Tag: Charles Dickens

The Sun Must Be Over The Yardarm

Elizabeth paid us a visit just as we were settling down with lunch and an antiques programme. She declined to join us but was happy to make herself a coffee while we turned off the TV and enjoyed a chat and an exchange of presents to be placed under our respective Christmas trees.

Afterwards I made a start on reading

This frontispiece, illustrated by the inimitable Charles Keeping, depicts ‘Carton stood over him with his hand in his breast’

The next three drawings show ‘A horse and rider came slowly through the eddying mist’;

‘ ‘I kiss your hand, miss’ ‘;

and ‘Madame Defarge said nothing when her lord came in’

This afternoon, while preparing tomorrow’s festive dinner, the Culinary Queen lost all track of time, and, thinking the sun must be over the yardarm,

brought me a glass of Lirac at ten past three.

Soon afterwards, Becky and Ian arrived. Later we were joined by Mat, Tess, and Poppy. We all dined on Mr Chan’s excellent Hordle Chinese Take Away.

Florence

One of our regular Christmas decorations is positioned under the glass of an African display table I bought in Finsbury Park in the late 1970s. It features our granddaughter Florence as Mary alongside Joseph in a Primary School Nativity Play.

I spent the afternoon completing my reading of my 1984 Folio Society Edition of Charles Dickens’s Dombey and Son. Despite the emotional and practical difficulties in the author’s getting to grips with this work described by Christopher Hibbert in his excellent introduction, Dickens has produced what I have found his most engaging novel. I agree with Thackeray’s observation that “It is unsurpassed. It is stupendous”. All the writer’s descriptive skills; his humour; his flowing prose; his compassion; and his forward looking, come into play with a consummate construction not always apparent in other works. I was most impressed by the way in which he draws a large cast of characters together in the last few paragraphs as he brings the book to a complete conclusion. The lives are largely not happy ones, but they have credible participants, of which Florence is a key member. As usual I will refrain from giving any more detail in case any readers are tempted to tackle the tome.

Charles Keeping’s final septet of illustrations speak for themselves.

‘ ‘Sol Gills ahoy’ ‘

‘A burying-ground, where the few tombs and tombstones are almost black’

‘Nothing lay there, any longer, but the ruin of the mortal house’

‘He wept, alone’

‘Down among the mast, oar, and block makers’

‘Edith sunk down to her knees, and caught her round the neck’

‘The Wooden Midshipman’

This evening we dined on Jackie’s succulent beef in red wine; creamy mashed potatoes; crunchy carrots and broccoli; firm Brussels sprouts; and tender runner beans, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Merlot.

On Bréhec Beach

Last night I began reading

and scanned, in addition to this Title Page and Frontispiece, three more of Charles Keeping’s wonderful illustrations.

‘My very particular friend Miss Tox’ has been depicted by the artist faithful to the author to the very last line.

‘Miss Tox soon returned with the party under convoy’ is again portrayed precisely as the author described.

‘The sun came with the water-carts…. and the people with the geraniums’

This was the one volume of my Folio Society that I thought I had lost, lent to a forgotten person who did not return it. Becky, however, gave me an identical copy she had tracked down for my last birthday.

I received an e-mail request from Sam for an electronic image of

himself of a colour slide I produced on Bréhec beach in Normandy in September 1982. I sent it to him. He is happy for it to appear on this blog. My father had framed an A3+ print for me, and Becky, knowing that her brother was to go on and row the Atlantic 20 years later, captioned it “One Day……”

This afternoon I posted https://derrickjknight.com/2021/10/15/a-knights-tale-51-working-with-families/

Later we took a forest drive out to Bramshaw where

the proximity of a pair of ponies caught my eye.

A helicopter chugged over Penn Common upon which

sheep. ponies, and crows shared the pasturage.

On our return ponies possessed the verges leading back to Bramshaw. The recently clipped tail of the adult suggested that a recent drift had taken place.

Elizabeth popped in for a cup of tea and to check that I had recovered from yesterday.

Afterwards Jackie and I enjoyed our second helpings of Wednesday’s Red Chilli takeaway. My wife drank Hoegaarden and I drank 1000 Stories Bourbon Barrel-Aged Zinfandel 2018, given by Jessie.

Woodland And Moorland

This morning I finished reading ‘Our Mutual Friend’ by Charles Dickens, and scanned the last three of Charles Keeping’s superb illustrations to my Folio Society edition of 1982.

