Current reading matter

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

TBA has just dug out of a Trunk, some books which I thought had disappeared for ever .

Bound copies of "The Welcome" Magazine mid 19th C.

And my Favourites ---- Bound (But Tatty) -- "Punch 1852" and "Punch 1919"(In good nick !)
The 1852 Punch is virulent about Louis Napoleon, both in prose and cartoon, eg; "A list of presents from my Uncle" (!!)
and depictions of him as of dwarf stature !! (Of course his Uncle wasn't tall !!)
The 1919 has some lovely Cartoons of generals being evicted from the War Office !!

I shall now retire with Smoking Jacket (But I don't) and Slippers, accompanied by a "Bowmore" Single Malt-------(Which I do )
Do not disturb !

[Vièr Bliu]

The 1919 has some lovely Cartoons of generals being evicted from the War Office !!

If 1919 Punch has any poems by Evoe (E.V. Knox), they're always worth a look. I was given a surplus copy at CH of one of Evoe's collections of parodies from the School library, and have built up my Evoe collection since. The thing about Evoe's parodies are that he rarely takes the lazy path of simply lampooning a particular poem, but rather manages to create something in the style of his target poet. His "Sussex by the Sea" as though translated from French is a particular joy.

Other news: Schools went back today, but tomorrow's anniversary reenactment of the Battle of Jersey has been hit by the weather.

Reading status: proofreading of the latest book going well - relaxing with more John Dickson Carr "The Third Bullet" - went mad on the Internet and ordered a study of the translations of Alice in Wonderland from across the Atlantic.

[englishangel]

On the Hertford thread I commented that my favourtie reading matter while "revising" for A levels was old Punch. IN the library at Hertford we had bounf editions going back to Punch's origins. Did you have them at Horsham, were the Hertofrd ones moved there and was this maintained until Punch closed? A great historical record of the middle and upper classes. The original "curate's egg" cartoon I remember particularly.

[Katharine]

One year in my teens my father was the lucky recipient of part of a legacy to the diocese - the money was left to purchase subscriptions to Punch for rural clerics. I don't know the details, but it was an imaginative legacy.

[Vièr Bliu]

Did you have them at Horsham

I remember reading Punch regularly - or rather looking at the cartoons, but I don't remember if there were bound volumes.

Here anyway is Evoe's parody of Kipling's "Sussex" as though translated into French and back again (complete with fake translator's footnotes):


THE COUNTY of SUSSEX

One chooses the Baltic pine,
One chooses a glade of the Surrey,
Or well the deliberate flurry (*1)
Of tropical palms in line;
Each chooses aright,
But my bosom's delight
Is to love with no bitter decree
The gay sunshine where all blushes bright,
The Sussex soothed by the sea. (*2)

No passionate garden crowns,
No valleyed forests upholster
The thicket-coiffured hard bolster
Rude and good of the downs, (*3)
The cruppers which shadows tease,
Which let see at the pearly pass,
Over corsets of sombre trees,
The blue spread bounty at grass. (*4)

Without hedge or enclosure which cramps,
Half-savage, but chic of frock, (*5)
The turf covers over the rock
As it did by the Roman camps.
Of combatants is there a trace?
Of who died steel against steel?
There rests the egregious place,
The herb and the great sun's wheel.

The South wind skips to the steeps,
The wing heavy once more of brine,
There in a long brown line
It is all the proud Channel that leaps
The sea-fog itself retards,
And, as if interchanging their throats
To the sand which no eye regards
The ship and the sheep sound notes.

Not of water with us regales
Our large ravines without brooks,
But the dew falls down into nooks
There up, and it never fails;
Nor are herbs, from which are presumed
The seasons at fall or rise,
Nothing than thyme perfumed
As the dawn at the paradise.

If I had the rest to share
I would see, all my senses steaming,
The thirty-nine shires well-seeming,
But there is not advantage there;
You may have at your need
The Thames or the Tweed,
But me I shall choose, be it said,
The sun's steady eye
From Rake to Rye,
The Black Sandhill and Beachy Head.

I will go myself of it to West
Where the sand flies dissolute on, (*6)
Where the Giant of Wilmington
Is for earth a pillar to rest;
I will go to the eastward verge
Where the Rother rolls to the tide,
By some antique walls of surge,
Our ports at the sanded pride. (*7)

I will go to the sun superb,
To the North, to the valley brinks
Where the old oaks stand, which one thinks
In our Sussex a morsel of herb,
Or well to the South, where one views
The dauphins of golden crest,
Or black by the borders of Ouse
Our clumsy oxen have rest.

God gives us the earth entire,
But our hearts being pinched for space
He makes for each one his place
Which he loves of a prouder desire,
Each chooses aright,
But my bosom's delight
to love with no bitter decree
The gay sunshine where all blushes bright,
The Sussex soothed by the sea.


*1 "Ou bien le frôlement discret."
*2 "bercé par la mer,"
*3 "Et nul bois valloné ne vêt,
La dune simple au dur chevet
Coiffé d'épine rude et bonne."
*4 "La bonté bleue éparse aux prés."
*5 "Bien dressé."
*6 "à l'abandon."
*7 "à l'orgueuil ensablé."

[Vièr Bliu]

it was an imaginative legacy.

Or, bonkers!

[Katharine]

it was an imaginative legacy.

Or, bonkers!

True - but bonkers in a good way!

[englishangel]

Oh I love that word, "bonkers".

[J.R.]

Oh I love that word, "bonkers".

Hmmmm !!!!

[Fjgrogan]

'Bonkers' - another word which has changed its meaning over the generations! I much prefer the old one!

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

My latest gem of a cartoon in 1919 Punch is of "Prospective Father" addressed by "Confirmed Bachelor"-- (Don't you just LOVE the long captions )

" Remember,a perambulator costs as much as a Rolls Royce !!"


Just as valid today !

[Mid A 15]

Writing Home by Alan Bennett.

A vaguely autobiographical collection of diaries, sketches, extracts fom plays and tributes to others such as Russell Harty.

Bennett can paint a picture with a few well chosen words and it is a thoroughly enjoyable read.

In fact why am I talking to you lot when I could be reading some more?

[Katharine]

I'm reading Sylvia, Queen of the Headhunters by Philip Eade. It is a fairly new biography of the last of the White Ranees of Sarawak, I meant to buy it when it came out but ... I was amazed to see it in a local charity shop. Can't think who else in the area is interested in Sarawak!

[Jo]

Oh dear, it's a sign of the times that "headhunters" these days to me immediately signifies those sort of predatory executive recruiters. I had visions of you reading a business book, but I thought it sounded a rather un-business-y sort of title.

Not that I've ever been headhunted..... I wish !!

[Katharine]

I had forgotten about those Headhunters, Jo! It did amuse us at the time that John was headhunted for his job there and pulled out of another one early.

I have seen the skulls in the longhouses. For an Iban maiden, the equivalent rite of passage to taking the first human head was weaving her first Pua cloth that came up to scratch. Fascinating things as the design is tie died into the warp threads and then the weaving itself is absolutely straightforward. See http://www.borneoartifact.com/images/PK0133a.jpg for an example. The dyes are all natural and earth tones, there was no blue indigo/woad there. I am more interested in the puas than the headhunters to be honest!