Category: Kristine Hughes

Mycroft Holmes to the Rescue!

Little did Arthur Conan Doyle realize when he wrote his Sherlock Holmes novels that some time in the future, say in the early 21st century, it would be Sherlock’s brother Mycroft who would step into the role of hero. Actually, two heroic roles, as there are two Mycroft Holmes coming to the rescue of the now derelict Undershaw, the Surrey home of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle – Stephen Fry (above top), who plays Mycroft in the Robert Downey, Jr. big screen version of that story, and Mark Gatiss (above lower) who plays Mycroft in the BBC series Sherlock.

Undershaw, above in its heydey and as it stands today, is where Conan Doyle lived with his wife, Louise, from 1897 to 1907. Conan Doyle commissioned his house specially to take into account the prognosis for his wife Louise, who was suffering from TB and only expected to live a few months. In order to infuse the interiors with lots of healing natural light, Doyle instructed the architect to include oversized windows in his design.


It was whilst living at Undershaw that Conan Doyle became a Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey, and joined the local Chiddingfield Hunt and the golf club and from there that he entered the Boer War as a volunteer army surgeon. It was also at Undershaw that Conan Doyle wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1902. Literary visitors to the house during Conan Doyle’s residency included Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, who came to interview Conan Doyle, and Virginia Woolf. After 1907, when Conan Doyle sold the property, Undershaw fell into various hands until, from 1924 until 2004, the house was used as a hotel. Since then, the house has stood empty and remains boarded up in a half hearted attempted to save it from further vandalism.

Last year the local authority, Waverley Borough Council, stepped in to prevent the house being turned into 13 different “dwellings.” At the time, it was owned by a company called Fossway. Christopher Atkins, from RDA Architects, speaking on their behalf, says: “It might have been his [Conan Doyle’s] house once, but it has been through a number of different versions since. If it’s left alone, it’ll fall to pieces. The developer’s intention is to provide a number of houses within the existing building and that will then provide the funding to enable it to be restored to its original position.”

Oppostion against the scheme has been great and those working to turn the property into a Sherlock Holmes Museum include local MP and Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Sir Christopher Frayling, Stephen Fry and UPT patron Mark Gatiss, who co-created the BBC series Sherlock and who plays Sherlock’s brother Mycroft in that series. Together, they have formed the Undershaw Preservation Trust.

Stephen Fry has been vocal in his beliefs – the actor, writer, television presenter and film director, who has contributed to three documentaries on Conan Doyle and his character Sherlock Holmes, is a patron of the Conan Doyle library and was once the youngest member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London.

“There has never been a time when Conan Doyle has gone out of fashion, or interest in him, his ideas and his creations has dropped off the radar,” said Fry. “But there has certainly never been a time when he has been more keenly appreciated and valued than now. . . . As an admirer of Doyle and his achievements, I urge Waverley Borough Council to reconsider what future ages will adjudge [to be] a foolish, short-sighted and wanton act of vandalism. . . . There is real value in Undershaw. If it is thought about, it can attract new generations of tourists to the area, it can be an enormous source of local pride. Please, please, have another think.”

As well, the Victorian Society, which has long been pushing for the Grade II-listed house to be given greater protective status from English Heritage, is also fighting to preserve Undershaw. “We are pushing for Grade I-listing,” says spokeswoman Heloise Brown. “English Heritage originally turned it down on the grounds that Conan Doyle wasn’t on quite the same level as other authors such as Jane Austen or Elizabeth Gaskell. Our argument is that Sherlock Holmes has such immense and universal appeal – there are 400 appreciation societies around the world – that the house really deserves extra protection.”

Visit the Save Undershaw website for further information. You can also visit the Help to Save Undershaw blog here.

