tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84448875715099264142024-03-14T23:08:08.050-07:00Nilly Hallnillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.comBlogger234125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-3095462250234864442015-08-13T16:18:00.000-07:002015-08-14T00:39:36.689-07:00CORN DOLLIES<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xLjC5E23zuk/Vc0hrbg0iMI/AAAAAAAAJvQ/tm93JgNKN7U/s1600/IMG_2716.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xLjC5E23zuk/Vc0hrbg0iMI/AAAAAAAAJvQ/tm93JgNKN7U/s640/IMG_2716.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There was a bit of a hoo-hah happening in the field.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This was the view from Nilly Towers when I looked out today.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A Level results? Yay!!!</span></div>
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<br />nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-84759329647781260282015-07-26T11:08:00.003-07:002015-07-27T01:13:53.383-07:00MR ROCHESTER, I PRESUME?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nmEd67gA9lw/VbQGoc4XJVI/AAAAAAAAJm4/TOp0-lWUEFg/s1600/The%2BAristocratic%2BProfile.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, not quite.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This aristocratic profile belongs to Sir James Graham of Norton Conyers House, a slightly crumbling manor house with medieval origins, near Ripon in North Yorkshire and a possible inspiration for Thornfield Hall in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.</span></div>
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</span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Still striding, not tottering, Mr N and his sister approach the house for an "At Home" with Lord and Lady Graham.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">The house had been due to re-open to visitors this year after a long battle with deathwatch beetle. There was also excitement over the discovery of a secret staircase to an attic room, further evidence of the Jane Eyre link and an added attraction for visitors.</span></div>
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Charlotte Bronte described Thornfield Hall, Mr Rochester's house, as,<br />
"three storeys high, of proportions not vast, though considerable, a gentleman's house, not a nobleman's seat."
Not unlike the house we were visiting.<br />
She was told the story of the Norton Conyers' "madwoman" who had been kept locked in an attic 60 years earlier, a tale also well-known to Sir James who grew up in the house. While it was thought that this story might have been the inspiration for Rochester's tragic wife Bertha, Charlotte's Thornfield had a secret staircase to Bertha's prison while none was known to exist at Norton Conyers until...<br />
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...in 2004 restoration work led to the lifting of floorboards in the attic and the discovery of dusty stairs down from the attic to a hidden doorway on the first floor landing. This entrance had been concealed in Victorian panelling which was installed between the years 1862 to 1882 when the house, along with the knowledge of the existence of the staircase, was lost to the Graham family through debt.<br />
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The house has medieval origins, C16 extensions, Dutch gables, C17 and C18 alterations and, possibly, Viking foundations - altogether a quaint hotch-potch.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hS4nqvhOpAc/VbSlG77cG0I/AAAAAAAAJok/HNyILD3WkP0/s1600/IMG_2937%2B%25282%2529.CR2" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hS4nqvhOpAc/VbSlG77cG0I/AAAAAAAAJok/HNyILD3WkP0/s640/IMG_2937%2B%25282%2529.CR2" width="640" /></a></div>
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In a room full to bursting with antiques we met the charming incumbents, Sir James and Lady Halina Graham, who introduced us to their history and their home. Sadly, the discovery of another deathwatch beetle infestation means that the house cannot open as often this year as had been planned, but please do watch this <a href="http://weddingsatnortonconyers.co.uk/about-norton-conyers.htm">space.</a></div>
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We were then let loose in the house and photography was allowed!</div>
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"That is very similar to ours, dear."</div>
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This room has Chinese silk on its walls.</div>
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We wondered if Charlotte had ever sat at this desk?</div>
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The Connoisseur.</div>
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Interesting family objects.</div>
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An antique mahogany plate bucket - very useful.</div>
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Georgian wallpaper uncovered.</div>
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My favourite painting was of Sir Richard Graham, 1st Baronet, 1636 - 1711, as a small boy wearing a dress. The letter below was written to his father when he was 7, in 1643. I was surprised to find he had written to "Dear Daddy"! </div>
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The house was full of beautiful, traditional flower arrangements, all very Constance Spry. The flowers were freshly gathered from Norton Conyers' pretty walled gardens. It is free to wander or to purchase plants on several days each week.<br />
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Tea in the orangerie.</div>
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Norton Conyers seemed to me to be a house full of warmth, affection and romance, albeit with a few crumbling corners, flaking surfaces and fading gloss - like the rest of us. </div>
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I dreamed that night of Mr Rochester and Jane Eyre.</div>
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"Come to me - come to me entirely now", said he; and added in his deepest tone, speaking in my ear as his cheek was laid on mine, "Make my happiness - I will make yours."</div>
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From Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.</div>
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Sigh.</div>
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<br />nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-46203312920597547762015-07-18T15:22:00.000-07:002015-07-18T15:22:15.280-07:00HOW WE HAVE FUN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7PVKTM6yBQQ/VakwHKNLblI/AAAAAAAAJgs/H6uFYZqvTmY/s1600/IMG_8808.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7PVKTM6yBQQ/VakwHKNLblI/AAAAAAAAJgs/H6uFYZqvTmY/s400/IMG_8808.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My dear Daughter-in-law texted me one evening last week. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">"Ha ha!", I replied, " We do know how to have a nice time, don't we?"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">We were sitting in our Holiday Inn Extra bedroom, just off the Norwich Ring Road, next door to Asda and with a view of the decaying roof of the local ice rink, through a window that could not be opened...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XVVIRK1UgvM/VakySHNemGI/AAAAAAAAJg4/5hmCwy03Kz4/s1600/IMG_8688.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XVVIRK1UgvM/VakySHNemGI/AAAAAAAAJg4/5hmCwy03Kz4/s640/IMG_8688.JPG" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">...watching a TV that chopped people's heads in half...</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gs3e7p6XCbk/VarKUpV8qrI/AAAAAAAAJl0/fdnY3lzqd-0/s1600/IMG_8689.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="430" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gs3e7p6XCbk/VarKUpV8qrI/AAAAAAAAJl0/fdnY3lzqd-0/s640/IMG_8689.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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...after dining nearby.</div>
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We were in Norfolk on business, visiting the Norfolk Showground Antiques Fair and, of course, Daughter-in-law knew we would be having a nice time, in our own sweet way.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-F-GsajA-9yU/Val3HKX2M2I/AAAAAAAAJhc/gnINggSw5Pw/s1600/IMG_8606.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="435" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-F-GsajA-9yU/Val3HKX2M2I/AAAAAAAAJhc/gnINggSw5Pw/s640/IMG_8606.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Our first stop down the A1 had been Burghley House where we received a much kinder reception than former staff.</div>
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And, hooray, photography was allowed so...</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Wshl3KEfwCA/Val5JNFk7_I/AAAAAAAAJh4/TT_5tgsYuNQ/s1600/IMG_2284%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Wshl3KEfwCA/Val5JNFk7_I/AAAAAAAAJh4/TT_5tgsYuNQ/s640/IMG_2284%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="396" /></a></div>
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..we joined the other worshippers of beautiful things.</div>
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Then onwards and Eastwards to the village of Castle Acre, with its ruined Priory</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RDgarxdwQ8c/Vaq0LtMyt8I/AAAAAAAAJjc/-bWvNXkNNOY/s1600/IMG_2398%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RDgarxdwQ8c/Vaq0LtMyt8I/AAAAAAAAJjc/-bWvNXkNNOY/s640/IMG_2398%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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and the eponymous Norman Castle.</div>
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The Parish Church of St James the Great</div>
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We enjoyed exploring the 15th century church with its rare painted pulpit.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YbFc1aMzZGY/Vaqz4o-sDBI/AAAAAAAAJjM/s95AV6A3Dzs/s1600/IMG_2375%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YbFc1aMzZGY/Vaqz4o-sDBI/AAAAAAAAJjM/s95AV6A3Dzs/s640/IMG_2375%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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A skull peeps out from the upper floor of the sacristy, once used as a charnel house.</div>
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Next day we got down to the serious stuff</div>
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Hev yew got antiques, boy?</div>
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Cow to Customer? Farmyard flavours, perhaps. Muck 'n' Mint?</div>
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We stayed just two nights, finding plenty of new stock at the <a href="https://www.aztecevents.co.uk/antiquesandcollectorsfairs.htm">antiques fair</a> - and we also found time to have a very nice time, Norfolk-style...</div>
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...at Oxburgh Hall.</div>
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And, best of all, up on the North Norfolk coast</div>
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at Blakeney.</div>
