LIFE IN SIX REIGNS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10727, 19 August 1913, Page 7

LIFE IN SIX REIGNS.

GODALMING RESIDENTS 04th. BIRTHDAY. impm A DILIGENT NEEDLEWOMANBORN IN THE SAME HOUSE AS HER HUSBAND . The Surrey Times of July sth, contains the following interesting account of Mrs Remnant, mother of Mr A. Remnant of Marton: — Ninety-four years old to-day ! Godaiming may boast of an older inhabitant—the writer is'idot aware of one—but it can hardly lay claim to a more interesting or remarkable old lady than Mrs Jane Remnant, who lives at Hopsville, Hallam Road, Qoclalming, and who will celebrate her 94th birthday to-day, Saturday. Yet, in spite of her great age, Mrs Remnant is an active and cheerful body, and, beyond slight deafness, is in full possession of all her faculties. In one respect, in fact, she is better off than she was when she was a comparatively young woman of 75, for then she had to wear spectacles. After her 80th birthday her eyesight considerably improved, with the result that she discarded her glasses and ndw reads her newspaper without any assistance. Mrs Remnant is, moreover, a diligen needlewoman. Her industry with the needle would put many a younger woman to shame, and to see the fine stitching in the work — cushion covers and the like —which this old lady has performed leads one to marvel and then to-marvel again. She possesses also a retentive memory, and relates as though it were but yesterday that she remembers an aunt coming into her mother’s house and stating that they would have to go into black because the King was dead. The reference was to King George IY., who died in 1880. MARRIED 70 YEARS AGO. Mrs Remnant was born at Bedham, which is in the parish of Fettleworth, Sussex, on July sth, 1819. She was one of 10 children, her father being by occupation a lawyer. Her maiden name was Simmonds and she married 70 years ago at Wisborough Green. Her married life lasted 53 years, and she has been a widow for 18 years. Practically all her married life was spent at Petworth, where her husband was first a woodman, and afterwards a fence carpenter on the Leoonfield Estates. She is in receipt of a pension from Lord Leoonfield, and with the addition of 4s a week as an old age pension, Mrs Remnant is able to spend the evening of her days in comfort, residing with her daughter and son-in-law, Mr and Mrs L. W. Wright. She has four sous and four daughters living Mrs Gyatfc, Mrs Stanford and Mis Rayner (of Guildford), Mrs Wright, and Messrs Walter Remnant (Montimer, near Reading), Alfred Remnant (New Zealand), George Remnant (Windsor) and Charles Remnant (Heuley-on-Thames). The other day I called to congratulate Mrs Remnant on the approach of her birthday, writes a Surrey Times representative, and I was agreeably surprised to find such an interesting old lady. She was quite ready to talk of the days of ner youth, and soon she was telling me of events that occurred 70 and 80 years ago with a recollection detail and incident which were truly astonishing. She told me of ner early Susses home, of how she attended a dame’s school and of how when she was 11 years old an aunt called at her mother’s house and said, ‘the old King is dead. You must put on some black. ’ ‘There was no newspaper then,’remarked Mrs Remnant; at any rate poor people never saw them. News like that travelled by people telling each other about it. The only hooka I remember having seen at that time were the Bible and the Prayer Book. ’ METHODS OF TRAVEL. Mrs Remnant told me of a journey which sha took to Olapham to go into service there. From her home at Fittleworth she first had to get to Billingshurst by road, and, after staying there the night, she took the ‘road wagon’ at five o’clock on Tuesday morning, arriving at Clapham at five o’clock on Wednesday morning. ‘And now,’ she added, ‘they can do the journey in less than two hours. The first time I saw a railway was at Wandsworth Common. If ever you wanted to travel to Sussex you had to go on a road wagon or walk. My father used to walk from Fittleworth to Qodalming to see about wood, and I remember when I was 13 years old walking 16 miles to Oranleigh to see an annt. Other incidents which she related dealt with the early part of Queen Victoria’s reign, and the arrival of the Prince Consort in this country before his marriage, ‘They skidded the wheel of the Prince’s carriage as it went down the hill at Greenwioh,’ she said—another example of her remarkable recollection of details. She also recalled a visit of the yonng Queen Victoria to Richmond, and said she remembered the great preparations which were made in honour of the event. CURIOUS COINCIDENCES. A curious fact which Mrs Remnant related was that she and her husband were born in the same house. ‘His father and mother lived in this little cottage at Bedham, ’ she said, .‘and be was born there, and then when they left the house my father and mother went to live in it, and I was born in it My husband was taken as a baby in long clothes to my mother’s wedding. My mother used to tell me about it, and my husband’s parents also said ro me that they little thought that the baby in long ciotbes would afterwards marry a daughter of the couple whose wedding they took him to. ’ Nine shillings was Mrs Remnant’s husband’s weekly wage at the beginning of their married life, and flour was 13s or 13s a bushel. ‘But when my mother first married, and when I was a girl, it was a guinea a bushel, * she added, to show that her difficulties in disposing of the weekly wage to the best advantage might have been worse. Mrs Remnant plies her needle with skill, and she displayed a patchwork cushion cover, which she had recently executed. ‘That is going out to Canada, ’ she said A comment on Mrs Remnant’s cheerfulness drew from her the remark: ‘And • why shouldn’t I be cheerful? What is there more disagreeable than a disagreeable old woman? I have got a lot to be thankful for, and I don’t believe in I fretting and complaining. ’ Mrs Remnant has had over 40 grand-children and nearly 20 greatgrandchildren. I May she have many happy returns * of the day I