The Town Crier

Town Criers have been a mainstay of English towns since the Medieval period, at least. Employed by the town or city, town criers dispensed various and sundry news and proclamations to the citizens, most of whom were illiterate and so depended upon verbal receipt of the news. This much I knew, though I don’t suppose I gave the position of Town Crier a second thought, assuming that they didn’t do much beyond walk about a town crying “all’s well” upon the hour. However, I was recently reading The Life of Frances Power Cobb as Told By Herself, (1904), who was born in Dublin in 1822, and came upon the following passage: “Two years later, when I was seven years old, I was naughty enough to run away again, this time in the streets of Bath, in company with a hoop, and the Town Crier was engaged to “cry” me, but I found my way home at last alone.”

Intrigued, I found the following excerpt from An Old Town By The Sea by Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1894) which was written of the town of Boston, but one assumes that town criers were of a similar description both sides of the Pond:

“The last of the cocked hats had gone out, and the railway had come in, long before my time; but certain bits of color, certain half obsolete customs and scraps of the past, were still left over. I was not too late, for example, to catch the last town crier — one Nicholas Newman, whom I used to contemplate with awe, and now recall with a sort of affection. Nicholas Newman — Nicholas was a sobriquet, his real name being Edward — was a most estimable person, very short, crosseyed, somewhat bow-legged, and with a bell out of all proportion to his stature. I have never since seen a bell of that size disconnected with a church steeple. The only thing about him that matched the instrument of his office was his voice. His “Hear All!” still deafens memory’s ear. I remember that he had a queer way of sidling up to one, as if nature in shaping him had originally intended a crab, but thought better of it, and made a town-crier. Of the crustacean intention only a moist thumb remained, which served Mr. Newman in good stead in the delivery of the Boston evening papers, for he was incidentally newsdealer. His authentic duties were to cry auctions, funerals, mislaid children, traveling theatricals, public meetings, and articles’ lost or found. He was especially strong in announcing the loss of reticules, usually the property of elderly maiden ladies. The unction with which he detailed the several contents, when fully confided to him, would have seemed satirical in another person, but on his part was pure conscientiousness. He would not let so much as a thimble, or a piece of wax, or a portable tooth, or any amiable vanity in the way of tonsorial device, escape him. I have heard Mr. Newman spoken of as “that horrid man.” He was a picturesque figure. Possibly it is because of his bell that I connect the town crier with those dolorous sounds which I used to hear rolling out of the steeple of the Old North every night at nine o’clock — the vocal remains of the colonial curfew.”

And from Printer’s Ink,Volume 28-29 (1899)

“In former days, when local papers were few and far between, the town crier was an important personage. He was appointed by the pariah, and his election generally carried with it offices of beadle, verger and gravedigger, and his emoluments were fairly remunerative. Day after day he was seen, either in the town or surrounding villages, dressed as a parish beadle, and carrying a bell, which, after ringing twice or three times, he began: “Oh, yez. This is to give public notice that Master George will sell by public auction at the Town Hall, by order, the household furniture and other effects.” Then followed details, and the windup, “God save the Queen.”

“As a gossip of the first water, and knowing the goings on and little town scandals, he was a welcome guest everywhere when on his rounds, and there was no local public function, church, chapel, election or any other meeting but what he bad a finger in. When the newspaper stamp duty was abolished, and the local press sprang into existence in all directions, the town crier was gradually elbowed out until he became practically extinct.

“In one place, however, the town crier in all his glory is yet in evidence, and that is in the pretty town of Bedford. Mr. Stock, a well-known local advertising agent and billposter of portly and handsome presence, may be seen, dressed in a grandly laced scarlet coat, knee breeches and cocked hat to match. The old gentleman ambles about the town daily on his rounds, an object of curiosity to visitors and awe to the town boys. Long may he flourish as a survival of the good old custom!”

Surpisingly, further research uncovered the fact that the office of Town Crier is alive and well, on both sides of the pond. As Wikipedia informs us: “Many local councils in England and Wales reinstated the post of town crier from the mid 1990s onwards (e.g. Chester). Many are honorary appointments or employed part time by the council. As of October 2010, there were 144 towns in England and Wales with town criers registered with the Ancient and Honourable Guild of Town Criers. They mainly perform ceremonial duties at civic functions. Local councils with a paid town crier often make them available for charity events.

