OUT ON "A LARK", EXETER, 1844

From The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette of 3rd August, 1844:

" ....in consequence of the anticipated Regatta at Budleigh Salterton, between ninety and a hundred persons, inhabitants of the faithful city, embarked at Exeter quay in the Owner's Good-will, W. Barratt, Commander, for that place, - the consideration for the trip being only two shillings and sixpence;  the excellent arrangements on board the vessel, we understand, including the agreeable provision of a band of music.

"When the vessel arrived at Turf, the Commander's "weather-eye" having detected certain signs of very bad weather not to be mistaken, he expressed his intention of not going over the Bar: but the company, who considered themselves out on "a lark" which would serve for anything, insisted upon it, and a steam-tug towed the vessel over.

"Many of them, however, were by this time getting sick of their amusement.  The ship hove-to a mile from Budleigh; when, to the company's great disappointment, they found that the Regatta was over, -  and  the only attraction to the good people of the town being themselves and their bark tossing on the bosom of the agitated ocean.

"A number of them, admirers of the principle of self-preservation, then disembarked in the first shore boat that could accommodate them, and departed for Exeter in two chaises and pair;  but the remainder, more courageous and less apprehensive, determined, with praiseworthy confidence, to continue to submit themselves to the experience and care of Capt. Barratt whose exertions throughout the day, under the most trying circumstances, are beyond eulogium.

"They got under weigh, and left Salterton about 4 p.m., everything presaging a gale, which came on with increasing fury.  The jib was split to shivers, - and to add to the distress, they lost the ship's boat.  The sail was split; and all but "the tars"" were compelled to go below, the hatches being battened down, and a tremendous sea making a complete breach over the vessel: her qualities as a sea boat, however, were here conspicuous, as were also the courage and skill of her commander and the crew.

"Below, the greatest confusion prevailed; the females being in a state which precluded that interchange of amenities which renders their society on pleasurable trips so charming; whilst the elegant adornments of their persons suffered considerably by the discharge, - and the males, terriified by their cries, and their reiterated and hurried enquiries of "where are we?" must have been enabled to conceive a vivid idea of a wreck at sea.

"At 7 p.m., the vessel was off Exmouth, signals of distress having  for some time been displayed.  Here a steamer bore down to their assistance, and towed her to Turf, when the state of things began to revive, and about 11 o'clock p.m. they arrived safe amid the sleeping shades of cathedral-capped Exon."

I kave heard locals speak of pleasure-boats as "sixpenny sicks" but The Owner's Good-will was a "two-and-sixpenny sick".   You had more for your money - battened hatches,  shivered bow-sprits, torn sails, lost lifeboats.

Reported in the same newspaper is the Budleigh Regatta which went very well and without undesirable incident.  

Captain W. Barratt seems rather to have deserved censure than an eulogium, after all he subordinated the warnings of  his own prescient weather-eye to the will of his landlubber passengers. 

Cathedral-capped Exon is an echo from a time when from every direction there was a glorious view of 'St.Peter's Church'. 

  A good story?,  -  as I have written before -  It's  the way they tell them!

A NEGATIVE EXERCISE, EXETER, 2025.

The Dean of Exeter is a very smooth individual who, I hve heard it said, was a spoiled child used always to getting his own way.  He wanted to clear out of the Chapter House at Exeter the 'joyless' sculpture of local artist Kenneth Carter, a great man and the producer of the most impressive sculpture of which Exeter could boast.  He has 'got his own way' indeed.  The fifteen collosal pieces of sculpture were last seen being put into a removal van.  Where are they now?

For fifty years Exeter Cathedral held this treasure.   It is now lost to citizens and visitors alike. The busy Dean has jumped over all the ecclesiastical hurdles, circumvented all who might have objected  by what might be called a conspiracy of silence,  found an artist, of whom nobody I know has ever heard, to write mean things about a true artist's work and, in the face of protest, has struck pre-emptively and lo!, the niches in the Coffee/Chapter House are bare. 

Well, it is a good story and it will not go away.  This Dean will be remembered as the man who robbed Exeter Cathedral of the Testament Sculptures.  The City will be the poorer for it.  It will be remembered as an altogether negative exercise and will not be forgotten or forgiven.

THE SHABBINESS OF THE DEAN AND CHAPTER, EXETER, 1844.

