This Sceptred Isle The Unfolding Seasons in England Vol. III: July - September by Stuart Buchanan MacWatt Copyediting by Barbara Bell Cover Design by Bert Markgraf © 2005 Suite101.com and Individual Authors All Rights Reserved ISBN: 1-897199-11-2 Published June 2005 by Suite101.com Contents : K D W G R W K H \ N Q R Z R I ( Q J O D Q G Z K R R Q O \ ( Q J O D Q G N Q R Z " 3 U R O R J X H July Hooray Henley! Her Majesty The Queen; Seigneur of the Swans Royal Feasting at Hampton Court Palace Summer festivals and Bardic Ceremonies Game Paté, Country Gardens and English Wines Travelsleuth’s Diary of Social Events August Buckingham Palace and its Tranquil Gardens Walking in Diana’s Footsteps Far from the Madding crowds Palace, Purdey, Rod and Gibbet Travelsleuth’s Diary of Social Events September Harvest Home Summer Butterflies and Autumn Chrysanthemums Autumn Leaves 9/11. The Queen’s Tears for America Travelsleuth’s Diary of Social Events JULY Cherry ripe! Cherry ripe! Ripe I cry! Full and fair ones, Come and buy! London Street Cry, July. Hooray Henley! Filed 2000 On the first week of July I make my way up the river Thames to watch the rowing at Henley Royal Regatta. I am invited each year as a guest by Archie, my old chum from university days who once rowed for the Leander Club, the world’s oldest and most renowned rowing club. I've been a Hoods Oarsman for many a year I've spent all my money on whisky and beer From the Oriel College Boating Song The Royal Regatta attracts the cream of world rowing fraternity who come to watch five days of racing between the world’s finest rowers and scullers at international, club and student level. This is the third in the summer social season's triple crown of sporting and social events and it is unfortunate that its final day clashes with the Wimbledon finals. Most of the Royal Family have visited in recent years, and ever since Queen Victoria’s consort Prince Albert attended the racing in 1851, the reigning Monarch has served as Patron. Henley is not the most important event in the rowing calendar, but it is the surely the most fun for both participants and spectators. Henley’s Regatta is a particularly attractive event to visit if you enjoy watching the English at play with their sunhats on. The Thames here is beautiful, and the crowd who come to watch the international teams racing on the 2300 yard long stretch of the river here are picturesque in a rather dotty way. The ladies in flimsy summer dresses and wide brimmed hats vie for attention with their men folk garbed in white pants, blazers, caps or panama hats. Leander, that most prestigious of English rowing clubs has its club house just down from the finishing line. As an old Leander blade, my friend Archie will be wearing Leander pink for the occasion - pink blazer, pink cap, pink tie, and pink socks beneath his white flannels; a distinctive and quite remarkably hideous ensemble with the club motif of a hippopotamus emblazoned upon it.. For some of the club's older members who, like Archie, can now barely ease their expansive girth into their white pants and faded blazer from lissom days of youth, the club's hippo motif is perhaps not inappropriate. Overheard outside Leander. Elderly English lady to young blade in pink rowing blazer- "…. So why do you have a hippo as your mascot?" "It reminds one of mother-in-law2”. Grandiose picnics in the car-park are the norm at Henley. You are likely to see finest Irish linen tablecloths, the family silver, Waterford crystal champagne goblets, and even flowers emerge from the trunks of the Rolls-Royces and Range Rovers parked there. Fortnum & Mason doubtless do a roaring trade in their exclusive wicker picnic hampers from their Food Hall at this time of the year, as they have done for 100 years or more. This is Pimms, champagne and strawberries time in England's social calendar. Prodigious quantities of Pimms are consumed each year at the Henley Regatta on the Members Champagne Lawn or at the Fawley Bar. I have been told that half the Pimms produced each year is drunk at Henley Regatta. I can believe this, and have doubtless contributed to this statistic by my own efforts, (ably assisted by Archie) in years gone by. Oh shall I see the Thames again? The prow-promoted gems again, As beefy ATS Without their hats Come shooting through the bridge? And ‘cheerioh’ or ‘cheeri-bye’ Across the waste of waters die And low the mists of evening lie And lightly skims the midge. Henley-on-Thames. Sir John Betjeman 1906-84. Henley has its own uniquely strict dress regulations for the members' enclosures which pay