Union Castle ship interiors; a window is unveiled; a male Blackbird sits; a Jaguar at Noar Hill; a Gannet and a murder in Dorset; a bird’s identity unresolved; unsporting behaviour and a long day across the border in Sussex.
On June 20th 1956, having first checked her Blackbirds’ nest, the progress of which she is following in the garden, Gran says:
Later I went to Southampton, where it was Visitors’ Day on board the “Winchester Castle”, and I was shewn over the ship by an official of the Union Castle Line, who entertained a small party to lunch in the dining room afterwards. I have, of course, been over several Castle boats before, when delivering flowers for Fowlers’, but today I saw the lounge, swimming pool and smoke-room, and enjoyed an excellent lunch on board as well.
The woodwork throughout is of a delightful golden-yellow, and the furnishings in pastel shades, which tone together beautifully. The pictures are in good taste also, and in one suite there hung one by Russell Flint, R.A. depicting a mountain scene of great charm and colour. All the draperies, such as bedspreads, cushions and eiderdowns, are of different colour in each cabin, but all are in keeping with the golden woodwork. An orchestra was playing during lunch.
Samples of the chef’s art, in the way of dressed and decorated meats, were arranged on a table outside the dining-room, and the sight of them made the mouth water in advance! The sun was shining and the gulls constantly circled round the ship.
Perhaps this visit was in the company of Grampa, because following it, and still in Southampton, she also attends a Masonic event:
…a beautiful and moving Service at St Mary’s Church, recently dedicated after its restoration, for the unveiling and dedication of the Masonic War Memorial Window. The Service opened with the processional hymn, “O Worship the King” and after Psalm 150 and the first lesson, the Masonic Choir sang the anthem “Worship” with words by John Greenleaf Whittier and music by Geoffrey Shaw.
The window is unveiled and dedicated following the second lesson and the hymn; We love the Place, O God. Gran describes the remainder of the Service, which finishes with the singing of the National Anthem, and she ends, “We had tea in the Chantry Hall before returning home”.
Of the restored Church, she states that it is “lofty, full of light and has an austere beauty and simplicity of design, which is very pleasing, though I felt that age will mellow the whiteness of the stone and add to its charm”.
Much of mid-summer day is spent gardening for the Fowlers at Bassett, but in the evening Gran is updating her journal while baby-sitting for the family whose Lake Road garden abuts that of The Ridge. She writes: “Early this evening I came round to sit with Mrs Carmichael’s baby, whilst she and her husband went out together. So far there has been no sound from the babe, and I am writing here since I expect to be very late home”. One has to assume that the babe was also Mr Carmichael’s!
June 22nd:
Our Blackbird is sitting. I had to go to the village, shopping, this morning, and was much delayed when the front tyre of my bicycle was suddenly punctured. I left the machine at the greengrocer’s shop and took a bus down to the station…
Shopping completed, and back to Fryern Hill by bus, she adds, “I collected my bicycle and started to walk home, but the front tyre actually came off the wheel and I had to return to a garage and leave it there”.
Gran makes a natural history discovery for herself on June 23rd, although no doubt, having read in her copy of The Popular Handbook of British Birds, concerning the Blackbird, that “Incubation is usually by the hen alone for about 13 – 14 days”. She notes:
I saw the cock Blackbird slip into our honeysuckle and go into the nest, where he settled down on the eggs which the hen had left in order to feed. I have not heard before that the cock Blackbird shares the duty of incubation but I hope now to prove that this is the case. He was still on the nest when I left home.
Where she leaves home for, is Chawton, where she has arranged to meet Brother and Fin, going on with them from there to Selborne to look for orchids at Noar Hill. We learn too, that Brother Norris’ car at this time is a Jaguar, Gran saying that, “We parked the Jaguar at the end of the lane leading up to Noar Hill, and took our lunch along with us”. They sit in a “flower-covered basin” for lunch, amidst an array of orchids, and are:
…much entertained by the lovely singing and exuberant courtship flight of a Tree Pipit not far away. Dingy Skippers, Small Heaths, Common Blues and a Large Skipper, all butterflies, were flying about among the flowers”.