 "....a certain man of great gifts, a painter by profession, and Northcote by name - finding his end approaching, and pleasant visions of his native county floating before him in his calm slumbers before his hour of dissolution, did determine to leave a work of art which should be worthy the acceptance of his native county.  He commissoned his friend, Sir. Francis Chantrey, a most cunning carver in stone, to execute a statue to be placed in the cathedral.

"At great cost of money the statue was made, at heavy charges it was conveyed to this county.  But their Shabbiness the Chapter caused it to be placed in a corner of the cathedral where the public shalll not see it without encoutering the pitiful exactations of their Shabbinesses' protogees, the vergers  (with whom they do not go snacks it is to be hoped).

"Oh it is pitifully shabby, clerically mean! to disregard the patriotic injunctions and the liberal spirit of the honourable dead!" 

I dedicate this blog to those noble souls who are currently trying to stop the Dean and Chapter of Exeter from ripping Kenneth Carter's Testament Sculpture out of the Chapter House.  Shabbiness and meaness seem to cling to the clerics of Exeter.  Perhaps they are being passed down, somewhat like the Apostolic Succession from the meanest Anglican Bishop of all time, Henry Phillpotts!  There is certainly something shabby and mean, not to say slippery and deceitful, in the current Dean's proceedings and they are most certainly  an insult to the honourable dead.

To go snacks is delightful.  I think I have heard it but it is not in my Oxford Dictionary of Slang (Ayto) nor, as far as I can see, recorded on the internet.

I apologise for losing an accent grave.  I can't remember how to find it!

https://matthewcarter.co.nz/ken-carter-and-his-sculpture/

Source: The Western Times 27th July, 1844,  

THE TESTAMENT SCULPTURE, EXETER, 2025.

 Ken Carter, who was, I believe, Head of Sculpture at Exeter's College of Art and Design was commissioned some 50 years ago to fill the niches of the Chapter House of Exeter Cathedral with a series of colossal sculptures inspired by the story of the Testament from the Creation to the Nativity.  The work took some four years to complete and was this consummate Exeter sculptor's masterpiece.  The Testament Sculpture was well received and was one of the treasures of the Cathedral for half a century and still is.  It is a total work of art.  The sculpture complements the mediaeval building and the building complements the sculpture.  The intention is to rip this Gesamptkuenstwerk apart. It can still be appreciated, but not for much longer, in the Chapter House where it belongs which now serves coffee in the very excellent new Cloisters complex.  It is worth drinking coffee there just to see it.

The Cathedral where the sculpture belongs has conspired to get rid of half the baby by making a gift of it to Exeter College, a secular educational establishment where it does not belong.   I use the word conspired advisably for it seems clear that all the decisions have been made by a small cabal of individuals and that there has been a deliberate suppression of public information about these shameful plans.  The whole matter needs urgent public re-examination!  

The matter will do nothing for the reputation of the Cathedral, the College, the Artist, nor for the City of Exeter.  At the moment there is 'push back'  ( https://matthewcarter.co.nz/ken-carter-and-his-sculpture/.) and there is a petition to the Cathedral not to be so silly.   :https://secure.avaaz.org/community_petitions/en/the_very_reverend_jonathan_greener_dean_of_exeter__save_the_testament_sculptures_at_exeter_cathedral/?t

A TREE IN NORTHERNHAY GARDENS, EXETER, 2025

Last week the Lord Mayor of Exeter processed in fancy dress into Northernhay Gardens together with the Sword of State and the Cap of Maintenance and about fifty followers, who were looking somewhat underdone and harrassed, to dedicate a tree to the victims of  the Covid Pandemic.  

There is necessarily a memorial tablet of marble set in stone and this is what is written upon it:

THIS TREE WAS PLANTED IN MEMORY OF EVERYONE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC,  MARCH 23rd 2021.

One wonders if any other public memorial in England has been inscribed in 'Pidgin' or 'Woke' or whatever this new language is to be called.  Maybe it is a first for the City of Exeter.  This would be a  sad distinction and particularly so because it is so unnecessary:  ALL WHO DIED would have been best and the city could have saved itself the expense of fifteen letters. 

In Exeter those who died were mostly of my generation and spoke the Queen's English.

Let us hope the next time His Worshipful turns up it will be to unblock the passage beween Northernhay and Rougemont.    

A BUY OR A CHIELD? EXETER, 1844

 "The Midsummer Assize for this blessed year of grace, 1844, was ushered in at a singular conjuncture.  The bells rung for the entrance of my lords the queen's judges, on Tuesday afternoon, but people were in a strange state of perplexity as they anticipated some such joyous announcement to signalize the advent of a blessed scion of the royal family of England expected by steam and electric telegraph, to gladden the hearts of once merry England.