scant regard to modern day mores or the occasional fluke heatwave. Ladies' hemlines must be lower than the knee; those showing the knee or wearing trousers or divided skirt are turned away from the Stewards' Enclosure. Gentlemen must wear lounge suits or flannels and club blazer with tie or cravat. If you do not wish to dress formally, simply find a spot close to the starting point and wear a comfortable summer boating outfit and straw hat. There are no dress restrictions in the Regatta Enclosure. If you have not enjoyed a Pimms before, try one this summer on a warm evening. Here is Archie’s personal recipe for a hot summer’s afternoon: Into a large jug pour 3 parts Pimms No1 and 1 part Beefeater Gin per person. Add ice. Dilute with 6 parts ice-cold Canada Dry Ginger Ale per person. Add slices of apple, orange, lemon and (ESSENTIAL ingredient X) slices of cucumber with rind. Top with sprigs of borage, (or mint) from the garden. Pour into long glasses. Drink more than two of those and your face will be as pink as Archie’s Leander blazer. I have discovered charming bed & breakfast accommodation in the hamlet of Warren Row, just outside Henley. Woodpecker Cottage is a rural dream set beside a bluebell wood. It has a large garden with croquet lawn and is a haven of peace and wildlife in the English countryside. Homemade bread and jams together with ‘homemade’ eggs from the Woodpecker cottage chickens are offered at breakfast. This joins my select Connoisseur Choice list of best B&B accommodation. The area boasts traditional pubs and fine restaurants galore for dining out. Check out Places and facilities online Henley Royal Regatta: http://www.hrr.co.uk Leander Club: http://www.leander.co.uk/ Henley Festival of Music & Arts: http://www.henley-festival.co.uk/ Woodpecker Cottage: http://www.woodpeckercottage.com Her Majesty The Queen; ‘Seigneur of the Swans’ Filed 2004 Meet David Barber. You can see him in his resplendent brass buttoned red blazer emblazoned with the royal insignia as he is rowed up the river from Sudbury to Abingdon by Thames watermen. He is The Queen's Swan Marker and each year in July he makes his annual swan census on this beautiful reach of the Thames; an 800 year old Royal custom known as Swan Upping. Most of the swans living on Britain's waterways belong to the Crown, a status enjoyed by these graceful white birds since the 12th Century. Since that time the Sovereign has protected the graceful bird and employed a member of the royal household as Swan Master. It is his job to count the season's new cygnets and, with the Queen's Swan Warden, (a position currently held by a professor at Oxford University), to check that the swan population is being maintained in a healthy environment. Each of this season's new cygnets is ringed and tallied by the Warden Until the turkey took its place, the swan was considered a banqueting delicacy to be served up at Royal feasts in Westminster Hall or in Henry VIII's Great Tudor Hall at Hampton Court. During these times strict medieval game laws with harsh penalties were administered by the sovereign in the preservation of the royal bird on the Thames. The swan upping performed the useful function of giving the Royal chefs at the various palaces, such as Hampton Court and Greenwich, notice of the number of birds available for the table. Swans are no longer eaten, but royal protective laws remain in force and swan upping now has conservation as its raison d’etre. 50 years ago the ancient royal privilege of swan ownership might have disappeared. Their royal status, together with the 800 year old Palace position of Swan Marker and Swan Warden and the royal ceremony of swan upping each July was scrutinised by Parliament with a view to cost cutting and leaving the birds to look after themselves. But when Parliament looked at the question of swan welfare in detail it became obvious that behind the ceremonial and royal livery lay an animal rights and welfare cause worth supporting if swans were to continue to thrive and grace the Thames with their beauty. The Queen's Swan Marker and Warden are accompanied on their week's journey by members of the two ancient Guilds of Vintners and Dyers who, back in the 15th century, thanks to an impecunious King Edward IV, were granted charter rights of swan ownership on the Thames in return for financial loans to the Royal person. The procession of 6 Thames skiffs with their liveried 'Swan Uppers' is rowed slowly up the Thames, as the Marker 'ups' the swans and checks them for injuries that might have been caused by vandals or angler's fish hooks and line.