Shot by Julia Margaret Cameron...Henry Taylor and the Trend for Beards.

Dearest Emily,

Back at my drawing board, it's been a busy week. Two more ranges designed, and sampling under way, now I'm on to our in-house Dimbola JMC range for the Gift Shop.

So I started on mugs, and was trawling through my collection of amassed 'abilia'- and look what I found- I love this one;

Henry Taylor photographed by Julia Margaret Cameron

February 1864

It has set me a thinking Em. First of all- Mug-shots. JMC's Mugshots to be precise, and this one shall be the first. Henry Taylor, Poet and Dramatist 1800-1888. As a convicted Pogonophile (evidence Grumpa being persuaded to go ferral and grow his own scarf,) I've looked into his beard...
Henry grew this fine example in 1859, because following bronchitis, asthma and a spasmodic episode or two- he became nervous of holding a razor.
Great friends with the Camerons,  the Taylors were here at the Bay most Spring and Autumn for holidays in the late 1850's and early 1860's when Julia bought the two houses that formed Dimbola.
Henry says 'It was a house, indeed to which everybody resorted at pleasure, and in which no man, woman or child was ever known to be unwelcome.
Conventionalities had no place in it; and though Cameron was more of a philosopher than a country gentleman, the house might easily have been mistaken for that of the old English Squire, who is said to have greeted his friends with the announcement, kind though imperious- "This is Liberty Hall, and if everybody does not do as he likes here, by God I'll make him!'. *

Tennyson, another great friend of Julia of course, reputedly grew his beard in 1857, following dentistry that altered his mouth. Adopting a Wide-awake hat, it seemed a bit of a 'look' was starting.

Alfred Tennyson 'The Dirty Monk'

by Julia Margaret Cameron May 1865

So, we have a trend in beards, and wide brimmed hats, further adopted by Watts,Longfellow, Charles' Cameron and Darwin (though he preferred a hat of more Bowler brimmed proportion.) 

Watts, Darwin and Charles Hay Cameron all though Mrs Cameron's Looking Glass.

My poser for us today though Emily, goes right back to my doubts that Julia was not such a novice when she received her Camera from her daughter Julia Norman in Christmas 1863...

Here is what she famously called 'My First Success'. Anne Philpot aged 10 at Freshwater Bay, given to her Father on January 29th 1864.

So, Julia records her first success on the last day of January in 1864, and less than a month later she's up and running, and has evidenced above, photographed Henry Taylor (who by his own admission in his autobiography, was being much photographed at Freshwater in 1860-63.) No, Em, I think we read her success-story a bit wrong. I've said before that I think she was part of a group of photographers (Reijlander, Winfield, Dodgson, Southey and her Brother-in-Law Somers-Cocks) who all in turn experimented with her, taught her, and were her partners in her own photographic crime.

I think instead, that her first success- was to her- her first Artistic Success... A Woman driven to experiment with her own passion to arrest beauty. To look into the soul, to- in fact- take a 'snap-shot' ( a phrase attributed to her great friend and Mentor Sir John Hershel- prime mover in the invention of photography in 1853. )

So, her first success, was actually the beginning of achieving what became her 'style' for the next 10 years. Not the romantic experimentation with the Idylls, but her ground-breaking use of 'The Close-Up'.

I think Em, she was the first photographer to champion this, and I think that's quite important!

Good old Mrs C, she was said to impose her own spirit on all those she met. And she was quoted as having an innate sense of enjoying herself, and making others around her do the same!

Enough for now, lovely to do facetime with you this morning- even if most of it was to the back of your head! 

Your ever-loving Grandmother, GiGi xxx

*Autobiography of Henry Taylor

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE!- Three Forces of Nature.

Dearest Em,

With a soupcon of Venus in Retrograde, some topical discussion about how Women are discriminated about today, and some mid-Victorian cachets, let's look at Women with our 'Some Things Never Change!' eyes...

Your Grand-mother has often been a bit slow on the uptake (like GiGi the character in your little sister's book- not quite 'getting' what it was she was supposed to do!) However- I feel the need to share my ignorance and learning, as the supposed wisdom of age bids us teach our little ones.

Let's take our own Julia Margaret Cameron. There was a Woman, who though under Victorian stricture needed to be seen to be the dutiful Wife, taking second place to the Head of the family, her husband- Charles Hay Cameron. Charles became a semi-invalid during their early years of marriage, and never quite pulled off a Governing post overseas, after he was rather unceremoniously put as a bit of a fall-guy in Macaulay's Indian team. Failing Coffee and Tea plantations in Ceylon didn't help the family's financial picture either. Julia being of near Aristocratic class, needed to cut her cloth to suit this situation, and was often reliant on handouts from a benevolent Cambridge friend of Charles. However- Julia wasn't the sort of Lady to reign in her own benevolence, grand gestures of giving away shawls, food,wallpapers, re-decorating friends rooms (as in the Henry Taylors- who hadn't asked for this kindness!) adopting children, giving away her Piano to the Tennysons etc etc...

