The Queen's Christmas Message

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II delivers her annual Christmas message to the people of the Commonwealth.
Video

Alice in Wonderland in British Stained Glass

This image and our banner (above) are from the the Daniell Chapel in Daresbury, which contains the Lewis Carroll Memorial Window.

"To mark the centenary of his birth, Carroll enthusiasts from all over the world subscribed to a memorial fund, which resulted in a gift to All Saints' of this striking and unusual stained glass window, dedicated in 1935.
The window was designed by the stained glass artist Geoffrey Webb and depicts a Nativity scene, at which both Carroll and Alice are present. Below the Nativity scene are 5 panels illustrated with characters and scenes from Alice in Wonderland including the White Rabbit, the Lizard, the Dodo, the Caterpillar, Fish-Footman, Mad Hatter, Dormouse, March Hare, Duchess, Gryphon, Mock Turtle, Knave and Queen of Hearts. The famous Cheshire Cat can be found in the centre of the fifth panel. The 3 centre panels contain verses from the Lewis Carroll’s poem ‘Christmas Greetings (From a Fairy to a Child)’."

There are magnificent photographs of it - and related links - here:
http://daresburycofe.org.uk/index.php?page=alice-window
http://daresburycofe.org.uk/news/29/15/Lewis-Carroll-Centre/
http://www2.halton.gov.uk/content/tourismandleisure/localhistory/lewiscarroll/
http://www2.halton.gov.uk/yourcouncil/townsandvillages/daresburyvillage/

More links related to Alice
http://www.melaniebenjamin.com/world-of-alice.php
http://www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/fabled/cheshirecat.html
http://aliceinoxford.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=92&Itemid=139
http://www.alice-in-wonderland.biz/backgroundthomson.htm

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11 Alice In Wonderland text online
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/114 Alice In Wonderland - Tenniel's illustrations



Find more magical British stained glass here -
The UK on-line stained glass magazine
and Stained Glass Register in 2010
News, views, and links to stained glass artists and suppliers
http://www.stainedglassnews.co.uk/

Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries

http://templars.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/wallpaper2007_07.jpg

The Monarchist gave Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries glowing reviews...

In one chapter, the reader travels on a mystical journey in search of the temple, ark and holy grail; in another, we are guided through a museum of holy crowns, sacred oil, swords and lances and other totems of antiquity. We begin to recover our lost senses...the question of why we dream of exploring mysterious islands or finding lost treasures; of why we value such hidden relics and attach almost divine significance to mystical regalia; is a curious one. Extrinsically, the Magna Carta of King John, and the Coronation Stone, are almost worthless objects; one is a discoloured old parchment, the other is made of mere sandstone; their value lies in sentiment alone. Destroy sentiment, however, and all that the human race holds dear vanishes with it; one might as well be a cow. One might as well be - dare we repeat it - a completely de-spiritualised republican.

Click the link and begin your pilgrimage!

British Birds Under Threat

http://www.rspb.org.uk/

We can help our birds - and it is so easy and pleasant to do.
British Birds Under Threat - On a wing and a prayer
RSPB - How to help birds on your farm
RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch

"Drink up thy Zyder"

We love the smell of simmering mulled cider - a traditional British and American drink - during the Christmas holidays, and offer guests hot mulled cider throughout the cold winter months.


Cider making in Somerset - video at link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/video/2010/dec/06/cider-making-somerset

UKCider - the real cider website and directory anyone can edit
http://www.cideruk.com/
http://www.ukcider.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Mulled Cider
Recipe courtesy Nigella Lawson from Nigella's Christmas Kitchen, 2007

Prep Time:30 minInactive Prep Time:--Cook Time:30 min
Level:
Easy
Serves:
6 servings

Ingredients
1 pint (16 fluid ounces) cider
2 fluid ounces dark rum
9 fluid ounces apple and ginger tea, from herbal teabag
1 1/2 ounces soft dark brown sugar
2 clementines
4 cloves
2 sticks cinnamon
2 fresh bay leaves
2 cardamom pods
Directions
Pour the cider, rum and herbal tea into a wide saucepan. Add the sugar and place the saucepan over a low heat. Slice the clementines in half and stick a clove into each half. Add the clementines to the pan. Break the cinnamon sticks in half. Add the cinnamon, bay leaves and cardamom pods to the saucepan. Heat the saucepan until the mixture is almost boiling. Turn down the heat once the pan is near to boiling.

