A Publication ofTHE JOHN MEADE FALKNER SOCIETYFounded 8th May 1999 |
||||
Newsletter No.13 | 22 July 2003 |
New Members
Since the last Newsletter in January, the Society has welcomed four more members.
Arnold Hunt
who "accidentally stumbled across" Robert Wilson's website, part of which is devoted to JMF
and this Society, first e:mailed me from the Durham University Library, a mere stone's throw
from Falkner's old home at The Divinity House. Arnold is keen to write something
about JMF as a book collector, so I have put him in touch with another recent member -John
Coulter, who is also interested in this field. Arnold subsequently sent me some reflections on
the chronology of The Nebuly Coat, which I am keeping by me for next year's Journal
.
Jak Radice
whose mother (Anthea Radice) was the daughter of Revd. Prof. Alfred Guillaume, who was
Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Languages in Durham and was one of JMF' s closest friends.
Kenneth Warren alludes to him in his article in this year's Journal. Ken met up with Jak at her
mother's memorial service last year.
The Friends of Burford Church
is our first "corporate" member. I am delighted the JMF link has been renewed, as he loved
Burford town and, especially, its church. I am sure that Raymond Moody as well as the Friends
will show us just how much JMF did to support the building during his lifetime.
Michael Daniell
who was responsible for that elegantly produced JMF poem A Roman Villa -Chedworth in
1981. His private press -The Atlantis Press -printed an edition of 100 copies set by hand in
Caslon Old Face, with a brief introduction by Michael himself. He, too, recalls his amazement
"at visiting the shop in Burford, asking if they had any books by Meade Falkner, and then
being offered Poems from the parcel of stock in the cupboard behind the counter".
JMF's Poetry
Further to my mention of the green wrapper version of JMF's Poems and the remembrance that
Christopher Hawtree and I some years ago found a large cache secreted in a small cupboard at a
Burford antiquarian bookshop, Alan Bell kindly sent me the [now long retired] bookseller's
name and present address. I contacted Hamish Bain, who wrote a very charming reply, filling in
more details of the story.
The stock was held for many years by Quaritch, who did nothing with it. Ted Hoffmann, who was
charged with sorting out and rationalising Q's basement, sold all the Falkner poems to Peter
Eaton and told Hamish Bain what he had done. Hamish approached Mrs Eaton, who sold him about
half of the stock. Some were then placed in trade, some were sold through catalogue and some
through the Burford shop. When Jubilee Books shut, the remainder were sold, with the rest of
the stock, by Bloomsbury Book Auctions in August 1987. Hamish now has only the one copy he
bought for himself. Hamish ended his letter by saying: "I wish I had bought a few more as they
would have been useful for presents over the years." And so say all of us.
Those of you who replied to my question as to whether you would purchase a copy of a new
edition of the Poems, all answered in the affirmative [some requesting more than one copy]. I
will therefore discuss with the others at Burford in September the best way forward. It looks
as if most of you would like not only the "extra" poems put in, but some form of introduction
and footnotes [end-notes?] where useful.
Graham Pollard's Bibliography of JMF
has recently been republished in The Pleasures of Bibliophily: Fifty Years of 'The Book
Collector: An Anthology" published by the British Library and Oak Knoll Press, 2003 for
the princely sum of £35.00.
[ISBN 07123 47798]
Wormwood
Mark Valentine sent me a flyer for a new journal, to be published by Tartarus Press from
Autumn 2003 and "devoted to discussion of the fantastic, supernatural and decadent in
literature...featuring four or five key studies each issue". If any of you are interested in
the above -either as potential contributors or as subscribers -you can contact the publisher
at Coverley House, Carlton-in-Coverdale, Leyburn, North Yorkshire, DL8 4AY.
John Cochrane
kindly send me photocopies of JMF material he had come across in his family scrapbooks. These
included some JMF verse, in Latin. for Lilias Noble's 1898 Christmas card, with the ensuing
printed card; a rather domestic letter to Andrew Noble about Philip and John; and a copy of a
sketch of Gibraltar by General Adye. I will bring them to Burford in September.
Journal Number 4
is enclosed with this Newsletter. I do hope you find the articles interesting and that they
will inspire you to write for future issues. I am most grateful to those of you who have
contributed so far -some of you more than once.
A Little More Learning
A sidelight upon Falkner 's education
Such is the serendipity of the way in which 'material' survives that, despite tantalising gaps,
there are some parts of John Meade Falkner's life that can be chronicled in detail, not least
a childhood which - allied with his sister Anne's manuscript memories - makes for some of his
most evocative writing, whether it concern idyllic summer fields or the remorseless sequence of
events which led from the lunch table to his mother's death, and all their woe.