By becoming a Photographer (carefully insistent on the title 'Amateur' as it would not 'do' for a Wife to be seen to be taking over the family purse-strings) she succeeded in part in swelling the familys coffers. Added to buying the two houses that make up Dimbola- she also became a Private Guest House Land-lady, though dressed in the guise of helping out all her dear friends. She didn't get any recognition for this rather underground role- and often had to defend her 'hobby' in her copious letterwritings to the Family Benefactor, and detractors of her 'past-time' who criticised her and saw it as the exact opposite of what she was actually surrepticiously achieving. Instead of gaining quiet understanding from anyone except her beloved husband- she was railed at for her extravagance. It must have been a bit of a struggle for her. And when, she had bet on a rather lame horse- ie- she was probably under the impression that Tennyson's Idylls were raking in the cash (it wasn't the case) and her extravagant gesture of photographically illustrating them all- at her own expense- was probably a bridge too far. So when Charles yearned again for Ceylon, she threw in the towel, gathered up her husband, two coffins and a cow- and set off for Ceylon. She was probably rather tired of the fight by then, and at her house in Ceylon today, there are records of her referring to her 'beloved Isle of Wight'. She died there on January 26th 1879. This unconventional, kind and effervescent lady is a constant source of inspiration to me Emily- for all she was, and for her pioneering work...

As is her dear friend- Anne Thackeray Ritchie- she of our tales, and more and more- her lyrically pithy and humorous quotes that are underpinning our 'Freshwater Circle' collection. Anne's background alone- gave her quite a unique view-point on life. Her Father- the esteemed William Makepeace Thackeray (with a Wife in a lunatic asylum, and he being the lone parent) afforded Anne a liberal education, normally reserved only for boys. The erudite circle he mixed in, gave a precocious Anne full reign to observe, be seen and be heard, and to write and draw.
And she did all of these with aplomb. Once William Makepeace had died rather early in his fifties, Anne and her sister Minny were brought by Tennyson to Mrs Camerons, where they became firm friends. Later in her life, Anne was to become a matriarchal figure to the Bloomsbury set- and her influence is well-recorded.
Her writings though are in my opinion rather under-rated, and she is my constant source currently for quotation. Here is one, from 'Toilers and Spinsters and Other Essays 1876...

This one Em, is a design I've done today for a notebook and some cards.

I'm dedicating its' aptness to a dear neighbour of Julia's and ours who lives today. In her 90th year, she know who she is. Currently poorly- this Force of Nature bears out our 'Some Things Never Change' strap-line...
When I moved into the Lane, and was introduced to her- she reminded me in her eclectic home of my own Grandmother Elsie. Elsie beat to her own drum, and many of the features of her surrounding aesthetic were very akin to Elsie's.
Moreover for me- as I have been often criticised for 'doing too much'- this Lady ran a Society, made Jewelry, sold at Craft Fairs and Dimbola, and is a vociferous, pro-active member of the local community.
Never afraid to speak her own mind, she is indefatigable- and beautifully honestly- just 'herself'.
For myself- she gave me the benefit of by watching her- I gained added permission to be myself. She has an inspiring and awesome past. The qualities she has gained from it shine through. She doesn't sing very loudly about her own story. But she is the sort of Woman, you know has learned so much.
She knows who she is, and I send her love and admiration, and get well soon wishes.

Just sayin' Em, that some things are constant, and as true today as they have always been. I wish for you and Annabel to get to live long, happy and fulsome lives, and always keep enquiring minds, a sense of modesty, but never ever be anything else than true to yourselves.

And if that's a struggle- never mind! You'll learn from each struggle if you are open to it.

Lesson over...

Your ever-loving Grandmother, GiGi xxxx

Where does the Day begin?

Dearest Emily,

In November of 1860 dear dear Dodgson gave a lecture at the Ashmolean Society in Oxford;

"Where does the Day begin?" The problem, which was one he was very fond of propounding, may be thus stated: If a man could travel round the world so fast that the sun would be always directly above his head, and if he were to start travelling at midday on Tuesday, then in twenty-four hours he would return to his original point of departure, and would find that the day was now called Wednesday—at what point of his journey would the day change its name? The difficulty of answering this apparently simple question has cast a gloom over many a pleasant party.