To serve, ladle the mulled cider into heatproof glasses with handles.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/mulled-cider-recipe/index.html




From Jamie Oliver -
Incredible mulled cider
drinks | serves 15
It wouldn’t be Christmas without mulled something, whether I make wine or cider, its just one of those things that tells me I’m home and it’s Christmas. I know there are loads of packaged mulled wine and cider flavourings in the shops these days but honestly, it’s not hard to make this from scratch so please don’t cheat! Just pick up a few bottles of decent Scrumpy and give this a try. You’ll be simmering away most of the alcohol so if the kids want a taste, it’s ok to give them a little glass.

Ingredients
• 2 litres good cider, such as Scrumpy
• 6 cloves
• 3 or 4 star anise
• ¼ nutmeg, finely grated into the pan
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 vanilla pod, halved
• juice of 1 orange
• juice of 2 clementines
• juice and seeds from 1 pomegranate
• 4 or 5 tablespoons of caster sugar, to taste

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/incredible-mulled-cider

Please Help Foxes - NFWS

The National Fox Welfare Society - a wonderful charity - helps cure sarcoptic mange in foxes. Please donate or visit their shop for lovely fox gifts for animal lovers. Link

Prince William to marry Catherine Middleton next year

We wish them
every happiness.
BBC Link

Alan Moore on Austin Osman Spare

Man Myth and Magic cover image from "The Vampires Are Coming", a painting by Austin Osman Spare



"Austin Osman Spare (30 December 1886 – 15 May 1956) was an English artist who developed idiosyncratic magical techniques including automatic writing, automatic drawing and sigilization based on his theories of the relationship between the conscious and unconscious self. His artistic work is characterized by skilled draughtsmanship exhibiting a mastery of the use of the line, and often employs monstrous or fantastic magical and sexual imagery."

Posy Simmonds' "Tamara Drewe" is now a film

Congratulations to Posy Simmonds, creator of "Tamara Drewe". The creator shares her experiences as illustrator and writer here.
The series is available online ttp://www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/tamara-drewe

Of Chatsworth and Its Duchess

Chatsworth is having an Attic Sale! One can only imagine...
Derbyshire, England
Viewing October 1-4, 2010
Auction October 5-7, 2010
http://www.sothebys.com
http://www.chatsworth.org


And the Duchess of Devonshire has a new book, titled WAIT FOR ME.
The Guardian has delightful photos and a review
Essay on the author at The Lady

Sloanes and Witchcraft: Winston Churchill OBOD

The roots of English mysticism are rooted deep in the past.


This photo shows a young Winston Churchill flanked by a number of men in suits and Druid robes, and documents his initiation into the Albion Lodge of the Ancient Order of Druids in August 1908 at Blenheim, his family home.


Helen Duncan was the last person charged under the Witchcraft Act in Britiain, and Churchill helped to end it. http://psychictruth.info/Medium_Helen_Duncan.htm

"Some maintain that Churchill, a natural psychic in his own right, who had been
ordained as a Druid during a special ceremony at his ancestral home of Blenheim Palace
at the turn of the century and no stranger to Spiritualism, was actually defending a religious freedom."

PDF

Visit the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids online
http://www.druidry.org/

True Prep: Not Sloane

Q.E.D.

Churchill's Final Mission is Completed

"...it was on the eve of war as he sat at home at Chartwell awaiting the nation's call to arms that he was to return to this childhood passion with an unexpected fervour.

