Hudnut’s factory; a trip to Oxford; a famous French artist; Britain wins the Wightman Cup; a strange Bee Orchid; a setback for the Ospreys; Fairsky – a ship with a past life; at Wimbledon’s No 1 Court; new flowers to paint; a Wild Gladiolus hunt, and a letter from Mr Summerhayes.
On May 10th 1958 Gran writes:
This afternoon I went with Jean Hockridge to the Open Day at Hudnut’s Factory, where Ken is Production Manager. Though I do not use cosmetics myself, I found it very interesting, and other drugs and liniments and such are also made there. It was fascinating to see the various machines turning out tablets, mixing powders and creams, mixing toothpaste and putting it into tubes, filling, corking and labelling bottles of shampoo, and liniments and many other things. A very nice tea was provided and all guests were given various samples of the productions.
She plays tennis that evening and ends her entry for the day: “Tomorrow I go to Oxford with the Fowler family to see Diana and, hopefully, to look for Fritillaries!” It is not clear what Diana, Tommy and Bob’s younger daughter, is now doing in Oxford. Is she at the University? Gran describes the next day at some length, including the journey to Oxford, and includes this:
…through Newtown, Newbury, Beedon and East Ilsley to Harwell, the New Town built round the Atomic Research Station, which, to my mind, should never have existed at all, and the sight of it was the one disquieting feature in an otherwise lovely day.
The day is spent in and around Oxford with the Fowler family, and Gran finds her Fritillaries – in a Thames-side meadow, close to where students are rehearsing Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale. She says, “…gentlemen in doublet and hose, and ladies in farthingales strolled everywhere”.
Book 72
After giving what she calls “my regular pint of blood” in Eastleigh on May 12th, Gran takes a bus to Bassett to meet, Gran says, “Hazel Bidmead and Mrs Eagle, the latter in her car, and she took us all to Chilworth, where we had a most enjoyable evening”. In a Forestry Commission area there they hear Nightingale and Turtle Dove in song and investigate an active Badger sett, promising themselves a moonlit visit in the near future to try to see the occupants. Redstarts are present and Woodlarks are displaying, and the ladies, Gran records, “put up a Nightjar, which caused some speculation as to its identity until we located it again sitting in the characteristic Nightjar fashion along a branch of an oak tree instead of the more usual across attitude”.
Gran is out again on the following day, Jane’s birthday, describing her botanical finds while rambling through familiar countryside in “…the Hursley area with Betty Hoskins, whose family has been intimately connected with the village for many years”. Perhaps of more local interest, on this occasion, than the flowers and birds she records, are the people:
Next we went to the farm which had been Betty’s Grandfather’s and which is now run by her Uncle and his two sons, and saw a number of very young Guernsey calves, one of which was less than a week old… We also visited their fathers – four bulls of varying tempers, all firmly shut in their stalls. Continuing along Poles Lane towards Hursley, we met one of Betty’s cousins, Richard, on a tractor, so we stopped to talk to him for a few moments. He told us of a pheasant’s nest in a nearby field with four eggs in it… we stopped again, this time to speak with an old neighbour of the Hoskins family, who obviously did not recognise Betty when she called “Hallo”. We were sorry to hear that this old lady was alone now, all her neighbours’ houses having been demolished to make way for road “improvements”.
A severe headache (these seemingly still as frequent as ever) lays Gran low on the following day. She writes that she “stayed in bed until just after mid-day, by which time the tablets had cleared my head, though I felt decidedly top-heavy when standing up”. I have included this little quote particularly, because some forty years later and coping with dementia, Gran, on being asked how she was, constantly complained of feeling “top-heavy”. I could never quite work out what she meant, but now assume she was describing the effects of her medication.
“I went to spend the day with a very old friend at West Wellow”, she writes on June 3rd, and continues:
I learned with interest, and for the first time, though I have known Doreen [Peters] since we were children, that her Grandfather was Jules Chérét, the famous French artist, who painted the first posters in Paris and whose works of art were removed from the Galleries to a place of safety during the war. Many of them, owned now by Doreen’s sister in Geneva, are extremely valuable, especially those signed by the artist. One of her uncles, his son, is a well-known sculptor. He, the artist, died at the age of ninety-two, a wonderful old man, who, though then blind, made his disability undetectable to others by his great independence and courage.