Get your head around that one my little one. Actually though- as I recall, it is exactly the sort of puzzle that went on in my little head aged about 9 or 10. I remember quite distinctly pondering stuff like this- and the infinity of the Universe, and what infinity could be imagined as, and how did God work, and was he really real, and what if there was another World War- just because my Dad said there wasn't going to be one- how could he know, and why did Brentford Nylons make horrid brushed nylon fitted sheets in shocking pink that my mother had bought that set my teeth on edge every time a jagged toenail caught it.

All these questions and more crowded my pre-sleep brain, along with a thought about why did we need to learn so much more at school when we knew everything already?

My answers were simple. What I couldn't figure out- I just wasn't meant to understand as a human being. Good cop-out Gail!

Well our Mr Dodgson, clearly never gave up on his night-time questions. They plagued him with insomnia for all of his life. I a mere un-mathematically bent child, solved them by not knowing.

I can see how this puzzle got translated into Through the Looking Glass, with the Red Queen and Alice running as fast as they could and ending up in the same place.

Today, I was back in the lovely Bookroom, and reading 'The Illustrated London News', from 1859. There were lots of interesting snippets, which I'll save for another time- but today, I'll show you this one- it is for June 25th (ie tomorrow) a hundred and fifty years ago- and all about the weather...

Look Em,

It says, on the longest day (just as we had last week) the sun rose at 15 minutes past three a.m, and set at 47 minutes past eight p.m. The length of the day was consequently 17 hours 32 minutes.

15 minutes past three a.m sunrise Emily! Goodness moi. As you know, GiGi faces the sunrise in her bedroom, and has found it easier to change her working day to fit in with natural day-light hours, at least in the summer- but for me at least, this doesn't even begin to wake me until about five-thirty. Plus, they didn't have 'British Summer Time', but even so-Em, what with the clock being a bit here and there all over the Country, no wonder our Dodgson, ever the Railway Journey Afficionado got all hung up on time.

Well, when he was down here, he can't have slept much. Liking to work until the wee small hours- unless he invented some light-blocking cleverness, he would have been up with the sunrise, just about when he went to sleep!

No wonder he got a bit cranky Em,

Off to bed for you now my little girl,

Your ever-loving Grand-Mother, GiGi xxx

Doctor Theatre

Dearest Emily,

Your Great GrandmaNina, being ever the martyr to her Thespian life, rather liked using the term 'Doctor Theatre!' She would say it in her best R.P voice (the one she used for answering the telephone too) and if she were under the weather with a cold or chill, would rally herself for her performance by chanting it. I swear, if her leg was falling off, she would have hopped about, wringing her hands and still made her curtain-call. No understudy ever stood the chance of a glimpse of the limelight with Nina around!
Of course in thesp terms- 'Doctor Theatre' meant the effects of adrenalin that carry you through a play, whether your ill, gloomy or tired. Only afterwards do the aches and pains return- the old 'fight-or-flight mechanism over-riding any bothersome ailments that might get in the way of Entertainment.

However, for the formative character of our young Dodgson, 'Doctor Theatre' appears in a different guise. It's a way of life, an attitude, an attractive panacea to the ultra-conservative surroundings and expectations that his family had, and also held firmly for Charles.

Ever the family Entertainer, Magician, Storyteller and Games Manager to his younger siblings, Charles had this side of his character so ingrained that it simply had to find companion, and continued outlet.

So, did the young Dodgson work alone, in a creative vacuum,  or as a lad, and young man, did he find like-minded souls to bounce his theatricals around with?

Well, do you remember Emily, when I told you about a relative of Dodgson's that I recently met?

Prior to this, I had been doing quite a bit of digging about who, what and how Dodgson spent his formative years with, and doing. A particular family has been very illuminating for my investigations into what made his strikingly original clock tick- culminating of course in a complete Bible of Fairy-tale completely of his own making...

It was back in March, if you remember, when I had just put your book to bed, and fell upon Michael Bute's 'A Town Like Alice' with alacrity. Having heard about it- and tracked one copy down to Durham Library, I was eagerly awaiting its arrival at Freshwater Library, hoping it provided me with some answers to gaps in the backdrops in the two Alice books, that didn't fit with London, or Oxford or Freshwater. But they did smack of the P.R.B's somehow, and I wanted more evidence.
True enough- the book answered some prayers and as my previous post http://mrsmiddletonstalesfromthebookrom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/jabberwocky-unbounded.html
revealed, I got a handle on the origins of the 'Jabberwocky'.

But, I hadn't expected the new twists in our tangled tales! The 'Misses Wilcox of Whitburn' were the initial references to the genesis of 'Jabberwocky' verse, told as I posted over a verse making evening of entertainment in 1855.