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I was pleased with my close-up of wood pigeons until Mr N spotted avocets</div>
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and egrets!</div>
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Light fades over the salt marshes and our fun is over - until next time.</div>
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***</div>
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-58670741989415746492015-07-08T16:12:00.000-07:002015-07-08T23:16:40.402-07:00HOW BIG HOW BLUE HOW BEAUTIFUL...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xRO12K--eF8/VZRSxoUI55I/AAAAAAAAJcc/rW2xW6dJd6A/s1600/IMG_1932.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xRO12K--eF8/VZRSxoUI55I/AAAAAAAAJcc/rW2xW6dJd6A/s640/IMG_1932.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">...as Florence would say.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Whenever we need a quick escape, we usually find ourselves heading South and East, to that slightly neglected bit of Yorkshire where even the place-names are a bit odd and arcane; Buttercrambe, Wetwang, Thwing and Kelk (Little and Great). Almost exactly a year ago we ran away to <a href="http://nillyhall-maidinkent.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/burton-constable-hall-star-of-east.html">Burton Constable Hall</a>, trying to forget about how everyone else was obsessing about bikes. Last week the heat in Middle Yorkshire was the problem, 29 Celcius in our village - but much less at Bridlington.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">The beach at Brid was cool enough, at 19 degrees, for a brisk walk</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">or even a run!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;"> Perched on the cliff-top is Sewerby Hall, tasteful and elegant, inside and out.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Recent refurbishment has involved loans of late Victorian furniture from the V&A Museum and quite a lot of Farrow & Ball colour combinations. It used to look like this, but inside these days it is a lot less cluttered and strictly "No Photography".</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Four miles on up the coast we arrived, at last, at Flamborough Head.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Flamborough's wonderful Georgian lighthouse was built in 1806 after the loss of 174 ships off this coast during the previous 25 years. Its enclosed lamp has shone over the sea ever since.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5gx0s3w69ro/VZ2koC8SopI/AAAAAAAAJf0/7dvvBQ2Bceg/s1600/IMG_2020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5gx0s3w69ro/VZ2koC8SopI/AAAAAAAAJf0/7dvvBQ2Bceg/s640/IMG_2020.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This earlier lighthouse, built from chalk blocks, dates from 1673.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here, on the damp cliff tops, we found Northern Marsh Orchids</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3Kdi4gG0xEg/VZ2lHYPK83I/AAAAAAAAJgE/_8_uLQoM_wo/s1600/IMG_8387.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3Kdi4gG0xEg/VZ2lHYPK83I/AAAAAAAAJgE/_8_uLQoM_wo/s640/IMG_8387.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and, in the sea, other creatures, besides us, recaptured their cool.</span></div>
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-67226884535195269472015-06-18T17:01:00.002-07:002015-06-19T00:36:00.956-07:00JUNE 18TH - A BIT OF A SKIRMISH<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"It's June 18th 2015," said Mr N, "Should we celebrate?"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">"I certainly hope so!"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">"200 hundred years since that great day."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">"Well none of us is getting any younger, but that's a bit insulting."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">"It's 200 years since England won the battle of Waterloo, dear."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">"AND my birthday. Even though I'm a pacifist, I have an appropriate day out in mind. The Royal Armouries in Leeds have some interesting Waterloo stuff on show, including a painting of the battle by Lady Butler. I used to know a boy who wrote a book about her..."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">" Very funny! And that "boy" will be a grizzled pensioner by now."</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_oZSYrbvW0A/VYNCx4vJDFI/AAAAAAAAJZ4/_vyYh8wqyoI/s1600/Scotland_Forever%2521%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="324" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_oZSYrbvW0A/VYNCx4vJDFI/AAAAAAAAJZ4/_vyYh8wqyoI/s640/Scotland_Forever%2521%255B1%255D.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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"Scotland Forever!" by Lady Butler.</div>
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The fantastic Waterloo Cartoon is part of the exhibition. This is a huge preparatory drawing for "The Meeting of Wellington and Blucher" by Daniel Maclise. It measures over 13 metres wide.</div>
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No cause for celebration</div>
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Outside there was to be a military parade...</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KMzzzwxOlIY/VYNQyhPMJ7I/AAAAAAAAJbE/8JjS6s-jEfU/s1600/IMG_1389.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="514" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KMzzzwxOlIY/VYNQyhPMJ7I/AAAAAAAAJbE/8JjS6s-jEfU/s640/IMG_1389.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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...if only they could remove the bollards.</div>
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Here they go!</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwmv8inv-kQXbZgLwExdNjw35lsps6xfMuANz0flttJCT433zN1RzwBucesOmkU8PrHv2GzBK-X767gF3x9tA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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The afternoon ended on a jolly note.</div>
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-54887064788369791342015-06-13T15:49:00.001-07:002015-06-13T15:49:23.932-07:00PASSPORT TO THE PAST<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-47mHQrBtyCE/VXyQgW9myHI/AAAAAAAAJXo/B0aRWr0GBRg/s1600/IMG_8190.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="442" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-47mHQrBtyCE/VXyQgW9myHI/AAAAAAAAJXo/B0aRWr0GBRg/s640/IMG_8190.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Or should that be, "Pafseport to the Past"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">This Victorian passport, in the form of a red morocco leather notebook, stamped in gold with the owner, Mrs Harington's, name, was one of the treasures we found at the Wetherby Racecourse antiques fair this morning. No prizes are offered for guessing that I spent the afternoon glued to Google.</span></div>
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The passport is dated 1863, signed by Mary Harington herself and by the Prime Minister of the day, John, Earl Russell.</div>
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Mrs Mary Harington was travelling with her two daughters, a governess and a maid. First I looked at the 1861 census, hoping to find the right Mary. The fact that there were 735 of them did not stop my search - obviously a great number were too young, many were too old to have daughters who needed a governess - and many were simply too poor.</div>
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I found a widowed waistcoat-maker with a sister, but no children.</div>
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A Mary with two daughters - but her husband was a bricklayer and there were no servants.</div>
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Another had five daughters, all working as spinners in Kidderminster.</div>
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In the end there was just one possibility - Mary Harington, a widow aged 44 in 1861, with two young daughters, Beatrice Cecilia and Alice Margaret. They lived in Oxford in a household with servants. More googling revealed that Mary's husband had been the Reverend Dr Richard Harington, Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford until his death in 1853. </div>
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After the death of her husband, and her young son Robert two years later, Mary had not turned away from the world. One friend was Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll. In 1855 he wrote; " I made great friends with Mrs Harington's nice little children, Bob (who would die later that year) and Beatrice, 4 and 3 years old."</div>
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The friendship endured, he got to know the youngest girl Alice and yes, he took photographs...</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CW-vZaApSxg/VXyhRV9SMYI/AAAAAAAAJYM/zXhlfc1mxXY/s1600/Capture%2Bharington%2B6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CW-vZaApSxg/VXyhRV9SMYI/AAAAAAAAJYM/zXhlfc1mxXY/s400/Capture%2Bharington%2B6.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Alice in 1859, aged 6.</div>
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Mary Harington died in 1886 and neither daughter married - but their names are remembered because of their devotion to the Settlement Movement. Oxford university men, with a strong religious belief in social change, began to work at providing housing and occupations for poor working men in the East End of London. Later there were settlements for women too. Beatrice and Alice left Oxford and devoted their lives to this cause at St. Margaret's House in Bethnal Green. </div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g1Vgr5XExJo/VXyscYKhelI/AAAAAAAAJY4/INTcc4HTu6I/s1600/captur%2Bharington.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g1Vgr5XExJo/VXyscYKhelI/AAAAAAAAJY4/INTcc4HTu6I/s400/captur%2Bharington.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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St Margaret's survives to this day as a centre for community activities with a café and charity shop.</div>
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I still don't know where the Haringtons went with the small leather passport, but I have learned something about the road they travelled in life. Here is Beatrice's obituary from the Times in 1936. </div>
