Dear Reader I Read it: ‘Wedlock, – How Georgian Britain’s Worse Husband met his match’ by Wendy Moore

mine has a white cover

Just finished reading ‘Wedlock’ by Wendy Moore.  The rest of the title says it all really: ‘How Georgian Britain’s worse husband met his match’.  The lady in question was Mary Eleanor Bowes,  daughter of a very wealthy coal magnate who died when she was only 11.  Intelligent, confident, wealthy and quite nice looking, the young Mary Eleanor soon fell into a unhappy marriage with her first husband  Lord Strathmore which lasted 8 years until he died.  Exceedingly wealthy in her own right, she was once more beseiged by fortune hunting suiters.  But it was Irish soldier Andrew Robinson Stoney that charmed her whilst fighting a duel with her regular suiter Grey.  On Stoney’s deathbed, she promises to marry him.  However he wasn’t in fact on his ‘last legs’ as she thought and soon  made a miraculous recovery!  Too late, she had married him.  No sooner was the wedding over when her new husband showed his true colours.

mary eleanor when married to Lord Strathmore

The cruelty, both physical and mentally that Mary Eleanor endured are outrageous.  It was allowed to go on and on, Stoney (forever the play actor and con man) convincing everyone that his wife was mentally ill.  He seized her land, he mistreated her tenants, he gambled her fortune away, deprived her of her children, brought his mistresses to live with them – in short, humiliated and made her life a living hell.

Andrew Robinson Stoney Bowes

Then the payback!  But you will have to read the book to find out how Mary Eleanor escaped this monster.  Her character is flawed of course, her weaknesses if they be weaknesses was  to be too trusting and too impetuous.  Her main weakness though, I feel, is that she is a very poor judge of character, where men are concerned.  But she turns out to be a heroinne in the end, and also the Great great ancestor of Elizabeth Bowes Lyons (The Queen Mother).  A true story with extensive research, which pays off!  Yes, I enjoyed this, though it was only when I got to the middle before the pace really started to hot up.  The pace then turned into a exhillarating gallop – very exciting!

Happy Birthday Dear William Hogarth!

 

William Hogarth self portrait

It’s one of my favorite artist’s birthday today.  Artist, printmaker, satirist and Social commentator William Hogarth (b.1697 -  1764 London) was a very prolific artist and highly fashionable in his time.  His series of paintings (also made into prints) called ‘Marriage A La Mode’ read like one of our modern-day soap opera’s and are amongst my favorite paintings. 

Marriage a la Mode painting one

They tell the story of Earl Squander arranging his son’s marriage to the daughter of a wealthy city merchant, but who is also incredibly mean with money.  There are so many little clues that help the narration of Hogarth’s paintings.  The first painting in the ‘Marriage a la Mode’ series shows the personality of the Earl’s son who is more preoccupied with admiring his own reflection in the mirror than paying attention to his marriage which is being arranged for him.    Meanwhile,  daughter listens to the lawyer Silvertongue, whilst through the window an unfinished house can be seen.  Crutches enable the old gouty Earl to get about: a Medusa’s head nods towards  the horror which will unfold as this arranged marriage proceeds, eventually leading to the suicide of the merchant’s daughter and the murder of her husband,the young Viscount.  The paintings and prints preach a moral lesson about marrying for money.  Old money, or rather no money, only a title and bloodline courts new money but no title.  After all, these estates had to be maintained somehow.

paula rego's modern day transcription of marriage a la mode

In 2000  we went to an exhibition called ‘Encounters – New Art from Old’ at the National Gallery, where 24 modern artists transcribed a painting of their choice and gave it a modern twist.  Paula Rego transcribed Hogarth’s ‘Marriage a la Mode’ showing another side to the narrative.  Some artists concentrated on the artist’s method of working, some translated through sculpture or photography.  There were many interesting conclusions and it was exciting to see the art of the past still being able to communicate all these years later.

Hogarth's Gin Lane

Hogarth’s ‘Gin Lane’, a very famous work points out theonly too real peril of the then new alcoholic drink Gin.  This was being brewed in homes and all sorts of unsavoury places.   Hogarth was instrumental in the Gin Act of 1750 which did away with small Gin shops which seemed to have mushroomed everywhere.  ‘Beer Street’ shows the opposite side of the coin.  This depicts happy City people drinking sensible beer…and still having a good time.

Hogarth's Beer Street

 

There has been much written about the fascinating life and work of William Hogarth and there are some very good websites;

Biography and works HERE

Works HERE

Dream Buildings that are just that – Dreams!

There’s some strange buildings in this world.  Buildings made of salvage, buildings encrusted with shells, buildings that just cheer you up and make you think what great fun it would be to live in.