“There are several town crier guilds in both Canada and the United States. Theses include the Ontario Guild of Town Criers, the Nova Scotia Criers’ Guild and the American Guild of Town Criers. Since 1981, The Rocky Mountain Town Crier, presently based out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, has represented Invermere, British Columbia at Buckingham Palace & the Mansion House & the House of Commons in London England. Nelson Phillips, the Rocky Mountain Town Crier has been Proclaimed the Honourary Town Crier of Banff, Scotland, Calgary, Scotland, & Airdrie, Scotland. He visited these 3 locations and read Proclamations from the Mayors or Government Officials, of the communities with the same name . . . . In competition, Nelson has placed 2nd at Lytham St. Anne, for best shout and 3rd at Kingsbridge Devon, for best dressed. On November 7, 1984, The Rocky Mountain Town Crier was made a member of Calgary’s “Walkway of Fame” when he read Proclamations from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney & Mayor Ralph Klein acknowledging the 100 Anniversary of Calgary Alberta as a Town. Nelson’s footprints and Hand prints were placed in cement.”

On The Shelf – A Yank Back to England

A Yank Back to England: The Prodigal Tourist Returns by Denis Lipman – The cover blurb for this book reads, “Denis Lipman left London’s East End for Washington, DC more than 20 years ago, but made an annual pilgrimage year after year to visit aging parents, a pair of cantankerous, real-life Cockneys. He endured the visits as best he could. Enter an American wife. Not content with a grin-and-bear-it attitude, she declares that since the trip to England was inevitable, then it was to be enjoyed: see things, go places! Against his will, our expat becomes a tourist in his homeland and discovers it’s not so bad after all, certainly better than remembered! Here is a travel memoir more carbolic than bucolic. Discover a place where the sun doesn’t always shine, where going to the loo can be an adventure, and where canned beans on toast is a cornerstone of cuisine. Taste the real East End and tour with a colorful group as they rent cottages, host outrageous relatives, meet the locals and discover the English countryside.”

This is a delightful account of Lipman’s almost annual trips back to England with his American wife Frances in order to visit his parents, Lew and Jessie. Most visits start at the old family home in Dagenham, an area firmly rooted in London’s East End.  From here, David and Frances, his parents, and assorted aunts, uncles and cousins take off for parts unknown, usually a rented cottage in a picturesque (and often difficult to find) corner of England. Part memoir and part travelogue, A Yank Back to England tells the sometimes painfully honest tale of tiny tourist villages, seaside resorts, British food and assorted pubs, aging parents, the frailty and strengths of those we love, the reality of childhood memories and the glories of life, love and England.

At the end of A Yank Back to England, you’ll be reluctant to close the book. I continue to hope that Lipman will pick up the memoir where he left off. In the meantime, you’ll find Denis Lipman’s blog here.

Reviews:
“Here is England seen entire, from inside out, from bottom to top, as Denis Lipman returns from America to his working class family home in blighted Dagenham. From there he, his young American wife, and his cockney Mum and Dad embark on a series of funny, touching, madcap and even surreal adventures as they visit celebrated landmarks and holiday spots in England as well as a good many pubs. The result is an absolutely wonderful book, not only about going home again but also about love and family and tradition and the passage of the years.” –Michael Dirda, Pulitzer Prize-winning literary critic (Washington Post) and author of the memoir An Open Book

“A perceptive, engaging and informative take on contemporary England as seen through the eyes of a fellow expatriate who writes with humor and affeciton. The case of characters has an almost Dickensian vivacity.” Michael York, actor.

God Save the Queen(s)

In this Diamond Jubilee year, it’s perhaps fitting to reflect upon the reigns of both Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Victoria, England’s two longest reigning monarchs. To date, Queen Elizabeth has been on the throne for 60 years and still has a few years to go before breaking the regal record held by Queen Victoria for a reign of 63 years and 7 months (and 2 days).