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</span>nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-26085121323133763362015-05-31T14:37:00.001-07:002015-06-01T05:20:09.331-07:00SUMMONSED TO COURT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m1vcwrVDsy4/VWtpBtuQQbI/AAAAAAAAJVI/w3Pv9XBn9v0/s1600/capture%2Bgreer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m1vcwrVDsy4/VWtpBtuQQbI/AAAAAAAAJVI/w3Pv9XBn9v0/s640/capture%2Bgreer.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My dear friend J had me worried for weeks. For one thing she had told me she was anxious herself, but she refused to explain what it was all about. "A surprise!" she said. It seemed it had something to do with a court appearance in the small market town of Otley in West Yorkshire. Saturday, May 30th was The Big Day.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">This was reassuring, we were heading for Otley Courthouse, now a thriving arts centre. I'd been here before to the Film Club. As we approached, a vaguely familiar figure strode past me - I mumbled "Hello", anxious not to snub an acquaintance, even if old and half-forgotten.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">(Dungarees! They're in vogue again - do you recognise her?)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">J need not have worried - this turned out to be a memorable evening! As Germaine Greer appeared on the small stage the applause was thunderous, increasing in strength and accompanied by whoops and cheers (Harrogate this was NOT!) None of us dared to take photographs of our formidable heroine, though I have found one tweet about the event:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Yes, "meandering but never dull" is a good description. Ms Greer's subject was "The Disappearing Woman" - with a short but lively question and answer session to follow. Sometimes she strayed from her main theme and talked about her present obsession, a tree-planting project in Australia. It is, she explained, vital to find something to feel happy, hopeful and positive about. The title of her talk could be taken to refer to one of her main concerns - a worrying imbalance between the birth figures for males and females. In China and India, for example, there appear to be 80 million missing females and large cohorts of surplus males. And figures are rising, the disparity is becoming bigger.</span></div>
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Another digression turned into a bit of a rant against the Guardian newspaper, accusing its journalists of failing to give enough coverage to women's issues or even to have the courtesy to name them. This point seems to be disproved by the photos above from recent editions of that publication and its sister paper, the Observer. Her complaints caused some shrill and understandably nervous questioning from a female Guardianista, with whom, I have to admit, I felt some unfashionable sympathy. </div>
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The evening ended with more applause and the encouragingly mixed audience, young and old and LGBT, wandered into the night with dreamy smiles on their faces, tinged with a little regret that the couple of times she had mentioned gays there was a hint of - what? Disdain? Disapproval? Perhaps it was because even she is an old lady now or perhaps we were mistaken. What the heck - we had met a legend! </div>
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</span><br />nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-38164258117412896122015-05-18T13:42:00.002-07:002015-05-18T15:57:14.828-07:00MR N HAS HIS SAY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After the dramatic results of the recent General Election, Mr N (who has his own blog, "Arthur's Britain"), could not resist writing his version of the walk through a local bluebell wood that I described in my last post. I am publishing his account today, as a guest post. He has changed a few names (and facts) along the way...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">POLLING STATION BLUES - TWO INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS VISIT THE YORKSHIRE VILLAGE OF RUDFARLINGTON ON THE DAY AFTER THE GENERAL ELECTION OF 2015</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Following the disaster of yesterday's general election, Consuelo and I decided that we just had to find out if anyone in our Tory-dominated neighbourhood had actually voted for the Labour Party. In order to give ourselves a significant challenge, we chose to play our game of Hunt the Socialist in the quaint little village of Rudfarlington, still owned and dominated by the Inglenooks, an ancient landed family. I said to Consuelo as we parked the car:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "I don't know what we're hoping to find here. I imagine every villager, every farm animal, garden flower and blade of manicured grass in this place is Tory!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Lets just go and find out," she said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> In the village square I spotted two actresses from the TV soap Emmerdale enjoying the spring sunshine. So, taking my life in my hands, I popped the question. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Their relaxed approachability gave me confidence, and soon I found myself accosting and spying on everyone I encountered.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">At one point I thought we'd cracked it...</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> ...but sadly not. Normal service was soon resumed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This place was so passionately Tory, you could almost see what people were thinking.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "I suppose the difference between Tory voters and Labour voters," I said, "is that the Conservatives will move heaven and earth to get to the polling station."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> We were having no luck tracking down those elusive Labour voters, so we adjourned for lunch to the local pub, the Pheasant & Mantrap. The weather was fine enough to eat in the garden, where we struck up a conversation with a local shepherd - I say 'local', but he was obviously Scottish.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Och, aye" he said. "Quite a few people in the village voted Labour."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Where are they?" I asked. "We'd like to talk to some of them."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Ye'll have a job!" he said. "His lordship's decided to mak an example of 'em."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "What on earth do you mean by that?" said Consuelo.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "If ye gang up Ivybank Lane in aboot an oor from noo, jest beyond the lake, </span> <span style="font-size: large;">ye'll find oot."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> And that was all he would say on the subject, even though we invested significant quantities of Black Sheep ale and artisan shepherd's pie in him. I asked him which way he had voted, and he said this:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "I can't believe that a working-class Scot like him went with the Conservatives," I said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "It just goes to show how out-of-touch the post-Blair Labour Party is with its core supporters," said Consuelo. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> After we'd finished lunch, we headed for Ivybank Lane and set up our cameras at the place he'd suggested to see if anything would happen. We waited for what seemed like ages, then just as we were about to pack up and go home, something quite dramatic kicked off:</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dx8wpnUklB-N8sAb-n2atO0pq5LCqdzGxKOxuRn1-PqXKiPRZg0S2XEUCF1U1dERTOp6m53kkBg_d-huG0G_A' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "What was all that shooting?" I said, the hairs still standing up on the back of my neck. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Clay-pigeons, I suppose," said Consuelo.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Somehow, I was not convinced. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Clay-pigeons?" I said, with as much incredulity as I could muster without becoming embarrassing. "I'm not so sure about that! They sounded more like rifles than shotguns." </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> "So what do you think was going on?"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> "I'm just remembering what that shepherd said about local Labour voters..."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "What did he say, exactly? I couldn't understand a word!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "I know it's a bit far-fetched, but is it possible that Rudfarlington has just been cleansed of all its socialists?"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> "You'll be telling me next that the helicopter we heard was attacking them with chemical weapons and barrel bombs." </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> "I wouldn't put it past the Tories!" I said. "I have a theory that the landed aristocracy, which has been in political decline for well over a hundred years, has seen the chance to regain its power and position now that the Conservative party is dominated by upper-class Etonians. I mean, that shepherd seemed genuine enough. He wouldn't have said those things if they weren't true."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "It was a wind-up, you idiot! It's a well-known trick: the country bumpkin outsmarts the sophisticated townie and gets loads of free beer and pies. Remember those films: The Maggie, Whisky Galore, Local Hero?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> I thought about it for a few moments, then I said: </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "And all of them set in Scotland... You don't think the SNP are somehow involved in all this, do you?"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> "I wouldn't be surprised," said Consuelo. "Before the election, Nicola Sturgeon was alleged to have said that a Tory victory would be better for the SNP's cause - and she is a very determined and ruthless politician."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "So if England was ethically cleansed of Labour supporters, it could help the SNP to achieve its aim of independence," I said. "It certainly makes you think." </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "But if there's the slightest truth in it, the story's bound to come out," said Consuelo. "After all, we live in a liberal democracy protected by a free press."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "I have just two words to say to that!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "And those two words are?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "</span><span style="font-size: large;">Cyril Smith."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> "Okay, you've made your point."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> "Where was your beloved free press when he, and numerous others, were committing their crimes? The investigative journalists must all have known what was going on, but they chose to remain silent until the Establishment criminals escaped into senility or death."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "I suppose you're going to blame Rupert Murdoch again."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "The idea of him as a guardian of free speech and democracy is laughable! - I mean, what would be the point of us contacting News International with this incredible story? There'd just be another Establishment cover-up!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Maybe..."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "I know what I'll do!