Roy’s observations

Late summer in my garden and the dahlias now take pride of place.

The red dahlia (bottom row on the left) has grown to a height of 12ft and the flower is nearly 10 inches across !

“To consume one oyster, Mr. Wilde” Lady Woking remarked in an icy tone, “might be considered an acceptable, if original, aberration of the customary ceremony of afternoon tea with petite cucumber sandwiches, but to consume six descends to a level of depravity unacceptable in polite society.” Mr. Wilde immediately pressed a seventh oyster to the florid lips of the pretty young man seated beside him.
“My dear Lady Woking, inspiration to a creative soul must have no bounds, no limitations from the petty nuances of irrational society.”
Lady Woking rose from the stiff and poised posture she habitually adopted while seated in inferior company, and walked towards the door.
“Come along, Bosie, my carriage is waiting.”

My attempt to copy the wonderful prose of Oscar Wilde was prompted by my recent acquisition of a 1,114 page volume of the complete works of Oscar Wilde. I am determined to read it all. Whilst works such as ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ and ‘The Happy Prince’ (of fond childhood memory) are both familiar and much loved, there are many glorious pages awaiting discovery. Some stories I knew by title alone, for example ‘The Canterville Ghost’ - a most creative account of a terrifying ghost that is confronted and put to shame and ultimately to rest by a family of disbelieving Americans.

The wealth of his ideas and the skill and elegance of their portrayal rank Wilde as a master of Victorian literature that is as enjoyable now as it was one hundred and twenty years ago.

By a tradition that goes back quite a few years, the Chairman of the Marlow Wine Society hosts a July garden party instead of chairing a normal monthly wine tasting evening. Now in my third year as Chairman, I chose ’sparkling wine other than Champagne’ as the party’s wine theme. The garden was looking splendid, miraculously the weather was fine, and a most enjoyable, alcoholic and well fed occasion was enjoyed by all.

I had obtained from many different sources 18 different sparkling wines, representing 10 different countries - England, Germany, Spain, Italy, New Zealand, France, South Africa, Chile, Australia and Portugal. From both a pleasing patriotic point of view, as well as its sheer excellence, the English wines were the best.

However, this is not surprising. England, despite its modest production, has taken the wine world by storm for its secondary bottle fermented sparklers (made in the same way as Champagne). The vineyards are mostly on the chalk hills of the English South Downs. They are the same geological formation that descends under the English Channel and pops up in Champagne. With a similar climate, and now first class wine making skills, English sparkling wine can do anything the French can do. Indeed Champagne vineyard owners are buying sites on the South Downs to grow their own!

Having been a life long admirer of gold and silver plate, and occasionally having the pleasure of drinking from such vessels in the City of London, and indeed photographing some wonderful examples in the collections of City Livery Companies, the inclusion of a heavily tarnished monteith amongst the lots in a recent auction sale attracted my attention. In due course, and for a remarkable modest bid, I became the proud owner.

However, the monteith had no hall marks or other marks what so ever - no date letter, no assay office stamp, no maker’s mark. Clearly it was not English. Many foreign pieces are unmarked. Was it silver - well, the typical sliver tarnish responded well to normal silver polish as my photographs show.

Last week, whilst browsing in a charity bookshop, I found and I purchased a book on Old English Plate, published in 1906. It had a section on monteiths. It seems that a Scottish gentlemen called Monteith invented the vessel for the preparation and enjoyment of alcoholic punch in 1683. It also served to cool wine glasses - some early versions had a removable rim with deep indentations which held the stem of the glass so the bowl could hang inside, presumably in iced water.  Google ‘Images’ has a few pictures of them.  The book illustration is similar in many respects to mine, including the large rings hanging from lions’ mouths. I have no illusions that mine dates from this time! Never the less, it looks splendid on the sideboard, even if a little ostentatious!

Elizabethan aristocrat Lady Hoby

of Bisham Abbey, just across the river Thames from Marlow, was determined that her son William should have a good education, an education taught by herself with merciless determination. In a classroom in the Abbey tower, poor little William, having spilled ink all over his work, and failed to make the necessary progress, was severely beaten by his mother till his wounds bled, was tied to his chair, and told he would only be released when he produced good quality work.
At that moment Lady Hoby was summoned to attend Queen Elizabeth’s court, and hurried off to Windsor, forgetting all about William.

Several days later when she returned, William was no where to be seen. Lady Hoby had assumed that the servants would have released William. The servants thought William had accompanied her mother to Windsor. William was found dead in the tower classroom, still tied to the chair.

Lady Hoby’s ghost, with blood still on her hands, has been seen many times at the Abbey, searching for poor William.

My recent day time visit to Bisham Abbey was not propitious for seeing ghosts.

So using my daytime photos and the creative facilities of Photoshop, I have revealed above the ghost of Lady Hoby looking into the tower window hoping to see poor William.

Soon the wallflowers will add even more colour.  Meanwhile the red tulips are amazing.