References for the novel Jutland Cottage, by Angela Thirkell.
‘Relusions’ for the Hamish Hamilton edition by Penny Aldred.
Chapter 1
7 Table of affinities – In the Book of Common Prayer, A Table of Kindred and Affinity wherein whosoever are related are forbidden by the Church of England to marry together.
It is all a fairy story and you must not believe a word of it even if it is true -A paraphrase of the last paragraph of The Water Babies, a Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby by Charles Kingsley, 1863. Also Enter Sir Robert page 75, Never Too Late page 268, Love At All Ages page 228.
8 Before the passing moment flies – This sounds like a quotation, but I can’t trace it.
To go back to the days before the Second World War – This section refers back to Wild Strawberries. The nice square pews to which the Rev. Caleb Oriel had taken such exception were gone: And at last it seemed probable to Mr Oriel’s nearest friends that he was in a fair way to be overcome. Not that he had begun to make love to Beatrice, or committed himself by the utterance of any opinion as to the propriety of clerical marriages; but he daily became looser about his peculiar tenets, raved less immoderately than heretofore as to the atrocity of the Greshamsbury church pews, and was observed to take some opportunities of conversing alone with Beatrice. Anthony Trollope’s Doctor Thorne (1860) Chapter 32. Thanks to RB for this.
9 Total vacancy of hoofs – Dickens’s Great Expectations, Chapter 15, where Joe Gargery says “and which I meantersay as even a set of shoes all four round might not be acceptable as a present, in a total wacancy of hoofs.”
Date of foundation of Eton College – 1440-41. But does this fit with what is said about Southbridge school in Summer Half and other earlier novels?
10 David Leslie had been a temporary flier – Did David ever ackcherly fly? This is doubtful. He was a flight lieutenant in Peace Breaks Out, but I see that they are sometimes in charge of ground flights which are administrative divisions of a squadron.
Harry Gill – Wordsworth, ‘The Ballad of Goody Blake and Harry Gill’: “What is’t that ails young Harry Gill? That evermore his teeth they chatter, … his teeth they chatter, chatter still!” Not one of Wordsworth’s best.
Central heating – here and elsewhere in the book one can sense Angela Thirkell’s growing sensitivity to the cold, a symptom of the aplastic anaemia from which she eventually died.
Among his own people – sounds vaguely Biblical. Also Never Too Late page 284.
11 ://www.networkrail.co.uk/communities/passengers/our-stations/london-liverpool-street/” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”> Street – The London railway terminus serving East Anglia.
12 Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time – The engraving, of a painting by Landseer, can be seen in the Prints Room at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The Angela Thirkell Society used it as their Christmas card a few years ago.
Miss Fanny Squeers – daughter of the evil schoolmaster in Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby. Also Love Among the Ruins page 369, What Did It Mean page 278.
Three Queens – Queen Mary, widow of George V and mother of George VI, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, widow of George VI, and Queen Elizabeth II, his daughter.
14 .. as dark or light-blue favours are pinned on the day of the Boat Race – The first annual Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge took place in 1829. Dark blue is Oxford, light blue is Cambridge.
15 Thrones and dominions – Bible: Colossians chapter 1 verse 16 “whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers.”
Queen Victoria’s accession – she succeeded to the throne in 1837, so this was certainly incorrect!
17 Umblebys – Mr Umbleby was the agent at Greshamsbury in Trollope’s Doctor Thorne.
18 The Master who does not leave His good and faithful servants strangers in a strange land – His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Bible: Matthew chapter 25 verse 21.
And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom – for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land. Bible: Exodus chapter 2 verse 2.
Latin tag about the gods liking odd numbers – Numero deus impare gaudet. (The god delights in odd numbers). Virgil, Eclogues, 8,75 (Thanks to RB for all three of these).
19 Dance the cachuca – From Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta The Gondoliers. See also Private Enterprise page **
Greshamsbury House – On the book’s endpaper map (by Maurice Weightman) it appears as Greshamsbury Hall, and no bend in the street is shown, though it shows up very well in the Tingay map.
Mary Thorne / Frank Gresham – see Trollope’s Doctor Thorne, and other Barsetshire novels. Also A Double Affair page 94, Love At All Ages page 138.
21 Mrs Gamp/parapet – “A little dull, but not so bad as might be,” Mrs Gamp remarked. “I’m glad to see a parapidge, in case of fire, and lots of roofs and chimley-pots to walk upon.” It will be seen from these remarks that Mrs Gamp was looking out of window. (Thanks to RB) see also Private Enterprise page74, Happy Returns page 45, What Did It Mean page 8, Enter Sir Robert page 58, page **,page 81. page 221, Never Too Late page 202, page 236, Close Quarters p.270, p.281, Love At All Ages page 30, page 85, page167.
Everything that was theirs – I think this is a reference to something in the Prayer Book, but can only find Psalm 150 – Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
22 Sycorax – far from being a saint, Sycorax was a witch, mother of Caliban in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. See also Private Enterprise page **
23 Noiseless tenor of their way – Gray’s poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’. See also The Old Bank House page 226. Also see below page 84 [pleasing anxious beings]. Gray references in Happy Returns page 131 [chill penury]; Private Enterprise page 130 [Even in their ashes live their unwonted fires]; Love At All Ages page 90 [short and simple annals of the poor].
Already been welcomed – There’s something a bit odd here. Only a couple of pages back John Leslie says that he has only heard that day that the new Rector is appointed(at the club, where Mary had lunch with him), yet here he appears to have already arrived. However, at one of our regional meetings I was told that this meant he had been welcomed by God. I remain unconvinced!
Ebenezer chapel – A name often adopted by nonconformist chapels from the Hebrew word meaning “stone of help”.
