The Merry Adventures Of Robin Hood: A Collection, And Some Ballads

Here is my modest collection of Robin Hood books and a record with the album title of 'A Tapestry of Music for Robin Hood & his King' by Early Music group St. George's Canzona. The two books on the left are both editions of  'The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood' by Howard Pyle, a delightful book with fine illustrations, for Howard Pyle was one of the greatest illustrators of all time, and wrote great storybooks too; I highly recommend it, it's one of my favourite books.  This is part of the wonderful preface to that story:

 'You who so plod amid serious things that you feel it shame to give yourself up even for a few short moments to mirth and joyousness in the land of Fancy; you who think that life hath nought to do with innocent laughter that can harm no one; these pages are not for you. Clap to the leaves and go no farther than this, for I tell you plainly that if you go farther you will be scandalized by seeing good, sober folks of real history so frisk and caper in gay colours and motley, that you would not know them but for the names tagged to them...there are a whole host of knights, priests, nobles, burghers, yeomen, pages, ladies, lasses, landlords, beggars, pedlars, and what not, all living the merriest of merry lives, and all bound by nothing but a few odd strands of certain old ballads...which draw these jocund fellows here and there, singing as they go.'

Most of us strongly disapprove of robbery and law breaking, yet these old tales and ballads continue to be loved and are eternally popular; most everyone loves Robin Hood!  We tend to think that the Sheriff of Nottingham was a bad fellow who deserved what he got, and the same goes for those other naughty types who also received the same treatment.  The struggle between liberty and the oppression of the peasants in these tales grip people, and the adventures of those hearty, robust men living hearty robust lives in the forest, nearly always being clever enough to be a step ahead of the tyrants, and we mustn't forget the humour, the jolly good times they have and the tricks they heartily laughed at; the manly comradeship the characters enjoyed.   There are many appealing elements in these tales, whatever version you encounter (though I imagine one should probably steer clear of any new modern retellings).

Since the above photo was taken, some time ago, three more Robin Hood books were later added to the collection (though I haven't read these yet):

For your enjoyment, here is a selection of good recordings of Robin Hood-themed songs:

'Robin Hood and the Tanner' by St. George's Canzona:

'Gamble Gold/Robin Hood' by Steeleye Span:

'Robin Hood and the Pedlar' by Barry Dransfield:

'Robin Hood & the Bold Pedlar' by The Owl Service:

'The Heir', A Dreamy Tale by Vita Sackville-West

'The Heir', written in 1922 by Vita Sackville-West, is a story that has haunted me since reading it two weeks ago.  I have a love of stories where someone inherits a country house; in many of those stories it is often a poor, orphaned young woman, like in Mary Stewart's 'Thornyhold', but that is not the case in this one, as the main character is a man, though not at all wealthy.

On the death of an aunt, Peregrine Chase (who works in an insurance company in the city of Wolverhampton) inherits an unspoilt, romantic Elizabethan manor house, with moat and lush gardens and various properties rented out to farm workers and such.   At first it is assumed that he will want to just sell up right away, as there is much debt; and indeed he feels that he would be better to just rid himself of the place and the responsibility, but after spending more and more time there, and more and more time around the locals who immediately accept him as the lord of the manor, he undergoes a change and something hidden awakens inside.  The house and landscape seem to almost be living characters, such is the prominence of their presence, their romantic atmosphere.  The summer air seems to exert a sweet and fragrant allure, irresistibly luring him under their spell. 

There is much in this that seems to reflect some of Vita Sackville-West's deep love for her childhood home of Knole, which she had to leave due to it being inherited by a relative, and which, I gather, she never got over; in her soul, Knole belonged to her.  I was rather captivated reading this dreamy little, beautifully written book, and worried and anxious right before the end.  I like to imagine what could have happened after it, I like to think that Peregrine found love and married a nice country girl.

The Rose Garden, Balcaskie by George Samuel Elgood

London In Books

 

 

 

 

 

London has a history of being one of the most interesting and culturally rich cities in the world, though sadly it is not the place it once was, and my interest in it lies in its past.   Along with the numerous museums, it still has a goodly amount of history to be seen, despite the incessant destruction of the past by so many "progressive" types, who would love to demolish the handsome buildings still mercifully left standing and turn this great city into a place of ghastly skyscrapers and car parks.   This is something I've thought about quite a bit recently, after reading the fight against such a thing on the excellent 'Spitalfields Life' blog and elsewhere.  It seemed a coincidence when recently going into the nearby secondhand bookshop (that had nothing of interest on the previous visit) that there were some books on London that seemed to be waiting just for me, and I left with these four:

 
 

These are excellent books with superb photography (and they were a great deal, as I traded in some unwanted ones as well)  and fine additions to other London books already had.  Here are a few of them:

 
 
 


There are also fiction books set in London, including some recent British Library Crime Classics and  other vintage mysteries.  