I have always thought that it would be fantastic to live in an Oast House; these are the houses  usuallyseen in Kent and Sussex. They were built to dry the hops to brew beer, but are so fairytale like as well as airy and practical!

maine-lighthouse

Another building I used to dream of living in is the Lighthouse.  How exciting it must be to be in the middle of the sea, seeing all types of weather and braving the elements, but snug and content in your lighthouse.  Beaming out light and guiding ships to safety, sigh…

beautiful windmills

Or perhaps a windmill!  There’s something so romantic about these building.  The noise of the sails: the grinding of the corn, –  just constant continuity.  Surely this must count as a most lucupletative*  way of life?

* This is my adopted word that I have officially adopted and have promised to use where I can.  Here’s the site if you want to adopt a word HERE

The first picture came from THIS website: there’s some real wacky buildings on there!

A sense of Recently

The Star Inn today, work is underway

Just a quick one tonight as I’m working: more of a kind of summing up really.  The Star inn project has started, we will need more help, but I think there’s a lot of goodwill around and although it’s only the first day, they have accomplished quite a bit.

Follow Me? chance would be a fine thing

I’m a Twitterer now!  Again, it’s early days and I don’t have many followers yet, but I’m hoping that will change in the future.  I still can’t get that blasted Twitter bird on my page, though I have managed to get my twitterings on.

adopt a word today!

I’ve adopted a word: a most wonderful locupletative word!  I’m trying to slip it into conversations but have been greeted so far with blank stares.  I just can’t see this word catching on somehow, but I shall persevere – I’ve put a lot of hard work into remembering it and  it’s taken me a couple of days to pronounce it without stumbling over it, lol!

The Star Inn: Resurgence!

The weather may have been windy, wild and blustering: the rain pelting down, but what an exciting day it was for The Star Inn!  Today another door opened on a new  exciting chapter in the pubs history!  They thought it was all over – but it wasn’t!  In truth, it’s only just starting!   The people entered the forsaken pub and claimed it as their own!  Unbelievably, a few short weeks ago, the Star Inn had a very uncertain future and was up for auction.  The brewery may have  abandoned it, but instead of fuming helplessly and looking for a new local, the people rallied round and saved it by putting their money where their mouths were!

Filming continued today. Despite the rain, and the bar being dry, spirits were high and everyone is so full of hope for the future.  Hard work will ensue as the pub opens its doors at 10 a.m. tomorrow and the practical jobs are distributed and sorted out.  There are exciting plans in store for the peoples pub: including an indoor Ladies lavatory.  Lots of social events and possibly even its own   micro brewery are planned!  What an exciting and heartwarming story this truly is.  People are not only putting their money into their local, they are also putting their hearts, services and their time.  The letters that spell out its name may have been taken back, but nothing can stop the Star from going forward: it’s bright light shining onwards as it has done for the best part of  140 years!  Cheers!

The resurgence of this 1867 building is already starting.  If you can help in any way at all, please get in touch with Margaret;

STAR
E-mail Address(es):
  StarOnTheCliff@live.co.uk

Follow this story from the beginning;

The Auction

What Happened

Star Inn a Cliff Hanger

Locupletative Words, Speak for themselves!

I’m so excited!  I’ve adopted a word!  Yes a WORD, a real word!  This word wasn’t my first word choice.  I got diverted, wandered away and I couldn’t find it again.  However, I found another one.  The word, in case you haven’t already guessed is the adjective ‘Locupletative’ which means ‘tending to enrich’, and I’m hoping it will enrich my vocabulary.  Be warned, I shall be slipping it into posts wherever I can!

What a great idea it is to adopt a word.  The English language is losing lots of words, through disuse.  However, we can bring these words back into usage again in a number of ways.  Some of the recommended ways of resurrecting these words are to use them in texts (well some of them are a bit long for that), naming pets after them (lol!) walking around wearing a sandwich board (as if…) and including them in conversations, thereby making them part of every day language.

Some of the words are so beautiful  too…like ‘Adimpleate’, a verb which means ‘to fill up’ ‘would you be so kind as to adimpleate the vial with your urine sample’.  Or ‘Mariturient’ an adjective which  means ‘to marry’  ‘There is no need to  be desperately  mariturient just because you are eight months pregnant’

If you would like to adopt a word and save it from oblivion, the website is HERE

The above graphics are from THIS website

What I’m Reading Now, What I Should be Reading Now, and What I’m going to Read

Well it’s happened yet again.  I had every good intention  of reading,  a recently excavated book.  I was quite excited about finding it and very much looked forward to reading this forgotten treasure.   I started ‘Branwell Bronte’s Barbers Tale’ by Chris Firth, got into about the first 10 pages, which I must say I wasn’t really concentrating on, to be fair, when all of a sudden  –  this book appeared via husband, who thought it looked  just up my street…

‘Wedlock: How Georgian Britain’s Worst Husband Met his Match’ by Wendy Moore’ is the one I am reading at the moment. This one has taken me a bit to get into.  The research is amazing, but the attention to detail can sometimes be a bit distracting from the pace of the story.  The characters actually existed’: Mary Eleanor Bowes (of the Bowes Lyons family) and Irish soldier/fortune hunter Andrew Robinson Stoney.  The man is an absolute pig with a frighteningly split personality, cunning and  a real wife beater.  I don’t know quite what to make of Mary Eleanor yet.  For such an intelligent educated woman, she was  a poor judge of character (and this is her second bad choice).  However, her romantic streak, impractical and impetuous nature make her more  human, which is more than can be said for her husband.  I am nearly half way through this book  and shall review it  properly when I finish.