In the end, Churchill had to put his grand plans to reintroduce some of the lost British species of butterfly to his Kent estate on hold until after 1945. But it was a mission he was to resume as soon as the conflict ended. Now more than half a century later his breeding efforts are being recreated by the National Trust in the grounds of the red-brick Victorian country house where he lived until his death in 1965. The old summerhouse which he converted into a butterfly sanctuary has been revived with breeding cages.

Visitors will be able to experience the butterfly garden with its insect-friendly lavender borders – thought to be the oldest of their kind in existence – as well as the vast buddleia jungles just as they were in the 1940s and 1950s when the Churchills used to throw magnificent garden parties in which they would buy in hundreds of butterfly specimens from the renowned dealer L Hugh Newman."

The Independent

Butterflies in decline
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/27/butterfly-decline-conservation-endangered-species

http://www.kentbutterflies.org/

The Legend of the Moonrakers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonrakers
here
and here

'The Wiltshire Moonrakers' by Edward Slow'
featured in 'Wiltshire Rhymes and Tales in the Wiltshire Dialect' (1894)

Down Vizes way zom years agoo,
When smuggal'n wur nuthen new,
An people wurden nar bit shy,
Of who they did their sperrits buy.
In a village liv'd a publican,
Whi kept an Inn, The Pelican,
A man he wur, a man a merrit
An his neam wur Ikey Perritt.
Ael roun about tha country voke
Tha praise of thease yer landlard spoke;
Var wen any on'em wur took bad,
They knaw'd wur sperrits could be had;
An daly it wur nice an handy,
At tha Pelican to get yer brandy.
Twer zwold as chep as tis in Vrance,
Tho a course, twer done in iggerance.

