Canadian – Sussex – War Artists at Cuckmere Haven on the South Downs …

 

Canadians were stationed near here in both World Wars … we think of War but don't often relate to which one … sad, but true …

Cuckmere River running out to the
English Channel with its oxbow lakes

A blog post had sent me off to the Group of Seven landscape artists, who were prominent Canadian artists practising at the Algonquin School, Ontario (1920 – 1933) …

… a group I had heard about because Emily Carr, the Modernist and Post-Impressionist style artist lived on Vancouver Island - where I encountered her, was associated with the group.

Frederick Varley's 'The Gas Chamber at
Seaford' (1918)

I am getting to my point for the post! … for whatever reason I decided to read on about the Group of Seven, then came across a view I immediately recognised … but it was of the Cuckmere Valley, Sussex in 1918 … so now … I looked further.

Lord Beaverbrook (1879 - 1964), a Canadian-British newspaper publisher, had recommended, Frederick Varley, (1881 – 1969), as a World War One war artist … hence he was commissioned to Sussex.

Our iconic view from Seaford Head looking 
eastwards towards Eastbourne

Now – this coastline – the chalk downland above Eastbourne, where Beachy Head is to be found – is usually remembered for its film sets, as too tv background scenes, adverts … and a beauty spot for us all to visit …

c/o BBC March 2023

… it too today retains its dangers … a new crack has opened up – danger on the cliffs, danger below …

This iconic view has over time drawn professional and amateur artists to spend time here enjoying painting en plein air. Graham Greene and H.G. Wells both referred to walking in this area …

Eric Ravilious (c 1939)
Cuckmere Haven

So to tie this in … Eric Ravilious (1903 - 1942), a British painter, designer, book illustrator and wood-engraver, grew up in Sussex being particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs and love of the Seven Sisters' coastline and Downland …

He served as a war artist and was the first British artist to die on active service in WW II when the aircraft he was in was lost off Iceland.

I was surprised and interested to see Varley's art – 'The Gas Chamber at Seaford' – giving us an idea about the training for the mustard gas attacks that had started to be used in WW1 …

… and being able to jot down a few notes here covering the above aspects … and a few more links to be found below should they interest you …

Seven Sisters chalk coastline looking west

Obviously there's another war link today … we have Ukraine refugees here … 

East Sussex WW1 - gas chamber information ... 

Eastbourne College - Summerdown WW1 camp 

Frederick Varley (1881 - 1969)   

Self-portrait ... found at this interesting website:  Thematic Stamp Collection ... details of Varley's self-portrait on the 17c stamp issued 1981 - painting completed c 1945

Eric Ravilious - a film entitled 'Drawn to War' ... preview of film here ... 

I'm recovering from being off colour and fed up with things ... but all well - and I'll get to the English language posts shortly ... have two talks to give on Monday ... after that!

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

The Magic Steps of Life …

Another year older, a twelfth year of being ‘here’, and onto my 1005^th post … seems to be good for all things …

… January gloom was upon us yesterday, today there’s a little blue … better than the unenviable reputation of St Hilary’s Day, January 13^th being the coldest day of the year …

Age ... probably 4 or 5 ... playing
with lego

… and that I can confirm happening quite often in the past seven decades, or as my uncle would have said … your eighth my dear!!

Ellis Evans - his real name:
c 1910

While looking around for something slightly erudite to write … rather than Happy Birthday to me, and aren’t I clever: 11 full years and one day with 1005 posts since starting this journey …

… I came across a Welsh poet born on the same day in 1887 … who sadly died in WW1 … but I’ll leave you to read more.

The film released in 1992 -
I must try and find a copy

Hedd Wyn, his bardic name meaning ‘blessed peace’, worked on the family farm – where, as a shepherd, he composed his Welsh language poems, dominated by themes of nature and religion.

An Englyn appearing on a
gravestone, in Christ Church, Bala

At times he wrote in the traditional Welsh and Cornish short poem form ‘Englyn’ … using quantitative metres, involving the counting of syllables, and rigid patterns of rhyme and half rhyme …

 

A Canadian novelist, Robertson Davies, wrote this English-language englyn, which is more appropriate than the others shown:

The Old Journalist

He types his laboured column – weary drudge!

Senile, fudge and solemn;

Spare, editor, to condemn

These dry leaves of his autumn.

Bistrot Pierre ... should be good!
- newish restaurant and seems to be the in thing -
I had a society lunch there before Christmas
(150 of us!!)