It is a wonderful orchid-filled day, during which they visit several Meon Valley locations. They are up again next morning to join a B.E.N.A field meeting at Durlston Head, near Swanage. As usual on these Sundays, Fin needs first to be taken into Southampton to attend seven o’clock Mass but they are soon on their way again, picking up another naturalist, Philippa Parsons, at Wareham.
Cliff-nesting seabirds; Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Razorbills, Guillemots and Puffins; birds not often seen by Gran, are enjoyed, and a new species, “an exciting surprise”, is added to her list: “A Gannet flew in over the sea and came within clear range of our binoculars before turning and flying round the cliff out of sight”.
The group botanises around Corfe Castle and there Gran gleans a little information about the castle itself, including that:
The central keep still partly stands. It was here, in A.D. 979, that King Edward was slain by his step-mother, Queen Elfrida, who later repented of her ill deed and, as an act of penitence, founded two nunneries, one at Amesbury, in Wiltshire, and the other at Wherwell, in Hants.
Following a long day in the field, they are late home at The Ridge, having first to take Philippa all the way back to her college in Weymouth because of a misunderstanding of the train times from Wareham, and Gran ends her notes for the day with:
After a hurried cup of tea, Brother, with Fin and Jock, who had come down to see her Mother for the weekend, left for London. What a good fellow is Brother and how untiring and reliable a driver.
On June 25th the male Blackbird is again noted “sharing the task of incubation”.
Book 59
By June 30th, the Blackbird eggs in the garden of The Ridge are newly hatched, and that day she leads a Natural History Society outing to Compton Downs, where well over one hundred plant species are noted, including several of her beloved orchids. She says:
There were a few Fragrant Orchids and one or two Pyramidal, and I was guilty of subterfuge to save these last from a notorious “picker” who always comes with a huge knife and gathers or digs up nearly everything she sees.
She also quietly shows Diana Fowler, who also attends the field trip, the few Bee Orchids present there, so that the “picker” does not take them. And she finds herself a plant new to her, writing, “Amongst many cornfield plants, actually growing with barley, I found Corn Gromwell Lithospermum arvense, which was new to me.
July 2nd:
Going into one of the bedrooms this morning I was amazed to see a tiny bird sitting on top of the door! It was a female Siskin, small and very dainty, and, when I went in, it flew about the room resting momentarily on the picture rail. It did not seem unduly alarmed but I could not lure it out of the window and it remained too high for me to reach. Eventually I caught it in the butterfly net…
I spent most of the afternoon next door watching Wimbledon tennis matches on television, and saw some splendid play in the Men’s Singles. Two Americans and two Australians have now reached the semi-finals.
On the following day, a small bird in the garden treetops, “…uttering notes that were unfamiliar to me – “tse – seeee! tse! tse! – tseeee!”, she writes, mystifies Gran, and she thinks it might be the bird encountered yesterday in the bedroom. She worries about its identity though:
…particularly as I had felt certain that the little visitor yesterday had been a Siskin and then I remembered that Siskins are Winter visitors in these parts. Looking it up in the Handbook, I still could find nothing else even remotely like it, except a Serin, which would have been even more unlikely. So I am at a loss.
The call, as she renders it, could easily be that of a Siskin, always much commoner in the UK than the Serin, which is more of a southern European species. Nevertheless, Gran was correct in saying that Siskin was a Winter bird in Hampshire in those days. Serin is typically a Spring and Summer bird in the UK, and it is not impossible that this species would find its way to Hampshire in Gran’s day. Indeed, in later years, having gained more ornithological experience, she did claim that this bird was a Serin. There is, of course, the possibility that this bird, or at any rate, the one that found its way into the bedroom, was an escaped cage bird, Serin or not.
On July 4th, Gran is again watching Wimbledon next door. A stickler for good manners and sportsmanship, she records:
A very splendid semi-final match between Rosewall of Australia, and Seixas of America, was marred by exhibitions of temper by the American over a line decision, but Rosewall made a supreme effort when heavily losing the final set of which there were five, and ran out a worthy winner. But the loser also played superbly and it is a pity that he lessened his popularity by such an exhibition of bad manners on the famous Centre Court.
