Saturday July 26 - Sunday July 27

Saturday, July 26th – All Day Family Gathering in Launton
Today was the long-planned gathering at Rosemarie & Ian’s home. Initially Rosemarie had wanted this to be a surprise party for us, but just before we left for England, she decided that in practicality, a surprise would not work, and so we knew all about what was planned, and who to expect to be there. She and Ian had spent most of Friday buying all kinds of food for the party, and sorting out plates, dishes, etc., and on Saturday morning we all were busy with final preparations. First to arrive was Rosemarie’s daughter, Vera, and her 17 and 14 yr. old daughters, Hollie & Leah, and they also helped with the final set-up. Earlier in the morning it had looked like it might rain, but the sun came out and stayed out all day—in fact it was hot! This was great because R&I’s little home would not easily have accommodated everybody inside (including ourselves and R&I, we ended up with 22 at the gathering), and we had two tables and lots of chairs on the back patio.
Everyone who came had driven from the “Black Country” area of the English Midlands, where Bob and Rosemarie had lived as children, and where Rosemarie lived until she married Ian in 2002. Two couples who came, Doreen & Gwyn, and Carol & Malcolm, are old friends of Rosemarie’s, and over the years they have become pretty much part of “the family”. Additionally, another "local" friend, Julia, came. More about Julia tomorrow, but she and her husband Roger are members of the TR Club (Chiltern TRs) that R&I belong to. (This is a club for owners of vintage Triumph sports cars, and Ian owns a pale yellow TR6, that is appropriately named "Primrose". ) All the other people who came for the gathering are cousins (and their spouses) of Bob & Rosemarie, all sharing the same (long deceased) grandparents, Granny & Granddad Harrington, who had eight daughters (Anna, Rose, Kate, Margaret, Mary Ellen, Winnie, May, Lily) and one son, Billy. Mary Ellen was Bob and Rosemarie’s mother. Winnie was the mother of Cousin Colin Gould, who came with wife Pauline. C&P were married soon after us, and back in the mid-60’s we often went out in the evenings as a foursome. Colin & Pauline brought with them Cousin Margaret Burns, the oldest living cousin, now 87, and her mother was Kate. May was the mother of Cousin Michael Dutton, who came with his wife Maureen. M&M have been married longer than us, and if my memory serves me correctly, it was Maureen’s “tiara” that I wore on top of my veil at our wedding, as the “something borrowed”! Billy was the father of the two cousins who came who still bear the Harrington surname: Derek, and Martin with his wife Tessa. M&T live the farthest away from R&I, in Lancashire, and they also brought their little grandson Adam with them. Bob could write a whole blog about his life as a child in Wednesbury and about all his “cousins and his aunts” (on the Brookes side of the family, his father was one of at least 7 brothers and sisters who survived childhood, so that added plenty to the number of his cousins!). For those of you still reading all this family stuff here in our blog, especially friends in USA, just for interest’s sake, one other of the Harrington sisters, Margaret (Ramsdale) was the mother of Cousin Bernard, who lives in Myrtle Beach on the same street as us, and who instigated our going on the Alaska cruise in June with him and wife Arline.
Back to the party—much chatting, eating (heaps of good old English party cold food, and a pot of chili for good measure) and drinking (hot English tea, as well as beer, wine and soft drinks) went on from noontime through the afternoon. Then Rosemarie’s son-in-law, the revving Reverend Garry Ward, husband of Vera and father of Hollie & Leah, arrived on his Harley. He’d been officiating at a wedding so could only come later to the party. On his arrival the BBQ was lit, and that was a near disaster, but fortunately ended only with very charred hamburgers, and a scorched hand for Malcolm. I’ll say no more about the BBQ fire, only that Bob had nothing to do with it, and that by the time the party was ending, the coals were then perfect for cooking over! It was a lovely day and summer evening, and all too soon the folks were bidding their farewells and leaving for home. Martin, Tessa and little Adam went off to stay overnight at a nearby B&B, and Derek, who was going to stay with them there too, was the only one left with R&I and us to watch Garry roar away on his Harley with Leah as his pillion passenger, and Vera & Hollie drive off sedately in the family van. We were soon doing a quick clear up and putting away left-overs, and then off to bed for a good sleep before another long day ahead on Sunday.

