Category: History

Princess Freda

Yesterday Bertie and I walked up the towpath to Richmond for the first time in over three months. During lockdown there had been many too many cyclists, joggers and walkers to use the towpath safely but now it’s back to pre-virus normal and Bertie was off the lead most of the time.

The Empress of Ireland

You can judge this book by its cover; the cover is orange, the endpapers green. Brian Desmond Hurst was born a Protestant in Belfast but converted to Catholicism so an apt reflection of his life.

The Lawrensons

John and George Lawrenson are brothers. John was a General, Colonel of the 13th Hussars, who died in London in 1883 aged eighty-one.

A Visit to the Cemetery

Three words I shy away from are “pleasant”, “nice” and “intriguing”; so I reluctantly admit that I found this memorial intriguing.

Wimbledon Airfield

I saw this plaque today and, as usual, realised how much I don’t I know. The picture isn’t mine: it’s on the Ranger’s house but he was at home and I didn’t like to intrude. 

Trieste

The very name, Trieste, is redolent of sadness: I’m thinking of Françoise Sagan’s novel. I went for a Ryanair weekend in 2008 and, to avoid repetition, you can read about it in a post misleadingly titled Tahiti .

Stretchers

James Agate tells the story of a generous but punctilious host, one of whose guests arrived thirty minutes late for a luncheon party. Full of contrition she (of course) explained that she had stopped to buy a chandelier.

The Grosvenor

Yesterday’s post was fiction. Today’s sounds like fiction but is true. It starts in Pondolàndia – where? Is that what pretentious people call Poundland?

Osberto Parsley

It seems to me it’s unusual to have a surname that is a vegetable or herb. The Broccoli dynasty of Bond fame, of course, and the fictional Parsnip created by Evelyn Waugh to mock WH Auden in Put Out More Flags. So I’m pleased to add Parsley to my trug.