The more I read about this Wilcox family of cousins, the more I began to form a picture of a humour-rich, literary-bantering, theatrical clique, of whom Dodgson was very much a part for once in his life. He and Cousin William, walked miles a day together, wrote regularly and Charles spent large amounts of his long vacations at the Wilcoxes of Whitburn. They visited Sunderland Theatre, they even all acted together in "Box and Cox" and I imagined young Dodgson, having gone up to Oxford, coming back and recounting his 'lionising' tales, his clever parody poems, his growing 'Carte de Visite' collection additions, and general theatrical and literary 'showing-off'- to a willing and co-operative audience.

I felt he was drawn as a kindred spirit to their jollity and creativity and love of current artistic affairs. Though not a bohemian family in any tangible sense, their easy showmanship and play-fullness in particular must have held a strong allure for Charles whose nature was more akin to this than his beloved, but more stifled 'family personality'.

So, imagine this Em- there I am armed with a strong but surmised 'mental picture' of familias Wilcox, when good old serendipity struck again...

Back at Dimbolaland, D.B.H harangued me-as is his way, to get in contact with someone who might be helpful in lending something or other to our then up-coming 'Alice The Illustrators' Exhibition. I did as bid, but heard nothing back, so left it alone. D.B.H wouldn't let it lie, so eventually I resent the email, and we made a vague plan to meet at some point in the future.

The future became the visit to London which turned out to be receiving Dimbola's Museum and Heritage award- a happy little trip on it's own- so Emily my little one- imagine my delight when I meet said descendent of the Wilcoxes and before my eyes is the embodiment of the set of characteristics I had thus formulated!
And Emily, much, much more...
Such an encouraging under-pinning of my hunches so far. However- of this, I shall savour and investigate and report more another day, in future posts. Let's just say, there is a wealth of background to add to my own perfecting of the dual enigma of Dodgson and Carroll.

AND a tangent more- sneaky-peek at a quite unusual photograph for its time- staged, but apparently spontaneous (though the machinations of aperture meant holding a pose for such a length of time that normally prohibited any apparent spontenaeity in any but the most professional of 'pose-keepers'.

Entitled 'Tweedleton's Tail Coat' these two images really do set me off on another tangent- I have blurred parts as these are not for reproduction without explicit consent. Here are the family and servants staging a theatrical family piece. Quite extraordinary at the time!

Lastly Em, I shall leave you with a clue:-

The uniquely brilliant Lewis Carroll was merely acting in costume as the nondescript Don and Clergyman-Dodgson- in order to pass through dull corridors un-noticed, and therefore within acceptably contained walls to keep the creativity pure and bright of his burgeoning Wonderland legacy and his need for 'Doctor Theatre' within that.

Glad he did Em!

Your ever-loving Grand-Mother, GiGi!

More than six impossible things before breakfast.

Dearest Emily,

Alice laughed. 

"There's no use trying,"she said: one ca'n't believe impossible things."

I daresay you haven't had much practise," said the Queen. 

"When I was your age I always did it for half-an-hour a day. 

Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. 

There goes the shawl again!"

The White Queen speaks in Through the Looking Glass

Remember way back when we started this little letter diary? On the very first post, I wrote;

'Following a chance discovery back in April this year, I'm researching sourcing and a'hatching out a book. It's about 'Alice Through The Looking Glass', and I'm writing it for my little Grand-daughter Emily so that when she grows up, she knows that there is always something else to discover...'

So here we go Emily, six impossible things for you to believe today;

1. In August 2011, two Senior Lecturers at Portsmouth University published a little book- Tennysons Celebrity Circle a great bite-size stylish, informative on the subject close to my heart and home. This accompanied the work they had done at the Uni, which also gave a very user-friendly and accessible destination for us at Dimbolaland, when we needed to help the uninitiated get familiar with our altogether mind-blowing uniquely rich local heritage- http://tennysonscelebritycircle.port.ac.uk/

2. Our Chairman, dear D.B.H had a 'light-bulb' moment inspired by the work these guys had done. In 2012 he proposed to the Board that we change our Articles to include 'The Freshwater Circle' and all who sailed in her.

3. Mr Dickins, brought in his considerable commercial expertise, and suggested the re-branding of the Tearoom as 'The Mad Hatter' ( told you before how that one went down dear Em, and how the 'War of the Roses' began. ) T'was that night your Granny went home and another 'light-bulb moment' begat the discovery of the characters of the Freshwater Circle that Dodgson drew from whilst he was here.

4. The good olde Bookroom where GiGi works, provided me with my initial research at my fingertips, whilst I served the customers and your little book got hatched, and I used this little blog to help me focus my thoughts. Now, Dimbola had tangible reasons for its Tearoom re-branding and right on the money with the recent change of Articles.

