Frances was driven here from Swindon by a friend, and collected by Jacqueline for lunch at Elizabeth’s where they will spend the weekend. Over coffee and cake Jackie and I enjoyed a morning of reminiscences and revelations with our sister-in-law and my sister.
This afternoon, stopping off at Otter Nursery for yet more bulbs, we took a forest drive.
We got no further than the Parish Church of St John the Baptist at Boldre which took us on a virtual journey to Sydney, Australia.
At Church Lane we stopped for me to photograph reflected trees bowing over the still stream.
Around the corner we were attracted by a banner stretched on the church fence celebrating the tercentenary of the birth of Rev William Gilpin.
Unusually the doors – a memorial to John Bousquet Field, his wife, Cecilia, and their 16 year old grandson, Thomas Mostyn Field, midshipman on HMS Mary sunk at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 – were unlocked.
As shown by the list of incumbents on the wall, Gilpin was the vicar from 1777 – 1804.
This text from Lt Col Peter Chitty can be enlarged in the gallery, as can the following extract from Chitty’s pamphlet below.
It is Rev Richard Johnson who
takes us with the First Fleet to Botany Bay, arriving in 1788. The story, featuring in the caption beneath Brian J Down’s drawing of St Philip’s Anglican Church, can be enlarged in the gallery. When I visited Sydney in 2008 many shops carried lists of the names of those first passengers in their windows. I imagine they are still there. Please note Garrulous Gwendoline’s comments below for her important observations on both the First and Second Fleets.
Jackie produced these images of the exquisitely carved lectern
and the flower arrangements in situ.
Field horses are at home in the pastures below the church.
This evening we dined on Tesco’s Kentucky Fried Chicken; onion rings, chips, baked beans, cauliflower and its chopped leaves with which I drank more of the Haut-Médoc.