Sunday July 27th, Waddesdon Manor and another “Get Together”

On Sunday, after a hearty breakfast, we drove to Waddesdon (pronounced “Wodsdon”) Manor in Buckinghamshire, which was built by Ferdinand de Rothschild in 1874, after he had purchased the land from the Duke of Marlborough. http://www.waddesdon.org.uk/
The house is built in the French Renaissance Chateau style and has a similar look to Biltmore in Ashville North Carolina, although Waddesdon is smaller in size (Biltmore was the largest private residence in America when it was opened in 1895). http://www.biltmore.com/
The history of the Rothschilds is quite fascinating, but too detailed to go into here. Ferdinand de Rothschild married his cousin Evelina who died in childbirth (as well as the child) in 1866 and he never re-married. He also never worked! By the way, Ferdinand was one of six cousin to cousin marriages in the Rothschild family tree as depicted in the Guide. I’m not sure if that is legal anymore? Ferdinand died in 1898 and the Manor was left to his unmarried sister Alice, who looked after the house until she died in 1922, when she left the house to James Rothschild who was married, but childless. During World War II, the Manor became home to a hundred children under five who had been evacuated from London and James and his wife moved into the Bachelors Wing and never returned to the main house. When James died in 1957, the house was left to the National Trust. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waddesdon_Manor

We toured the main house with the personal audio tapes and thoroughly enjoyed it. We are so lucky that these beautiful stately homes are still available for the current and future generations to enjoy. The grounds of the Manor are also beautiful and we spent a fair amount of time at the aviary, where they maintain endangered species such as the Rothschild Mynah (named after Ferdinand’s nephew Walter (Lord Rothschild II)), an ornithologist, a species that became extinct in the wild in 2004. We then had a picnic lunch (left-overs from Saturday’s party) under the trees near the aviary, and enjoyed the shade from the hot sun. (Yes, two days in a row of sunshine and high temperatures!) It was a lovely visit.

Now we had to rush back to Launton to prepare for our evening visitors. Rosemarie had “bumped into” a couple of South Africans during the months leading up to our visit and had asked them to come and visit us on this Sunday evening. They had met a young couple at the local village church - Jakob (pronounced Yakob), an Afrikaans speaking South African and his wife Melanie who is German. Then there was Wicus (pronounced Vickus – also an Afrikaans speaking South African) and his wife Velda whom Rosemarie had met on a bus trip and she thought they would be delighted to meet someone who had also lived in SA. Rosemarie had also spoken with her TR club friend, Julia, who thought an army colonel she had worked for might have gone to the Duke of York’s Royal Military School, Dover (see Thursday 07/03- Friday 07/04 post), so Rosemarie wrote to him and invited him to come. He called and said that he hadn’t gone to the school but had lived in Dover and had knowledge of the school, so she told him to come anyway. When Rosemarie was telling us about this and told us his name was Brian Mobley, Alison said she had a feeling the name rang a bell and a little later said: “I think there was a Brian Mobley in my class at primary school.” (That was when she was 8-10 years old). In addition, Rosemarie & Ian had also invited Julia & Roger and some other personal friends from the village to meet us: David & Diane Carpen, and Rob & Gaye Cornford. Gaye is SA born but has lived in UK for many years. Rob works for Oxfam and has been to Botswana many times and also to SA. That evening, we were once more out on the back patio as the people began to arrive. A tall, slim gentleman came through the glass door from the conservatory onto the patio and Alison turned to me and said “That’s him!”, meaning it was the Brian Mobley she was at school with. As he was introduced, Alison said “Broadlees Primary School, Dover, 1957” and he said “How do you know that” and she said “Because I was there”. How about that for recall and coincidence from more than 50 years ago! Alison later explained that she had lain in bed the previous night and “developed” in her mind an image of the Brian Mobley she had known as a 9-10 year old, so when she saw the 61 year old guy, she immediately knew he was the same person. Obviously there quickly was a “Do you remember when (or who)” conversation going on between Alison and Brian. Meanwhile I was talking to Jakob and Wicus and their respective wives. Jakob had been a game ranger in SA, working at one of the game parks outside of Port Elizabeth, very close to Shamwari, which we know well. http://www.shamwari.com/properties/default.asp Jakob met his wife Melanie in South Africa while she was there as part of her studies in the hospitality business. We had a nice conversation about Port Elizabeth and its environs. Wicus was from Cape Town and he met Velda while she was on vacation in SA visiting family (she was living in England at the time), so I assume it was a “whirlwind romance”. He is divorced from his wife in SA, and has three adult children who still live there, so I expect it was difficult for him to leave SA to marry his new love. We talked about Knysna and the Garden Route and all things South African. At one point I went to fetch more drinks and by the time I got back, Jakob had exchanged seats with his wife Melanie and was now seated next to Wicus and they were both chatting away to each other in Afrikaans. Altogether it was a great evening and we must thank Rosemarie for putting the event together. We know that some of the South Africans exchanged addresses and phone numbers and left with promises of staying in touch with each other. We look forward to any updates that Rosemarie & Ian can give us in the future. It was late when we got to bed.