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Nothing silly, I hope."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "I'll blow this whole thing wide open on my blog!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Nobody ever reads your blog. You recently set a new world record for the lowest number of hits ever achieved by anything that's ever been put on the internet...but unfortunately no-one noticed - not even those weirdos at the Guinness Book of Records."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "But this story is far too big to be ignored. It has such a profound gravity - such critical mass - that's it's bound to go viral. This is the most sensational scoop since the Watergate scandal. It will be known the world over as 'Rudfarlingtongate'."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "How delightfully the name trips off the tongue..."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "I'm glad you like it." </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "But one thing I did find quite curious," said Consuelo, "was the way everything went eerily quiet as soon as the shooting stopped?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "I noticed that as well," I said. "The birds stopped singing, and it got noticeably darker, even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "It was rather like an eclipse, I thought." </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "That'll teach Richard Dawkins to make smug remarks about the Pathetic Fallacy!" </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Anyway," said Consuelo, "let's not end with a negative vibe. I think we should go for a walk in Rudfarlington's renowned bluebell wood."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Okay," I said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> And I was glad we did, for there is nothing more beautiful in all of England than a bluebell wood in the month of May, despite the unfortunate political connotations of the colour. And here, to prove just how beautiful it was, I present a very short video:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "More gunfire," said Consuelo. "I wonder what's going on."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "You don't always get a clean kill with a firing squad," I said. "But hey, if the British people want to be governed by the Conservatives, then so be it. That's what democracy is all about."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> I took a few more photos as Consuelo drifted deeper into the wood. After a while I lost sight of her; but then I heard her voice carried on the warm spring breeze:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Come over here, Arthur," she said, "I think I've found what we're looking for."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> I joined her a couple of dozen yards away in a sunlit glade. She was pointing at the ground.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Look at that," she said. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Down at our feet, hidden in the grass, was a tiny, very delicate and vulnerable wildflower. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "I must get a photo of this!" I said, my spirits lifting for the first time since the election. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Then we spotted another one:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Perhaps there is hope after all," I said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Consuelo pondered my statement for a few moments; then she said:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Naaaah!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Yeah, no, you're right," I said. "The country's going to be trashed, and this time the Bullingdon Club won't be picking up the tab."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Don't be too despondent, Arthur. Try to remain positive."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Shall we go home, now?" </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Yes, let's go home and have a nice cup of tea...and there's still some Eton mess in the fridge."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Not as much as there will be in this country after Cameron and his mates have finished with it!" I said.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kpwRMNMMjeI/VVDr_EJNeII/AAAAAAAABOY/Ov4MtEsESKc/s1600/union%2Bjack.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="468" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kpwRMNMMjeI/VVDr_EJNeII/AAAAAAAABOY/Ov4MtEsESKc/s640/union%2Bjack.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> The Union Flag flew proudly over the crenelations of Rudfarlington Castle as we made our melancholy way back to the car park. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "The natural order has been restored," I said, with undisguised bitterness and irony. "The rich man in his castle; the poor man at his gate, as the song says. Feudalism is alive and well in twenty-first-century Britain."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> "Maybe David Cameron will be as good as his word and deliver one-nation Conservatism."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> "In your dreams!" I said. "Enoch Powell was right when he said that the Tiber would flow with much blood. But it won't be the blood of racial conflict - it will flow as a consequence of brutal and merciless cuts to welfare and the NHS."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> "I'm sure it won't be as bad as all that."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> "There's only one thing for it," I said. "We'll have to move to Scotland, the last bastion of socialism in these benighted islands."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> "No chance!" said Consuelo. "I don't find the SNP any more appealing than the Tories. And how can you trust a party whose leaders are all named after fish?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "That doesn't really make a lot of sense," I said. "It's the sort of thing people say to rationalise the fact that they've just voted Conservative... And please tell me you didn't. I couldn't bear it if I was the only socialist in the village." </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> In silence we retraced our steps along Ivybank Lane. Then, as the car park came into view I said:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> "Nicola Sturgeon has such an iconic and individual look, don't you think?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "A bit like an actual sturgeon."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "She's quite attractive, in a Scottish sort of way. I wonder who her fashion consultant is..."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> "Someone she headhunted from the Crankies, by the look of it."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> "And like you said, she's extremely determined and ruthless - like a Scotch Margaret Thatcher."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Well, you've just blown it as far as moving to Scotland is concerned."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "So it looks as if we're stuck with the Tories, then," I said. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "In perpetuity, I suspect," said Consuelo. "Especially once they've implemented all those constituency boundary changes they're planning." </span><br />
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-4334001555376437252015-05-08T16:32:00.000-07:002015-05-08T20:38:50.495-07:00BLUE HEAVEN <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ISd1Lk2BWPo/VU0tMRAjfDI/AAAAAAAAJRw/ZLx3jZD7_ck/s1600/IMG_7976.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="392" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ISd1Lk2BWPo/VU0tMRAjfDI/AAAAAAAAJRw/ZLx3jZD7_ck/s640/IMG_7976.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yesterday Mr N, out cycling in the sunshine, encountered a bluebell wood, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"We must go for a walk there tomorrow!" he said - so we did.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Setting out from Ripley, a quaintly feudal model village near Harrogate, we wandered down Hollybank Lane which is bordered on both sides by woods. The Ripley estate has been owned by the Ingleby family since the early 14th century. They have, on the whole, been benign overlords, thankfully not quite as eccentric as their close neighbours the Mountgarrets, of nearby Nidd. In 1982 the 17th Viscount Mountgarret became famous for taking pot shots at a hot air balloon that drifted over his grouse moor. He hit the pilot in the neck and ripped a 6 foot gash in the balloon - and got off with a £1000 fine.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Flowers of all kinds showed their colours</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">not just blue</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G59UTn9zdB0/VU0yGXdZCxI/AAAAAAAAJSY/5np1shyYn1Q/s1600/IMG_8018%2B-%2BCopy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G59UTn9zdB0/VU0yGXdZCxI/AAAAAAAAJSY/5np1shyYn1Q/s400/IMG_8018%2B-%2BCopy.JPG" width="370" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">even the greens put on a good show</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and here in one garden my favourites - sadly, not at their best.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We weren't actually allowed into the bluebell wood, but it was still good fun.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Well, until you turned up the volume...</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwu4Bx5S381GTzjoo7-ueDdEtIZTB0Gwd06SBbKIYOEugAuDq6iyL6ce_Ox06tskllVQkEorX6fY1XM9ZATwg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">His Lordship has to earn a crust.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Is this the way forward?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">***</span></div>
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<br />nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-77831572361888799812015-05-01T15:37:00.001-07:002015-05-02T03:27:22.040-07:00A LAMP OF ONE'S OWN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lucky Leonard Woolf and John Lehmann, reading by the light of a Bloomsbury lamp. I've always wanted one - you could call it lamp lust.</span></div>
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Duncan Grant sometimes painted pictures of the lamps he lived with.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Jiz4fj2HEZE/VUP5HypxM-I/AAAAAAAAJQA/1YqkvFhqFN0/s1600/Capture%2Blamp%2B6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Jiz4fj2HEZE/VUP5HypxM-I/AAAAAAAAJQA/1YqkvFhqFN0/s1600/Capture%2Blamp%2B6.JPG" height="400" width="293" /></a></div>
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(The real thing.)</div>
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Vanessa Bell made this lamp and shade - others have followed suit.</div>
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Here is another, at Charleston Farmhouse, starring in a film with Patti Smith!</div>
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I've searched online for a lamp of my own and visited the shop at Charleston to hunt through their classy souvenirs for just the right shade - to no avail.</div>
