The Cities...

Smithfield Market before the buildings, 1855, in the Illustrated London News (Image source)

I really want to sit down and do a proper blog post as I do have several things up my sleeve. Unfortunately I've found myself terribly busy over the past month as I'm starting a new job! This means I have lots of things I'm having to get organised and finished, inside and outside of work hours, and I'm quickly running out of time...

I intentionally make sure to be quite obtuse about the specifics of my work on this blog, to keep things separate and to make sure that I don't step on the toes of professionalism, confidentially and all that. Though I can say that I am rather sad to be leaving my current job in Smithfield, where I have been based for over six years... But I am also terribly excited to be taking up my new job in Westminster, where I will now be based.

So, from offices in the historic City of London - the heart of England's commerce - to offices in the historic City of Westminster - the heart of England's parliament. What new streets and treasures will I discover on my lunchtime strolls, I wonder?

Westminster from the River, 1792, by Samuel Ireland (Image source)

Fashion & Gardens

The other weekend, I went along to the Garden Museum to see the current exhibition, Fashion & Gardens: Spring/Summer - Autumn/Winter. The exhibition traced the connections between garden styles and clothes fashion from the sixteenth century through to the modern day. As the blurb on the Garden Museum's website explains, 'Both gardens and dress aim to bring a sense of occasion to a season. Midsummer is more authentic if passed among organza and roses; russet velvet and gold-licked chrysanthemums concentrate our senses that autumn has arrived.' If you've followed either my posting of monthly personifications or my visits to Kew, you won't be surprised to hear that this exhibition immediately grabbed my attention.

Artwork by Rebecca Louise Law... If only I had a space in which to hang hundreds
of dried flowers...

It was a very... shall we say 'compact' exhibition but it was fascinating and I feel that I came out having learnt a whole lot more than I knew when I went in. And the advantage of smaller exhibitions is that you ultimately take more time to appreciate each item.

So what did I learn? I learnt about the correlation between the patterns in Elizabethan knotwork gardens and the patterns on their clothing and upholstery, demonstrated in the exhibition with the display of exquisite embroidery. I also learnt that, while floral patterns on fabrics were popular throughout much of the eighteenth century, there was a transition from sparser patterns to busier, more clustered patterns. So if I see someone in a period drama set in the 1780s, wearing a lightly patterned floral dress, I can now titter knowingly about how deeply unfashionable they are.

One of the things that I found particularly interesting, as someone quite affected by colours, was learning how trends in colours changed both in the fashion world and in gardens. The introduction of chemical (rather than plant-derived, natural) dyes made all sorts of rich, vibrant colours possible in the nineteenth century. As methods improved, production increased and prices came down, these bright colours entered the middle-class and lower-class markets. At the same time, the numerous new public gardens established in cities to provide the general public with green spaces within dense urban areas in the mid-nineteenth century were frequently planted with bright, hardy flowers. As a result, there was a backlash, and the upper classes made a return to soft, subtle colours for their clothes, achieved with natural, high quality dyes, while their private gardens and preferred flowers followed suit.

'None of those obvious, bright colours for us, thank you very much. We're ladies.'
Miss Martineau's Garden, John Sant, 1873 (Image source)

Also interesting was the development of garden fashions and country style, in which, as the exhibition proudly pointed out, the Brits lead the world (partly because of our love of gardens, partly because of our rubbish weather and the waterproof nature of garden and country wear, from Burberry macs, through Barbour waxed jackets, to Hunter wellies). This 'dressed down' style, which was still posh enough to differentiate the gentlemen from the labouring gardeners, began in the eighteenth century as a result of trends for connecting with nature, albeit in a highly controlled manner. Think the 'natural' but in reality highly structured Picturesque gardens with, for instance, cattle forming part of the vista from your French windows, but nicely kept at bay with a ha-ha so that they didn't actually come up and nibble and defecate on your carefully maintained lawn... Along with all this a slightly more casual 'outdoor' clothing style was adopted by the upper classes, to allow them to get down and dirty with a spot of poking around in the garden.

Kate Middleton effortlessly bringing the 'country chic' look
(Image source)

Even the French admit defeat by the Brits on the mac style front
(Image source)

Following the Fashion & Gardens exhibition, I had a wander around the rest of the museum. I've been here for talks and into the garden when the museum was closed for renovation a few years ago, but never properly explored the permanent collection. Again, it's small, but lovely. 

Scarecrow in cute cat form, c.1920s

'Seeds for sale'

The carrots are only intermediate...

... but the rhubarb is GIANT!

But they both pale in comparison to this prize tomato

The museum is located in a disused church, and on the way out of the building I noticed the memorial below in the entrance porch. Unfortunately, the bottom of it was covered up but I was suitably intrigued - 'killed by thunder and lightning'? At the tender age of 34? There's got to be more to that story, surely?

To the memory of William Bacon
of the Salt Office, London, Gent.
who was killed by thunder & lightning
at his window July 12th 1787
Aged 34 years

Dear Tess...

