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."