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Then a few weeks ago a kind fellow-blogger got in touch with me. She had a Bloomsbury lamp for sale and remembered that I "needed" one!</div>
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Thank you so much Jean (of the Shrimpton and Perfect blog)!</div>
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-46189430764154419492015-04-21T17:13:00.003-07:002015-04-21T17:20:57.758-07:00THE ROMANCE OF WENSLEYDALE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Can you see the fairy-tale castle in the distance?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">This is Bolton Castle, in Wensleydale, Yorkshire and this tantalizing glimpse is the most I've ever seen of it until today. The first time was in 1967 on a trip to Yorkshire (on my first trip north of Norfolk!) and it has always intrigued me. The romantic feelings this view arouses in me may well have something to do with the fact that, as we chugged along the dale in a bottle green Triumph Herald all those years ago, a flash sports car overtook us - Dirk Bogarde was at the wheel and the beautiful French film star Capucine was his passenger. (Were they? Did they? Was he...?) </span></div>
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Today we saw the castle up close and the romance survived.</div>
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Bolton Castle stands in a beautiful limestone landscape - too rugged for Mr N's taste, but I grew up with tree-less chalk downs and cliffs and so its familiar bleakness warms my heart.</div>
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Some parts of the castle are ruined, but many rooms remain including the bedroom of Sir Richard le Scrope, who built the castle in the late 1300s. In the 16th century Mary Queen of Scots was "imprisoned" in the castle with a retinue of 30 knights and 6 ladies-in-waiting. Cooks, grooms, hairdresser, embroiderer, apothecary, physician, surgeon and more knights took lodgings nearby.</div>
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Mary was allowed to take walks and go hunting, though it is said that her main amusement while at the castle was having her hair done!</div>
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Our main amusement today was to climb the tower and to see what Mary saw.</div>
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</span>nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-31628896852249473082015-03-31T15:03:00.000-07:002015-03-31T15:47:23.805-07:00TEMPLE NEWSAM TREASURE HOUSE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Temple Newsam House, Leeds.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Many people outside the antiques trade have quite a low opinion of we dealers. At the moment, in my inbox, there is an email conversation going on between members of an online local history group I follow, concerning some fascinating papers up for sale on eBay.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">"I'll bet they cost him a few pence at a car boot sale!"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">"I've made him a low offer. I don't really want them, but I'm worried he'll bin them if nobody buys them."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">They need not worry, most people in our business have both respect and regard for the objects they buy for re-sale. Some keep things for a while, enjoying their beauty, even if only temporarily. Others lovingly restore neglected pieces to their former glory, while others spend time finding out as much history as possible about an item before selling it on. The last thing they would do is "bin them", in fact, most of us wonder how previous owners could bring themselves to part with such interesting knick knacks!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">The other day, pursuing some research of our own, we visited <a href="http://www.artfund.org/what-to-see/museums-and-galleries/temple-newsam">Temple Newsam House</a>, a Tudor/Jacobean building owned by Leeds City Council, on the outskirts of Leeds. It is truly a treasure house, open to the public, though it no longer allows photography inside (or perhaps we weren't persuasive enough on this occasion). If you look hard at the photo above you will see Mr N sneakily snapping something through the back window!</span></div>
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This.</div>
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The object is a huge 18th century silver wine cooler, commissioned by Thomas Wentworth, 3rd Baron Raby, when he became ambassador to Berlin in 1706. This was recently saved from export thanks to a fundraising campaign by Leeds Museums and Galleries.</div>
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A couple of years ago we were allowed to take photos inside the house after signing an official-looking document, so I can share some interior views we took then.</div>
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On our last visit I was keen to have a close look at the wallpaper designs in the house, many of them accurate copies of earlier patterns.</div>
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Our latest task was to find a date for some lengths of embroidered fabric I found recently. Temple Newsam houses the Henry Gibson and the Roger Warner collections of textiles, dating from 1450 to 1900, with many examples mounted in glass cases and on public view. I'm fairly sure my pieces are household linens, probably from old bed-curtains, imported from Gujarat in the 17th or 18th century by the East India Company, but I would like to pinpoint the date and origin more precisely.</div>
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Which brings me to the late, great antiques dealer, the above-mentioned Roger Warner. He was a Quaker and pacifist. He bequeathed many important pieces to museum collections, including Temple Newsam House. Here is an extract from his 2008 <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/roger-warner-discerning-antique-dealer-840492.html">obituary</a> in The Independent:</div>
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"Warner's discernment gave him a legendary reputation and a lasting importance. He directed taste towards objects that had been disregarded or even derided. With pioneers such as Enid Marx, Margaret Lambert, Barbara Jones and John Fowler, he fostered appreciation of the naïve, the humble and simply the quirky. Thereby he ensured that popular, regional and vernacular arts, whether wooden furniture, pottery, treen, metal-wares, textiles and domestic utensils, were saved and studied.</div>
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Unobtrusively, but firmly, he ensured that rare survivals - from fragments of 18th-century wall-coverings, chintzes, cottons and worsteds, early daguerreotypes to urns designed by Robert Adam - entered appropriate institutions. The Victoria and Albert Museum, Temple Newsam House outside Leeds, The Museum of Rural Life at Reading, Colonial Williamsburg and the Ashmolean in Oxford all benefited. Much in the bizarre accumulation of Charles Wade at Snowshill Manor in Gloucestershire (now owned by the National Trust) came from Warner's shop." </div>
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So you see, antique dealers are not necessarily bad people, nor are they all philistines.</div>
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After his death many of Roger Warner's own antiques were sold by auction and Temple Newsam House acquired another of his treasures.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uR9r_MSlPow/VRsSoVWvqqI/AAAAAAAAJNY/t2x5OVaiKwo/s1600/Capture%2Bdoll%2Bhouse%2B3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uR9r_MSlPow/VRsSoVWvqqI/AAAAAAAAJNY/t2x5OVaiKwo/s1600/Capture%2Bdoll%2Bhouse%2B3.JPG" height="640" width="467" /></a></div>
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This antique doll's house with a Charlotte Bronte connection.</div>
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Charlotte was employed as a governess by the Sidgwick family of Skipton in 1839 and it is thought that she redecorated this Georgian doll's house during her time with them. She wrote about Mrs Sidgwick to Emily;</div>
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"...she overwhelms me with oceans of needlework; yards of cambric to hem, muslin nightcaps to make, and, above all things, dolls to dress."</div>
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As for my own textile dilemma - I'm none the wiser so the research continues.</div>
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-52139783479454024182015-03-20T14:25:00.000-07:002015-03-20T15:30:31.936-07:00ANTIQUES ECLIPSED<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Did you see the solar eclipse today?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">We were at the East of England Showground in Peterborough today, attending a big antiques event, and antiques-hunting got a bit tricky at about 9.30 am when dusk appeared to fall, though the sun was already quite high in the sky. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Photo courtesy of Mr N who had become bored with antiques by this time.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Things soon got back to normal and, though the sunlight had a surreal glow for a moment or two, few people seemed to have noticed the rare astronomical event.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We voted the eclipse the most exciting event of the week (sorry Mr Osborne).</span></div>
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-80229581541417930162015-03-11T10:26:00.002-07:002015-03-11T11:12:07.595-07:00RAINY DAY WOMAN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It had been a long, very wet journey with many hold-ups and delays. And lots of contending:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">"This is a NIGHTMARE !"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">"At least we're still moving."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">"WHY did we come this way ?"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">"Well, I thought a little diversion might help."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">"Precisely HOW?"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">"Just take the next exit, sign-posted High Wycombe, dear..."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">It has been said that the title of Bob Dylan's song "Rainy Day Women" is a reference to this remark in the Book of Proverbs:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">"A continual dropping on a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">They wear you down.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">And so we ended up taking a break at Hughenden Manor, once the home of Benjamin Disraeli and his wife Mary Anne.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">We were lead to believe that we might learn something of Dizzy's political ideas as we viewed the house and indeed there were insightful quotes dotted around the rooms.</span></div>
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"Do you see what I mean?"</div>