Gran completes the flower painting, depicting many typically English woodland species, for Major Brewster by late May, and she sends it to him in Canada. Second post on June 4th brings a thankful letter from the recipient:
…to say that his picture had arrived safely and how delighted he was with it. He charmingly thanked me for helping him and Mrs Brewster to have a lovely home, and to be able to return in thought to the days of his childhood and wander in the woodlands of England. A very kindly compliment to my art!
She now has to start another picture, this one a present for Diana Fowler’s next birthday, and she gathers several downland species at Compton and Shawford for this task and begins the picture on June 8th. The afternoon of the next day is spent entirely on this work, from 1 o’clock until half-past six, Gran writing that she “added Sainfoin, Salad Burnet, Silverweed, Bird’s-foot-trefoil, Wild Thyme and Milkwort”, adding, “It begins to take shape”.
Jane is home for half-term in mid-June, spending much of her time horse-riding and tending The Ridge garden with Gran, and there is also tennis to watch:
This afternoon we divided between gardening and rushing in next door to see part of the play in the Wightman Cup tennis match between England and America… Christine Truman, aged seventeen, scored a remarkable and splendid victory over the reigning Wimbledon Champion, Althea Gibson, and Ann Haydon beat Mimi Arnold, giving England a winning lead and securing for her the Wightman Cup after a lapse of about twenty-three years! A fine thing for British tennis prestige. Gardening was a rest after the tense excitement of watching and hearing such play.
That evening, Gran is in Bassett helping Diana and Tommy with preparations for Tommy and Bob’s Silver Wedding party, the event itself being described as, “an enjoyable little affair in which old acquaintances were renewed and old memories stirred…”
News of grandson Julian arrives by postcard from Jock on June 17th:
…Julian had his tonsils and adenoids removed yesterday afternoon in St Andrew’s hospital, but he is alright after the operation. Happily she had left him there on Sunday afternoon without tears, and he will be so much better now that it is done. Dear little boy.
Later in the month Gran leads a Natural History Society outing to Cheesefoot Head, and she returns with a Bee Orchid, picked to paint for Diana’s picture. It raises some questions as to its true identity though, Gran writing:
…and when I reached home and put it in water, I noticed at once that there was something odd about it. The lip, unlike that of a typical Bee Orchid, was pointed, and the tip not turned under; also there was very little dark colouring on it, and the whole flower was fully open but inverted. In short, it was exactly like the photograph in V.S. Summerhayes’ book, of the Wasp Orchid (Ophrys var. trollii), I hurriedly painted the one open flower…and wrote to Barry about it before retiring early to bed.
The following morning, she writes that “to her chagrin”, it had developed during the night into a “perfect Bee”, expanding “as a moth does after emergence from the chrysalis, but I felt certain this is not the usual procedure for I have often seen a Bee Orchid open from the bud before”. She plans to write to Mr Summerhayes about it.
Book 73
Most of the flower deliveries that Gran makes to the docks at Southampton are to a limited range of ships – mostly Cunard liners and vessels of the Union Castle Line, but on June 26th, there is a new ship, with an interesting history having been a warship since 1941 and lately refurbished as a passenger vessel to take emigrants, the “ten pound poms” on the Assisted Passage Scheme to new lives in Australia.
This afternoon I went to the docks to help deliver on the “Fairsky” making her maiden voyage to Australia. She was a little ship belonging to an Italian Line, and a most difficult one in which to find one’s way. To make matters worse, most of the stewards were unable to direct us for they knew their way about no better than we, and most could only speak Italian. The stairs were very steep and, amongst other things, a passenger fell down one flight and I was obliged to help her back to her cabin and to comfort a very frightened little daughter.
“Being quite alone this weekend”, Gran writes on the 29th:
I enjoyed a really leisurely breakfast, and read the newspaper, or part of it, with it. I was very sorry to learn that once again the eggs of an Osprey have been taken and once more this rare bird has been thwarted in its attempt to nest again in Britain after a lapse of many years. Oh, the short-sightedness and selfish greed of egg-collectors!
She lunches with the Hockridges next door, they having invited her because she is alone, and Gran also takes the opportunity to wash her hair and dry it in the warm sunshine, before continuing to add flowers to Diana’s picture; Squinnancy-wort, Silverweed and Fragrant Orchid.
