'This delightful little book is a book written in the voice of a tortoise.
Timothy was born in Turkey, captured by a sailor and traveled in a sack in the hold of a ship from where he was sold to a vicar in Sussex. Forty years later he passed into the hands of Mr Gilbert White in Selborne, Hampshire.
Timothy chronicles his days, his thoughts and the work of his new owner. He includes quotations from Gilbert White's book, letters and journals, passing on his own wise observations on his owner and events in the village.(Using the language of rural Hampshire in the 18th century it contains a comprehensive glossary which is very useful.)
The Execution of Frederick Baker
You tender mothers pray give attention
To these few lines I will now relate;
From a dreary cell, now to you I'll mention
A wicked murderer now has met his fate.
This villain's name it is Frederick Baker
His trial is over and his time has come,
On the gallows high he has met his maker
To answer for that cruel deed he'd done.
cho: Prepare for death, wicked Frederick Baker,
For on the scaffold you will shortly die,
Your victim waits for you to meet your maker;
She dwells with angels and her God on high
On that Saturday little Fanny Adams
Near the hop-garden with her sis@er played,
With hearts so light, they were filled with gladness,
When that monster, Baker, towards them strayed;
In that heart of stone not a spark of pity
As he those halfpence to the children gave,
But now in gaol in Winchester city
He soon will die and fill a murderer's grave.
He told those children to go and leave him
With little Fanny at the garden gate.
He said, "Come with me," and she, believing
In his arms he lifted her as now I state.
"O do not take me, my mother wants me,
I must go home again please sir," she cried,
But on this earth she never saw them,
For in that hop-garden there, the poor girl died.
When the deed was done and that little darling
Her soul to God her Maker it had flown,
She could not return to her mother's bidding
He mutilated her, it is well known.
Her heart-broken parents in anguish weeping
For vengeance on her murderer cried,
Her mother wrings her hands in sorrow
O would for you, Dear Fanny, I had died.
The jury soon found this monster guilty,
The judge on him this awful sentence passed:
Saying, "Prepare yourself, for the cruel murder
You have committed, your die is cast.
And from your cell you will mount the scaffold,
And many thousands will you behold,
You will die the death of a cruel murderer,
And may the Lord have mercy on your soul!
What visions now must haunt his pillow
As in hls cell he does lie the while?
She calls to him, "O you wicked murderer
'Tis I your victim calls, that litile child!
The hangman comes; hark the bell is tolling
Your time has come, you cannot be saved,
He mounts the scaffold and the drop is falling
And Frederick Baker fills a murderer's grave.
Although Thelwell began painting his catoons of little girls on ponies before moving to Hampshire, the majority of this work was completed from his Hampshire home in Braishfield.
In the Independent's obituary of Thelwell, who died in 2004, it was said that;
There is no more detailed pictorial account of 50 years of change to the English countryside than the work of Norman Thelwell. In an era when other cartoonists were reducing their subject matter to shorthand squiggles, Thelwell fleshed his out with abundant realistic detail, and backgrounds you could walk into. His subject matter, whatever funny caper happened to be going on in the foreground, was always the countryside.
I first read of Thelwell's connections with Hampshire, and Braishfield in particular, in the book Braishfield Memories, a book produced as a result of a Local Heritage Initiative project (an excellent book which probably deserves an entry in its own right - see http://www.lhi.org.uk/projects_directory/projects_by_region/south_east/hampshire/braishfield_memories/index.html)
and now whenever I drive from Romsey to Winchester I sometime imagine plump little girls on plump little ponies populating the fields just beyond the main road.
]]>Virginia has since had a collection of poems, 'Ratified', published posthumously, and there's an annual poetry competition run by Chandlers Ford Writers held in her name.
I'd not been aware of her writing and in a short search online haven't been able to ascertain whether her work was directly inspired by Hampshire or set within the county - is any one able to shed any further light?
]]>John Heath-Stubbs was awarded the OBE. His long poem 'Artorius' earned him the Queen's Gold Medal.
Dr A J Risdon, a friend of the poet over a 30 year period, will be giving a talk at:
St Barbe Museum, Lymington at 6pm on Tuesday 24th November
entitled 'Uther's Son: Hampshire in the verse of John Heath-Stubbs'.
]]>Heywood Sumner (1853 - 1940) was a major figure in the Arts and Crafts movement in the 1880's and 90's, producing wallpaper and textile designs, stained glass and sgraffito decoration forchurches, as well as writing and illustrating books. In later life he became a keen field archaeologist and topographer.
During the early 1900's he bought some land in South Gorley, at the edge of the New Forest, and converted a tumbledown cottage into his ideal family home - Cuckoo Hill.
His book is illustrated throughout with exquisite, muted, watercolour images of the Forest and chronicles his life there, from buying the land and building the house to gossip about his neighbours and observations about nature and places. His love of the Forest shines through on every page. I suspect it is now out of print but it's well worth tracking down.
]]>Free from the distractions of London it was the perfect place to hone his writing skills and he lived there from 1904 - 14. He uses many Hampshire place names as character names in his novels but Emsworth itself actually features in disguise in his novel "Damsel in Distress". Emsworth House School features in "The Little Nugget".
For more information about his time in Emsworth I can recommend a visit to Emsworth Museum which has a charming display devoted to him
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I noticed the advert for this book in this Saturday's Telegraph (24/10/09) and have since found the Ebookmall website where an electronic copy can be purchased and downloaded.
According to the blurb 'Jane is enjoying an idyllic country childhood when the story begins. Untroubled by any formal education or adult supervision she fills her days with her animals, imaginary companions and the eccentric people who live or work on the farm. She observes her glamorous parent's parties with a critical eye, but they are not part of her life. At night she sleep walks. When war breaks out this peaceful existence is shattered by the arrival of a family of female cousins who move in for the duration. They bring with them a governess, and therefore discipline, timetables and regular meals. This enchanting book, sometimes sad, and sometimes hilarious, tells how she comes to terms with an invasion, which she sees as bad as any going on across the Channel. It is the story of a vanished world, which many older readers may recognise, and in which many younger ones would wish to live.'
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