Another book which was bought me by my Hubby is called ‘London Belongs to Me’ (one of my categories which includes a few posts about a London trip we went on last December).  It’s by Norman Collins, set in 1938 about a lodging house in London.  Sounds very like Patrick Hamilton’s Slaves of Solitude’ which I reviewed HERE

Weird and Wacky Design: Cutting Edge Jewellery (Literally)

I couldn’t resist this cutting edge bracelet!  It’s so Uri Gellar isn’t it?  lots of fun to wear and a real talking piece, I bet. I am reminded of  a recycled part of a Victorian Chatelaine.

 

Another piece of Jewellery that I found on the website called ‘Eclectic Eccentricity Jewellery’ is this unusual skull brooch.  It is called ‘Pin all your Hopes’ (some hope when the end is..a skull)  It is hung from a vintage copper bow pin, so you are getting a touch of age there to add to the eccentricity.

The last piece is just too cute for words ! It’s called ‘Nuts about you’ and it’s a squirrel bracelet.  There’s a message in there somewhere (from tiny acorns…. or don’t put your nuts in one basket? lol!)   The prices are good to on this website too.  

HERE’S  the link to the website where weird and wonderful jewellery abounds!

More weird and wacky jewellery HERE (Clown Jewels or Treasure Trove?)

Book Graveyard: They are not Dead, They are only Sleeping

Free books!  In February this years people filled their socks  and anything else they had on them with second-hand books from an Amazon abandoned warehouse!  Read the story HERE

Books, books, books!  I have books piled up all over the place.  I have too many books.  I’ve sold some, given  some away, but still I have mountains of books.  I have bookshelves.  But those are filled, so books are crammed into the gaps!  Up in the loft space, I have shelves of books and books stacked up on top of each other.  I once tried to create some kind of order, even catalogue them…but I gave up in the end.  Much as I love books, I couldn’t help admire some of these ideas of about what to do with surplus books.

I am torn, on the one hand I do think it a bit sacrilegious to deface books, kind of Orwell’s 1984  (says I merrily tearing, painting and snipping away at my altered book…) but on the other hand, look how innovative the Alice in Wonderland one is!  I think that if you are going to deface a book with what looks suspiciously like Tenniel illustrations… remove them first and replace with a photocopy.  Still torn though….. and so is the book..

I rather like the book room though!  No defacing and practical, a cosy little den to read in, surrounded by books.  Of course you would have had to make sure you had already read all the building books: it just wouldn’t do to pull one out would it…

I think these framed 3D pieces are lovely.  It’s a good job they are  behind recessed glass. If not, they would collect a lot of dust.   They have collage elements, that remind me of Dada photomontage  artist Hannah Hoch 1889 -1978.  Read about this famous Dada artist and about her place in the Weimar Republic.  Read  a brief history of Photomontage HERE

HERE is the website these books came from, along with many other ideas about what to do with your books!  A rather good idea that I came up with is to actually read them!  Innovative eh!

Teapots: From Wild Goat to He Goat: From Dada to Goya

 This strange , organic teapot really captured my imagination . This Raku ceramic, called  ‘Wild Goat teapot – Homage to Paul Soldner’  is by Nina de Creeft Ward from The Beatrice Wood Centre for the Arts.  I don’t know who Paul Soldner is, I just hope he was pleased with the wild goat reference!  This teapot reminded me of a painting by Spanish artist and Printmaker Francisco de Goya’(1746 -1828).  The painting goes under several names;  ‘The Great He Goat’ or ‘The Coven,’ or ‘Witches Sabbath’ in 1820 -23.  The painting  shows a number of grotesque witches at their sabbath with Satan as the guest of honour.  Some of the faces of the witches are truely terrifying.  ‘The Witches Sabbath’ is one of a series of what is known as  Goya’s Black Paintings.  These paintings were done in later life  (1819 – 1823)  by a very depressed  Goya, after he had survived two near fatal illnesses.  They are dark and full of fear and show the artist’s anxiety.

The artist who the Arts Centre is named after (where the teapot came from) is Beatrice Wood and she was a very interesting character.  This American artist  and studio potter was born 1893 and died in 1998.  In later life she became known as the ‘Mama of Dada’ a movement 1916 – 1922.   I shall be writing about (eventually).  An interesting fact about her is that the character of Rose DeWitt Bukater in the 1997 film Titanic was partially based on her.

I have had a look at her biography, which is fascinating and I must write about (eventually) and have found out who Paul Soldner was.  He was an American ceramicist born in 1921 and his work is quite exciting!  See it on his website HERE