Illustration from The Graphic in 1891 (Image source)

So, I recently read Tess of the D'Urbervilles for the first time ever and I may or may not be a little bit obsessed with it now... If you've not read it, I would highly, highly recommend it. It is one of Thomas Hardy's most famous works and was originally published in serial form in The Graphic magazine in 1891. I don't know if I could have handled reading it in serial form, having to wait between each edition of the magazine, as I absolutely devoured it.

1892 edition cover (Image source)

It's a perfect Victorian melodramatic tragedy. And although poor, sweet Tess suffers blow after blow and is let down by various men, and in some ways is hopelessly meek, I also found it unexpectedly empowering as she ploughed on despite the odds against her. It's all just beautifully written and terribly, terribly Romantic too. Call me sentimental, but I also just loved the romance at the core of it all, even as things go horribly wrong and the young, foolish lovers really make awful decisions and screw things up for each other and for themselves. That's more like life, isn't it? The ending too, is strangely happy, despite the fact it's actually hopelessly depressing...

Frontispiece from 1920s edition (Image source)

If you've not read it, and you don't know the story of it, I hope this has suitably intrigued you. Even though, as I said, it's perfectly Victorian and the central story revolves around the principles of a culture which has thoroughly changed in many respects in the Western world, it still feels remarkably relevant and fresh. Well, let's face it, although women are no longer explicitly judged on their purity or otherwise, and double standards aren't quite so severe as they were a century ago, we can certainly still feel affinity with a girl being tossed around and torn apart by men and her own self-judgement. 

Recent edition cover (Image source)

But, yes, ever so slightly obsessed. It's probably a bit much to read it again immediately, especially when I have so many other things on my reading list... although I have been sneaking back to certain bits and lingering over them again. A friend mentioned that he watched the 1970s version many years ago and I did try to look it up out of curiosity, to see how it was rendered. I wasn't able to find it online but I came across the BBC serialised version made in 2008 and, although I haven't watched the whole thing yet, I have browsed through. (Can you browse through a TV show? Well, you apparently can online.) It's quite good - very picturesque and Gemma Arterton is a fox. (I'm allowed to say that - Tess is supposed to be easy on the eyes...)

Gemma Arterton in the 2008 BBC version (Image source)

Still I can't get it out of my brain though, and so I've been conjuring up plans to go on a pilgrimage to Wessex. Hardy based his novels in a semi-fictional south-west of England, named after the ancient Saxon kingdom of Wessex and covering the counties around Dorset and Wiltshire and such. He made up names for the various places in his stories but they are apparently based around real towns and cities. So I'm now planning out a trip, to hopefully take place in Spring - I'm thinking about May Day, as the time of year the novel begins... Definitely on my list of locations is Bindon Abbey, apparently the inspiration for one of the most striking scenes of the novel... though apparently these days the ruins are in the grounds of a health spa, which won't be quite the same as the image in my head, conjured up by Hardy.

Bindon Abbey in Tess' time (Image source)

Have you read, or seen, Tess of the D'Urbervilles? What are your thoughts? Did you like Tess or find her insipid? Did it make you rage against men or just sigh at the world and human complexity and ill-judgement? And have you read any other Hardy? Is it worth me trying another or will it be another case of the time I was enthralled by Oliver Twist, assumed I would like all Dickens, but then wanted to bash my head against the desk as I forced my way through the trite and awful David Copperfield...? Do share!

February? Is That You?

Last weekend I went on my latest adventure to Kew Gardens, as I continue to make the most of my membership. I've now had August, October and December in Kew and January at its sister site of Wakehurst in Sussex. Sunday's trip had an extra adventure in that I cycled all the way there - that's 13 miles, ladies and gentlemen! It was mostly along the river and was awfully pleasant, particularly once I got through the centre of London. Cycling along the Embankment and river path at Putney was especially lovely - people were strolling along, enjoying the sun and there was a fleet of sail boats out on the Thames. I would have stopped to take photos but it was already quite late in the day and I didn't want to delay my arrival at Kew any longer.

And when I got to Kew? Well, Spring has well and truly arrived. It really did not feel like mid-February, with the warm sunshine out in its full glory and all sorts of flowers already sprung to life. Last year, I struggled to find a few daffodils at the very end of March. This year, there's already snow drops and daffodils by the hundreds, not to mention crocuses.

So I enjoyed my wander around the gardens, spotting all the signs of life, not only in the bright flowers on the ground but also the hints of green budding from the trees. I ended up exploring a little corner of the garden which I've not been in before as well, which was a treat. Here are some of my snaps I took as I wandered about. You will notice a few bare branches here, giving away the true season, even if the blue, blue skies might have you thinking of a later one for a moment.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any snaps of my outfit in my usual tradition - a combination of having limited time as I arrived there quite late in the day, fading light, and a popular day in the gardens leaving me little opportunity away from people to set up the camera on timer to grab some shots... However, it was worth missing out on posing about in front of the camera in order to catch the orchids exhibition in the Princess of Wales Conservatory, and the fun displays encapsulating the exotic expeditions of Victorian plant-hunters.

I also admired some Amazonian fish in the Conservatory, adding to my list of means to entice The Cat to come to Kew with me on one of my future adventures. It can be hard, sometimes, convincing boys to frolic in gardens... It's just a good thing I'm happy floating about on my own!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, and enjoy any early signs of Spring that you encounter.