24 West India sugar-broker in the Bab Ballads – ‘A Discontented Sugar Broker’, W S Gilbert, Bab Ballads. “He was extremely bulky….I’m nineteen stone or twenty”. He decided to dance all the way from Brompton to the City every day, but only got fatter and fatter. Bab Ballads references also page 273: Miss Bunting page 71, Enter Sir Robert page180, Love At All Ages pages 104-5.
Faithful below he did his duty, and now he’s gone aloft – from ‘Poor Tom Bowling, or the Sailor’s Epitaph’, by Charles Dibdin (1745-1814). Benjamin Britten’s arrangement of this is famous.
Ship after ship, the whole night long / the one and the fifty-three / God of battles – From ‘The Revenge, a Ballad of the Fleet’, by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
AA chaps – anti-aircraft gunners.
27 October 21 – Anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar: 1805.
Glorious First of June – 1 June 1794, when the Channel Fleet under Lord Howe gained a decisive victory over the French off Ushant.
Great Admiral – Horatio Nelson.
Queen of Sheba – Bible: I Kings chapter 10: ‘ And when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions…..It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of they wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it; and, behold, the half was not told me: they wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.’ Also Happy Returns page 155, Close Quarters page 288 (II Chronicles chapter 9 version).
Squinch – a small arch across an internal corner of a tower, used to support a superstructure such as a spire.
Tell a hawk from a hernshaw – from Hamlet. Sometimes “handsaw”, but a hernshaw is another word for a heron (still called a harnser in East Anglia).
29 Where are the kings of yesteryear? – “Mais où sont les neiges d’antan?” (But where are the snows of yesteryear?), François Villon, ‘Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis’ (Ballad of the Women of Yesteryear), 1461, refrain.
Negus – a title of the emperor of Abyssinia, but also a drink of hot spiced port, invented by Colonel Francis Negus, who died in 1732.
Be the other who he may – Is this a quotation?
To guide our steps at home into the way of peace – To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Bible, St Luke chapter 1 verse 79.
30 Kipling poem about all the great men who welcome Jane Austen – ‘Jane’ s Marriage’ by Rudyard Kipling.
Manifold sins and wickedness – from the General Confession in the Book of Common Prayer. Also Love At All Ages page 309.
31 Curious but fearless look of the savage – ?Quotation.
32 Muniment – A muniment (rare) is a means of defence. Muniments are the title deeds and other documentary evidence relating to the title to land. Rose means ‘monument’. She might know the word muniment in the context of the phrase ‘muniment room’. Many village parish churches have such a room above the south porch (eg Chipping Campden), where documents are kept. (Thanks to Andrew E for this.).
33 HRH was not unknown in the Senior Service – Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the new Queen’s husband, was a serving officer in the Royal Navy.
Greshams… Greshamsbury Park – see page 19. Its name seems to change rather often. AT clearly relied on her memory too much.
34 … rather in John Gilpin’s spirit –
“The morning came, the chaise was brought,
But yet was not allow’d
To drive up to the door, lest all
Should say that she was proud.”
William Cowper: ‘The Diverting History of John Gilpin’ (1782).
All my own invention – A favourite saying of the White Knight from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. Also High Rising page136.
Chapter 2
36 Four Royal Dukes – King George VI’s brothers: the Duke of Windsor (who was allowed into the country specially for the funeral) and Duke of Gloucester; his nephew, the Duke of Kent; and the Queen’s husband, the Duke of Edinburgh. His sister, Princess Mary, wife of the Earl of Harewood, was the Princess Royal. Three Queens, see page 13.
37 a kind of William Whiteley or Universal Provider – William Whiteley 1831-1907), the founder of the Whiteley department store. Whiteley, who gave himself the popular tag of the ‘Universal Provider’, was a pioneer of retailing and he claimed to supply ‘everything from a pin to an elephant’.
38 Emotion recollected in tranquillity – Definition of poetry from Wordsworth’s Preface to the Lyrical Ballads. See also County Chronicle page 13.
Room to deny myself – “Room to deny ourselves; a road/ To bring us, daily, nearer God”: from the hymn ‘New every morning is the love’, from The Christian Year.
Morning by John Keble -1792-1866 usually sung as a hymn (see later on the page). Also Bible: Lamentations chapter 3 verses 22-23.
39 Come rack come rope – Title of a book by Robert Hugh Benson (1871-1914) about the persecution of Catholics during the Reformation, It is a quotation from the martyr Edmund Campion, who was three times racked and admitted having betrayed some people under the torture but added “yet in this I greatly cherish and comfort myself that I never discovered any secrets there and that I will not come rack come rope”. (Thanks to Andrew E for this).
None than thou wilt ere be greater – Surely should read “will e’er be greater”.
40 The old order had changed, giving place to the new – “And slowly answer’d Arthur from the barge: /‘The old order changeth, yielding place to new,/And God fulfils himself in many ways,/Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.”
Alfred Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King (1842-1885), The Passing of Arthur, l. 407 (Thanks to RB).
appanage – land or other provision granted by a king for the support of a member of the royal family.
41 an Ancient Mariner eye –
“He holds him with his glittering eye –
The Wedding Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years’ child:
The Mariner hath his will.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798), part 1, line13. (Thanks to RB) Also page 211 and Happy Returns page 80, [ … look], Close Quarters page 140.
43 Two words of the Roman tongue – Benedictus, benedicat, no doubt.
Signora Vesey Neroni – From Trollope’s Barchester Towers.
47 No nonsense about her – Edith Jeude, in Angela Thirkell and Charles Dickens points out that this is said by Edmund Sparkler in Little Dorrit Also Miss Bunting page 196 [used unconsciously by Sam Adams], Love Among the Ruins page 159 [‘no biggodd nonsense about her’], A Double Affair page 98 [bigod…, wrongly ascribed by Angela Thirkell to ‘Fascination’ Fledgeby in Our Mutual Friend], page 218, Close Quarters page 9 [demned…],page 179 [bigod…].