One winter, Crismis time about,
Thease lanlords tubs as ael ran out.
Zays he, this yer's a purty goo,
Var mwore what ever shall I do;
Thie smugglin Zam's a purty chap,
Ta lave I here wieout a drap;
An wen a promised dree months back,
A hooden vail ta bring me whack.
Bit praps tha zizevoke voun his trail,
An med a pop'd inta jail,
Howsemdever, I'll zen and zee,
Ta marrer wats become a he.
Zoo nex day at nite he off did start,
Two girt chaps wie a donkey cart.
Ta Bristil town thay took ther way,
An got there as twer gettin day;
Tha smugglers house tha zoon voun out,
An tould'n wat they wur com about.
Ael rite, zays he, I've plenty bye,
Bit we mist keep a cuteish eye,
Var tha zize voke, they be in tha watch,
An two or dree have lately cotch.
Zoo tell woold Perritt thats tha razin
I coudden zen avore ta pleaz un.
Soo wen twur dark thase smuggler bwold,
Got dree tubs vrim a zacrit hould;
An unobsarved he purty smart,
Zoon clap'd em in tha donkey cart;
An tha top a covered up we hay,
Then zent tha chaps an cart away;
Ael droo tha streets quite zaef an zound,
Thay zoon jog'd out a Bristil town.
An vore tha vull moon ad rose,
To ther neative pleace, wur drawin close;
Wen to ther girt astonishment,
Thay met wie a awkurd accident,
In passin auver Cannins Brudge,
Tha stubborn donkey hooden budge;
Tha chaps thay leather'd well his back,
Bit a diden keer var ther attack;
Bit jibb'd an beller'd, shook his mean
Then kick'd bouth shafts right off za clane.
Up went tha cart, tha tubs vill out,
An in tha road zood roll'd about;
An vore tha chaps cood ardly look,
Ael dree ad roll'd straite in tha brook.
Well here's a purty goo zays one,
Why will, wat ever's to be done?
I'd like ta kill thic donkey quite,
If thee wurst, zays Tom, tid zar un rite.
Doost knaa wat tha matter wur?
I thinks a got a vorester;
Var I nevir knaw'd un hack like this,
Unless zummit wur much amiss.
Look at un now he's in a scare,
An gwain as hard as he can tare;
We bouth shafts danglin on tha groun,
A wunt stop till he gets wom I'm bown.
Zoo let un, I dwoant keer a snap,
Var then thay'll gace thease yer mishap;
An zen zumbiddy on tha road,
Ta help ess get wom saef tha load.
Bit zounds, while thus we do delay,
Tha tubs, begar, ull swim away;
We mist get em out at any price,
Tho' the water be as cwoold as ice.
Dwoant stan geapin zo, var goodness zeak,
Run to thic rick an vind a reak;
I thinks that I can reak em out,
Var ther thay be swimmin about.
Two reaks wur got, an then thaese two
Did reak an splaish we much ado;
Bit nar a tub diden lan,
Thay hooden zeem ta com ta han.
Zays Tom, I'm tired a tha job,
An hooden a tuck un var ten bob;
I ad a mine ta let em goo,
An zoo I will if thee hoot to.
Get out, girt stup, we mist get in,
Tho we do get wet ta tha skin.
Till never do ta let em be,
Zo tuck thee pants up roun thee knee.
Tha chaps then took tha water bwould,
Tho thay wur shram'd ni we tha could;
An jist as thay did heave one out,
Ael at once a feller loud did shout--
HEL'OH, me lads, wat up to there,
NIGHT POACHERS, ah, if teant I swear.
Let goo, zays Will, I'm blow'd if tent,
Vizes excizemen on tha scent;
Push off tha tub var goodness zeak,
Get out tha brook, teak hould a reak;
Reak at tha moon a shinin zee,
An dwoant thee spake, I'll tackle he,
Bit av ad a mishap as ya see.
Comin frum Vize we donkey cart,
On tha bridge tha donk mead zudden start;
An jirk'd, an jib'd, then gied a kick,
An het bwouth shafts off purty quick.
Out went our things wich as ya zees,
Lays ael about, an yer's a cheese;
He roll'd rite on straite in thease brook,
An Tom's a reakun vor'un look!
Tha Zizeman swallered ael o't in,
An ta zee Tom reakun, gun ta grin,
Girt vool, zays he, as true's I'm barn,
Why that's tha moon, thee beest reakun vor'n
An then a busted out agean,
An zed of ael, that beat all clean;
Ta zee a crazy headed coon,
Reak at the shadder of the moon.
Will wink'd at Tom, Tom wink'd at Will,
Ta zee how nice he'd took tha pill;
Ah, zur, you med laff as long as ya please,
Bit we be zure it be a cheese.
Zee how he shows hisself za plain,
Com Tom, lets reak vor he again.
Zo slap an dash went on reakin,
While Zizeman he var vun wur sheakin;
An off a went houlden his zide,
Var longer there a cooden bide.
We grinnin his eyes did auverflow,
Ta zee thay chaps a reakin zo;
An ta think that now he'd tould em zo,
Tha girt vools hooden ther frake vergo.
Zoo up a got upon his hoss,
An as tha brudge a went across,
He zet up another harty grin,
Wen a look'd an zeed em bouth get in;
An zed girt vools till zar em rite,
If thay da ketch ther deaths ta nite.
Bit wen he ad got clane away,
Tha tubs wur got wieout delay;
And hid away, quite zeaf and zoun,
Var a dark nite wen tha moon wur down.

Then at the Pelican thease chaps,
Purty zoon wur tellen ther mishaps;
Bit ael ther troubles they vergot,
Wen they'd emptyied well tha landloards pot,
An wen he a coose did pay em well
Thease little stowry not ta tell;
Zo wen tha Zizemin nex did com,
Woold Perritt he a coose wur mum.
An in a glass did jine wie glee,
Wen Zizemin twould tha tale ta he;
Bit he laff'd mwore wen zeaf one nite
Tha tubs wur brought wom snug an tite;
An many a bumper went a round,
To think thay'd beat tha Zizemin zound.

Bit he tha tale did zoon let out
To ael the countery roun about;
An to thease day, people da teeze,
All Wilsheer voke about tha cheese.
Bit tis thay as can avourd ta grin,
To zee ow nice a wur took in.
Zoo wen out thease county you da goo,
An voke da poke ther vun at you;
An caal ee a girt Wilsheer coon,
As went a reakun var tha moon.
Jist menshin thease yer leetle stowry,
And then bust out in ael yer glowry,
That yer smeart Excisemin vresh vrum town,
Wur took in wie a Wilsheer clown.