 

A Cabinet of Curiosities and Some Eccentrics

If  museums stuffed full of quaint and curious old objects intrigue you as much as they do me, then surely this episode from 'A Cabinet of Curiosities' by Lucinda Lambton, will interest you.  This is the only episode, from this fascinating series, to find at this time, and her enthusiasm and curiosity is infectious; though some of the strange things in this are well, rather strange!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ9_D0yQIOQ

Some of the stuffed animals are somewhat unnerving.  Many years ago I was visiting family, and in a certain uncle's house, he had amassed a number of stuffed creatures, and I found it rather creepy with them all standing about in various poses, as if they were watching, you always expect their eyes to follow you.

Watching this brought to mind a truly odd book I read a few years ago, 'English Eccentrics', by Edith Sitwell, first published in 1933.  Mine is a vintage Penguin paperback, and the cover will not be shown here, as the photographic portrait of Miss Sitwell is ghastly, and I always made sure to turn it face down when reading it, if you've seen it, you will know what I mean.  The book is highly unusual, and often bewildering.  Some of the people described in the book were possibly more insane than eccentric.  The back cover describes this curious tome as such:

An incomparable museum of history's weirder figures- ornamental hermits, charlatans, quacks, adventurers, misers, and men of learning, including:  The aged Countess of Desmond, who climbed an apple tree at the age of 140.  The amphibious Lord Rokeby, whose beard reached his knees and who seldom left his bath.  Mad Jack Mytton, the squire who drank eight bottles of port a day, spent half a million and set fire to his nightshirt to cure the hiccups.  Curricle Coates, the Gifted Amateur, whose stage performances always ended in uproar.  Irascible Captain Thicknesse, who left his right hand, to be cut off after his death, to his son Lord Audley.  Inebriate Professor Porson, the great Greek scholar, who used to 'pounce with his terrible memory' and sometimes with the poker. Pathetic Princess Caraboo, the servant-girl from Devon who stole the heart of Napoleon on St. Helena.  Saintly Squire Waterton, the nineteenth-century Gerald Durrell, who rode a crocodile bareback. 

 Amongst many others also mentioned are Ancients, Alchemists, Wits, and Travellers, as in this fascinating passage:

Even though the phrase, the romance of Commerce is now a cliché, the maps in a commercial atlas neatly cut up, coloured, analysed and diagrammed, are a rich feast for the fancy.  To see where not only castor, camphor, colocynth and cocaine come from, but whence also the emerald, the chrysoprase, the topaz and the tourmaline; where impregnable forests brood, and the yellow fever skulks, and the Buddhist abounds; where those tempests called cyclone, hurricane, typhoon rise up and travel and pass away; what Penang lawyers, supple-jacks, bdellium and carambola may be; and what precise delicacies have their origin in Jipijapa, Rosario and Trebizond - all this can scarcely be acquitted of a romantic flavour.

Thus wrote that great traveller of the mind and of the spirit, Walter de la Mare, in Desert Islands.  The soul needs, not only a resting, but a distance land where it may find romance, and those truths that are not clothed in the accustomed, dusty garb of every day.  In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when the Grand Tour was the fashion, in the later nineteenth century, when the exploration of savage lands was the most chivalrous of all deeds, travelling, if not in the body, at least in the spirit, was not only a pleasure, it was a necessity. 

Many of those world travellers brought back extraordinary mementoes from their travels, and created their own cabinets of curiosities, thus many museums were begun.

 

 There is also 'In Search Of The Great English Eccentric' with Dave Allen, which I found and watched last year, it looks like it was made in the 1970s.  Eccentrics aplenty here, some more odd than others, but at least many of them seemed happy and weren't just spending all their time sitting in front of the television! I believe that being individualistic or idiosyncratic (which indicates intelligence to not just follow the crowd) doesn't necessarily mean that one is eccentric, I think people too easily confuse them.  But I think the world would be a more interesting place if there were a few more gentle and imaginative eccentrics, opposed to just obvious weirdness without intelligence, or just obnoxiousness, that is so much present now.   I like the highly enthusiastic inventor, who was overflowing with ideas:

A Suffolk Calendar by Allan Jobson

'A Suffolk Calendar' by Allan Jobson; with a very good cover design.

  For my Interesting Book Covers series:  

 

 

Traditional Crafts: The Rural Industries of England & Wales

The Rural Industries of England & Wales III: Decorative Crafts and Rural Potteries.

