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Victorian Courtship - fans #91

For the next few months I will be doing a series on Victorian courtship starting in February, the month of love, as we have just celebrated Valentine’s Day on the 14th.  The Victorians used various items for flirting with, namely fans, gloves, parasols and handkerchiefs!  I imagine the Meynell family at Hoar Cross Hall held lots of dinner parties and Balls back in the Victorian Days where most of the young ladies would have had their fans at the ready to signal to a secret beau.  But what were these signals and why were they used? The belief that the fan was used in society to express feelings or commands dates back to at least the early 18th century.  I...

WHODUNIT IN THE LIBRARY? #25

WHODUNIT IN THE LIBRARY? When we first moved to the Hall. growing up in a stately home seemed an idyllic way to live – and lots of fun if you’re a child.  This rambling old house full of empty rooms and secret doors, wild gardens and woods to explore, was in some ways a dream come true for our family, certainly for my dad.  But as we turned from children to teenagers the isolation and lack of public transport was frustrating.  Coupled with this was my parents fighting and subsequent split, living at each end of the house and battling for the house and business through their solicitors. The effect this had on me, as the eldest child who perhaps saw more o...

Alice - the ghost in the mirror

ALICE – THE GHOST IN THE MIRROR:       In 1865 Lewis Carroll wrote another story about Alice following on from ‘Alice in Wonderland’.   It was called ‘Alice through the Looking Glass’.  In this story Alice climbs onto the mantlepiece over the fireplace in her lounge and finds that she can climb through the mirror into another world which is reversed, just like a reflection.  Once again, she encounters strange figures in a world dominated by a chess set and nursery rhyme characters, among others.  But what inspired Lewis Carroll to write about a little girl having lots of adventures? In the 1850s Charles Dodgson (Carroll’s real name) studied...

Alice - the ghost in the mirror #38

ALICE – THE GHOST IN THE MIRROR:       Whilst researching the history of my former home, Hoar Cross Hall, I came across this fascinating story from author Graham Phillips who had visited the Hall to do some research into the story of Alice and the mirror that inspired Lewis Carroll. As many of my regular readers will know, Hoar Cross Hall is a very haunted house and so it was incredibly interesting to hear another theory on the ghost of the little girl who haunts the rooms and corridors. In 1865 Lewis Carroll wrote another story about Alice following on from ‘Alice in Wonderland’. It was called ‘Alice through the Looking Glass’. In this story Alic...

Alice - the ghost in the mirror #28

ALICE – THE GHOST IN THE MIRROR:     (Based on true events)    In 1865 Lewis Carroll wrote another story about Alice following on from ‘Alice in Wonderland’. It was called ‘Alice through the Looking Glass’. In this story Alice climbs onto the mantlepiece over the fireplace in her lounge and finds that she can climb through the mirror into another world which is reversed, just like a reflection. Once again, she encounters strange figures in a world dominated by a chess set and nursery rhyme characters, among others. But what inspired Lewis Carroll to write about a little girl having lots of adventures? In the 1850s Charles Dodgson (Carroll’s rea...

Like Father, Like Sons #20

As mentioned in earlier blogs my dad used to be a racing driver during the 1950s and ran his own team in the 1960s, travelling all over Europe in his trusty Volkswagon van with his two mechanics and driver. He didn’t have big sponsorship money behind him and most of it was done on a shoestring but he came back with lots of funny stories of their van breaking down or some rural ‘hotel’ that they had stayed in. From each country that he visited he always brought me back a doll dressed in the traditional costume of that country. There was quite a collection and I still have them; I used to put them on display in the Library when our house was open to the publ...