The Weymouth house was rent-free, true, but his father Tom's salary was only £100 a year, a
situation symbolised by the narrow strip of remaining garden. This was 'such as might have
fallen to the lot of any jerry-built suburban villa. The only reminiscence of better days
which it possessed was a fig-tree in a corner which had some age and dignity but was unable to
bring its fruits to maturity' .This garden-strip had been further curtailed - in a way which
was to have those harrowing consequences - by 'a huddle of unintelligible rooms' which had been
built onto the back of the house, for these were the rooms in which a servant took water from
the wrong source.
All that is now a fairly well-known tale, but a glimpse of another part of Falkner's life is
offered in an unpublished memoir. Falkner was now a pupil at the town's Collegiate School on
the Dorchester Road. Whatever his regrets at this move from Dorchester, which were sometimes
bolstered by visits to his old friends, 'I consoled myself by thinking that I was better off
because Weymouth-was always something of a paradise in the minds of Dorchester people'.
Among the pupils at the school was Frank Stratton, who had previously been educated locally,
in Wiltshire; at any rate - as Stratton recalled, in a piece now in the County Record Office,
Trowbridge - he had attended an establishment run by 'a retired parson of rubicund countenance.
The master was a seedy little Welshman, certainly not a scholar: about thirty boys, sons of
tradesmen and small farmers, were ineffectively taught'. In 1870, however, he had been sent to
enjoy the greater stimulation of boarding at a recently-founded school which would become
Weymouth College, where, by his recollection, he was 'much too good. It would have been better,
perhaps, if I had broken rules more often, and worked less'. He thought that he must have been
painfully shy and self-conscious, even a considerable prig. Whatever, he became close to
Falkner the following year, and was to write of the place and its seventy boys: 'not a bad set
on the whole. A few big, stupid boys, forming a class by themselves called "the awkward squad",
were the least desirable'.
Here were such customary matters as hard mattresses and unsavoury lavatories, a situation
alleviated by the collecting of caterpillars ('which we imprisoned and fed till they became
chrysales and then eagerly awaited their turning into winged creatures') and by sneaking out of
bounds or dawdling on long walks in order to take a cross-country short cut. In particular, he
never liked the Head Master, the Rev. John Ellis. 'He was sarcastic and oily, put on too much
flesh and certainly was not a gentleman.' This was apparently a quality also lacking in his
staff, although Stratton did note an indebtedness to Paterson, the diminutive English master,
a man who is evidently Falknerian in spirit. 'How delightfully discursive he was. Often some
remark at the beginning of a lesson would send him off at a tangent and go on with matter
wholly foreign to the lesson we had prepared. Moreover he would mark for answers to questions
remote from the subject; this I always liked, for as a reader of many books, I had a fair
amount of general information. ..The more discursive he was the more I liked him and when he
enjoyed himself he gave s a really good time.' M. L'Archeveque, the French master, was capable
but unduly passionate, imposing endless lines for the smallest, even imagined fault. As for the
Science master, Herr Hoffert, he was amiable and incapable of maintaining discipline - despite,
it was said, having fought in the Polish rebellion, an exploit which merely let him in for such
taunts as a boy interrupting the lesson to ask, 'was it a white horse you rode when you were a
rebel? ' The master's experiments often failed to take the desired route, resulting in queer
smells made worse when a pupil was able to uncork the asafoetida bottle. 'Poor old Hoffert,
how often his frilled shirt showed need of washing -would that his history were on record.'
From all this Stratton emerged, six from the top, in 1873 and at least certain that it had
'improved my health and added to my height'. He had already shown an 'early, if not an
intelligent, interest' in politics, when Parliament was dissolved in 1868 and Gladstone went to
the country. It was to remain an interest, but, married within six years, his life was to be
devoted mainly to farming in Wiltshire, politics a matter of local committees such as the Board
of Guardians.
Christopher Hawtree
Burford - Saturday 20 September
The following members have intimated that they hope to attend the gathering in Burford. Alan
Bell, Kenneth Warren, Christopher Hawtree, George Woodman, Andrew Nye, Raymond Moody, Kenneth
Hillier, Edward Wilson, James Stourton., Michael Daniell, Giselle Panero + the sender of a
reply form post marked "Southampton". I do hope those of you living in Oxfordshire and the
South not already on the list will try and get along. Let me know if you can.
Those actually expressing a preference of date all plumped for 20 September.
We will meet at Cobb House, courtesy of Raymond Moody, at
10.00 to 10.15 a.m. This is the last house on the left [looking down
the hill], just before the bridge over the Windrush. I am bringing my JMF collection for
display and, hopefully, discussion. Raymond will give us a tour of the town, concentrating on
JMF links, and we hope to join with our friends at Burford Church for refreshment at some
point. A local hostelry beckons for lunchtime. I look forward to seeing as many of you as
possible on the day.
Best wishes,
Kenneth Hillier
Greenmantle, Main Street, Kings Newton, Melbourne Derbyshire. DE73 1BX
kah@greenmantle63.freeserve.co.uk
Return to JMF Main Page