5. The Mad Hatter Tearoom got finished, and it won a Museum and Heritage Award for Excellence last month. Your little blog, just topped 4000 views, two Alice Exhibitions at Dimbola are proving newsworthy, the launch of which is-a-coming up in just under three weeks (eek, no peace for GiGi.)
Your book is set to go into Fortnum and Masons too. (Nice with cake!)

6. GiGi, who as your Daddy just reminded her walked out of her degree course after 8 months because she was too impatient to get to work in the Fashion Industry, is now set to embark upon a PHD, that begins with the 'Jabberwocky' in Whitburn, travels via the blooming railway, through literary fume to dress-theory-fire to Oxford, and London, and the good old Isle of Wighty, ending in Sandown in 1874.
With luck, I will finish it when I'm Sixty, and you are just a year older than Alice was as set in Dodgson's books!

My dearest Grand-child, keep close to your enquiring heart- you never know what else there is to discover, and where it might lead you.

Here's your invitation! Granny's 'fashion-son' is a-hostin' (He's the same age as Daddy, and with a different Sartorial-flair!)

Your ever-loving Grand-mother, GiGi xxx

Style Queens

Dearest Emily,

Following your birthday visit to Dimbola, and your fancy for the 'dressing up room',

it is time for your Grandmother to teach you a little about the artistry of Style-

and the difference twixt it, and what

is commonly called 'Fashion'.

Now dear Em, GiGi must tell you and tell you straight. The former is infinitly preferable to the latter term, when one is describing dress-sense! We shall use our good old mid-vics for examples...

FASHION- A popular trend, esp. in styles of dress, ornament, or behavior.

STYLE- A manner of doing something.

 In the 1860's London Fashionable Society took elaborate pains to all look the same. To a great extent the same could be said for large sections of Society today, but back then, well one simply did not strike a pose in anything other than what was considered to be the Fashion of the moment. And here we are talking crinolines. Women were boned, structured and hooped, and then upholstered in the latest fabric trend. 

 Harpers Magasine helped the dear ladies to get accquainted with what one should wear, this is 1874 'street-wear'. 
Chic Society took its style tips from the chicest, just as todays bright young thing might trawl fashion blogs for style icons as inspiration. But then, it was the norm to conform.

Just imagine then, when along comes Julia Margaret Cameron slap-bang into the centre of the new fashion of the London Salon ( copied from France, and indeed begun  by Julia's beautiful Sister Sarah Prinsep at Little Holland House. ) They invited all the crinolines, and instead of wearing the same- they dared to be DIFFERENT!

  Julia and her Pattle sisters, of Anglo-Indian, via Versailles descent came in for a lot of catty gossip. About the way they looked ( all were dark-skinned ) spoke ( a combination of English/French and Hindi ) and dressed.
The girls would all sit together in the evenings cutting up lengths of brightly coloured silks and velvets, and 'make their own clothes, and not a crinoline in sight' SHOCKING!
In a fashionable centre ( Little Holland House Salon had its own pet artist- G.F.Watts ) in Fashionable London- from our view-point today, we might think that these Ladies would be lauded for their style, splashed across Harpers Magasine ( well, a wood-engraving or two anyhow, ) and Pattle Fashion to become all the rage!?
Non, not in the 1860's. Way too modernist and avantgarde a way of thinking. They were simply gossiped about and maybe even laughed at.

Our dear Julia indeed was described as a ' bas-bleu' ( blue-stocking ) or more unkindly in a description of three of the sisters 'Beauty, Brains and Talent'. A rather stocky Julia, got the Talent award, years before she even began her photographic career.

Now then, take Julia down to the Isle of Wight, where 'boho' overode formal, invent the bright anniline dyes just for her delight, and the un-braided lady adorns her un-crinolined bright silk dresses with curtain sashes, red bonnets and openwork shawls. Slightly less attractive to her overall appearance, I rather suspect was the addition of blackened fingers from photographic chemicals. A Helena Bonham Carter-esque charm somewhat denigrated to mad-old bag-lady most probably.

But Em, I say NO! It may have taken two further generations, and into Ms Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury set, but our un-sung Style Guru, certainly made it into Fashion-History in my ( as yet un-written ) book!

Virginia was greatly influenced by her Great-Aunt Julia and Anne Thackeray-Ritchie in particular. And so, begat the bohemian Bloomsbury Style.  I also believe that what she did in renovating Dimbola, heralded a new style of 'Colonial' verandah fronted houses built across the road.

Agatha Brazen has another task of investigation. 

As I trawl through her photographs, and what her own 'dressing up room must have yielded, it begins to take pre-Bloomsbury shape...