50 The people that say they have no sins – Bible, First Epistle of John chapter 1 verse 8 ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’.
51 No more sea – Bible, Revelation chapter 21 verse 1: ‘And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away: and there was no more sea.’
swords being beaten into ploughshares – ‘And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks’: Bible. Isaiah chapter 2 verse 4 , Micah chapter 4 verse 3.
St John living on an island – St John retired or was exiled to the island of Patmos, see Bible, Revelations chapter 1 verse 9. Kipling poem, ‘The Last Chantey’.
53 England Expects – Nelson’s signal to the fleet before the Battle of Trafalgar ‘England expects that every man will do his duty’ (Southey: Life of Nelson).
St Paul – Prove all things, hold fast that which is good. Bible, First Epistle to the Thessalonians, chapter 1 verse 3. His views on women don’t go down very well nowadays, though in 1953 wearing of trousers (except for gardening and keeping goats) was still considered somewhat racy.
54 Parkinson-Greely – an Austin-Healey, no doubt. Any significance in Parkinson?
55 Bona Dea – Roman goddess of both virginity and fertility, worshipped in secret rites by the Vestal Virgins and a select group of Roman matrons.
55 the wheel has come full circle – ‘the wheel is come full circle’: Shakespeare, King Lear Act 5 scene 3.
56 Domina, non sum dignus – Feminine version of Domine, non sum dignus (Lord, I am not worthy).
Bampton lectures – Founded by the Reverend John Bampton, canon of Salisbury. He left an estate to the university of Oxford, to pay for eight divinity lectures on given subject, to be preached at Great St Mary’s, and printed afterwards. Still happens, also Bampton lectures in America.
57 seven or eight people – but later we read that the room could not have held more than twelve people at the most in comfort and was rapidly approximating to the Black Hole of Calcutta (notorious incident from the Indian Mutiny of 1756).
Monks and Friars of Rheims – “heedless of grammar, they all cried, ‘THAT’S HIM!’”; from ‘The Jackdaw of Rheims’, by R H Barham – incorporated into The Ingoldsby Legends.
60 Universal aunt – The home assistance service agency of this name was founded in 1921 by Miss Gertrude Maclean, after caring for numerous nephews and nieces during WWI. Also Summer Half page 181 [universal uncle].
61 Grow old along with me – …the best is yet to be. From ‘Rabbi ben Ezra’, Leigh Hunt. Also Private Enterprise page 87, Love At All Ages page 10. page 270.
62 Cheerfulness will break in – Oliver Edwards (1711-91), cited in Boswell’s Life of Johnson, “I have tried too in my time to be a philosopher; but, I don’t know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in.” Also used as title by Angela Thirkell (Cheerfulness Breaks In,1940).
63-64 He won’t get married to Miss Hampton, nor to Miss Bent neither too …Follies – My googling won’t take me further back than the 1930s, but the Follies she is talking about must be Edwardian, and this must be a well-known song of the time.
Chapter 3
66-67 A book, by some woman it was… about a woman who tried to find jobs… she needs a new bit of soap and has to wait till next week’s little bit of money comes in – Clearly a real publication, but we can’t trace it by the usual means. Can anyone help here?
68 Threepenny bits – brass 12-sided threepenny bits replaced silver ones from 1937; they were withdrawn in 1967.
72 Minimum – a misprint for Minimus who appears correctly a few lines previously!
74 Minor cigarettes – the advertising slogan of De Reszke cigarettes was “Mine’s a Minor”.
78 Stiffen the sinews – From Shakespeare’s Henry V’, the “Once more unto the breach dear friends” speech.
79 Porter Sidus – Sidus means star or constellation in Latin. Is this meant to be a joke about Port Said?
Camel and the needle’s eye – Bible, St Matthew chapter 19 verse 22: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.”
High hopes can faint on a cold hearthstone just as easily – “High hopes faint on a warm hearthstone”: Rudyard Kipling poem ‘The Winners’, published as ‘L’Envoi’ to The Story of the Gadsbys. Famous for the line “He travels fastest who travels alone,” Also Miss Bunting page 259, County Chronicle page 161.
Si vous croyez – Alfred de Musset, Le Chandelier (Thanks to RB for these two).
80 Lars Porsena – “Lars Porsena of Clusium/By the nine gods he swore/That the great house of Tarquin /Should suffer wrong no more.” Lays of Ancient Rome, ‘Horatius’, by Lord Macaulay. Though she is not quite accurate – it goes on to say: Before the gates of Sutrium/Is met the great array./A proud man was Lars Porsena/upon the trysting day. Also The Old Bank House page 358, County Chronicle page161.
82 Camargou/Dame de Mistigris – mistigris, despite its romantic sound, is the joker (or a blank card used as a wild card) in a pack. Scholars of Old French will no doubt be able to say if Camargou or ‘cuers m’eun paréiou miradéiou’ are a joke.
Egeria – The nymph who instructed Numa Pompilius, second king of Rome; thus a counsellor, adviser. See also County Chronicle page 323.
84 Pleasing, anxious beings –
“For who, to dumb Forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing anxious being e’er resign’d,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing ling’ring look behind?”
Thomas Gray: ‘Elegy in a Country Churchyard’ (Thanks to RB), Also Before Lunch page 56.
85 Calva Horrida – calva = scalp, horrida= bristly.
87 Italy and Her Invaders by a man called Hodgkin – Italy and Her Invaders, by Thomas Hodgkin, 1899. It is indeed in eight volumes.