Naturally, all monarchs begin their reigns upon the death of their predecessor.  
Queen Elizabeth, her grandmother, Queen Mary and her mother, Queen Elizabeth,  the Queen Mother at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth’s father, King George VI in February, 1952.
However, as is well known, Queen Victoria took her mourning upon the early death of her husband, Prince Albert, to a whole new level.
 The widowed Queen Victoria

To back up a bit, Victoria and her cousin Albert were married on February 10th, 1840, at the royal chapel of St. James, in London.

 Queen Elizabeth and her cousin, Prince Philip, were married on November 20, 1947 in Westminster Abbey, London.

Queen Victoria’s uninterrupted mourning affected all aspects of her life, not the least of which was her fashion sense, as can be seen by the dress above, on display at the Costume Museum in Bath. Queen Victoria stood a mere five feet tall and, as the above dress will attest, seemingly enjoyed her food.

 In contrast, Queen Elizabeth stands at a comparatively statuesque 5′ 4″, eats a bit less and is known for wearing an often bright and always colourful wardrobe.

One thing that Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth have in common is their love for horses and horseback riding. Each began riding early in their lives and continued to ride as long as they were able. Queen Elizabeth is still in the saddle . . . . . 

Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee was marked by many celebrations, including, on 22 June 1897, a progress to St Paul’s Cathedral, where a short service of thanksgiving was held outside the building, as the Queen was too lame to manage the steps. Thankfully, Queen Elizabeth is in fine health and a host of Jubilee celebrations will be held throughout the land over the coming months.

The Queen’s 80th birthday portrait, taken in February 2006

Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Photo

Queen Elizabeth II’s Official Diamond Jubilee Portrait

Dark Shadows

Anyone of a certain age will recall coming home after school in time to watch Dark Shadows on the telly, which spoke to our generation in a way our mother’s soap operas could not. Many of us were Barnabas Collins fans, including Johnny Depp, who fought for years to bring the story to the big screen. “I do remember, very vividly, practically sprinting home from school in the afternoon to see Jonathan Frid play Barnabas Collins,” the actor says. “Even then, at that age, I knew — this has got to be weird.”

How appropo, as these days anything starring Johnny Depp has typically got to be a tad weird. And directed by Tim Burton, as this film is. And to co-star Helena Bonham Carter, which this film does. She plays Dr. Julia Hoffman. See below. And to feature Depp in wacky make up. Done. See above. And below, in the first photo of Depp as Tonto in the new Lone Ranger movie.

But I digress . . . . . the new Dark Shadows storyline begins in the 18th century, when Barnabas is turned into a vampire by the brokenhearted witch Angelique (Eva Green) and buried alive. The film then flashes forward two centuries, as Barnabas is freed from his tomb and returns to his home and the dysfunctional relatives who now reside there.

Principals involved in the film have given us a less clear vision of what to expect from the film:

“We’re changing it a little bit,” Burton said last fall. “I wouldn’t do it if it felt like it was just doing the same thing. For me, it’s about trying to go back to the original drawings and kind of capture that spirit a little bit more of what the drawings are. It feels different even though it’s a similar story, but we’re kind of expanding it a bit.

Bonham Carter muddled the water even further via the following comment, “It’s very original, and it’s kind of uncategorizable,” she said. “It’s going to be impossible to sell, frankly, because it’s a soap opera, but it’s very, very subtle, I don’t know. We’ll see. It’s a ghost story, but then it’s an unhappy vampire story.”

The film opens in theaters on May 11th, and no doubt the characters will garner themselves a whole new set of fans. If, that is, anyone comes away with a clear understanding of what the film was actually about.

So what’s next for Depp, who has never been one to rest long upon his laurels? The big screen version of The Night Stalker, with Depp playing Kolchak, the reporter in the seersucker suit who keeps running into monsters on his beat, originally played by Darren McGavin. No doubt there’ll be a part for Helena in this one, as well.