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"Yes - I think you wanted to preserve and promote British industries and, surprisingly, you were not against trades unions - but really, I'm not in the mood."</div>
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Disraeli and his wife Mary Anne were an unlikely pair - she was eager for amusement and companionship, he was in need of an undemanding older lady with a large fortune. They played their parts with good grace and, apparently, found happiness with each other, but I could find no paintings or photographs of them together. The best I could come up with was this still from a 1920s film, "Disraeli", which, I think, gives you a pretty close likeness.</div>
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We were greatly impressed by the décor at Hughenden - very Victorian, not too grand and with a lightness of touch and delicacy of colour that recalls the interiors of another odd couple, John Fowler and Nancy Lancaster ("the most unhappy unmarried couple in England"), who together ran the interior design company "Colefax and Fowler" after the 2nd World War.</div>
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It is an enchanting house, but we were still somewhat distracted and not just because of the driving conditions on the journey down. Another interesting couple was wandering around the Manor and enjoying the romantic, misty views from the windows. This pair were definitely devoted and enviably entranced with each other - and I'm sure they were looking for decorating ideas...</div>
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I had to be discreet with my camera, but do you recognise them?</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WY2cOcHqhSk/VQB4jxEyyHI/AAAAAAAAJHk/Kj6l2-JMqTU/s1600/Victoria%2BCoren%2BDavid%2BMitchell%2BVictoria%2BCoren%2BqkSaCwj7xJZl%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WY2cOcHqhSk/VQB4jxEyyHI/AAAAAAAAJHk/Kj6l2-JMqTU/s1600/Victoria%2BCoren%2BDavid%2BMitchell%2BVictoria%2BCoren%2BqkSaCwj7xJZl%5B1%5D.jpg" height="320" width="272" /></a></div>
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David Mitchell and his wife Victoria Coren Mitchell (on a sunnier day).</div>
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-55648165550054632022015-02-27T16:48:00.004-08:002015-02-28T04:23:26.710-08:00SAVE THE THANET!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ramsgate, Isle of Thanet</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We were back in the South of England last week, continuing our exploration of places we should know well by now, but want to get to know even better - before it's too late. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">This is South Thanet, which may soon, depending on the outcome of the general election, be known as Farageland. The area includes a curve of coastline which begins at Cliftonville just south of the Turner Contemporary in Margate.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">It then meanders through a series of amazing chalky bays.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Walpole Bay sea pool - a tidal swimming pool dating from 1900.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Offshore, the Thanet Windfarm is visible. It's the world's third largest - owned by Sweden's state electricity company. According to James Meek, writing in the London Review of Books, the "local" utility company, Southern Water, is owned by a consortium of Canadian pension funds and Hong Kong investment funds, advised by an American and a Swiss merchant bank. Is this remoteness the reason why these superb beaches are sometimes closed because of pollution?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Further down the coast, past Palm Bay and Botany Bay, lies Kingsgate Bay. Here a man patiently prised winkles from the rocks (pollution-free I hope). I wondered if this back-breaking work was worth the effort, but I now see online that I would have to pay £6.95 for 500 grams of pre-boiled winkles - still in their shells and pin not provided.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Kingsgate Bay is my favourite.</span></div>
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We are all photographers now!</div>
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At the opposite end of the bay to the chalk arch is Kingsgate Castle, built in 1760 by Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland. Originally it was part of a range of cliff-top follies, to be used for his amusement while he lived at nearby Holland House (the white mansion in one of the photos above.) Fox was considered by some to be the most corrupt politician of his day for he contrived to systematically milk the public purse of hundreds of thousands of pounds while holding the post of Paymaster General. </div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7FnmambTjuI/VPCfWKk8CnI/AAAAAAAAI_c/zQ07-ijkjOU/s1600/Capture%2Bhenry%2Bfox%2B1st%2Bbaron%2Bholland.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7FnmambTjuI/VPCfWKk8CnI/AAAAAAAAI_c/zQ07-ijkjOU/s1600/Capture%2Bhenry%2Bfox%2B1st%2Bbaron%2Bholland.JPG" height="640" width="504" /></a></div>
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The cunning Fox.</div>
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Apart from Kingsgate Castle itself (enlarged in the 19th century, a hotel in the 20th century and now converted into expensive apartments) we found only one other folly from Fox's huge playground. I think it is the building with a tower in the foreground of this old print, minus the tower.</div>
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A few miles further down the coast we arrived at Broadstairs, recently the setting for a BBC documentary, "Meet The Ukippers", but we did not linger long. Not because we were avoiding the locals, of course.</div>
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Like Dickens, who spent every summer here between 1837 and 1859, we've had a lot of fun at Broadstairs, but next stop on this particular nostalgia-trip is...</div>
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Ramsgate, Cinque Port and great English seaside town of the 19th century!</div>
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The marina with Ramsgate Maritime Museum, circa 1817, in the distance.</div>
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"Ramsgate Sands" by William Powell Frith,</div>
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Ramsgate became a popular seaside resort for the gentry in the 1800s and Queen Victoria came often when she was a child, first visiting with her mother, the Duchess of Kent, in 1823 when she was 4. Can you see the obelisk in the photo and painting above? This was erected in 1822-23, around the time of Victoria's visit, and is dedicated to King George IV.</div>
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How we grovelled in those days!</div>
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The town's East Cliff is dotted with large Gothic hotels. The red brick buildings beyond are very grand coastguards' cottages. Name-dropping is easy - Wilkie Collins wrote The Woman in White on Nelson Crescent, Vincent Van Gogh taught art here briefly in the 1870s, Augustus Pugin built The Grange, his family home, here in the 1840s and his son Edward, also an architect, designed the Granville Hotel, seen here, behind his bust.</div>
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge stayed at various addresses on Wellington Crescent, above. But, look closely, there is a creeping air of desolation hovering around its Regency balconies.</div>
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To quote James Meek once more;</div>
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"In London there is more money than space; here it is the opposite."</div>
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Down on the seafront the Royal Victoria Pavilion, 1903, has been empty since 2008 and is crumbling, though there has been talk of it becoming Britain's biggest pub.</div>
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We thought these might be construction workers taking a break, but who knows? Many exciting and precious parts of our country like this corner of Kent, are falling apart for want of money. Can they be saved? Perhaps, as the civic activists of the Ramsgate Society wish, Mary Portas could lob a gentrification bomb down from Margate.</div>
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-26051344058188927902015-02-15T16:29:00.000-08:002015-02-15T23:22:43.958-08:00LET IT GO<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hello little girl, Nana's here! But she's lost in her new book, and quietly singing as she turns the pages, "Let it go, let it go..."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've worn this funny wooden brooch today, just because I thought it would make her smile, "It's Olaf the snowman!" she says. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"He's in my book."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"One day soon," I say, "I'll give him to you."</span></div>
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-56317911397958374852015-02-08T14:25:00.000-08:002015-02-08T15:32:47.392-08:00TALKING RUBBISH ?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PgjY8qP8NTg/VNfJzBBBB_I/AAAAAAAAI4Q/UWux-_mQXGE/s1600/IMG_7844.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PgjY8qP8NTg/VNfJzBBBB_I/AAAAAAAAI4Q/UWux-_mQXGE/s1600/IMG_7844.JPG" height="507" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Up here, in the North East, regional accents are many and various. Yesterday we were up in the very north of North Yorkshire, at Whorlton near Stokesley - or "Stowsla" as the locals call it. For me Stokesley marks a line where Yorkshire thee's and tha's quite suddenly mutate into a more unintelligible tongue. A bit Yorkshire, a bit Geordie, a little bit Scottish, perhaps.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;"> It's glorious i' summer tahme,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">There's nae spot under't moon,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Where't new mown hay smells hauf so so sweet</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">As't diz i' Stowsla toon.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">A stone is a styen, a house is a hoose, one is yan, look is luck. </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Enough is eneaf.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've occasionally heard the hills around these parts called the "rubbish hills", a reference to the heaps of waste created by nearby ironstone and jet mines in the mid-nineteenth century, but the lumps and bumps visible in these fields are all that's left of the lost village of Whorlton. Well, not quite all...</span></div>
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there is also a not half bad medieval ruined castle to explore </div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WjrLKlqs1Rw/VNfYlarOmaI/AAAAAAAAI5I/GewOnHmCV9c/s1600/IMG_7469.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WjrLKlqs1Rw/VNfYlarOmaI/AAAAAAAAI5I/GewOnHmCV9c/s1600/IMG_7469.JPG" height="476" width="640" /></a></div>