‘Riderhood went over backward, Bradley Headstone upon him’

‘They both laughed, till they were tired’

‘A canopy of wet blanket seems to descend upon the company’

Christopher Hibbert’s introduction is useful and insightful.

I have to say that I found this novel at times quite heavy going. Hibbert opines that the author found the work difficult to write.

Dickens deals with the contrast between the false lives of the nouveau riche and the hardship and poverty of those living from hand to mouth. It is perhaps his distaste for the former group that makes their sequences boring to me.

The sets of parallel pairings of characters I found somewhat confusing – perhaps because I took so long to read the book. This possibly only became clear during the author’s typical summing up of how the protagonists lives panned out.

Dickens’s pacing, descriptive prose, and dry wit is still in evidence despite his struggle to complete the book.

Sensing that the River Thames itself is an important character sent me back to Peter Ackroyd’s history “Thames: Sacred River”. This former Literary Editor of The Times deals at length with our famous Victorian novelist’s drawing on the capital’s waterway, none more extensive than in ‘Our Mutual Friend’.

After lunch we sent a Birthday Card on it way from Everton Post Office, and continued briefly on a forest drive.

Burnt gorse and browned bracken straddled Holmsley Passage up which a group of women walked, passing pasturing ponies.

Among the woodland and the moorland alongside Bisterne Close grazed or dozed more ponies,

one of which enjoyed a good scratch against a convenient tree.

A log stack had been built to provide winter quarters for various forest fauna.

This evening we dined on Red Chilli’s excellent takeaway. Jackie enjoyed a Paneer Chicken starter with Saag Chicken to follow; my main choice was Tiger Prawn Dhansak. We shared Special Fried Rice and a Plain Naan. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Fleurie.

Illustrations Accommodated By The Text

Early this afternoon we discovered a leak beneath a bathroom tap, dripping into our downstairs utility room. A local plumber could only promise a visit tomorrow afternoon, but said he would try to come later today. Considering that a pretty good response given the shortage of available plumbers nearer than Geelong, we were confined indoors for the rest of the day.

This gave me the opportunity to read more of Charles Dickens’s ‘Our Mutual Friend’, and to scan six more of Charles Keeping’s illustrations demanding that the author’s text accommodate them.

‘She always walked with her husband to the railroad’ has the couple carefully placed in the background.

‘The river and its shores rang to the terrible cry she uttered’

‘ ‘If he ain’t a-going to bathe!’ ‘

‘Mr Fledgeby went rolling over and over again’

‘Dozing women-drunkards’

‘Hours and hours, days and nights he remained in this same condition’

Dave, of D J B Plumbing visited shortly before 6 p.m. and fixed the leak quite quickly at a price less than other firms’ call-out fees. He is a very engaging gentleman, too.

Afterwards we dined on Jackie’s tasty steak and onion pie; crisp Yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes; cauliflower, carrots, cabbage, and broccoli all cooked to perfection; and meaty gravy, with which she drank more of the Pinot Grigio and I drank Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2019.

Burnt Out

This morning I scanned three more of Charles Keeping’s excellent illustrations to ‘Our Mutual Friend’.

‘Conveniently elevated above the level of the living, were the dead’

‘Tippins the divine’

The artist’s inspired evocation of Dickens’s ‘The whole metropolis was a heap of vapour charged with muffled sound of wheels’ prompted me to post https://derrickjknight.com/2021/09/11/a-knights-tale-32-the-great-smog/

On a still sultry afternoon we took a drive around the forest.

Dumped beside the entrance to the paddock on Braggers Lane was a burnt out Daihatsu Fourtrak.

Whoever left it there did not destroy the number plate.

Looking over the landscape at Rockford End. we could see a sunlit distant marina.

Jackie parked beside the very narrow lane while I wandered about with my camera and photographed

a grassy verge; tumbling farm buildings in an overgrown field; a dappled bank; and a gate into a similar field

From the lane up to Gorley Common and Hyde we observed a basking herd of deer.

At the top of the hill ponies shared the pasturage with cattle. One pony found its tail in a tangle; one cow stopped the traffic.

At North Gorley three donkeys were employed clipping a hedge, and

a huntsman and hound took note of the wind direction.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s wholesome cottage pie; crunchy carrots; tender cabbage and runner beans, with meaty gravy. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and I drank Cepa Lebrel Gran Reserva Rioja 2011.