So this old blogger, is walking to a lunch, with a couple of girlfriends, by the sea looking out over the white cliffs of Beachy Head and English Channel …

Happy Birthday to me and many more ahead for us all … thank you for being such a supportive community – it’s encouraging to be around …

'Hedd Wyn' … to you, your families, friends and the world …

Hedd Wyn - the poet ...

Englyn form 

Robertson Davies - one of Canada's most popular wordsmith ... per the information given ... 

Hedd Wyn - the film ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Snail-like ...

Well this was to be a brief update after the hiatus of November and time away (it got longish) … I’ve been trickling along at a snail’s pace … with ‘interruptions’ of a funeral to help arrange and …

Top half  of issue Nov 1982 - this is the Great Blizzard of 1891
(link below) sent to me in South Africa by my mother

… taking over the organisation of a monthly dinner for +/- sixty - seventy … but with us both having incompatible software – ne’er mind … next year we start afresh: or rather I do … and I think we’re almost there!

I’ve got used to having ‘meetings’ or get-togethers in buses, or for some reason charity shops … I’m donating or friends and I are just quickly looking for a missing item – that we might find which won’t cost us a fortune.  Free buses are a boon, for those without a car …

Escargots served in their shells

Snails came up via the Beeb … but then the muddled grey cells also came into play … I thought I’d spotted a snail article in that November 1982 Western Morning News Souvenir compilation –mostly photos …

Frogcatchers (1930s) ... on sale
out of a Sunlight soap box!

… but it was about frogcatchers in the 1930s in western Cornwall – they were, I hate to say it, used in medical research – which frankly after the Depression was a useful evil for those who were able to earn a few pennies to feed their families.

Back to the American snails – ne’er a story to be missed … one of those ‘believe it or not’ slithery tales … Taylor Knapp, a chef, who after spending time in Europe realised there was an opening to put fresh (cooked and rather than tinned) escargots on the menu …

Snail caviar!

… but he couldn’t bring in live products for reproductive purposes … however he found some little grey snails in California – which with regulatory approval could be bred.

These slow moving slippery critters had been around since the 1850s … they’d got past the US Customs Service, which had been in existence since 1789 and were happily breeding in California.  

George Washington, (and I have something to tell you about him too,) signed the Tariff Act of July 4, 1789 – appropriate date.

Escargots in a snail dish with herby bread

Taylor fund-raised, worked to set their living quarters up – a greenhouse – Alcatraz style – passing the USDA’s strictures and hey presto – fresh French escargots could be on the menu.

The farm is in Washington state … so heliculture is rife on both coasts … and Taylor is aiming to expand his sales beyond the saturated market of New York.

I don’t want to bedazzle you with a new word at the end of 2019 – but perhaps heliculture could be brought into posts in 2020?    

It is the science and occupation of growing snails for food.  (Blend of New Latin Helix, genus of spiral-shelled molluscs from Greek helix, and culture.)

Frogs various

I thought I’d found more information on frog-catching in Cornwall … but no – it was ‘the crowning event’, at a Rolls-Royce picnic in Canada, when live frog-catching in a pond of very rich in muddy clay was the last children’s game … after the sack race, three-legged race et al … their enthusiasm brought results: the frogs being released after the count.

  

Frog Larva about to metamorphose

What the Rolls Royces look like afterwards isn’t told … but relating back to that era – the maidservants, chauffeurs and retainers presumably would have had to deal with the mess … while the family carried on with their lives.

My life at my snail’s pace is comfortable – a few things get done – then an interlude while I deal with things … and so it goes – I am sorting my Ma’s and my own papers out – clearing the decks and am finding all sorts …

The bottom half of the Souvenir - this shows
coach and horses pulling out of
Okehampton,  West Devon

… but once done – then that’s it and makes life easier for me, or should something happen – then ‘things be sorted’ …  a number of things going to charity or appropriate friends/family … it takes time.

I have been out and about a bit … on a number of tours, to museums and to my goddaughter’s family near Milton Keynes – which proved a very interesting informative long weekend – where George Washington came in …

Now to think about the WEP/IWSG challenge about ‘Footprints’ … Christmas and the New Year … after which  more posts will be forthcoming …

Great Blizzard of 1891 (9 – 13 March) Wiki post … but see Weather Events listed in a table under the wiki entry … interesting!  I’m glad I was out of the country in the 1980s …

Snail Farming c/o the BBC … and more can be found on the Heliculture wiki page …

My wellie boot imprint in
Canadian snowfall

I also wandered off looking for escargot photos with fresh bread … but came across this Brit – who has opened a snail farm ineastern France – fascinating read! 