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and the substantial remains of a Norman church, pleasingly spooky in green.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RSsRb8Raqbk/VNfafDuyYwI/AAAAAAAAI5U/SMf7FtbUnZU/s1600/IMG_7475.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RSsRb8Raqbk/VNfafDuyYwI/AAAAAAAAI5U/SMf7FtbUnZU/s1600/IMG_7475.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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Sadly, we can't go inside but we have seen its rare treasure, visible through a peephole in the door.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kjUrUO7izOs/VNfchPyJqBI/AAAAAAAAI5o/KamXMsw8zoU/s1600/Capture%2Bsir%2Bnick.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kjUrUO7izOs/VNfchPyJqBI/AAAAAAAAI5o/KamXMsw8zoU/s1600/Capture%2Bsir%2Bnick.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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The carved bog oak effigy of Lord Nicholas de Meynell of Whorlton Castle who died in 1322 is thought to be the only wooden, London-made military effigy in Yorkshire, comparing favourably with those in Westminster Abbey.</div>
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Outside Holy Cross Old Church, Whorlton the sky was lightening, though the words on this stone don't lift the heart - the spelling's rubbish too!</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KyDV70V_aLE/VNfg6DkRGHI/AAAAAAAAI6A/ek0Ejh9aEm4/s1600/IMG_7480.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KyDV70V_aLE/VNfg6DkRGHI/AAAAAAAAI6A/ek0Ejh9aEm4/s1600/IMG_7480.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-84082343773635624002015-01-28T16:27:00.001-08:002015-01-28T16:52:16.158-08:00DEAR BURGES, UGLY BURGES...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">who designs lovely things...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These were the words of Lady Bute, wife of his patron, upon the untimely death of William Burges, architect, designer, passionate Gothicist and imaginative imp. Burges was staying with the Marquis and Marchioness of Bute when he caught a chill from which he died, aged 53, in 1881. My enthusiasm for his work has been growing over the past few years, as we encounter his fantastic creations on our travels round the UK. Mr N kindly presented me with a giant book about him for Christmas too - that's Castell Coch, near Cardiff, on the cover.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Knightshayes Court, near Tiverton in Devon, is another of his buildings, now owned by the National Trust - we visited two years ago.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The stable buildings at Knightshayes.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Burges applied his love of Medieval style and decoration to walls, furniture</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">and objects.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">To see a film of this wonderful <a href="http://vimeo.com/16613211">washstand</a> in use, click on the link. The marble bowl is inlaid with silver fish, which seem to swim when it is filled with water.</span></div>
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This decanter in the form of a Gothic jug or ewer has elaborate silver mounts featuring plants and animals, typical of Burges and resembling the gargoyles and grotesque carvings found on medieval churches. He often incorporated genuine antique treasures into these elaborate designs, for example, this piece has a Chinese jade lion on its lid, with coral cameos and Eastern coins decorating the mounts. We saw it in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, last year. </div>
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We are very lucky to live very near to two beautiful churches designed and decorated by Burges. </div>
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Christ the Consoler in the grounds of Newby Hall at Skelton-on-Ure.</div>
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The buildings delight the eye from a distance and become even more interesting when examined closely.</div>
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I love these small details most of all - the more you look, the more you see.</div>
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St. Mary's, Studley Royal Park, near Ripon .</div>
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Burges's Chorister's House, close by, is a National Trust <a href="http://www.nationaltrustholidays.org.uk/cottage/choristers-house-020022/">holiday cottage</a></div>
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The interior is colourful, almost exotic - perhaps influenced by the architecture Burges discovered on his European travels to Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey.</div>
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The exterior is less showy, but just as intriguing.</div>
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Look closely, up there near the roof, and you will see...</div>
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the draughtsman</div>
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and the stonemason.</div>
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This is the house that Burges built for himself, The Tower House. He lived there only briefly, at the end of his life. A more recent resident was John Betjeman and in 1970 the house was bought by the actor Richard Harris for £75,000. Two years later he sold it to Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page for £350,000. To their credit the interiors have been carefully preserved and conserved, but, unlike much of Burges's work, it is not on view to the public - unless, of course, you are best mates with Led Zeppelin. </div>
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-42379491523139146952015-01-13T17:07:00.000-08:002015-01-14T09:59:14.790-08:00THE PERILS OF PINTEREST <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I can't quite believe what has happened. Mr N and I were in the same room, within inches of each other and each separately glued to the internet, when an online fight broke out! My dear husband has only just started constructing his own virtual scrapbook of visual memorabilia and information on Pinterest - and this is what started it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">His Pinterest persona goes by the name of Arthur Ventress and he looks rather sweet, doesn't he?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">This is me on Pinterest, Nilly Hall - demure and utterly harmless.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">George Best started it! I've never liked him very much and when I noticed that Mr N had pinned his photo with the adoring title "Ubercool George Best" I could not resist a little dig.</span></div>
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He noticed and rose to the challenge (as any man would).</div>
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As time went on, the jibes became more vicious..</div>
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.. will our relationship stand this?</div>
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Then I pinched his teddy bear!</div>
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***</div>
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-89165949407766202192015-01-03T16:36:00.000-08:002015-01-03T21:07:44.963-08:00A WINTER WALK<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We've had some perfect winter walking weather in Yorkshire over the past couple of weeks - cold and crisp.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We went on a circular walk around Spofforth, near Harrogate, where I was hoping for chills of a supernatural kind. Last Christmas (The Tractate Middoth and The Thirteenth Tale) and this December (Remember Me and The Haunting of Radcliffe House), the seasonal TV ghost stories, have failed to freak me out. Is it my age? Have I, at long last, outgrown my fear of phantoms? I still remember the ghastliness of Schalcken the Painter, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schalcken_the_Painter">(here)</a>, <span dir="auto"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Christmas, 1979 - I don't think I'd dare to watch it ever again, even with Mr N to hold my hand and a cushion to hide behind.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So we walked onwards, to Spofforth Castle, to test my dulled nerves. It has its own ghoulish legend of a woman, of a strange bluish-white hue, who appears at the top of this tower. She (allegedly) hurls herself down, the spectacle made even more scary by the fact that only the upper half of her body falls to the ground. I prepared to be spooked...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">...nothing. (Phew!)</span></div>
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-37742905384920818722014-12-23T14:36:00.000-08:002014-12-23T14:36:31.660-08:00CHRISTMAS CARDS PAST<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do you keep your old Christmas cards? I do.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm sure you've heard the rumour that the tradition of sending actual printed greetings cards is dying out - stamps are too costly, cards are a waste of trees, virtual cards are more fun, only old people send them etc. etc.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Sometimes I look through my Christmas card collection and have a sentimental wallow, remembering the past. It's not quite the same with e-cards.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Mr N's cards are always chosen with care and...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">come with words to warm my heart - and a different message every year!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Some were sent from overseas. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">This patchwork card came from Japan, handmade by Japanese pensioners. My old school friend in Yokohama teaches English to senior citizens.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">I love this hand drawn card, made by an elderly lady artist I once knew. She had serious mental health problems but loved to create little watercolours and line drawings - see the lonely old man in his muffler on a bare wood chair, while his beloved pets have the cosiest places and a present each!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">What a cruel Santa!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Aged 10, Master N's confidence in his own brilliance was a little misplaced!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A last card from Dad.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">If I'm still around when "proper" cards disappear, I shall put up some favourites from the collection - come to think of it, why am I waiting?</span></div>