What fun, Emily, as each snippet of writing allows the imagination to construct what clothing at Dimbola on the West-Wight might have looked like in the 1860's. I'm a planning a year of work and a little exhibition.

We begin with the pretty-maids.

Julia's Maids were her Models. They were not below-stairs. Mostly, they were being photographed. Often they were not cooking, or cleaning. One was to marry a Lord, much to Julia's delight!

I came across a little snippet that they all wore 'little knitted waistcoats'. I rather think that Julia masterminded this- and if so- it is highly likely given the influence her French-born stylish Mother bequeathed, that the Empire-line would be preferred in the Court of Queen Julia.

So here we are Em, Blue-Peter stylee once again-

One I felted earlier. Little knitted waistcoat, as I see it. Later to be embroidered just a bit ( not too much as it would not have been 'fitting'. )

In the style of one of her photographs.

What do you think Em?

Happy second birthday, my precious girl!

Lots of love from GiGi xx
  

   


 

Tracage des Chales.

Dearest Emily,

For today's post- we are all about Fashion and style. I know, Uncle Joe said I had swapped Fashion for Alice, but hey- old habits die hard- and after all Em, it was Julia's shawls that first gave me my Through the Looking Glass and the Freshwater Circle clue! So, in the style of a children's programme that GiGi used to watch- Blue Peter- 'here's one I made earlier!'

So- Shawls, Emily. 

Our Julia loved a shawl or two- and one of the strands of research ( other than becoming a Dodgson nerd ) that has me all a flutter, is a notion that is becoming increasingly evident to me. This is all about the peculiar style that Julia Margaret Cameron adopted, one that was most probably quite misunderstood by her mid-Victorian conformist contemporaries. But- Em, I rather think that it begat more inspiration to the Bloomsbury set than we have previously acknowledged.

This will unravel over time in my research, so for now let us start with the history of the humble shawl and how it travelled with Julia from Calcutta, to Paris, London, and then Freshwater Bay.( Oh, and lest we forget, onto the Red and White Queens in 'Through the Looking Glass'! )

Here is Wikipedia's Shawl descriptive ( abridged; ) 

A shawl (Persian: شال‎, Shāl, from Sanskrit: शाटी śāṭī is a simple item of clothing, loosely worn over the shoulders, upper body and arms, and sometimes also over the head. It is usually a rectangular or square piece of cloth, that is often folded to make a triangle but can also be triangular in shape. Other shapes includeoblong shawls.

History Kashmir, a state in India, part of which is a disputed territory between India and Pakistan, was a pivotal point through which the wealth, knowledge, and products of ancient India passed to the world. Perhaps the most widely known woven textiles are the famed Kashmir shawls. The Kanikar, for instance, has intricately woven designs that are formalized imitations of Nature. The Chenar leaf (plane tree leaf), apple and cherry blossoms, the rose and tulip, the almond and pear, the nightingale—these are done in deep mellow tones of maroon, dark red, gold yellow and browns. Yet another type of Kashmir shawl is the Jamiavr, which is a brocaded woolen fabric sometimes in pure wool and sometimes with a little cotton added.

The most expensive shawls, called Shatoosh, are made from the beard hairs of the wild ibex and are so fine that a whole shawl can be pulled through a small finger ring.

The paisley motif is so ubiquitous to Indian fabrics that it is hard to realize that it is only about 250 years old. It evolved from 1600's. Early designs depicted single plants with large flowers and thin wavy stems, small leaves and roots. As the designs became denser over time, more flowers and leaves were compacted within the shape of the tree, or issuing from vases or a pair of leaves. By the late 1700s, the archetypal curved point at the top of an elliptical outline had evolved. The elaborate paisley created on Kashmir shawls became the vogue in Europe for over a century, and it was imitations of these shawls woven in factories at Paisley, Scotland, that gave it the name paisley . In the late 1700s and 1800s, the paisley became an important motif in a wide range of Indian textiles, perhaps because it was associated with theMughal court. The naksha, a Persian device like the Jacquard loom invented centuries later, enabled Indian weavers to create sinuous floral patterns and creeper designs in brocade to rival any painted by a brush. The Kashmir shawl that evolved from this expertise in its heyday had greater fame than any other Indian textile. Always a luxury commodity, the intricate, tapestry-woven, fine wool shawl had become a fashionable wrap for the ladies of the English and French elite by the 1700s. The supply fell short of demand and manufacturers pressed to produce more, created convincing embroidered versions of the woven shawls that could be produced in half the time. As early as 1803, Kashmiri needlework production was established to increase and hasten output of these shawls, which had been imitated in England since 1784 and even in France. By 1870, the advent of the Jacquard loom in Europe destroyed the exclusivity of the original Kashmir shawl, which began to be produced in Paisley, Scotland. Even the characteristic Kashmiri motif, the mango-shape, began to be known simply as the paisley.