Request a bespoke Moonraker or other pub sign -
here

A different kind of moonraking - find out what the "mowing devils" are up to here
and here

Although he did not act in the film version of Ian Fleming's MOONRAKER, we note that August 25th is the 80th birthday of Sir Sean Connery. Many Happy Returns, Commander Bond!
M16 takes a look at some of the best Connery films.

"A translation, in verse, of the mottos of the English nobility and sixteen peers of Scotland in the year 1800 (1822)"

Great fun to read. Are you there?
Link at http://www.archive.org/details/translationinver00amicrich

Obituary: Robbert Fack

A friend of Sloanes - the legendary Robbert Fack will be missed.
Obituary - Telegraph
DSC

Video: Lady Antonia Fraser in her writing room

Enchanting.
http://www.antoniafraser.com/

Sartorial Splendour - Admiral Cod

We like Admiral Cod (the blog), for its writing, menswear and other fine things.
Link

Kill the cull, not Wales's badgers

Despite no scientific evidence that bovine TB is transmitted by badgers, the farming lobby is hellbent on slaughtering them

Link

A BadgerCam is in our Links column



From badgers to WIND IN THE WILLOWS -
Obnoxious Mr. Toad was inspired by author Kenneth Grahame's own son...
Link

Misery Bear's World Cup

Sweet and rather sad.
Link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/clips/p00887k5

Thank you for Helping to Save the Barge Inn!

Thank you to all who helped to Save the Barge Inn!


An appeal for this community hub has been answered.
Link
The Barge Inn website
The Barge Inn Community Project

We'll visit The Barge Inn during the Crop Circle season.

Photographs of London from Fotocommunity

We think this is definitely worth a visit: Photographers at Photocommunity share hundreds of great images of lovely London here.

Celebrate Sir Hans Sloane's 350th Birthday on April 16th

Available now here - more soon


"Welcome to Chelsea Physic Garden

Situated in the heart of London, this 'Secret Garden' is a centre of education, beauty and relaxation. Founded in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, it continues to research the properties, origins and conservation of over 5000 plant species.

Friends of the Garden have privileged access on weekdays throughout the year and on Sundays and Bank Holidays between April and October.
For the general public, our 2010 Opening times.

To celebrate the 350th Birthday of Sir Hans Sloane, the Garden will be not be charging admission fees on Friday 16th April 2010.
More details about Our Local Hero, Sloane."

Founded by Sir Hans Sloane - The British Museum

Ann Barr, The Woman Who Invented Sloanes

Image: Ann Barr and friend, from article "Ann Barr, The Woman Who Invented Sloanes".

Ann Barr did most of the work on the first Official Sloane Ranger books. Peter York (Peter Wallis, actually) did much less to comprehend and map the terrain. Ann is a Sloane, and Peter is not. One source reports that York has done no work on the new book leaving it to Olivia Stewart-Liberty.

The authorship of the Sloane Ranger Handbook is apparently a sore point with poor Peter York (Wallis).

"From Peaches Geldof to David Cameron, a fresh breed of Sloane is taking over the country. This work unveils them to an unsuspecting public. It includes breeds of a subtle and powerful social network: Chav Sloanes (who call friends 'Blud'), Turbo Sloanes (who live in NYLON), and Eco Sloanes (who have strong preferences for veg boxes and kaftans)...." the York/Liberty "Sloane" book is just wrong.

Some Sloanes have always functioned - and made fortunes - in an international environment; that's why so much of the map of the world became pink. Creative marketing claims to the contrary, values and traits of Sloanes have not changed.

The original books are unsurpassed, and Sloanes thank Ann Barr!



A short letter from Ann Barr to the editor of The Observer was a delightful surprise.

Sloanes are OK, ya?