"Notices had been very industriously published stating how it was that the Queen was hourly expected to tender an additional proof of her generous determination to extend the line of the House of Brunswick;  that Mrs. Lilly the nurse and Dr. Locock, the chief accoucher, with a host of attendants were all quartered at Windsor, whilst the electriic telegraph was waiting for a start to call the cabinet ministers to the scene of the royal birth-bed; the grooms sleeping in their saddles, ready to fly hither and thither with the intelligence as soon as the first premonitory symptoms announced the incipient stages of the royal progress.

"Well we were all thinking that if the young scion missed this world, it would not be for want of guides and directing posts, when the bells struck out and the people rushed forth into the streets, expecting to find the news running abroad that her Majesty was still expounding that important text of Genesis - which holds barreness to be an opprobrium, and sterility contrary to the holy end of matrimony.

''What ever is it? - a buy or a chield.' was the univeral exclamation, as the anxious housewives rushed forth.  Alas! there is no satisfactory resonse - 'it idden come yet'  is the reply; 'they'm only the jidges.'

The baby in question was Victoria's fourth child, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh who was born on 6th August 1844.  So it was a buy!.

A chield in Scotland is a boy and so, etymologically, is child and childe but the Devonians managed  to gender-bend the word. 

Source: The Western Times, July 27th 1844.

A SHRIEK FROM THE BOX, EXETER, 1844.

"Two little boys, named P|AYNE and BOUNDY, were charged with stealing apples frm the orchard of S. Kingdon., at Duryard. 

"It appeared that Mr. W. Kingdon was going home late one night, when passing the orchard, which lies near the road, he saw a number of boys, some picking, some eating, and some stowing away the green fruit, a quantity of which was scattered about.  He got over the hedge, seized on Boundy, and took him to Duryard, where he learned the names of the other offenders, and let him go.  He said he only wished them to have a summary punishment, and he would not offer evidence if they were to be sent to prison.  He then called a boy named Henry Crang, who proved the charge against the two prisoners.  Mr R.C. Blunt , who was in court, interceded on behalf of Boundy, stating that his family was respectable, and that he had been properly brought up.

"The father (Payne's father) (a flyman we believe) protested at his son being whipped.  He said there were others in the case, who ought to be punished, if they were not more in favour,

"THE MAYOR -  It strikes me you are a very foolish man.

"Payne - I know that, sir;  I works harder than you do;  but the others ought to be served as bad as my son.

"The MAYOR  -  You permit him to be prowling about the roads at night, robbing orchards, and now you see the trouble he has got himself into.  You are committed (to the boy) for one week, and when you come out , repent of your evil ways, and bide at home with your father and mother.  Boundy is to go to prison and there to be whipped and discharged.  (The mother of Boundy who was present, consented to this arrangement.)

"Payne was again about to say something to the Mayor, when he was interupted by Mr S. Kingdon. who said,

"You are worse than the boy, a great deal.  You are a perfect ruffian - the less you say the better.  Take yourself off!'

"The man was reluctantly turning away, when a shriek was heard from the box beneath the Petty jury gallery; and his wife, who had hitherto been silent, sunk to the ground ina violent fit of hysterics.  Several of the policemen immediately ran to her, but they were rather out of their element in endevouring to restore a fainting woman;  and the paroxysms seemed rather to increase at their approach.  Mr Kingdon called for a woman to come to her;  but there was no woman in the Hall who would assist her;  and she was carried out by the officers."

Source The Western Times 20th July 1844.

The Western Times had an opinion of Mr. Sam Kingdon.  'Mr. Kingdon's want of temper, his overbearing, we will not say insolent, manner especially to the poor.....'   Here he lives up to that reputation.  His mode of attack was often to claim to know someone who was a stranger to him:  'I know you, sir, you are a rogue and a ruffian.'  Here he practices it on poor Mr. Payne, who drives a cab, with the consequence that Mrs. Payne has hysterics and has to be carried out of the Court.

Mr. Payne, who works harder than Mr. Kingdon, has a point.  There were several boys scrumping apples and Kingdon knew who they were.  Only two come to court;  one goes to prison for a week, the other who is from a 'respectable' family is whipped and sent home.   There's justice for you!

Sam Kingdon lived in grand style at Duryard Lodge, which these days is Reed Hall, well known to the alumni of the University of Exeter.  These days you can get married there.  You might think he could have spared a few apples.