88 Sir Andrew Aguecheek – “I was adored once”, from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night Act 2 scene 3.
…at a party in Rome made a bet – Posthumus, in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline,
89 Bertram – appears in Shakespeare’s All’ s Well That Ends Well.
Claudio – in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.
89 The man that gives a dinner-party with nothing to eat but some warm water – in Timon of Athens. Angela Thirkell wrote an article called “Shakespeare did not dine out” for Cornhill Magazine in 1928, (reprinted in the Society’s Journal no 18) in which some of this appears.
92 A bulging and a-biling – Brer Tarrypin says, “yer I come a-bulgin’…yer I come a-bilin’”: Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus, ‘Mr Rabbit finds his match at last’.
92 Beauty lived with kindness – From Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act 4 scene 2: the song, ‘Who is Sylvia?’ was set to music by Schubert, which is no doubt what Canon Fewling plays on page 93. Also on page 199. Also Peace Breaks Out page 250 [dwells], Close Quarters page 235 [lived], Love At All Ages page 54.
Chapter 4
96 Peri outside the door of Paradise – Thomas Moore’s ‘Lalla Rookh’. Set to music as an oratorio by Schumann. See also page 157.
97 Amos Barton – one of three tales in George Eliot’s Scenes of Clerical Life. Also High Rising page 46, Close Quarters page 275.
Ravenshoe – in this novel by Henry Kingsley Charles Ravenshoe takes service with a Lieutenant Hornby. Also August Folly page 85, The Old Bank House page 351, Happy Returns page 72; references. to Henry Kingsley also in County Chronicle page 203, Love At All Ages page 270.
98 Old Bill in the gunroom – a double link with ‘Old Bill in the dugout’, a cartoon character from WWI and Grouses in the Gunroom (see page 152). Also [varied with ‘Robinson’, ‘in the dugout’, ‘in the commonroom’] Private Enterprise page 290, page 313, Happy Returns page 64, page 106, Enter Sir Robert page 156.
98 as bad as those people in the Bible who have ears and hear not – Psalm 115 verse 5: “They [the heathen] have ears and hear not”. Also Bible, Jeremiah chapter 5 verse 2: “Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not”.
99 the great Christmas party in the first winter of the war – see Cheerfulness Breaks In.
100 Hake Codman – Andrew E suggests that this might be Rock Hudson (as in rock salmon!). His career was well established by 1952.
101 Gresham of the time was engaged to the heiress who brought Boxall Hill back into the family – Trollope’s Doctor Thorne.
104 Mr Murdstone – David Copperfield’s cruel stepfather. Also Before Lunch page 197, Enter Sir Robert page 246.
105 The readiness is all – Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 1. Also The Headmistress page 31, A Double Affair page 127, Love At All Ages page 190, [willingness], Happy Returns page16, What Did It Mean page 151, Enter Sir Robert page 25, Close Quarters page 23.
He was not for an age but for all time – or more correctly “He was not of an age, but for all time”. Ben Johnson poem ‘To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author, Mr William Shakespeare’. (Thanks to RB)
105 a burden as heavy as Christian’s had miraculously fallen from his shoulders – Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, the point at which Christian comes in sight of the cross.
107 Mrs Proudie and Mr Crawley – The bishop’s wife and the penniless clergyman referred to by Mrs Morland: Trollope’s Last Chronicle of Barset.
not that St Paul knew anything about it [marriage] – in his first epistle to the Corinthians we read “Better than to marry than to burn” (chapter 7 verse 9).
109 Rose and the ocarina – in Summer Half.
Mary and the Bach song ‘Bist du bei mir’ – in Wild Strawberries.
111 the Rector’s stout form and unromantic appearance might have immortal longings in them – Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act 5 scene 2: “Give me my robe, put on my crown – I have immortal longings in me”.
113 John Gilpin, Caldecott – Illustrated version of Cowper’s poem by Randolph Caldecott, 1846-86, artist and illustrator of children’s books. Continues on p.114. Also Close Quarters p. 23, Three Score and Ten p. 87.
115 Dance music from Hamburg – was there such a radio station, or is this a parody of Radio Luxemburg?
Chapter 5
117 Naval pensions – why was Angela Thirkell so interested in this subject and in the Royal Navy in general? Nobody in her family was in the Navy as far as I am aware, though several were in the Army.
119 Aggs, Mr Baggs, Mr Caggs – Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, chapter 8. Rose continues the subject on page 120. Also Miss Bunting page11, Love At All Ages page 217.
120 The burglar that murders a girl and has a faithful dog. There’s a wonderful child actor in it – this is Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist: Rose, who always thought ‘Shakespeare’ was a film, had obviously seen the film made in 1948 starring John Howard Davies as Oliver. He went on to have a distinguished career in television, producing a number of the best-known series including ‘Monty Python’.
Dickens Fellowship – Certainly not the Dickens Society! Also Love At All Ages page 202, and the ATS publication of Margaret Bird’s Letters.
121 Lalage – Horace, Book l, Ode 22. “Dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo, dulce loquentem.”: I will love my sweetly laughing, gently prattling Lalage…
Helen Fanshawe’s husband Charles is an Oxford don (August Folly) – Derives from Latin dominus = master, as does the Spanish title with which Rose is getting it confused.
125 ewe lamb – Bible: 2 Samuel chapter 12 verse 3 (Thanks to RB).
126 Betsy [more correctly Betsey!]Trotwood sitting down on the garden path – Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter 13. Also [garden path and Mr Dick references] The Headmistress page 43, Love Among the Ruins page 341, County Chronicle page 8, page 128, Never Too Late page 11, page 266, A Double Affair page 58, page 71, page 274, Love At All Ages page 178. (And King Charles’s head, What Did It Mean page 182).