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-18793672439854027162014-12-09T00:13:00.001-08:002014-12-09T00:29:15.172-08:00THE TROUBLE WITH THE PRINCE OF WALES<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_sjD1soh-GI/VIYR_esUsrI/AAAAAAAAIr0/e_fXGmVCuyg/s1600/IMG_7197.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_sjD1soh-GI/VIYR_esUsrI/AAAAAAAAIr0/e_fXGmVCuyg/s1600/IMG_7197.JPG" height="640" width="634" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">...feathers, was that I couldn't resist them! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Finely carved in mahogany, they just happened to be attached to the rather nice antique mahogany secretaire bookcase I found recently. It was to be the perfect early Christmas present for Mr N who has been longing to have his own desk in our overcrowded sitting room! The purchase was made, the object delivered - what next?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Three days of heaving, shifting, cursing and despair, that's what. To make space for it we had to cut another bookcase in half in order to get it out of the room and around an awkward bend in the stairs, in the hope that we might reassemble it at a later date, in another crowded room. When we'd stripped the walls of pictures and argued about the perfect location for this princely piece, we realised that we'd uncovered a nasty stain on the wall - not damp, thank goodness - but still requiring urgent attention.</span></div>
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Nearly done, but not without some rather symbolic difficulties, I have to say.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-621c9YKiHew/VIY6F7kqLUI/AAAAAAAAIsY/PjuYgEUIpxg/s1600/800px-A-voluptuary%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-621c9YKiHew/VIY6F7kqLUI/AAAAAAAAIsY/PjuYgEUIpxg/s1600/800px-A-voluptuary%5B1%5D.jpg" height="640" width="492" /></a></div>
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Remember this one, with his dissolute ways, who later became Geo IV ?</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZtnULYqZGKo/VIY8lkGlwvI/AAAAAAAAIsk/DIrrzJfza48/s1600/386px-Albert_Edward_Prince_of_Wales%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZtnULYqZGKo/VIY8lkGlwvI/AAAAAAAAIsk/DIrrzJfza48/s1600/386px-Albert_Edward_Prince_of_Wales%5B1%5D.jpg" height="640" width="412" /></a></div>
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"I never can, or shall, look at him without a shudder."</div>
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<sup> </sup>His own mother, Queen Victoria, said that!</div>
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And what about this one?</div>
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Those three words, "Prince of Wales", should have warned me - trouble ahead!</div>
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-90430548204451674732014-11-25T16:23:00.001-08:002014-11-25T16:32:15.863-08:00A FUNNY TURN IN YORK<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NjMP8CTmJsU/VHO98H5MYEI/AAAAAAAAInw/lTSU_8NVF7Q/s1600/hornpot-lane_imagineyork%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NjMP8CTmJsU/VHO98H5MYEI/AAAAAAAAInw/lTSU_8NVF7Q/s1600/hornpot-lane_imagineyork%5B1%5D.jpg" height="640" width="476" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We escaped down a snickelway in York the other day. We had both been in danger of over-dosing on all this stuff...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This particular snickelway (a recent addition to the Yorkshire vocabulary, snickelway is a combination of snicket, ginnel and alleyway, coined by Mark W. Jones in 1983) is called Hornpot Lane.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b4rHqnSKDaM/VHUOIyzchwI/AAAAAAAAIpw/P1B1MtQ-70E/s1600/3840136739_b959ddfce9_b%5B2%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b4rHqnSKDaM/VHUOIyzchwI/AAAAAAAAIpw/P1B1MtQ-70E/s1600/3840136739_b959ddfce9_b%5B2%5D.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cow horn has always been a cheap and plentiful material. It has been made into many useful items over the centuries: spectacle frames, spoons, window panes - and pots. Here is one we found recently.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">This pot - or beaker - was made to commemorate the opening of the Thames Tunnel in early Victorian London, circa 1843. Back in York, the snickelway led us to the 12th century Holy Trinity Church, close by the Minster.</span></div>
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17th century box pews.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CdBwuRMWNwc/VHUPQKWpSzI/AAAAAAAAIqo/TjTKmU9TWPo/s1600/NorthYorkshireYorkHolyTrinityde1%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CdBwuRMWNwc/VHUPQKWpSzI/AAAAAAAAIqo/TjTKmU9TWPo/s1600/NorthYorkshireYorkHolyTrinityde1%5B1%5D.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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This squint hole is in the wall of an enclosed chapel, where lepers were once permitted to attend church services.</div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">15th century stained glass.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TTkUFxSsVwc/VHPABF_2QuI/AAAAAAAAIpA/4tv5oXVmk3Q/s1600/IMG_7155.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TTkUFxSsVwc/VHPABF_2QuI/AAAAAAAAIpA/4tv5oXVmk3Q/s1600/IMG_7155.JPG" height="640" width="368" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Restored, we left peace behind and got back to what was required of us that day.</span></div>
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nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-34592411820411780962014-11-12T15:54:00.000-08:002014-11-12T15:58:44.244-08:00SECRET STORY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I love to buy antique albums. Sometimes they are full of coloured scraps, sometimes drawings and watercolours by the owner or by friends. If you find a name and some dates it might even be possible to discover a secret story.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1eZam-eRlzg/VGPbD4Y_hOI/AAAAAAAAIng/R3QPdfwWKF8/s1600/059%2B-%2BCopy%2B-%2BCopy%2B-%2BCopy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="98" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1eZam-eRlzg/VGPbD4Y_hOI/AAAAAAAAIng/R3QPdfwWKF8/s640/059%2B-%2BCopy%2B-%2BCopy%2B-%2BCopy.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This one had a name,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Anne Mayers Burton.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o1axJhtAnJw/VGKgNSKN_WI/AAAAAAAAIm4/wAHu01BGCEY/s1600/056.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="408" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o1axJhtAnJw/VGKgNSKN_WI/AAAAAAAAIm4/wAHu01BGCEY/s640/056.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Inside there was a painting of Anne's home, Taverham Rectory in Norfolk, where her father Robert was vicar - and a date, 1852. I was able to find out that Anne was born in 1839 which means she was 13 when she painted the Rectory.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She filled the album with charming pictures, some of country life and others of Cromer, on the North Norfolk coast, where she probably spent summer holidays.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There was another clue - a drawing of a genteel house in Brasted, Kent. This was owned by Anne's maternal grandfather, John Pollard Mayers who was born in Barbados, as was his daughter Sarah, Anne's mother.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anne died in 1856 aged just 17. I wonder if she knew about her grandfather's family history? His family had owned sugar plantations and slaves in the 18th and 19th centuries and, in the early 1830s, John Pollard Mayers fought for compensation after slavery was finally abolished. He owned over 700 slaves and received at least £16,000 from the British government - which would be worth around £10,000,000 today. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What would a well-to-do vicar's teenage daughter have thought about slavery, 20 years later, in the 1850s?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;">Perhaps she would have preferred playing with Spot to contemplating the past.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LSCy0PwNAN8/VGKf1c2pPtI/AAAAAAAAImQ/1ScpyBc4HXc/s1600/051.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="498" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LSCy0PwNAN8/VGKf1c2pPtI/AAAAAAAAImQ/1ScpyBc4HXc/s640/051.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">***</span> </div>
<br />nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444887571509926414.post-276499766528522022014-11-03T16:43:00.004-08:002014-11-04T00:48:55.310-08:00IT'S A MAN THING<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7Fk0FQsXvHU/VFgT64RExiI/AAAAAAAAIjQ/mYXMFsXF3eo/s1600/IMG_5656.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7Fk0FQsXvHU/VFgT64RExiI/AAAAAAAAIjQ/mYXMFsXF3eo/s1600/IMG_5656.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've said it before, I know, but the top-most room at Nilly Towers, with its prime position on the Great North Road, affords a view of all manner of bizarre and bewildering activities (quite handy if you have time for an addiction to curtain twitching.) This was the scene at midday on Saturday.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JbYSjXDbeX0/VFgWb2CE5_I/AAAAAAAAIjc/NXJb3fXZrAk/s1600/IMG_5753.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JbYSjXDbeX0/VFgWb2CE5_I/AAAAAAAAIjc/NXJb3fXZrAk/s1600/IMG_5753.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CdHPrtut8b0/VFgX8e_FYmI/AAAAAAAAIjo/BDB070sQkDI/s1600/IMG_6187.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CdHPrtut8b0/VFgX8e_FYmI/AAAAAAAAIjo/BDB070sQkDI/s1600/IMG_6187.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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"Quick Daddy, they might go before we get there!"</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M1RBOHl5laA/VFgZsqO8NFI/AAAAAAAAIj8/aeZKF7Oh_AI/s1600/IMG_6078.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M1RBOHl5laA/VFgZsqO8NFI/AAAAAAAAIj8/aeZKF7Oh_AI/s1600/IMG_6078.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yW90aULWE58/VFgZw-_W_5I/AAAAAAAAIkE/9HmqLl7UnvA/s1600/IMG_6088.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yW90aULWE58/VFgZw-_W_5I/AAAAAAAAIkE/9HmqLl7UnvA/s1600/IMG_6088.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1Lbihxgyl40/VFgZavlAfYI/AAAAAAAAIj0/xKdjjia_lpI/s1600/IMG_6081.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1Lbihxgyl40/VFgZavlAfYI/AAAAAAAAIj0/xKdjjia_lpI/s1600/IMG_6081.JPG" height="460" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is a serious business!</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nB1Fq-cD4Q4/VFiSVVnWIgI/AAAAAAAAIlY/rxUrk9grgPo/s1600/IMG_5897.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nB1Fq-cD4Q4/VFiSVVnWIgI/AAAAAAAAIlY/rxUrk9grgPo/s1600/IMG_5897.JPG" height="510" width="640" /></a></div>
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We never did find out who ploughed the straightest furrow, but they all looked very smart - except for my rusty antique favourite, there, in the middle!</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TdwpXSuU4qw/VFgd0uw0gOI/AAAAAAAAIkw/YFvENZiyNS4/s1600/IMG_6009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TdwpXSuU4qw/VFgd0uw0gOI/AAAAAAAAIkw/YFvENZiyNS4/s1600/IMG_6009.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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***</div>
</span><br />nillyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733433402466612700noreply@blogger.com6