Carole Cadwalladr's spiky article 'The rebirth of posh' (Review, last week) was very interesting, but two points. Peter York was not the author of the original Sloane Ranger's Handbook, 1982; it was a communal book by 60 Harpers & Queen contributors, woven together by me as features editor and deputy editor (and Sloane Ranger person). Peter York was the co-author, for his media skills.

My other concern is confusing the Sloane Ranger with the super-rich. Sloane Rangers are not necessarily well-off or aristocrats, but a stratum of a bygone middle class, at least one rung down from David Cameron and friends. They work behind the scenes to help the community, but do not expect to lead it - and don't all vote Tory.

Ann Barr
London W11
Link

Nicholas Coleridge was mentored by Ann Barr and remembers her here.

William and Kate to Name the Date?

Tina Brown, friend of Princess Diana and Royal insider, thinks so. Link

SAGA Magazine

"Vita Brevis - Ours Longer..."
Emma Soames is the brilliant editor behind SAGA Magazine - making aging cool and grey the new black.
Great fun! SAGA

The Lady: Joanna Lumley

The Lady Magazine presents a profile of the enchanting Joanna Lumley - a national treasure: From Purdey to Patsy

In this BBC video, Joanna Lumley travels to arctic Norway in search of the Northern Lights (or Aurora Borealis), a phenomenon which occurs due to solar winds interacting with the earth's magnetic field.

The Lady: Alice and Me

Hugh St Clair tells the real-life story of his greatgrandmother Alice Liddell, who was the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland
"My great-grandmother was Alice in Wonderland. When I tell people, they look rather bemused, but it’s true – Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s enigmatic book, beloved by children and adults alike, was my great-grandmother. Indeed, that chance meeting that Carroll had in the quad at Christ Church College, Oxford with the Liddell children in 1856 has certainly benefited our family – my children were privately educated on money from the sale of ‘Alice’ memorabilia.
Since the book’s publication in 1865, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has been translated into hundreds of languages and has never been out of print. There have also been countless adaptations in other media, especially theatre and film. The latest, directed by Tim Burton, starts with a young woman who, fearful of the imminent proposal of an eligible (but ridiculous) suitor, escapes into a fantasy world with the mysterious White Rabbit.
Alice was born in 1852, the fourth child of eight surviving children – five girls and three boys. Her father, Henry Liddell, was a distinguished academic, head of Westminster School, then Dean of Christ Church College, Oxford. When the family moved from Westminster to Oxford they got to know the Rev Charles Dodgson (Carroll’s real name) – a shy and stuttering mathematics don, more relaxed in the company of children than adults. An eccentric man, he had an amazing collection of mechanical toys in his rooms and loved dressing up in children’s fancy dress outfits. It was while he was out photographing Christ Church Cathedral that he came across the young Liddell children playing in the Deanery garden. He soon struck up a friendship with the family, becoming a fixture in their lives. He was particularly drawn to Alice...."
Continues at The Lady Magazine
To see a collection of images of ALICE past and present, visit the very smart blog of M.A. Peel or "Emma Peel"

National Trust: The Lyme Caxton Missal

"The Lyme Caxton Missal

Turn the pages of history at Lyme Park, with our interactive display which lets you view the pages of the Lyme Caxton Missal.

The Missal was printed by William Caxton, England's first printer, in the 15th century. It is a rare copy of an early printed prayer book, famed in its time of print for being one of the first books to be printed in two colours, red and black.

For a sneak-peek of the unique Missal, watch our short film and discover more about its captivating history."

Link

A fascinating combination of old and new...

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

~ William Wordsworth



May we all be blessed with peace and renewal this Easter Day.

Rural Dating: Finding love in the countryside

This article gives good practical tips and resources for Sloanes and country friends who are ready to be
"Matched".
From The Telegraph

Video: Cold Comfort Farm

"In England in the early 1930's, 20 year old Flora Poste, recently orphaned and left with only 100 pounds a year, goes to stay with distant relatives on Cold Comfort Farm. Everyone on the gloomy farm is completely around the twist, but Flora tries to sort everything out...