127 elegant bridge rebuilt by a pupil of Rennie – John Rennie the Elder (1761-1821), designer of London Bridge.
128 Erda in The Ring – the earth-goddess in Wagner’s Ring cycle of operas. Erda rises from the earth to dispense advice and then gracefully sinks back into whatever abyss from whence she arose. [thanks to Cynthia Snowden, Going to Barsetshire].
129 drummed with her heels in the attic – The second verse of ‘There was a little girl/who had a little curl’: “One day she went upstairs/When her parents, unawares/In the kitchen were occupied with meals./And she stood upon her head/In her little truckle bed/And then began hurraying with her heels./Her mother heard the noise/And she thought it was the boys/A-playing at a combat in the attic/But when she climbed the stair/And found Jemima there/She took and she did spank her most emphatic.”
I am astounded to find that this is by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I have also found a slightly different version purporting to be a nursery rhyme in the Puffin book of nursery rhymes.
131 I had to buy China for myself – Presumably the servants nearly left because she was using the rations for China tea instead of Indian? Mrs Villars’s war experiences are found in Northbridge Rectory.
132 darken counsel – Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Bible: Job chapter 38 verse 2. (Thanks to RB).
Lady Cora – the correct way to speak to/of her because she is the daughter of a Duke (the same applies to the daughter of an Earl), even though she is married to Cecil Waring. But Sir Harry Waring’s wife Harriet, the wife of the previous baronet, was just Lady Waring. An English eccentricity that people get wrong nearly all the time!
134 Ultramontane – Referring to the doctrine of papal supremacy. Mr Horton’s aunt is accusing Canon Fewling of having Roman Catholic leanings (he is High Church and they were Low).
135 all things to all men – “To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some”: Bible, St Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 22. (Thanks to RB) Also “Like Caesar’s wife, all things to all men”, Anon, comment on impartiality by W. G Russell Collections and Recollections (1898). Also Love At All Ages page 132.
138 Just this side idolatry – “I loved the man, and do honour his memory on this side idolatry as much as any” ‘On Shakespeare’, by Ben Johnson.
The wicked flea – Bible, Proverbs chapter 28 verse 1: “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.”
140 General Oglethorpe – The quotation is from Pope’s ‘Imitations of Horace’, 2, 2, line 276. “One driven by strong benevolence of soul/Shall fly, like Oglethorpe, from pole to pole.” General Oglethorpe (died 1785) earned commemoration in Pope’s gallery of worthies by his Jacobite politics. He was, however, a remarkable man. He first directed attention to the abuses of the London jails. He was a friend of Dr Johnson and of Oliver Goldsmith. Also Private Enterprise page 50 [universal], Close Quarters page 124.
The Man with a Load of Mischief – A play by Ashley Dukes, 1925 (afterwards made into a musical in the 1960s).
141 New peers to swamp the House of Lords – After the House of Lords rejected Lloyd George’s 1909 finance bill there was deadlock. Asquith and Lloyd George threatened to create 250 new Liberal peers to force the bill through. In the end the bill was passed, and the Parliament Act of 1911 was enacted to cut back the power of the Lords.
Angela ruled the nursery – Is this an autobiographical reference?
143 When you were a child … you spake as a child and very backward you were – “When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Bible: 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 11.
If I want to learn anything to ask my husbands at home, like St Paul –
“And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.” Bible: 1 Corinthians chapter14 verse 35 (Thanks to RB).
145 Fairdooze – fair do’s, an expression appealing for, or agreeing to, fair play, strict honesty, etc.
149 Mr Wemmick and Miss Skiffins – Dickens’s Great Expectations, Chapter 37. Also Close Quarters page 215, High Rising page 95, Love Among The Ruins page 340.
Admiral Mahan – Rear Admiral Mahan (1840-1914) served with the union’s blockading squadrons during the Civil War and is indeed well known for his book Influence of Sea Power on History.
Chapter 6
151 Moved round in earth’s diurnal course – “Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course/With rocks, and stones, and trees.” William Wordsworth poem ‘A Slumber did My Spirit Seal’. Also The Old Bank House page 293 [whirled], Three Score and Ten page 25.
152 Grouses in the Gunroom – Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer, Act 2, has the following: “Your worship must not tell the story of Old Grouse in the gun-room. I can’t help laughing at that … We have laughed at that these twenty years.” But Angela Thirkell says this is an old navy witticism. Why? Also above page 98.
156 Simony – The practice of selling spiritual or Church benefits such as pardons, relics, etc, or preferments.
Scawfell – the pronunciation of the word usually spelt Scafell. The highest peak in England.
157 a measured mile in the avenue … with Helen Fanshawe – Also page 98. The Dukes Daughter?
Noctes coenaque motorum – this is a mix-up between two pieces of poetry – (a) Horace ‘Satires’ 2,6,65: O noctes cenaeque deum (coena is a mis-spelling quite often found in 17th –19th century Latin). The poem is a nostalgic evocation of life in the country as seen from the city – “What heavenly evenings, what heavenly dinners!”
(b) A comic exercise in reciting the cases of a spoof 3rd declension adjective with a spoof 2nd declension noun, by Arthur Godley, an Oxford don (Magdalen, I think):
“What is this that roareth thus? /Can it be a Motor Bus?/Yes, the smell and hideous hum/ Indicat Motorem Bum! /Implet in the Corn and High/Terror me Motoris Bi./ Bo Motori clamitabo/ ne Motore caedar a Bo./Dative be or Ablative/So thou only let us live./Whither shall thy victims flee?/Spare us, spare us, Motor Be!/Thus I sang, and still at me/ Came in hordes Motores Bi/ Et complebat omne forum/Copia Motorum Borum./ How shall wretches live like us/ Cincti Bis Motoribus?/Domine, defende nos/ Contra hos Motores Bos!”