The result of the second Men’s Semi-final, played the next day, and which according to Gran, “did not reach the standard of yesterday’s contest”, meant that the final would be between two Australians. Gran adds, “Today’s match was played with great sportsmanship on both sides”.
And on the 6th, she rounds up the results of Wimbledon that day, having yet again watched it next door:
As expected, Lewis Hoad was the worthy winner of the Men’s Singles, but there was a surprise in the Ladies’ Doubles, when the British Girl, Angela Buxton, and her coloured American partner, Althea Gibson, beat the favourites, Shirley Fry and Louise Brough. Later Hoad and Rosewall, as partners, beat Howe and Larsen to qualify for the final tomorrow.
I went to Bassett in the evening to a Whist Drive in aid of Group Captain Cheshire’s Homes for the disabled and was lucky enough to win the first prize.
Gran is often almost apologetic for being a winner at whist (as well as at tennis), usually emphasising her luck, but the fact is, she was competitive and a skilled and canny player of both games! The quality of play in the tennis finals, played on the 7th, and described in her journal, disappointed her. She is moderately happy though, when a Brit does well, writing:
… a part-British victory was pleasing but Althea Gibson and Angela Buxton beat Miss Muller and Miss Seeney of Australia with a display of poor tennis for Wimbledon.
Early this evening a much-loved and familiar whistle heralded the arrival of Barry for a short weekend, which brought me a great deal of pleasure. He had come largely to see my flower paintings, which have now become too many for me to take up to London, and his words of praise were a great encouragement to me. We spent a happy evening together.
Mother and Son have a day out together, but not before, while making a tour of the garden, they save an insect in distress:
We found that a large black and green dragonfly had somehow become entangled in a piece of broken wire netting and was struggling violently. Barry grasped it at the thorax and managed to release it, and, after a few moments, it flew away, none the worse for its experience. Later Barry suggested that we should go to Hayling Island, where he had found, recently, some very interesting plants and insects, so we collected some food together and were soon on our way, though we did not make it to Hayling Island, as you shall hear!
Although Gran does not say, they must have cycled together, a long route, which says much for her continuing enthusiasm, not to mention her amazing fitness. She notes Musk Mallow in bloom at Bursledon, Horse Radish flowering at Park Gate, and Common Mallow, she says, “was most luxurious on the harbour side at Portchester and looked wonderful against the blue of the sea and sky in the sunshine”. Swifts are everywhere, it seems, and she records that she has seen more this year than ever before.
Skylarks are singing at Emsworth, and they pedal on, through Southbourne, Bosham, Donington and Rindham. They find that:
There was such a long queue of cars and motor-cycles waiting to get past the toll bridge on to Hayling Island, that Barry suggested leaving it alone, and going on to West Wittering, in Sussex… and so, to West Wittering we went, and what a grand place we found, once we had passed the hundreds of people on the popular beach, bathing and picnicking, and lying about, like basking sharks, in the hot sun.
The beautiful Sea Bindweed was everywhere, and I grieved to see the lovely pink and white blooms trodden down and crushed underfoot. People never seem aware of the flowers in such places as this.
Dad and Gran walk nearly to the end of the sand dune promontory, recording plants and birds and being particularly pleased to find nesting Little Terns. They lunch later in a secluded farm road before cycling home via Petersfield and the Meon Valley. Concluding her long entry for the day, Gran ends:
A cup of tea was welcome when we at length reached home, and we spent a pleasant hour before Barry had to leave for London. I went to Winchester with him, and was loth to see him go again, but we had a day together that I shall long remember.
It is clear that she misses her boy terribly.
And on reading this, her boy, now in his eighty-ninth year, tells me, “We used to cycle phenomenal distances in those days, and that trip must have been close on 100 miles, there and back, the home journey with several steepish hills!”
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)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 75)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 76)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 77)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 78)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 79)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 80)
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