This is yet another great adaptation of a great book - and it's so delightfully funny and cleverly-written. Kate (Beckwith) is so lovely in her role as Flora. Her appearance as a penniless heroine reminded me of Emma Woodhouse and Northanger Abbey. Don't miss the hilarity-driven performances by respected actors like Ian McKellen, Eileen Atkins, Rufus Sewell, Stephen Fry, and Rupert Penry-Jones"

Wikipedia

A lovely review of the book is here

Cold Comfort Farm is listed amongst the best books at the Gutenberg Project

Read the book online here

Haunting Heligan

Are the Lost Gardens of Heligan haunted, as they say? All the more reason to go! The Heligan website is exquisite.
You may also enjoy the Ghost Club.

NYT: Interactive London Shopping Map

From the New York Times:
Mayfair Lady. An interactive map with eight featured venues - from Vivienne Westwood to Purdey, with a stop at Punchbowl. Very clever indeed.

Snowdrops

It has been a long, hard winter and we are longing for signs of Spring. SAGA has a charming article about snowdrops and where to view them. Link

"The blackbirds and thrushes that had been singing freely previously suddenly ceased singing about December 15, and remained silent for a month, and as suddenly began singing again about January 15. Where they all came from I cannot think, there seemed such an increase in their numbers; one wet morning in a small meadow there were forty-five feeding in sight that could be easily counted. They say the thrushes dig up and eat the roots of the arum, yet they are not root-eaters. Possibly it may have a medicinal effect; the whole plant has very strong properties, and is still much gathered, I suppose for the herbalists. The root is set rather deep, quite a dig with a pocket knife sometimes; one would fancy it was only those which had become accidentally exposed that are eaten by the thrushes. I have never seen them do it, and some further testimony would be acceptable. The old naturalists said the bear on awakening from its winter sleep dug up and ate the roots of the arum in order to open the tube of the intestine which had flattened together during hibernation. The blackbirds are the thrushes' masters, and drive them from any morsel they fancy. There is very little humanity among them: one poor thrush had lost the joint of its leg, and in order to pick up anything had to support itself with one wing like a crutch. This bird was hunted from every spot he chose to alight on; no sooner did he enter the garden than one of the stronger birds flew at him—'so misery is trodden on by many.' There was a drone-fly on a sunny wall on January 20, the commonest of flies in summer, quite a wonder then; the same day a house-sparrow was trying to sing, for they have a song as well as a chirp; on January 22 a tit was sharpening his saw and the gnats were jumping up and down in crowds—this up-and-down motion seems peculiar to them and may-flies. Then the snowdrops flowered and a hive-bee came to them; next the yellow crocus; bees came to these, too, and so eager were they that one bee would visit the same flower five or six times before finally going away. Bees are very eager for water in the early year; you may see them in crowds on the wet mud in ditches; there was a wild bee drowning in a basin of water the other day till I took him out.