158 the post office comes rushing round with the letter to collect the excess postage – How times have changed!
159 Wet towel round the head – Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Chapter 5 and Chapter 11 [“It had taken a deal of extra wet-towelling to pull him through the night”]. Also Summer Half pages155-6, Pomfret Towers page 38, The Headmistress page 294, What Did It Mean page 246, Close Quarters page 71.
159 A-hollering and a-bellering – Possibly Brer Rabbit again, but also: “What are you a hollering and a bellaring for here young man?” says the landlady of the Bear Inn in William Makepeace Thackeray’s The Christmas Books.
161 who heard most things and forgot very little – This sounds like a quotation?
162 Mr Guppy and his mother – Dickens’s Bleak House. Mrs Guppy is extremely obstreperous.
when found make a note of – Captain Cuttle throughout Dickens’s Dombey and Son.
167 Cobalt-Herz-Reinigen – Princess Louisa Christina of Cobalt-Hatz (sometimes Herz)-Reinigen. appears also in Enter Sir Robert page 246, Love At All Ages page 137, Three Score and Ten page12, page 42, Before Lunch page 62. Cobalt= Coburg – HT suggests a play on Windsor and Winsor & Newton watercolours. Reinigen means “cleaning”, hertz means “heart”, hatz means “hounding”, or is it just supposed to be “hats”? Also Before Lunch page 62, Enter Sir Robert page 246, Love At All Ages page 137, Three Score and Ten page12, page 42.
168 elderly woman – How elderly? It can’t be all that long ago since Lady Cora was a little girl in the nursery and Bessie Bunce was presumably a young woman.
Chapter 7
173 St Aella’s Home for Stiff-necked Clergy – The only Aella in British history was a king in Northumbria who succeeded to the throne in 862 or 863.
Supererogation – the performance of work in excess of that required or expected (see also page 244).
178 Percy Hacker – appears in many of the novels from Summer Half onwards. Aulus Gellius (AD 123-165) was a grammarian, rhetorician, philosopher. Curiously one of his most famous (often quoted) sayings in translation contains the word “hack” – “Confound him too/Who in this place set up a sundial/To cut and hack my days so wretchedly/Into small portions.” (Thanks to Andrew E for this).
181 He was stingy and unpleasant in his life – “Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided”. Bible, II Samuel chapter 1 verse 23.
182 “Back to the Army again, Sergeant” – Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads.
184 Lady Glencora MacCluskie and Isabel Boncassen – Lady Glencora appears in several of Trollope’s novels; Isabel Boncassen in The Duke’s Children.
186 The Debateable Ground – a kind of no-man’s land between the Esk and Sark claimed by both England and Scotland. There is a book by Graham Robb 2018) entitled The Debatable Land: the lost world between Scotland and England.
190 …one of them has a wooden leg – The cows in Stella Gibbons’s Cold Comfort Farm had wooden legs, and Stella Gibbons and Angela Thirkell knew each other.
195 pretentious – Rose means “Protean” = readily taking on various shapes or forms.
199 Beauty that lived with kindness – see above page 92.
he gave most humble and hearty thanks – from the Book of Common Prayer: “We thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness…”
Chapter 8
203 Bust bodices – Not only in the earlier years of Angela Thirkell’s life were these described thus – they were an item on my school clothes list from 1948-1954.
Lawkamercy on me, this is none of I – A Mother Goose rhyme about an old woman who went to market and had her petticoats cut off by a pedlar – when she got home even her little dog didn’t recognise her. Also Miss Bunting page 63, Private Enterprise page 265, A Double Affair page 6.
207 Yonder is the moon – Wordsworth’s poem ‘Lucy Gray’: “The minster-clock has just struck two,/and yonder is the moon”. Also Happy Returns page 94.
With punctuality and despatch – “Crispin … has taken a shop, and ‘repairs ladies’ and gentlemen’s boots and shoes with punctuality and despatch”. From Charles Dickens’s All the Year Round: a Weekly Journal 1869.
208 camping on Parsley Island – See Summer Half.
209 SSFA – Surely it is SSAFA (Soldiers’, Sailors’ and Airmens’ Families’ Association), but the Air Force wouldn’t have had the social cachet of the Navy or even the Army in Angela Thirkell’s eyes!
210 a shadow of a shade – “For that, you may consult my title-page/Replied this mighty shadow of a shade”: Byron, ‘The Vision of Judgement’, though this expression has been used by many others and may go back to ancient Greek. Also Enter Sir Robert page 153.
210 Tailor of Gloucester – Children’s book by Beatrix Potter.
211 Ancient Mariner – Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. See note on page 42 above.
211 her golden crown, her sparkling dress and her glass slippers – see page 231 below for another Cinderella reference.
215 The Lancers – a dance, brought over to England from France in 1850.
216 Jackets must be humoured, not drove – from Charles Dickens’s Martin Chuzzlewit chapter 39 where the butcher gives a beefsteak to Tom Pinch with the words “Meat …must be humoured, not drove.”
Mutta Kundra – This must be some sort of joke name, but what does it signify?
221 Neither short nor very simple annals – Gray’s ‘Elegy’ again, see page 23 above.
221-2 Jerseys and pearls and SENSIBLE shoes – the emphasis suggests a real song from one of the many popular revues of the late 1940s and early 1950s, but which?
223 ploughed and sowed and reaped and mowed – This is what the harvesters used to shout when they had carried in their last load, as described in the reminiscences of Bob Copper, the folk singer – with a description of the ceremony which took place in Rottingdean! “We plough and sow and reap and mow” is a line from the song ‘Sussex by the Sea’, written in 1907 by W Ward-Higgs, but the use of it in Rottingdean must date from long before that.
