BOOK OF THE WEEK

Taranaki Daily News, 24 November 1934, Page 13 (Supplement)

BOOK OF THE WEEK

REFURBISHED FOLK-LORE

(By

U.S.)

“This was Enßland,” by Horace Annesley Vachell. Hodder & Stouehton Ltd., London. A. J. Fyfe Ltd., New Plymouth.

'ln one of the chapters of this book Mr. Vachell gives a recipe for potpourri of which he says the fragrance will remain for forty years. He has made fragrant potpourri of another kind in “This Was England.” For the volume is a very pleasant gathering of descriptions of places and people, refurbished folk-lore, and some shrewd comments upon the maimers and customs of the past and the present. Mr. Vachell has centred his soliloquy in his home near Bath, but he takes his readers through more of the lovely west and south-west of England and tells them of ancient beliefs, practices, proverbs, games, and even of old-time religious exercises and expressions. The book is divided into the months of the year, and the author is skilful in observing the changes that come in garden, farm, moorland and wood as well as in gathering for each month some ancient or mythological subject that is still an influence in rural England. The only touches that are not so welcome are the few excursions into politics in our own time.

Mr. Vachell does not mind spoiling illusions as well as embellishing them. He coldly remarks in regard to the old belief that Queen Elizabeth, because she happened to be eating a goose when the Spanish Armada was dispersed, ordained that geese should be eaten on Michaelmas Day, that news of the Armada's defeat reached the Queen in July ! But there is more than folk-lore in this book. The description of the little town of Wells, is excellent. “There the Cathedral Church, the Chapter House, the Bishop’s Palace, the Green and the incomparable Vicars’ Close form an unsurpassed whole ... The wonder of Wells is its age which laughs at time. The stonemasons employed were honest craftsmen, and are still . . . Throughout Dorset and Somerset, and wherever stone is quarried you will find almost imperishable monuments of work splendidly done.” Step by step the reader is taken through the ancient churches and town. It appears that in Wells bowls is a popular pastime. It is also decorous, for when Mr. Vachell asked how long it took to learn the game he was told that “he might expect to send down ‘a good wood’ after five and twenty years of assiduous practice.” May was the month chosen for the visit to Wells. The next month saw the author at Glastonbury and enabled his dissertation on roses and other flowers that enrich the English countryside in the midsummer month. But Mr. Vachell can use more stirring history than that of the Church with equal skill. He tries, with some success, to picture the celebrations in July 1588 when the news came to each English town village that the Armada of 130 Spanish ships had been defeated by the 80 vessels under the command of the English Admiral. “I can see,” writes Mr. Vachell, “the town-crier gulping down the best sack in the Scrope cellars; and you may wager that the thirst of every thirsty soul in the parish was slaked at the expense of the lord of the manor ... The lads of. the village “bussed” the wenches. -’ Stout,' godly matrons hitched up skirts and danced the cancan of Tudor revels. Every man, woman and child cursed the Dons; every glutton' licked his lips at the thought of the morrow’s gormandizing; nobody dared to go' to bed.” Armistice night of 16' years ago had its prototype in Elizabethan days if Mr. Vachell’s vision is true.

Coming down to present-day happenings the author refers to a Wiltshire chemist and veterinary surgeon who arranged his own funeral, bought his own tombstone and assisted in its erec-, tion; “And then, exciting climax, although over 70, married the sweetheart of his boyhood.” A ruthless newspaper summed up the matter in- two captions “He laughs at life; but takes no risk on a funeral.”

There are shadows in English village life, however, as the following stories indicate “A labourer, returning to his cottage found his wife with her head in the gas oven. ‘What did you do ?’ asked the Coroner. The poor fellow scratched his , head in bovine silence. ‘You must have done something,’ said the Coroner. ‘Ah-h-h, well, yes I did. I minds me I slipped a shilling into gasmeter.’” On another occasion “a woman went into the bam to find her husband hanging from a beam. Again the Coroner asked ‘What did you do ?’ The widow replied: ‘Nawthen.’ The Coroner persisted: ‘Come, come, surely you ran for a neighbour to get help to cut him down?’ The widow hesitated: ‘Look see,’ she said, ‘if I’d ha’ done tha-at, an if they ha’ cut ’un down, he might ha’ come to, so, as I tells ’ee, I did naw—then I’ ” ■

Verily there is little under the sun that is new. Just 365 years ago, the first State lottery in England was drawn on January 11, 1569 at the west door of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. The object of any profits was the reparation of harbours and other useful works. Except that they did not call them art unions those responsible for the lotteries of earlier days seemed to - know almost as much as the authorities in New Zealand, though cathedrals are no longer the place where the draw is held. Perhaps it was’ a disappointed ticketholder who wrote:

“A lottery is a taxation, Upon all the fools in creation, And Heav’n be praised, It is easily raised. Credulity’s always in fashion, For Folly’s a fund Will never lose ground While fools are so rife in the Nation.”

Mr. Vachell says he has left out of this book much that he wanted to put in. At all events he has left a rich store of wisdom and merriment. Nor does he close the volume with a moan for the “good old days.” He regrets, as most of us do, that life is becoming more regimented than it seems to have been m the more' spacious days of which he writes, but he still believes in the destiny of the Briton and the charm as well of the inspiration of the days in which the race developed.

We have stocks of volume two of Aunt Daisy's Cookery Book. It contains over 800 approved recipes and household hints supplied by “Links” of the New Zealand Daisy Chain. Each book has a specially decorated Christmas wrapper and would make an excellent gift. Price 2/-, postage 2d. Note: We also sell Friendly Road” badges at 1/- each. A. J. Fyfe Ltd., “The Book People,” next “Kash,” phone 1397.*