... interesting ideas for snail recipes too … sausages, smoked snails with goats’ cheese and fig, snails with Roquefort and walnut butter in a wafer case, “tikka masala snails” are all loved by the locals and expanding clientele …

Take care my footprints are on their way …

... and last but not least - of course I could have had frogs legs as an appetiser ... forgot that!

Hilary Melton-Butcher 

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Robert Service … “Bard of the North” …

Just sometimes in life we come across quite extraordinary people … whose lives we learn about … Robert Service (1874 – 1958) is one of those … he spent a few years in Cowichan Bay, Vancouver Island in his early twenties … after leaving Scotland for new horizons …

 

c 1905 - aged 31

We learn that this imaginative, day-dreaming child was already composing rhythmical verses at the age of 6 … appropriately a delightful child-like grace:

God bless the cakes and bless the jam;

Bless the cheese and the cold boiled ham:

Bless the scones Aunt Jeannie makes,

And saves us all from bellyaches. Amen

Plain boiled ham - this though
looks rather good

Wonderful lives people lead … this six year old had been sent to live with his grandfather, a general store postmaster, and three maiden aunts in Kilwinning, Scotland – there were ten children, so perhaps understandably some got ‘farmed out’ …

Highland Dancer swirling kilt
in the 21st C

… his mother, on her husband’s return from England, came to visit to find her son happily dressed in a kilt with nothing underneath … she took him back to Glasgow!

He was forever reading books, particularly poetry … Burns, Shakespeare, Browning … on leaving school early he apprenticed with the Bank of Scotland … where due to inactivity he developed his craft of writing and “selling verses” …

Driving down towards Cowichan Bay

… as you can imagine he got bored, wanted to travel and at 21 in 1895, journeyed to Vancouver Island, where the family had relatives;  he dreamt of becoming a Buffalo Bill type cowboy having read or seen the Wild West performances in England and Europe.

Corfield Farm - c/o Cowichan Bay Museum Archives

He explored up and down the west coast … just subsisting … returning to the Island he took a job as a cowhand/store-keeper/ also tutor to the farmer’s sons … once again experiencing life to the full … garnering stories …

… it was an idyllic time … later he thought it was time wasted … but to earn a bit more in 1903 he returned to bank work in the capital Victoria … while continuing to write verses …

Railway crossing the North Thomson
River, Kamloops

… very soon the bank sent him to Kamloops (a new railway transportation hub on the mainland) … from there he was sent to Whitehorse, Yukon – a prospectors stop-over on the way to Dawson City to test their luck in the Gold Rush ...  

Still working for the bank, but in a frontier town where entertainment was always needed … Robert continued to write his verses or doggerel … entertaining the wide range of characters chasing their fortune in the frozen ranges.

Sailing north to the Yukon

He was able to amass a collection of ballads, which he sent, to his father, now living in Toronto, asking him to have them printed up into a booklet, which he was going to give to friends in Whitehorse.  He had covered the costs with a cheque …

The booklet true to its title was a self-starter … the foreman and printer recited the ballads while they worked; a salesman read the proofs and sold 1700 copies in advance orders … the publisher sent Robert’s cheque back and offered him a ten percent royalty contract for the book.

 ‘Songs of a Sourdough’ (sourdough – as is the bread starter stored in distinctive pouches by the old miners; and/or as a term for an experienced miner) …

Paying with gold dust, Dawson City

Robert’s life was set – he found he fairly easily was able to draft his works … doggerel, ballads, novels, newspaper articles … making sure they would appeal to the ear and reflect to the eye … he had found his voice …

His cabin in Dawson City - it is still there,
but tourists can only walk round

Coarse rolls of lining paper were hung up … where he copied out his verses using charcoal … refining them, pacing and repeating … until the words flowed.

I could write lots more about this fascinating man – who started life as a boy with no knickers under his kilt, who could write verses without having visited Dawson City … he listened to the miners, parodied their tales …

Films were made,
verses quoted etc

He continued to live in the Yukon writing … but being able to travel went to see other parts of the world … WW1 commenced and he wanted to sign up – but due to varicose veins was rejected … he still wrote for newspapers … after the War he settled in Paris, married but moved to the USA west coast during WW2 …

They holidayed and lived in Brittany
 - which is where he is buried

They returned to France, with Robert living out his days as a wealthy gentleman, who at night transformed himself into a tramp, and together with his doorman, wandered the Parisian streets seeking inspiration …

A collection

That is Robert Service who loved the Yukon, honed his ‘voice’, wrote to entertain, whose words are forever embedded as wonderful ballads, doggerel stanzas, whimsical tales of the frozen north … the small child who could praise ‘cold boiled ham’ …

Some links: Wiki - Robert W Service

And the Times Colonist article: Island helped shape Robert Service

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

A barrow by any other name …

A Barrow on the Downs in Sussex, and to Barrow at the tip of northern Alaska … this at least takes me in the direction of Canada!