Neither very short nor very simple annals of the county -“The short and simple annals of the poor” from Gray’s ‘Elegy written in a Country Churchyard’.
Food of Love – “If music be the food of love, play on…”: Shakespeare, Twelfth Night Act 1, scene 1.
229 Othello’s occupation’s gone – Shakespeare’s Othello, Act 3, scene 3. Also Summer Half pages 23-25 [Penguin ed.], Growing Up pages 104-5.
231 A douce man – But the Provost, douce man, says “Just e’en let him be,/for the toon is well rid of that de’il o’ Dundee”. Traditional Scottish song ‘Bonnie Dundee’.
232 The garden of the sluggard – “I pass’d by his garden, and saw the wild brier,/ The thorn and the thistle grown broader and higher.” Isaac Watts, Moral Songs, i. The Sluggard (parodied by Lewis Carroll in Alice’ s Adventures in Wonderland as ‘Tis the Voice of the Lobster’. (Thanks to RB).
233 Hervé Riel – A humble Breton sailor who saved the French fleet at the Battle of la Hogue and when asked to choose his reward said he would like a holiday to go home and see his wife. Robert Browning poem ‘Hervé Riel’.
234 bornée – limited.
Chapter 9
235 Euclid – Greek mathematician whose treatise on geometry influenced Western mathematics for more than 2000 years. Also Close Quarters page 7, Love At All Ages page 110.
236 Her heart it is another’s – The ballad of Alice Gray, words by William Mee. Lewis Carroll parodied it in “I gave her one, they gave him two”, the poem about the jam tarts in the courtroom scene of Alice in Wonderland.
leastways I meantersay… lost books of Livy – from Dickens’s Great Expectations chapter 27 where Joe Gargery visits Pip.
Si vous croyez … – (If you believe what I am going to say, whom I dare to love): Alfred de Musset, La Chanson de Fortunio, 1835. Thanks to RB for this.
237 Regency Buckish – Georgette Heyer’s historical novel Regency Buck was published in 1935.
Beggarly usher – commonly-used expression, originally from Dr Johnson. Also page 242, Summer Half page 48 [Penguin ed.], Private Enterprise page 53, County Chronicle page 273, Happy Returns page149.
239 Sisyphus – from Greek legend. His punishment in the world of the Shades was to roll a stone up a hill to the top whence it always rolled down again – hence a never-ending task. Also Love At All Ages page133.
Holocaust – presumably Lady Lufton means a hypocaust.
240 we do follow the gleam – Tennyson poem ‘Merlin and the Gleam’:”After it, follow it,/Follow the Gleam”. Also Summer Half page169 [Penguin ed].
Out of these three Deans there comes not a fourth Dean but a classical scholar – “And I know not if, save in this, such gift be allowed to man,/That out of three sounds he frame, not a fourth sound, but a star.” Robert Browning poem ‘Abt Vogler’, vii. Thanks to RB for this.
241 That is an auld sang now – The Earl of Seafield called the cessation of Scotland’s independence as a nation with the 1707 union with England “the end of an auld sang”, but this may be an indirect quotation from someone like Sir Walter Scott.
She has the root of the matter in her – “The root of the matter is found in me”: Bible, Job, chapter 19 verse 28. Also Before Lunch page 51, Private Enterprise page182, page 221, page 338, Love Among The Ruins page 112, page 135, page 221, The Old Bank House page14, page 135, page 302, Love At All Ages page132.
Argle-bargle-ing – a wrangling argument or verbal dispute, also argy-bargy, from Scottish.
Echo du temps passé – Echo of bygone days. Probably a reference to a collection of songs of this title by Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin (1821-1910), mainly for voice and piano, so possibly sung by James Campbell McInnes.
242 The Ship that Found Herself – Short story by Rudyard Kipling, 1895.
beggarly ushers – as above, page 237.
Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus – In the Last Hour, From the Rhythm of the Celestial Country, by Bernard of Morlaix, written about 1145. It forms the basis of several well- known hymns, such as ‘The World is Very Evil’ and ‘Jerusalem the Golden’.
244 The Fourteenth Article – The Thirty-nine Articles are the defining statements of Anglican doctrine. The fourteenth deals with works of supererogation – “Voluntary Works besides, over and above, God’s Commandments, which they call Works of Supererogation, cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety, for by them men do declare, that they do not only render unto God as much as they are bound to do, but that they do more for his sake, than of bounded duty is required….”
245 Trepanned into matrimony – This phrase occurs in Chapter 7 of Stories of Waterloo and Other Tales, by William Hamilton Maxwell, 1829, and something like it in Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders. The use of the word trepan as a verb to denote trickery dates from the 17th century, though I had only come across it before as an operation to drill a hole into the skull.
249 “Oh, Miss Shepherd” – Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter 18. Also Private Enterprise page 176 [Julia Mills], page 202 [mother], Love At All Ages [Dora] ** Three Score And Ten page 44 [Littimer].
Goodbye, goodbye – Probably “Goodbye”, by Tosti.
250 Kamerad – The same word as comrade, but used by the Germans in World War I to mean “I surrender”. Also on page 276. Also County Chronicle page 63, page 86, page 207, Love At All Ages page 52, page 239, page 241.
Struldbrugs – From Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, inhabitants of Luggnagg, who were immortal without having eternal vigour, strength and intellect. Also Private Enterprise page 282.
Fushionless – pithless, sapless, without taste. (used by Robbie Burns).
Chapter 10
258 Goddess made manifest by her step – “Dixit, et avertens rosea cervice refulsit, Ambrosiaeque comae divinum vertice odorem Spiravere, pedes vestis defluxit ad imos, Et vera incessu patuit dea.” (She said no more and as she turned away there was a bright glimpse of the rosy glow of her neck, and from her ambrosial head of hair a heavenly fragrance wafted; her dress flowed down right to her feet, and in her walk it showed, she was in truth a goddess.) Virgil: Aeneid, i.402 [Thanks to RB for this] Also High Rising page 307 [walk], What Did It Mean? page 111. Also used by Dorothy L Sayers in Gaudy Night with the misquotation ‘vera incessu patuit dean’ about the Dean of Shrewsbury College.
259 Play Old Harry – phrase which may have originated with the confiscation of church property during the reign of Henry VIII or else refers to the devil (like Old Nick).
261 Monstrous Regiment of Women, John Knox – The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment [ie rule] of Women, directed against Mary Tudor by John Knox, the Scottish Protestant reformer, 1558. Also Summer Half page 53 [Penguin], [boys], Before Lunch page173, [Lady B], The Old Bank House page 355, Happy Returns page 19, Close Quarters page118, page 224, Love At All Ages page 70.
Man Friday … Oh – “Oh, joy!” says he; “Oh, glad! There see my country, there my nation” I observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in his face, and his eyes sparkled, and his countenance discovered a strange eagerness, as if he had a mind to be in his own country again.’ Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, (1719), ch.15 Friday’s Education. (Thanks to RB) Also Peace Breaks Out page106, Enter Sir Robert page 50, page 217, Close Quarters page 175, page 259, Love At All Ages page 56.
263 curling like the tendrils of the vine – this phrase is used by Dryden, Byron, possibly Milton, and others. Sometimes silvered, sometimes wildly wreathing, nearly always Selina. Also Growing Up page 217, page 263, Love Among the Ruins page 251, What Did It Mean page153, page 208, page 298, A Double Affair page 168.
263 The owl was the baker’s daughter – Hamlet, Act 4 scene 5.
264 the desire not of a moth for a star –
“I can give not what men call love: But wilt thou accept not
Percy Bysshe Shelley: To _ (1824).
The worship the heart lifts above And the heavens reject not,
The desire of the moth for the star, Of the night for the morrow,
The devotion to something afar From the sphere of our sorrow?”
264 Winterreise… Ruckblick – Franz Schubert ‘Winterreise’ [Wanderers], a cycle of 24 songs of which Ruckblick [Looking Back] is number 8.
265 bunte List, Die hinter Eis und Nacht und Graus, Ihm weist ein helles warmes Haus. – “Ah! One that is wretched as I/Yields himself gladly to such cunning,/ That portrays, beyond ice, night, and horror,/A bright warm house. Other Schubert references in High Rising pages 229-30, Close Quarters page116, Love At All Ages page 306.
the falcon was tamed at last – in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, Act 4 scene 1 Petruchio speaks of taming Kate like a falcon. Metaphor usually used of Lady Emily Leslie’s “bright falcon eyes”, but this is Clarissa.
Conspuez her – Down with her!
Femme tyran = tyrant woman. But is this a quotation?
266 A motley to the view – Shakespeare, Sonnet 110. “Alas, ‘tis true/I have gone here and there/and made myself a motley to the view.” Also High Rising page 52 [Penguin ed], Marling Hall page114, Peace Breaks Out page 81, What Did It Mean page 100, Love At All Ages page166.
George Richmond – 1809-1896, English painter, particularly of portraits. Also Happy Returns page 287, A Double Affair page136.
267 Holman’s Phospho-Manuro, Corbett’s Bono-Vitasang, Washington’s Vimphos – why these names in particular?
268 the Great San Philip – ‘The Ballad of the Revenge’, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: “The Great San Philip/hung above us like a cloud.” Also Pomfret Towers page17, Miss Bunting page 264, The Old Bank House page 294, A Double Affair page 206.
269 Little liar – “For every time she shouted Fire/They only answered Little liar”. ‘Matilda (who told lies, and was burned to death)’, from Cautionary Tales by Hilaire Belloc. Also page 276. Also Love Among the Ruins page 77, The Old Bank House page 31, Never Too Late page 75.
273 Benbow, “When his legs were shot away, He fought upon his stumps” – Not entirely accurate. Admiral John Benbow’s right leg was shot to pieces and although he survived a mutiny he died of his wounds in Jamaica 1702. But in Richard Sheale’s ‘Ballad of Chevy Chase’:
“For Witherington needs must I wail,
As one in doleful dumps;
When his legs were smitten off,
He fought upon his stumps.” (Thanks to RB for this)
No Name – This is the title of a book by Wilkie Collins, not Trollope. Thackeray’s Vanity Fair is subtitled A Novel without a Hero. I can’t trace any connection with Trollope.
275 Not for babes or sucklings – Bible, Psalm 8 verse 2, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings”, also St Matthew chapter 21 verse 16. Also Love Among The Ruins page 250, The Old Bank House page 271, Close Quarters page 49, Three Score And Ten page 30.
276 Hobbs and Bungay – Which publishers are suggested here? Possible is Sidgwick & Jackson (Hobbs and Sidgwick were both cricketers). Bungay is well-known for its printing works.
Kamerad – see page 250 above.
277 By-passing Barchester – If you look on the map you will see that it is indeed a curiously roundabout way.
283 Silent Noon -Title of a sonnet by Dante Gabriel Rossetti outlined against a background of pure gold: “If one could have that little head of hers/Painted upon a background of pure gold/Such as the Tuscan’s art prefers.” Robert Browning, ‘A Face’.
This close-companioned inarticulate hour – A line from ‘Silent Noon’. Also The Old Bank House page 222.
285 ten years of years – “Albeit, to them she left, her day/Had counted as ten years.” (To one, it is ten years of years.) Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ‘The Blessed Damozel’ (1850), line 17.
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