WILD STRAWBERRIES - 9

"'Owbridge's lung tonic for you tonight, my boy"'

 said David."

NANNY'S DOMAIN

SING ALONG

Words by Thomas Moore

Musical arrangement by Sir John Stevenson

Although published here as a "Scotch Air", this is an Irish song

OFT IN THE STILLY NIGHT

Oft, in the stilly night,

Ere Slumber's chain has bound me,

Fond Memory brings the light 

Of other days around me;

The smiles, the tears,

Of boyhood's years,

The words of love then spoken;

The eyes that shone,

Now dimm'd and gone,

The cheerful hearts now broken!

Thus, in the stilly night,

Ere Slumber's chain hath bound me,

Sad Memory brings the light

Of other days around me.

When I remember all

The friends, so link'd together,

I've seen around me fall

Like leaves in wintry weather;

I feel like one,

Who treads alone

Some banquet-hall deserted,

Whose lights are fled,

Whose garlands dead,

And all but he departed!

Thus, in the stilly night,

Ere Slumber's chain hath bound me,

Sad Memory brings the light

Of other days around me.

A SONG FROM THE NURSERY

Recorded in 1944.  So many boys must have remembered this song from their nursery days now that they had gone for soldiers everyone.  A knot in one's throat, a tear furtively swept, collective memories even for those of us who were no yet born.  

WILD STRAWBERRIES - 8

"Just inside the door was an enormous upright mechanical organ, product of the Fatherland in its milder days.  Into this you inserted a large metal disc covered with perforations, and then turned a handle.  A huge metal roller, studded with spikes like some engine of the Inquisition, could then be observed in motion through the glass front of the upper part, and crashing melody poured forth."

WILD STRAWBERRIES - 7

"The nursery, which had been the home of Lady Emily's four children, was a large, sunny room made from several half-attic rooms thrown into one, with sloping ceilings in odd corners.  It was filled with the accumulation of many years of children.  A large dappled rocking horse with fiery nostrils stood in one corner."

GUDGEON'S DELIGHT

"To sound the gong was, though he would have died than confess it, one of the great joys of Gudgeon's life.  The soul of the artist, the poet, the soldier, the explorer, the mystic, which slumbered somewhere inside his tall and dignified presence, was released four times a day to empyrean heights unknown and unsuspected by his employers, [---] and his underlings."

ADVERTS FROM WAY BACK

WILD STRAWBERRIES - 6

"Rushmere Abbey was the meagre remains of a great Cistercian foundation.  Little of it was left but the broken arches of part of the cloisters and a fragment of the dormitories."

WILD STRAWBERRIES - 5

   "The way to Rushmere Abbey lay at first by a shaded lane, then a footpath led through fields.
   "It isn't a good country for cowslips," said David, "but we have everything else.  Fritillaries are an absolute pest hereabouts.  Look there."
   Not far from the stream which bordered the meadow, a number of the snake-headed flowers, white and purple, rose among the grass.  Mary knelt down to look at them, fingering one or two, but not plucking them.
   "Do you know what I'd like, David?" she said, "I'd like a lot of shoes, exactly like these lovely snake-skin creatures.  White shoes and purple shoes."

WILD STRAWBERRIES - 4

"... she went to the window and kneeling on the window-seat looked out into the park.  Her bedroom was at the front of the house, overlooking the great meadow which lay bathed in warmth and peace."

SECCOTINE - IT STICKS

WILD STRAWBERRIES - 3

"The large bedroom was crammed to overflowing with family relics, and examples of the various arts in which Lady Emily had brilliantly dabbled at one time or another."

WILD STRAWBERRIES - 2

"RUSHWATER HOUSE WAS A LARGE, rather Gothic house built by Mr. Leslie's grandfather.  Its only outward merit was that it might have been worse than it was."

FASHION PLATES

What Lady Emily would wear.

Ascot, 1934

The hats have become more elaborate with time.  

Compare this to what they are wearing these days.

STICKER SHOCK

Well, this one isn't making it to Furball Cottage's well-stocked library.  Amazon is selling it for over two thousand dollars.  It would certainly be a great resource in our quest for Thirkellian images, but we'll have to be contented with snatching a couple of slanted photos and calling it a day.  Don't know anything about Bill Brandt, so this is the moment to learn about his career and his publications.  If ever someone comes up with a reissue of this book, and why not, look, after all, at what Moyer Bell has done, and if it sells for a reasonable price... In the meantime, ladies and gents, look in your bookshelves, check out your friendly second-hand purveyors; it may be there, waiting for you to bring it home. Happy hunting!

WILD STRAWBERRIES - 1

"Through this gate the Leslie family had come to church with varying degrees of unpunctuality ever since the vicar had been at Rushwater..."

SHUT UP!

Exasperating 'little boy'.  For those of us who grew up with brothers or cousins this is no fiction.  Skipped most of the dialogue while searching for some architectural kernel and hit pay dirt with the great description of Lord Stoke's castle.  Totally exhausted and glad it's over.  ♥

DORLAND and MORLAND

The world according to Tony Morland

THE DEMON IN THE HOUSE - 1

"Rising Castle was situated on a hill at the confluence of the Rising and Rushmore.  It boasted a Norman keep in fair condition and a good deal of the original walls.  The fourth Lord Stoke had defended the castle against Cromwell, who had unpleasantly battered him into honorable capitulation.  After several generations of neglect the present earl's great-grandfather had built a comfortable mansion from the stones of the ruins.  The present owner had put such parts of the castle as were still standing into tolerable repair and allowed the public to visit them at sixpence a head."  ...   "Lord Stoke, with maddening slowness and infinite wealth of detailed explanation of what he and his architect had been doing, then  showed them the piece of Norman wall that he was rebuilding, the foundations of what might have been a chapel, and the room in which it was on the whole improbable that Charles II had slept after the battle of Worcester."