Next day, July 1st, friends, Kenneth Chalk and his wife, take Gran to the Tennis Championships at Wimbledon:
We were fortunate in obtaining seats on No 1 Court for the Championships and saw what I am sure will prove to be the finest match of them all – Britain’s Robert Wilson against Australia’s Ashley Cooper, who is seeded No 1. Wilson lost, but only after pulling up from a deficit of two sets to take the favourite to a five set match in which the issue was in doubt until the last point had been played.
She appears to have been on her own until the evening of July 6th, clearly enjoying a sense of freedom. Not only does she get to the tennis at Wimbledon; she watches the Men’s Final next door (as she predicted, not such a good match as the one she attended, she says); plays some tennis herself; joins a party of naturalists from the Salisbury Field Club in the Broad Chalke area where, she writes, “Sir Anthony Eden now lives”; and paints many more flowers for her collection whenever the light indoors is good enough. She concludes this period with: “Another sunny interval enabled me to finish the Restharrow before my solitude was ended”.
July 7th: “A truly wonderful day!” enthuses Gran. She catches the half-past nine bus for Southampton, thence making her way to New Milton by train to meet her friend Mrs Way, “…for a day in the New Forest, specially to seek the Wild Gladiolus which I was most anxious to paint”. Mrs Way drives, and Gran writes:
We stopped only to buy some lime and pineapple squash with which to quench our ensuing thirsts and then set out for Holmsley, where we parked the car beneath two pine trees on the edge of the old aerodrome.
They spend time exploring “an extensive and wonderfully interesting bog” before leaving it:
…to search amongst the bracken on rising ground for the Gladiolus. To do this it was necessary to stoop down and peer among the bracken stems, for this enchanting and extremely rare plant hides its beauty, fortunately for its survival, under the spreading fronds, and so escapes notice. For some time we were unsuccessful, and, as the area had obviously been burnt earlier in the year, we were prepared for disappointment. Then I discovered a brilliant fallen petal and there was the first of these treasures and we found a goodly number, which enabled me to bring one home to paint. This was not the first time I had seen Gladiolus – a cottager showed me them at Bank in 1950, but I had long wished to find it again…
After lunch they make their way to Wooton Heath and Marlborough Deep, in the Forest south-east of Holmsley, to seek Marsh Helleborine, known to occur there, and Gran is worried, but relieved, since:
The Deep was marred by the laying of the Fawley pipeline right through it, but, mercifully the Marsh Helleborine patch has escaped, though draining may destroy some, at least, of its marsh-loving plants.
They find numbers of flowers, mostly very small ones, new to Gran, including Brookweed Samolus valerandi, Allseed Radiola linoides, Chaffweed Centunculus minimus and Hairy Bird’s-foot-trefoil Lotus hispidus. No wonder Gran deemed it a wonderful day! On the following afternoon, having “scrambled with the washing” in order to quickly get painting, it takes Gran two and a half hours to do the Gladiolus, but, she says, “I found it impossible to reproduce satisfactorily the brilliant magenta of the petals – the finished flower was slightly darker than the original. But it made a beautiful picture, though I was not wholly satisfied.
On July 13th:
A letter from Kew, from Mr Summerhayes, brought comment on my “Wasp” Orchid found at Cheesefoot Head last month. To quote:- “I do not remember seeing a Bee Orchid open in the way described and painted by you. My recollection is in agreement with yours, that they open straight from the bud into normal Bee Orchids without any wasp-like stage. It seems further evidence that the so-called Wasp Orchid is really only an abnormal or special form of the Bee Orchid.”
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)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 81)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 82)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 83)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 84)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 85)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 86)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 87)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 88)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 89)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 90)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 91)
Mike Sedgwick says
I manage to forge a connection at last with your Gran. She knew Hazel Bidmead and Mrs Eagles, stalwarts of the Hampshire naturalists. I knew them too at a time I did some work for the World Wildlife Fund. Are you sure it was Mrs Eagles? I called her that once only to be reminded that it was Eagle, there was only one of her, Mrs Eagle.
A tidy gardener would disapprove of the lack of attention some parts of our garden receive but it is in those neglected areas that we discovered 4 Bee Orchids growing. I will check carefully the exact form of the flower in case it is a Wasp.
Rick Goater says
Hi Mike, on reading ahead, I now see that Gran refers to Mrs Eagle correctly from now on.