Before the end of January the woodbine leaf was out, always the first to come, and never learning that it is too soon; whether the woodbine came over with 'Richard Conqueror' or the Romans, it still imagines itself ten degrees further south, so that some time seems necessary to teach a plant the alphabet. Immediately afterwards down came a north wind and put nature under its thumb for two months; the drone-fly hid himself, the bees went home, everything became shrivelled, dry, inhuman. The local direction of the wind might vary, but it was still the same polar draught, the blood-sucker; for, like a vampire, it sucks the very blood and moisture out of delicate human life, just as it dries up the sap in the branch. While this lasted there were no notes to make, the changes were slower than the hour hand of a clock; still it was interesting to see the tree-climber come every morning at eleven o'clock to the cobble-stone wall and ascend it exactly as he ascends trees, peering into chinks among the moss and the pennywort. He seemed almost as fond of these walls as of his tree trunks. He came regularly at eleven and again at three in the afternoon, and a barn owl went by with a screech every evening a little after eight. The starlings told the time of the year as accurately as the best chronometer at Whitehall. When I saw the last chimney swallow, November 30, they went by to their sleeping-trees about three o'clock in the afternoon—a long night, a short day for them. So they continued till in January the day had grown thirty minutes longer, when they went to roost so much the later; in February, four o'clock; in March, by degrees their time for passing by the window en route drew on to five o'clock. Let the cold be never so great or the sky so clouded, the mysterious influence of the light, as the sun slowly rises higher on the meridian, sinks into the earth like a magic rain. It enters the hardest bark and the rolled-up bud, so firm that its point will prick the finger like a thorn; it stirs beneath the surface of the ground. A magnetism that is not heat, and for which there is no exact name, works out of sight in answer to the sun. Seen or unseen, clouded or not, every day the sun lifts itself an inch higher, and let the north wind shrivel as it may, this invisible potency compels the bud to swell and the flower to be ready in its calyx. Progress goes on in spite of every discouragement. The birch trees reddened all along their slender boughs, and when the sunlight struck aslant, the shining bark shone like gossamer threads wet with dew."

~ Richard Jefferies,
FIELD AND HEDGEROW

Tory Chic: The return of poshness

Tory Chic: The return of poshness
From The Guardian:

'Over the last few years, in trendy parts of London, at music festivals, and among clothes-horse celebrities, Barbours have become so ubiquitous that there is even a half-mocking nickname for the look, referencing the London borough where it is commonest: "Hackney farmer". The boom is even affecting sensible old John Lewis: this year, national sales of Barbours there are up more than 80%.

And the Barbour craze is only part of a much broader new appetite for products with posh associations. Brogues and Oxfords, the more clumpy and traditional-looking the better, have become the shoes of choice for many cool young men. Hunter wellies, once something for squelchy point-to-points, are now what Kate Moss and her fashion disciples wear to Glastonbury, and are currently on sale at Jigsaw. Tweed has become hip. So have faintly caddish moustaches and even – according to the high-street chain Vision Express – monocles. "There was recently a trend for waistcoats, a very young man's trend," says the fashion journalist Charlie Porter. "There is a thing for bow ties right now. There's no way a bow tie can be anything but posh." The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook – published more than a quarter of a century ago, the last time there was a vogue for upper-class style – lists the key items in the male Sloane wardrobe: "the thick, woolly Action Man sweater . . . the blazer . . . trousers worn a bit short . . . the cardigan." Over the last few years, British men's fashion magazines have featured little else.'

Link

We also like this article on Barbour from the Times Online.

'...what’s happening with Barbour gives me a little fillip of excitement. What is happening, by the way, is that for the past three or four years, its wildly practical but, not exactly sexy, blingy or, let’s be honest, aesthetically lovely, waxed coats — the kind you can imagine William Hague, or for that matter General Haig, and sundry little William-and-Katettes scampering across grouse moors in — have become increasingly fashionable. And they’ve become fashionable not so much because of anything Barbour itself has done to relaunch, rebrand or restructure, but despite it.

I say this lovingly. Barbour is not a foolish, crass brand. It didn’t wake up one morning, spot someone from Dalston wearing one of its jackets and think, ooh yes, let’s hire an Italian designer to sex this up with some mink collars and lilac beading. Instead it has been quietly getting on with streamlining its silhouettes and ramping up its technical credentials so that you now find slinky Barbour jackets that weigh even less than Cheryl Cole and come in colours you might actually want to wear, ie black.'

Link


Emma Watson brings her special magic to the Burberry brand.

Memories of Love: Lady Antonia Fraser and Harold Pinter

'(Fraser's) new book, which she will be reading on BBC Radio 4 from January 11, is neither autobiography nor biography but a love story, romantic, poignant and very funny, illuminating her husband’s character and creativity. It will show the Pinters on holiday (on Paxos with Simon Gray and Ronald Harwood and their wives, performing each other’s plays) and the Pinters sharing their works in progress'

Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter by Antonia Fraser will be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on January 11.
Link

Happy New Year!