Panoramic view looking down over Alfriston village,
Cuckmere River is in the valley

 The community of Barrow, Alaska named after Sir John Barrow (1764 – 1848) who was a promoter of Arctic voyages, though appears not to have visited this part of the world, except early in his life he had been to Greenland …

Utqiagvik
(Barrow splodge in blue - sorry!)

The phenomenon ‘polar night’  which occurs when the winter sun disappears for about two months started to reappear to give Barrow some natural light …

Inupiat child from
about 1960

The community of Barrow in December 2016 officially restored the Inupiat’s native name Utqiagvik … which referred to the indigenous Inuit’s derivation ‘a place for gathering wild roots’.

Utqiagvik has been home to the Inupiat for more than 1,500 years – about the same time that the Anglo-Saxons settled Alfriston, on the Downs in East Sussex, in the 5^th century AD …

… sometime around 4,500 BC Neolithic (Stone Age) man roamed southern England, cleared the woodland and started farming …

Some of the South Downs Park notice at the
site of Long Burgh

Their funerary mounds are the oldest field monuments surviving visibly in the present landscape … Long Burgh has only relatively recently been cleared to be declared a National Monument within the new National South Downs Park …

… it overlooks the Cuckmere Valley and is 56 metres (184 feet) long, with a width of 20 metres (65 feet) … so as you can see is quite substantial.

 

Long Burgh - looking south west over
the Cuckmere Valley

Unfortunately the barrow over the centuries has been ransacked, with the finds being considered of little value – now however with our technology so much more could be ascertained from the bones, grave contents, surrounding soils and pits … but too late …

English (Welcome to Barrow) and
Inupiaq (Paglagivsigin
Utqiavigmun)

… while in Barrow, Alaska archaeological digs are going on, and as things come to light in England more archaeology is being discovered …

That is the Polar Night at Barrow and Long Burgh Barrow the ‘Ancient Guardian of Alfriston’ … so now I can skip over to concentrate on finishing my Canadian posts … before coming back to other subjects …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Just So … life goes on …

Another year … and I feel the same as I did that January day seven decades and one ago … well perhaps not – I guess I was a squawking new born …

A few more candles needed this year!

… my uncle came to see his younger brother and the family’s first born … then constantly reminded me through the decades – whether we were in Johannesburg, Cape Town, or here in Surrey/ Sussex – how mighty cold it was that year … thankfully 2019, so far, is giving us an easy ride – not like the European blizzards …

Today starts the 11th year .... 

 Another celebration happens with this post – I’ve been blogging ten whole years … amazing … I cannot believe that I’ve kept it up, settled into a ‘way of life’ …

… teaching myself so much, opening doors to other disciplines … and before another year goes by or I get too much older I must broaden my horizons further …

So for now – the Just So exhibition at Bateman’s in the two weeks after Christmas inspired the title … ‘Just So …’ as Kipling’s daughter demanded he repeated his stories exactly … just so …

That's a clear glass in the centre - looks slightly odd in the
photo - luxurious colours ... 

The National Trust had decorated the house in rich Indian colours … set out the various story lines for the children, and let us adults peruse many of his creative achievements (words and art particularly) – as too his father’s and other connections …

How the rhinoceros got his skin -
Kipling woodcut - December 1901

We are lucky to have these great story tellers to tell us about life of the past, in different countries … and to set the scenes so well for us …

Batemans glowing in the winter light

I went out with some friends, as I now don’t have a car, and they are kindly taking me over to lunch at my brother’s house at Alfriston on the edge of the Sussex Downs … sadly other friends are away or ill … it’s that time of year … but …

Camel decoration ... 

I’m off now – another year wiser mainly about Canada: those posts I will continue – and who knows what happens next as we are living history as it happens (something I thought I’d never see) …

Alfriston Clergy House - the first National Trust property -
purchased in 1896 for ten pounds sterling

Thanks for all your support through the years … I’ve loved interacting with so many of you – and feel I’ve friends around the world … and I know from the few I’ve met – that is the case …

 

Here’s to a happy, healthy year to you all …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories