W S Foster and Henry Maxwell Slippers

Shoemaker Peal & Co (1565-1965) were especially famed for their slippers. The head lastmaker at W S Foster and Henry Maxwell is Terry Moore, who was apprenticed at Peal & Co. Here are some examples of the slippers that these firms are still turning out. Photograph by courtesy of Wolf Media.

Down Tools for Barefoot In The Park

Sky are re-showing one of my favourite films: the 1967 version of Barefoot in The Park "Sharma sharma" and "My teeth feel soft"; "I'd like to die in my own bed"; "I didn't say 'stuffed shirt' but you are very proper and dignified"; "You will stay here and fight to save our marriage"; "I can't make a fist" etc., etc.. If all depressives were simply prescribed this film, I am sure that the world would be a less gloomy place. Not only are Robert Redford and Jane Fonda superb but so too are Charles Boyer and Mildred Natwick. Now it's down tools here to watch this sharply observed, witty, wistful, whimsical and wonderful film!

Napoleon Surrenders and is sent Snuff

On this day 1815, Napoleon I surrendered to Captain Maitland onboard HMS Bellerophon (coincidentally mythical Bellerophon, riding Pegasus, slew the monster Chimera), and was taken, in great secrecy, to Plymouth. Of course, word broke out that 'Boney' was there and crowds of sightseers appeared in boats but were not allowed to approach. Ironically, Napoleon wished to be given political asylum in Britain and, although this was never a serious possibility, the British government took nearly a month to decide what to do with him. On 7th August, he was transferred to HMS Northumberland, which took him to St Helena. The records of Fribourg & Treyer, snuff chandlers (est 1720), at the top of Haymarket until around 1982, 'at the sign of the rasp and crown', show that, besides supplying George IV (from the time that he was Prince Regent) and Beau Brummell, they also sent their Robillard blend of coarse ('rappee') snuff to Napoleon in exile. He was reputed to have used this at the rate of seven pounds (in weight) a month.

A 'rasp', as mentioned in the old shop shingle, was a file for shaving tobacco plugs (called 'carottes') to procure the snuff powder. The shop is still there, a splendid architectural survival (although now a tourist shop). Thankfully, their snuff is still made, according to the original receipts, and still sold under the Fribourg & Treyer name, by Wilsons of Sharrow. (who also make their own great range).

Ruby stick pin

Good new rubies are very hard to find. But this is one from Burma: it is a good clean claret colour, nicely cut, has no visible internal flaws ('inclusions') and is around half a carat in weight; neatly set in 18 carat gold, it is easily my favourite pin. It is true that it has been heat-treated to improve the colour but most of them have.

Bastille Day in France. In England it is The Day of the Scarlet Pimpernel

Bastille Day marks the beginning of modern France. For her there were yet to come many changes of direction (revolution, restoration, followed by more revolution, wars, occupation, resistance and liberation). But on this special day for France, I always think that Englishmen should spare a thought for Sir Percy Blakeney and his League of The Scarlet Pimpernel. They were the creation of Baroness Orczy, and, under the heavy disguise of useless foppery, Sir Percy was, in fact, the template for every modern action hero, from Captain W E Johns' Biggles to Ian Fleming's James Bond and even of Marvel Comics' Spider Man. In her autobiography Links in The Chain of Life (Hutchinson, 1947), she tells us of his creation or, more accurately, his arrival.

After having been to see a newspaper editor in Fleet Street about the writing of a romantic story, she made her way homeward to Kensington, feeling slightly depressed:

"It was a dreary, foggy day in November - in fact a typical London day. My way lay by underground and presently I found myself on the platform of the Temple Station, waiting for my west-bound train......You came to me on that dreary, dismal afternoon in November, out of the London fog and fumes of the underground railway. You walked along the platform, looking about you through your quizz-glass. You had on your magnificent coat of many capes and billows of exquisite Mechlin lace showed at your throat and wrists. And I heard your voice, the voice that once called to nineteen English gentlemen to risk their lives at a word from you to save the weak and innocent from persecution and from death, and I heard your funny, inane laugh which, more than a hundred years ago was the clarion call to heroism and self-sacrifice."

Since I read that passage, Temple Underground has always seemed to me to be bathed in glamour and what boy's childhood is complete without reading The Scarlet Pimpernel and seeing Alexander Korda's 1934 film of the book, starring Leslie Howard; Merle Oberon and Raymond Massey?

"They seek him here, they seek him there,
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere:
Is he in Heaven, or is he in hell,
That demmed illusive Pimpernel?"

बुक इ Excerpt

Having been asked for a short excerpt from Book I, here are two pages (left click each twice to enlarge them).

Photographs of The Region of The Lakes

The 'lakes' are in fact gigantic, sea-fed lagoons, of which there are several along this stretch of coast. Here are a few more pictures, which I have been asked to put up here. Starting with the lowest and working up, the first is the town church, on a promontory in the ocean: Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Nazareth, dated 1603.
The next is the view of the sea infront of the house. The beach is unbroken between the rock where the church is (a mile to the east) and Ponta Negra (Black Head Point) over fifteen miles away to the west. The usual high tide mark is forty metres from the garden wall but there is often sea spray swept over the house and this corrodes everything that it touches. The waves here are good enough for the next beach along (Itauna), to host world surfing championships. The third picture is the view of the rooftops and mountains, from the top back verandah. The fourth picture is a view out over the lagoon and the mountains from the church.