“With peeling paintwork and overgrown courtyards, Calke Abbey, tells the story of the dramatic decline of a country house estate” says the National Trust. (The NT should read a catalogue of buildings in Ireland that have dramatically declined, as chronicled by Robert O’Byrne, The Irish Aesthete.)
Category: Family
The Sash
Yellow Menace
Two holders of the Victoria Cross are buried in Margravine Cemetery, see Local Hero and Another Local Hero. There are other war memorials including a column for staff at J Lyons killed in The Great War and a curved wall naming those those killed on the Home Front in WW II. The Lyons memorial was… Continue reading Yellow Menace
Tommy Jameson
In a recent post, On Appro, I referred to my grandmother’s brother, Tommy Jameson. My Bellew grandfather was listed in The Field magazine among the best 150 shots in an article celebrating 150 years of that magazine’s publication. He represented both England and Ireland shooting clay pigeons and was a fine sporting shot. However, his… Continue reading Tommy Jameson
A Tooth for a Solex
Two Birthdays
St. Borchill is a now obscure Irish saint. She must have been better known 250 years ago as the church at Dysart in Co Louth (above) bears her name. The church was built in 1766, early as anti-Catholic legislation had not yet started to be repealed. The site is carved out of a corner of… Continue reading Two Birthdays
In the Soup
Are you in the Picture?
Big Bang Theory
I enjoyed sounding the gong to announce meals at Barmeath in my childhood. Under my grandmother’s instruction my technique improved from loud bashing (think Top Cat summoning the gang) to a subtler, gradually increasing crescendo, beating around the edge of the gong, culminating in a final stroke, fortissimo, to the centre.