A Dazzled Spider

With our dry heat now reaching 30C we carried out watering this afternoon before retreating indoors where I posted: https://derrickjknight.com/2021/09/07/a-knights-tale-29-early-interviews/ ,

read more of Dickens’s Our Mutual friend and scanned the next five of Charles Keeping’s Inimitable illustrations.

‘The objectionable Sloppy’

‘She folded her hand round Lizzie’s neck, and rocked herself on Lizzie’s breast’

‘Riderhood looked amazedly from his visitor to his daughter’

‘Limehouse Hole’

‘Betty Higden gravely shook her head’

Early this evening as we sat drinking water and Diet Coke on the decking the unrelenting sun beat down so hard that all was silent.

A wood pigeon confused its claws with fleur-de-lys.

Sunlight dazzled a spider which dropped its dangling prey;

after which Jackie photographed it on its trapeze.

This evening we dined on pork shoulder steaks; tasty gravy; fried onions and mushrooms; crisp Yorkshire puddings; boiled new potatoes; firm carrots and cauliflower, with which neither of us imbibed.

Completing West Bed Planting

On a very dull, overcast, afternoon we shopped at Otter Nurseries for tree bark with which to mulch Jackie’s further planting in the recently opened up West Bed, then continued for a brief drive into the forest where we found nothing to photograph in such poor light.

While Jackie completed the dressing of the soil,

I posted https://derrickjknight.com/2021/08/30/a-knights-tale-24-enter-gwen-to-the-rescue/

Later, I scanned the next six of Charles Keeping’s illustrations to Charles Dickens’s ‘Our Mutual Friend’.

‘Tradesmen’s books hunger, and tradesmen’s mouths water’

‘There was a deadly kind of repose on the place’

‘ ‘Oh-h-h!’ cried the person of the house’

The artist has used a double page spread to show ‘Boots and Brewer bolting off in cabs’ in opposite directions.

‘At times Mrs Lammle would lean forward to address Mr Lammle’ demonstrates Keeping’s mastery of expression.

‘An old Jewish man in an ancient coat’

This evening we dined on perfectly roasted pork with crisp crackling; boiled new potatoes; crunchy carrots and cauliflower; tender runner beans, and tasty gravy, in the non-availabilty of pork stock cubes, made by adding those of chicken and ham to the juices from the meat. Neither of us imbibed..

On The Approach To September

After lunch on a warmly sun-kissed day I poked my camera out of the upstairs windows to introduce it to

the garden views on the approach to September.

I then read more of Charles Dickens’s ‘Our Mutual Friend’, and scanned the next four of Charles Keeping’s memorable illustrations.

‘She sat on the ground, with her face leaning on her hand’

‘The bird of prey lay stretched upon the shore’

‘A gloomy house the Bower’

‘Hooked on the board by the armpits was a young gentleman of tender years’

Early this evening I posted https://derrickjknight.com/2021/08/25/a-knights-tale-21-the-summer-of-1947/

Later, we dined on Red Chilli excellent takeaway fare. We ordered enough for two days, consisting of Saag Chicken, Saag and Onion Bhajis, Tandoori King Prawn Naga, Paneer Tikka, Egg Fried Rice, and a plain Naan. Jackie drank more of the Greco di Tufo and I drank more of the Dao.

The West Fence Trellis

Jackie spent most of a day that was dull, warm, humid, and oppressed by a burnished gunmetal canopy overhead,

occupied opening up the trellis at the back of the West fence to the nevertheless absent sunlight. At intervals I removed several trugloads of clippings and weeds to the

compost bins and the ever-increasing

piles destined for the dump.

This afternoon I published https://derrickjknight.com/2021/08/18/a-knights-tale-18-in-the-bush/

Later, I scanned the next five of Charles Keeping’s inimitable illustrations to Dickens’s ‘Our Mutual Friend’.

‘ ‘Here’s my father’s, sir’ ‘

‘Bella was seated on the rug, a handful of brown curls in her mouth’

In ‘Mr Wegg was an observant person’ the artist uses a double spread to advertise the stall-holder’s services.

‘The bar of the Six Jolly Fellowship-Porters’

‘Stumping with fresh vigour, he goes in at the dark greasy entry’

This evening we dined on oven fish and chips, onion rings, and garden peas, with which Jackie drank more of the Sauvignon Blanc and I drank more of the Comté Tolosan Rouge.