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Published: July 20th 2015
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Dickens Fellowship speakers & MC
Alan, Eileen, Paul, Thelma & Russell On our first day back in London Kev and John went to the Naval Museum at Greenwich, taking the boat from the city while I headed off to the National Gallery. After a cursory look around there I made my way onto the underground to Holborn where I was to meet Sandra at High Holborn. I arrived an hour early thanks to the fact that my phone, which is my timepiece, was still on European time as it hadn't adjusted itself to GMT. Silly me, so that was an extra hour when I could have been enjoying more of the treasures at the National Gallery! Finally, when Sandra arrived I was to discover that she was actually ten minutes early and not late as I was thinking at the time. Ah well!
Sandra and I then went off to attend a Dickens Fellowship meeting which proved to be great fun. It wasn't the usual meeting format but took the form of a debate of sorts. The scenario was that four of Dickens' villains were in a hot air balloon together and one was to be thrown off. At least I think that was it, hope I'm correct Sandra! So four
members of the Society each made the case as to why the villain they were representing should not be the one to go. Eileen was the first cab off the rank and she made the case for Sir John Chester, a character in "Barnaby Rudge" who was purported to be based on Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773). She was followed by Thelma who spoke on behalf of Jonas Chuzzlewick from the novel "Martin Chuzzlewick" then it was the turn of Alan who gave a spirited account of what he considered were the good points of Fagan, the character everyone knows from the novel "Oliver Twist". Finally it was the turn of Russell who became Compeyson; the man who jilted Miss Havisham in "Great Expectations". Despite giving a great account of himself he was the one voted off; personally I thought Sir John Chester - due to his selfish manipulation of others - should have been the one to go.
It was great fun but the fun didn't stop once the meeting finished; the great majority of us went to the Coco Momo Wine Bar - close by to the venue where the meeting was held - for a drink and some
Sisters! Charlotte & Michelle
Notice that it's at the Costa Coffee place! socialising. In fine form, on the way to the bar we entertained ourselves (and no doubt others) with a glorious rendition of "Oom Pah Pah".
The day ended with dinner at Sandra and John's local pub once all four of us arrived back from our seperate excursions.
On Sunday Kev and I met up with Charlotte and John at Kings Cross station; after cuddles and kisses all round we headed for the nearest Costa coffee house (Charlotte's favourite blend!) to catch up on all the family news. Since we hadn't see each other for a couple of years there was lots of news to catch up on! A walk to Euston station to catch the overground to Kensal Green gave us more 'chit-chat' time, followed by a drink and eats at a local pub. The it was off to meet Signe at Kensal Green cemetery, Sandra having organised for her to give us a Dickens related tour. The cemetery is in both Kensington and Chelsea, inspired by the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Opened in 1833 as London's first garden cemetery and comprising of 72 acres of grounds, Kensal Green Cemetery has a host of different memorials and
mausoleums housing the rich, the famous and also a fair share of paupers. I took so many photos (after all I have a reputation as a 'snappy tom' to keep up) of different graves which where of interest to me but decided not to bore you with them all.
And we weren't able to go into the Catacombs - which Sandra told me were very spooky - but amongst the many down there are Henry Mayhew (1812-1887), author of "London Labour and the London Poor". Another was Lady Jane Franklin (1792-1875) whose husband SirJohn Franlin (1786-1847) was the Lieutenant-Governer of Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania) before embarking on an expedition searching for the Northwest Passage, never to be seen again with the fate of all those with him unknown. However in1854, the Scottish explorer Dr John Rae, while surveying in the area for the Hudson's Bay Company, discovered the true fate of the Franklin party from talking to Inuit hunters. It turns out that both ships in the expedition had become icebound, the men had tried to reach safety on foot but had succumbed to cold and evidence found showed that some had resorted to cannibalism. It was this incident,
Charlotte, John, Kev & Michelle
About to start the Kensal Green Cemetery tour when it became public, which lead Lady Franklin to refute these findings, gain the support of Dickens and Wilkie Collins who wrote the play "The Frozen Deep". Acting in the play himself Dickens employed the actress Ellen Ternan to play one of he other roles. Ellen Ternan eventually became Dickens' mistress and for whom he left his wife. There is of course much more to the story but I'd better stick to details about the cemetery tour! If you're really interested to find out more why not join the NSW Dickens Society; check out our webpage at http://dickenssydney.com. But there are just so many famous and unknown interesting people in there; I want to go back one day to hear more of the stories! Indeed amongst the 250,000 interments, there are over 550 members of the titled nobility and over 700 with entries in the UK's "Dictionary of National Biography".
Amongst these are many Dickens related people buried there such as Wilkie Collins, George Cruikshank, John Forster and others, too numerous to mention. For me, one of the fascinating non-Dickens related graves was that of Oscar Wildes's mother who had numerous non-related still-births and babies who died not long
after birth buried with her.
There are also members of the Hogarth family there including George Hogarth - the father of Catherine Hogarth who Dickens married in 1836. But the member of the Hogarth family I'd especially gone to see was Dickens' sister-in-law Mary who died in 1837, the year after her sister and Dickens had married. Dying in Dickens' arms as a seventeen year old, he wore Mary's ring for the rest of his life. It was the grave which the Dickens Fellowship had recently repaired, holding a ceremony around the gravesite. It was the last grave we saw, luckily just before the rain came down!
Before we said goodbye to Charlotte and John we ventured into the beautiful St Pancras building for a drink at the bar there. St Pancras, opened in 1868 two years before Dickens' death, was planned for demolition in the 1960s. Lucky for us this wonder of Victorian engineering was saved along with the former Midland Grand Hotel! This masterpiece of Victorian Gothic architecture was recently refurbished after being in a state of decay for some time. It is such a glorious building that it would have been such a shame to
loose it.
Thank you to my darling baby sister Charlotte (AKA Charlie) and her side-kick, the charming John, for travelling to London to meet us. We had a ball with you both and can't wait for the pair of you to come and spend Christmas 2016 with us in Sydney. But with a bit of luck (and some money thrown in to help afford the venture) we might meet up again before then. Love you both!
Monday was our last day in London but with our flight to Singapore not leaving until 9.25pm we had a good deal of time to head out once again; the boys to the RAF Museum and the girls to the Victoria and Albert. Sandra and I also managed a Thames walk in the Putney area before we called it a day. Finally the time came to say our goodbyes. Thanks Sandra and John for your great hospitality which we were very grateful to have enjoyed. Special thanks to you Sandra for our girlie chats including all the Dickensian related ones. We hope to see you again in the not too distant future.
On the flight to Singapore I watched the movie
Entrance to the Anglican Chapel
The place to be buried was either side of this grand chapel entrance "Woman in Gold" with Helen Mirren which is based on a true story. Since some of the movie takes place in Vienna taking in the Belvedere and the Holocaust Memorial there, both of which I visited, it was especially interesting. Having gone to the Belvedere especially to see the Klimt paintings, and having seen the actual painting 'Woman in Gold' at NYC's Neue Galerie which features early 20th century German and Austrian Art last year I felt especially 'close' to the events which took place in the movie.
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