The team

• Ruth Harrison
• Helen
• Mary Rossall
• Janet
• Chrissy Ogilvie
• ChrisS
• Anne

Other teams

Riding High by Barbara Sneyd Find!

Janet (a fellow reading detective) and I have both read this lovely book set in Finsthwaite, a small village at the southern end of Windermere. It is a beautiful collection of paintings, sketches and letters by Barbara Sneyd who was born in 1882 into a wealthy family living in the local 'big house'. The collection has been put together and edited by Phyllida Barstow who in the introduction sets the scene and introduces the reader to the Sneyd family. It covers the years from 1896 to 1903 and encompasses the Boer War, the death of Queen Victoria, and for Barbara the start of what should have been an exciting career in art at the Slade School of Art.

Many of the entries are letters Barbara wrote to her close friend, Mabel, who lived at Bardsea Hall, a small village on the north side of Morecambe Bay, on the Furness penisula. The letters are full of amusing details of her day to day life including visits to the dentist: "the torture chamber...My mouth is so full of metal I can hardly swallow my food but try as I might I can see no difference in my appearance".

Barbara's world was privileged, she was the adored elder daughter of General Thomas Sneyd, there were governesses, grooms and maids. She rode, hunted and partied and describes her visits to Cartmel Races, Grange, Rusland and trips to London.

But the happy years Barbara spent in her early teens were to be short lived. The joys that came with her first love were destroyed when Harry was killed in the Boer War (an event we can only surmise second hand from an entry in her sister's diary). Was it this that led to Barbara's decline, resulting in her life of promise being stopped short, and her last fifty years being spent in a nursing home?

Janet writes (and I more than readily agree wih her): I have never seen a book such as this, it is a wonderful personal and social history, a delightful illustration of flowers and animals and an excellent record of life in the Lakes as experienced by very gifted young girl.  

13 September 2009 from Anne

All blog posts | RSS feed

Recent posts

• Reading Detectives film
• Thank you!
• Coffee and books at the Bluebell Bookshop
• Mary learns to blog!
• Lucky 13!
• Grange over Sands get reading

All blog posts

Help the team

Have you got something to contribute? You can contact us to report your clues and you can comment on our blog posts. It doesn't matter where in the world you are!

See posts tagged with