Kashmiri shawls were high-fashion garments in Western Europe in the early- to mid-1800s. Imitation Kashmiri shawls woven in Paisley, Renfrewshire are the origin of the name of the traditional paisley pattern. 

Uses Shawls are used in order to keep warm, to complement a costume, and for symbolic reasons. Today, shawls are worn for added warmth (and fashion) at outdoor or indoor evening affairs, where the temperature is warm enough for men in suits but not for women in dresses and where a jacket might be inappropriate.

The Kashmir Shawls

Kashmir is India's northernmost state and was the point through which ancient India passed to the world. The Kashmir shawl that evolved from a local expertise had greater fame than any other Indian textile.

Pashmina or Amlikar

The majority of the woollen fabrics of Kashmir, and particularly the best quality shawls, were and are still made of Pashm or Pashmina, which is the wool of Capra hircus, a species of the wild Asian mountain goat. Hence the shawls came to be called Pashmina. The fine fleece used for the shawls is that which grows under the rough, woolly, outer coat of the animal; that from the under-belly, which is shed on the approach of hot weather. The best fleece wool is soft, silky and warm is of the wild goats, and painstakingly gathered from shrubs and rough rocks against which the animals rub off their fleece on the approach of summer. This was undoubtedly the soft fleece wool from which were made the famous and much coveted 'ring shawls' in Mughal times. Unfortunately very inferior and second rate wool taken from domesticated sheep and goats provide most of the wool used today on the looms of Kashmir.

The needle-worked Amlikar or Amli, made from Pashmina wool is a shawl embroidered almost all over with the needle on a plain woven ground. The colours most commonly seen on pashmina shawls are yellow, white, black, blue, green, purple, crimson and scarlet. The design motifs are usually formalised imitations of nature like the leaf, flower and tree designs mentioned above; they are always done in rich colours.

The outlines of the design are further touched up and emphasized with silk or woollen thread of different colours run round the finer details; the stitch used for this is at an angle overlapping darn stitch, all the stitches used are so minute and fine that individually they can be seen with the unaided eye with difficulty. When Pashmina wool is used for the embroidery work, it blends so intimately with the texture of the basic shawl material that it would be difficult to insert even a fine needle between the embroidery stitches and the basic fabric.

So, now you know all about Shawls Emily. Julia is frequently referred to as being swathed in shawls, trailing her shawls, wrapping her invalid husband up in shawls, and giving away her shawls as presents should anyone compliment one she was wearing. Marianne North  visiting Julia in 1877 happened to admire one that Julia had on- so she tore it in half and gave half to Marianne, carrying on wearing the remaining half herself.

It is understandable that Julia would adopt a liking for Kashmiri shawls, having been brought up in India, furthermore, her Aristocratic French ancestry and time at Versailles, would have further elevated the shawl as an object that adorned ladies of Society. Here's an image of fashionable Regency Shawl-garb;

Julia's Mother,  Adeline Pattle ( nee L'etang ) who was brought up in Versaiiles, may have been a fashionable influence on all her daughters, as we shall discover in the next post.

But for now Em, I'm back to Wonderland. Julia's 'White Queen' Shawl ( above ) was inspired by descriptions of Julia's 'openwork' shawls and in particular- a red one. Which I have yet to finish before part two of our Exhibition here at Dimbola.

So- back to work...

Your ever-loving Grand-Mother, GiGi xxx 

Agatha Brazen and the Curious Legacies...part one, t.b.c

Dearest Em,

As you know seeing as we had breakfast together yesterday, it has been a busy week. GiGi's brain is still doing back-flips over Dimbola's award, and trying to fit in all my meetings AND see my favourite Grand-daughter meant a bit of a whirl was the week.

So, I sat down tonight for a bit of decompression time, and was just mulling over the amazing Dodgson stuff I've been given to research further. There is 'Tweedle-tons' Em, and I hardly dare start- but I can see quite easily where it is all going. This is what it'll be...

Talking over with my 'Mystery Guest' as I shall call him for now- I see quite clearly that my Big Person's Book ( not your little picture-book Em, that's yours, this one is mine, ) will be about Dodgson's benevolence overall. I have been struck by this more and more, and can see how I can begin with him as a lad at Rugby, and with the Genesis of Jabberwocky my favourite poem, take us right through to the 'Hunting of the Snark' and Sandown here on the Isle of Wight.

So, that's as far as my thoughts went- and I looked around my Scullery Studio- and even I have to agree with Grumpa- it's a MESS! Normally, I ignore his calls for a scullery-cull but I do think it is time to clear my desk up- a little bit anyhow.

