BOOK REVIEW THE PAPER GARDEN Mrs Delany [Begins Her This book has a wonderful mixture of delights: visually it is engaging with the flower creations standing out as Life’s Work] at 72 they do against their black backgrounds; the narrative is very cleverly constructed around the images; the humanity of the story, with its central relationships By Molly Peacock between Mary and the Dean and Mary and her Duchess friend, are at times very moving and uplifting. Published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC ISBN 978 1 4088 2938 7 Let me introduce you to Mrs Delany, a remarkable C18th lady, who at the age of seventy two invented a new way of creating botanical pictures from paper cut- outs. Over a period of ten years she created nearly a thousand ‘mosaicks’ and her skill was such that even today botanists refer to her collages for their accuracy. Molly Peacock, the author of ‘The Paper Garden’, is a Canadian poet who fell in love with Mrs Delany’s work on seeing an exhibition of her pictures as a student in 1986 in New York. She has brought her considerable writing skills to bear to tell an engaging tale of the C18th where Mary Delany rubs shoulders with Swift, Handel, Hogarth, and even Queen Charlotte and King Many pleasures await you should you decide to make George III. the acquaintance of Mary Delany! After a first forced unhappy marriage to an older man - Gloria Hammond who did the honourable thing and died - she went on to find deep love and companionship with Dean Since Gloria wrote this book review many members Patrick Delany, a Protestant Irish clergyman and friend will know that John, her husband, died of cancer on of Jonathan Swift. She was married to him for nearly November 21st. This article is a fitting tribute to John, twenty five years; years of happiness and harmony in because his relationship with Gloria was a most loving which together they created their beloved garden at and dedicated one mirroring that of Patrick and Mary Delville near Dublin and, no doubt, where Mary began Delany. John was a committed member of BDFAS – her love affair with flowers. serving as Treasurer for 11 years. He will be sorely missed by us all. It was four years after his death while staying with her friend Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, the Duchess A reminder to members of the opportunity to submit Dowager of Portland, at the estate of Bulstrode, that their own review of a book they would like to draw to Mary noticed a petal fall from a geranium and picking our attention. Please send to me at up her scissors fashioned a replica from some paper [email protected] of similar colour which was among her work things. At the age of seventy two a new adventure of creation had begun. Visit to The Pallant Gallery, After a short drive along narrow leaf-canopied lanes we arrived at Uppark to have three hours in which to th Chichester & Uppark House enjoy the 17 century house and the panoramic views July 10th 2013 over the parkland and countryside stretching down to the Solent. A very early start but a relaxed journey to a sunny bustling Chichester. The 15th Century Market Cross a splendid focal point not forgetting the Cathedral. A short walk and we were in Pallant West and the gracious Pallant House was there in front of us. I understand Pallant refers to this particular piece of land which belongs to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The roads across this land are South Pallant, North Pallant, East and West. We were divided into two modest groups and were guided around the permanent collection of furniture, art works etc. A magnificent display of porcelain was mounted on a wall of the staircase, each delicate piece on its personal small shelf. Uppark House by Keith Rose Many familiar modern artists were represented in the collection, Bacon, Freud, Nash, Feddon, Lowry, Sickert. A wide range – eclectic. Built in 1690 and then transformed greatly after 1747 when the estate was bought by Sir Matthew The Eduardo Paolozzi exhibition was diverse. I had Fetherstonhaugh, the house has wonderful ceilings, only known of him as a sculptor with a distinctive style fireplaces, carved woodwork and is filled with but he produced a variety of art works. We saw fabric paintings, furniture etc. brought back from several and tapestry, prints, ceramics and drawings. grand tours of Italy, and all of the highest quality. What is really amazing is that following a serious fire in 1989, so much has had to be restored and you would never know that the interior decoration was not original. The National Trust has taken enormous care to match colours and fabrics and craftsmen have relearned the old skills and have set new standards for the conservation of fire-damaged buildings. Below stairs we saw the kitchen and servants’ rooms and the long damp tunnels linking the house and the kitchen in the eastern wing. Above stairs we saw sumptuous rooms filled with the most fashionable items of their time and we heard of the colourful characters connected with the house over the years. Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh, a good friend of the Prince Regent, enjoyed good food, horse-racing and regular parties including one where the young Emma Hamilton danced naked on the dining-room table!! At the age of 71 he married his dairymaid breaking every rule of convention for the time. She stepped from below stairs It seems one of his enthusiasms was collage and to above stairs and remained in the house after his some were screen printed on wallpaper and fabric, death 20 years later until her own. Horrockses dresses. The young H.G.Wells grew up here as his mother was He was Italian, born 1924 of immigrant ice cream the housekeeper in the 1880’s and he remembered his sellers in Leith. Many years ago on holiday in days in Uppark in his novel Tono-Bungay. Sir Edinburgh I saw a sculpture being mounted outside Humphry Repton, to name but one of the leading the Roman Catholic Cathedral, one by Eduardo names associated with Uppark, redecorated the Paolozzi. house and modernised the garden 1811-14. Next time you use the tube, notice the mosaics in Whether it is the 1735-40 doll’s house, the fragrant cut Tottenham Court Road Station – an artist of many flower displays throughout or the gardens revitalised disciplines. Well worth our visit to this display of such after 80% of the mature trees were lost in the storm of a multi talented mans craft. October 1889, Uppark is most memorable to visit. Chris Shaw Pam Aikman VISITS JANUARY – JULY 2014 Alfred Felton The Hidden Jewels of the Cheapside Hoard Local lad makes good in OZ – 19 March In 1912 workmen demolishing a building in London’s Cheapside made an extraordinary Good on yer Sport! discovery – a dazzling hoard of nearly 500 Elizabethan and Jacobean jewels. For the Without argument, and excluding Alistair Cook, the first time since this discovery the Collection England cricket captain, the best known Maldonian in will be on display at the Museum of London. Melbourne, Victoria and possibly in the whole of Our visit will commence with a special expert Australia is Alfred Felton. Alfred was born in Maldon in talk following which there will be time for lunch humble surroundings on 8th November 1831, the 5th and independent viewing of the Collection. child of a family of 6 sons and 3 daughters belonging to Thomas Felton, a tanner and his wife, Hannah. It is Turner Contemporary Gallery and Pugin’s thought that Alfred may have been an apprentice with House – 4 June an apothecary in England before he decided to seek Situated on Margate’s seafront, on the same his fortune ‘down under’ sailing in the ship, ‘California‘, site where Turner stayed when visiting the to join the gold rush in Victoria not as a miner but as a town, the Gallery is the largest exhibition clerk and administrator. space in the South East, outside of London. Turner Contemporary’s purpose is to stretch He did well as by 1857 he was in business in the boundaries of current visual arts practice Melbourne as a commission agent and dealer involved and to bridge the gap between the historical in the import of general merchandise for a burgeoning and the contemporary. population. Later he was described as a wholesale druggist. In 1867 he bought the wholesale drug house Our visit to The Grange, Ramsgate, follows of Youngman & Co in partnership with Frederick the March lecture “Pugin and The Gothic Grimwade. The partnership flourished and expanded Revival”. Victorian architect and designer, into related industries of glass bottle production and August Pugin, designed The Grange in the the manufacture of artificial manures. Alfred also Victorian Gothic style and died there in 1852 bought some large estates in the state of Victoria. He at the age of only 40. He is buried in the lived simply and never married. His wants were few impressive Pugin chantry chapel in St and he gave money to good causes but also collected Augustine’s Church (next to the house) also books and art works. In later life he occupied a suite designed by him and completed by his eldest of rooms in a local hotel where he died in January son, Edward. 1904 a very wealthy man. He left his considerable fortune of £378,033,the equivalent of some 40 million Peckover House (NT) and Octavia Hill’s Australian dollars in today’s money, in the form of the House – 8 July Felton Bequest.