 This is a handsome hardback book I bought to add to my collection of traditional craft books, which has a preference for books from the seventies; there was a great number of wonderful crafts books produced in that decade.  It was the lovely cover design that attracted me.   This edition was published in 1978, but the original edition was from 1927.

The chapters are on: Decorative Crafts and Their Place In Village Life; Lace-Making, Home Crafts and Industries, Rural Potteries, Lapidary Workers.

I will be featuring many other traditional craft books.

Albion: The Origins of The English Imagination by Peter Ackroyd

 

'Albion' by Peter Ackroyd, is one of my favourite books.  It is utterly fascinating and when I read it a few years ago, I remember enjoying it and taking my time, slowing down my reading pace to deeply take everything in more fully, to absorb the bountiful prose relating to the miscellaneous subjects contained within.   This is a handsome book which successfully sets out to take the reader on a journey through the cultural history of England, beginning with the Anglo-Saxons and continuing through time, though not in an orderly, chronological manner, but in the manner of a delightful miscellany of topics and times.  This is a book in which one time-travels over the centuries and dips into a vast range of topics; including language, literature, religion, painting, theatre and music hall, music, architecture, philosophy, etc...

Bede, Beowulf, King Arthur, Chaucer, Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters, Lewis Carroll, Dickens, Hogarth, Turner, Purcell, Vaughan Williams, poetry, Romantics, Old English, London, Victoriana, Gothic style, trees, stone, cathedrals, ruins, gardens...the list goes on and on in the massive range of this book.  Open the pages anywhere and you will find interesting facts, fused with Peter Ackroyd's great talent for compiling and elaborating on history.  He never writes a dull, dry history book, his volumes are filled with fascination and imagination,  history is brought to life due to his method of going below the surface to reveal the facts and facets of everyday life in an entrancing way.

I found this section, in in the chapter, 'Among The Ruins,' to be illuminating:

"It is no paradox, therefore, that the culture of nineteenth-century England, which witnessed the development of an entirely new metropolitan civilisation, should itself have been similarly preoccupied with 'ancient times.'  It is none the less curious that the Victorian age of innovation should also be the age of restoration, that a fervent belief in progress should be accompanied by a deep need for revival, and that a period of unprecedented industrial and commercial expansion should also be a period of unremitting nostalgia...The close association with medievalism also provided an image of organic unity, of a civilisation established upon firm religious and cultural principles, in a period when every aspect of society was being called into doubt."

I can identify with this very much so, for as things in the world generally get more insane, aggressive, shallow, godless, high-tech, ugly, unnatural, etc..., I retreat into old books, art, good music, faith; the real and beautiful things that make one feel comforted, enlightened and inspired.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the cultural history of past times.

Oak Apple Day

 

I always find old holidays and special days and customs fascinating, and as the 29th of May is Oak Apple Day in England, here is an extract about Charles II and the Royal Oak, from Chambers' Book of Days, 1862:

"Among the acts passed by parliament immediately after the Restoration was one enacting 'That in all succeeding ages the 29th of May be celebrated in every parish church and chapel in England, and the dominions thereof, by rendering thanks to God for the king's restoration to actual possession and exercise of his legal authority over his subjects,' &c.  The service of the Restoration, like that for the preservation from the Gunpowder Treason, and the death of Charles I, was kept up till the year 1859.

The restoration of the king, after a twelve years' interregnum from the death of his father, naturally brought into public view some of the remarkable events of his intermediate life.  None took a more prominent place than what had happened in September 1651, immediately after his Scottish army had been overthrown by Cromwell at Worcester.  It was heretofore obscurely, but now became clearly known, that the royal person had for a day been concealed in a bushy oak in a Shropshire forest, while the commonwealth's troopers were ranging about in search of the fugitives from the late battle.  The incident was romantic and striking in itself, and, in proportion to the joy in the having the king once in his legal place, was the interest felt in the tree by which he had been to all appearance providentially preserved.  The ROYAL OAK accordingly became one of the familiar domestic ideas of the English people.  A spray of oak in the hat was a badge of a loyalist on the recurrence of the Restoration-day.  A picture of an oak tree, with a crowned figure sitting amidst the branches, and a few dragoons scouring about the neighbouring ground, was assumed as a sign upon many a tavern in town and country.  And 'Oak Apple-day' became a convertible term for the Restoration-day among the rustic population.... In many old-fashioned and out-of-the-way places, the 29th of May is still celebrated, in memory of King Charles's preservation in the oak of Boscobel, and his Restoration."