I've suspended the clearing up process Em, most of my desk is now on the floor, tell you why in a minute.

Going back to 'The Hunting of the Snark' and Sandown. 'Jabberwocky's muse' genuflects towards the Snark, of which a part of the genesis began in Surrey in July 1874, whilst Dodgson was nursing his sick Godson Charles Hazzard Wilcox.

Later in 1875, we can read on Wikipedia an account of another young muse, Gertrude Chataway-this time for 'The Hunting of the Snark':-

Carroll first became friends with Gertrude in 1875, when she was aged nine, while on holiday at the English seaside resort of Sandown. He made a number of pen and ink sketches of Gertrude as a young girl. He continued to correspond with her, and to spend numerous seaside holidays with her, including several when she was in her late twenties.

Dans my clearing up task, there's a wrapper from a stick of rock, that's sitting alone in a bag which contained a manuscript given to me by a local Author and treasure, who would like it reprinted under Dimbola Books imprint. She's given me this little wrapper because she knows I have a nice little print of Plumbly's Hotel circa 1865, and she thought I might like it.

Look at it Em- 'Gerty's Gob-stoppers with a scene from Plumbley's Hotel, with the company 'Chataway Chews and Sweets ltd'.

The wrapper only looks about twenty years old.

Anyhow, it's a good enough reason to leave all my papers on the floor ( at least my desk is now clear ) enrage Grumpa ( not difficult ) and go off at another curiosity tangent!

Hurrah for Gertie's Gobstoppers, night night,

Your ever-loving Grand-mother, GiGi xxx

Everything stops for Tea...

Dearest Emily,

We're all about Tea and Cakes here at Dimbola right now, so I thought a post about cake and yummy stuff might grab your attention as we do the countdown to your second birthday- for which I shall ask our lovely Gaye to make you a special Victoria Sponge.

Yesterday, we had a lovely Tea-party. This was the first in a planned series of 'Tea-time Talks', and we were very lucky to have kicked off with the fabulous Lynne Truss- famously the author of 'Eats Shoots and Leaves' amongst others including 'Tennysons Gift' that she wrote and set right here. GiGi had deliberately not read this, as I'd been told it dealt with Dodgson and an Alice reference or two- so I didn't want any sub-conscious influencing going on whilst scribing your little tome. ( I did fess this up to Ms Truss and we are happily still talking. )

Anyhow, Lynne was entertaining, and very, very funny Em. We were all in fits of giggles. This, interspersed with my neighbour, who knew I hadn't read it- but had also read your book- turning to me across the room at every relevant reference and winking at me!

All in all, a good afternoon. Earlier that day, I had come in to check that all was set up- and chatting away with two of our peeps at the front desk- one remarked- " It's a day where you feel as though time is standing still. " You know Em, that sort of day where the weather I suppose creates a sort of 'lull' in the air- and it was that sort of atmosphere- helped I guess by it being a Sunday.

Got me thinking about some stuff I had just read in a very interesting and insightfully good alarm-bell ringing book about Dodgson. I swapped this for a yachting book when I did a house clearance a few weeks ago. A L Taylor's 'The White Knight', published in 1952 is a goodie.

Regarding time and the 'Mad Tea Party', he adds credible insight. The Hatter says that his watch is 'Two days wrong'.

There were, even then two ways of calculating the date- one by the calendar, and one by the moon. This Em, must have been an uppermost question of interest in a landscape where the time over the Country itself was being slowly sorted out so that trains came and left with understandable gaps in between...

A Prof. L.J.Russell, of Birmingham University, kindly took the trouble to consult an Almanac to look at this for 1862 ( as most likely did our Dodgson, ) and on Alice's actual brthday that year- the 4th of May, there was exactly two days difference between the calendar way of recording, and the lunar one.

This was at the time what was called the "Hemispherical Problem" and was to all effects, the day that dissappeared.

There was a suggestion, which was finally rejected, that people might be able to choose for themselves, which day it was. ( Our Dodgson wrote an Essay on it. )

In 'Alice' Dodgson, substituted the Day, for the Hour, and the Hatter, and March Hare had to choose which hour it was-
So, they chose 'Tea-Time' ( as the Liddell's were rather fond of the racy new novelty of High Tea, and undoubtedly this would have been what they would have liked! )

So, that's why time stood still and it was 'always tea-time'!

As Dodgson himself wrote to a friend in America;

'Words mean more than we mean to express when we use them; so a whole book ought to mean a great deal more than the writer means'

'In Veritus Dodgsonius' Em, I rather think he pulled that off!

Your ever-loving Grand-Mother, GiGi xxxx