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 48)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 49)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 50)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 51)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 52)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 53)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 54)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 55)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 56)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 57)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 58)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 59)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 60)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 61)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 62)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 63)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 64)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 65)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 66)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 67)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 68)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 69)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 70)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 71)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 72)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 73)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 74)
Thanks, Rick. As enjoyable as ever. It brought to mind a trip I made to Lundy years ago. I remember most the clarity of the air and the intense colours of the sky, sea and heather. We saw a few Puffin and other birds. We worked up a bit of faux anxiety on the way back for a storm was forecast. There was a hint of the ‘long-barrelled swell before the storm’ as Kipling described it but the storm itself did not arrive until late the next day.
Thanks Mike. I’ve never been to Lundy, which is crazy, since it’s such a birdy place. I think that for a while, it held the record for the most firsts for Brtian. I’m sure Fair Isle has overtaken it now.