Ancestry and True Tales

ACE, ACE & ACE ~

Life of The Pillar House, Harwell … 1968 - 1993 …

VILLAGE for a THOUSAND YEARS …

VILLAGE for a THOUSAND YEARS =

ACE, ACE, and ACE … little stories of life in the `Johnny Crow`s Garden` of the L. Leslie Brooke books for children … where live Amanda Oonaugh, Paul James, Victoria-Augusta and young Peter R. R. Whitehead … The Pillar House, Harwell Village High Street :

1. The Princess ACE and her family …

Ace is a neat shiny black cat who is frightened of the wind - and the slightest breath of a breeze inside the house made her believe emphatically that it was the ghosts of mice come-a-haunting :

this was the decision reached by the growing family …

All winter long she stayed indoors as long as possible day and night & wrapped up in herself by the fireside, in an opened drawer or a closet … or at the foot of a warmed bed even though the last was generally forbidden … When she awoke she stretched languidly, blinked at any strong light, put her pretty little face high above her delicate neck and went to play with her wool ball along the landings upstairs …

After ten minutes of leaping, twisting, crouching, sneaking up upon and round about the lavender coloured wool ball that Victoria had made her, ACE judged she had taken enough exercise for the winter day and padded off to some secluded warm place where she would not hopefully be disturbed … or explored if perchance in the mid-afternoon there might be found a lap of a person sitting reading, typing, drawing, sewing … She knew that some late afternoons after school the young of the family might be watching television Blue Peter … before they set about homework at the

GREAT KITCHEN table where a wood fire glowed … & then she could investigate the supper cooking … & paw in and about the 5 feet of brick bread oven to see no HOB GOBLINS were hiding …

Only when the silvery white moonstones moon, now visited by the inhabitants of Americo Vespucci Land since 1969, shone full and brilliant through the long casemented Christopher Wren windows did ACE-cat-Princess feel an overwhelming desire to venture out-of-doors in FOUL WINTER TIME ... ACE would leap swiftly like a shadow to a window seat and stare and stare into the garden depths … of shades of greys, blacks, sepias, etched by the silvery light … She saw the bare branches of the fruit trees stirring mysteriously … and heard the flap of the Ivy and the Virginia Creeper on the windowpanes … but only a still night had her take her paws amongst the shadows ...

… Most times the Princess ACE leapt quickly back to the soft lights and warmth within the old lovingly worn house … her heimat = the place where her heart dwelt … The wind was no friend to her & she seemed not to like a visitor, a guest, she could not see as a shape but only feel as a presence, a force, that made strange moaning, whispering, sighing and questioning noises …

Perhaps she felt that the manners of WIND were in need of correction …

THE PILLAR HOUSE was very long and L-shaped … with tall 18th century windows and inside the principal rooms had great white painted shutters downstairs … It was full of rooms, some passages, and in WINTER-TIDE provided dark cosy corners where a little cat could happily explore in safety or pause and brush-up her fur … perhaps consider in some fashion the matters of life …

Upstairs in The Pillar House were big windows also & some with wider sills where a little cat might bathe in sunshine as the sun encircled the house east-south-west … That is if Apollo cast a glance beneath his chariots wheels = gave the earth sunshine = The family were given to these literary half thoughts and murmurs because Mother came from CAMULODUNUM and the Museums … And the great minds working there when she was young had instructed her well in the atmosphere of classical worlds then and in the 18th-19th centuries …

… The Deputy Curator the Colchester & Essex Museums, he when young went 19 years `out East` learning history of bronze making and geology : Harold Walter POULTER would give `Miss Greta Frobisher Weddell RANSOM ` gifts of `muff books` , informing her that his mother Margaret ( “ … in spite of being a de Quincey on a grandmother matriarchal line ” he said, handing me an antique copy of “Confessions of an Opium Eater”

… ) had advised him in civilized thinking in the late 19th century … Thus HARWELL Village for a THOUSAND YEARS had Dawn with her rosy fingers pulling aside curtains of night … or Dawn wore her cloak of grey … or put on her gold saffroned robe : you never knew with the English weather … ? ACE Princess heard such phrases …

She was generally a very happy and contented Cat, and food was provided from the kitchen at the same time as main family meals. The life of the house was usually tranquil, orderly, with white painted walls in nearly every room which had pictures noticed and these were not disturbing … Life might suddenly include helping to save some ancient building or lands, some monument … Father and mother wrote perhaps at midnight some of the best letters the CPRE and other Organisations said they had read - but it was agreed beforehand the wording might have to be softened … GREED of expensive suited Developers was a serious matter … & the in-fillers of gardens, leaving no green spaces for children to play : In-fillers did not often stay long in the villages but moved on looking for other opportunities to cram buildings into peaceful lanes …

ACE-Cat grew up in safety, and away from the WIND, doors and windows closed, she had only to now and then encounter strange shadows … and ponder if they might be the possible ghosts of mice … She and the family looked forward to LONG LIVES, and a happy well-fed and warm old age …

She had her family, and then her companions of the same name as herself. ACE-GOLDFISH lived in a nice large clean bowl, but he had become blind in one eye, either because it was genetic or science had not progressed sufficiently in this branch of zoology-ichthyology-OPTICS to get him some early treatment : Father worked in the British Museum NATURAL HISTORY, and felt ACE- Goldfish was in no distress. He lived in his bowl in the big upstairs EAST-WEST windows room the Nursery … A room never neglected even when the children reached their teens and early 20s … it had nice memories and they could still draw, paint, play games, dip into an old loved book … & all their friends could pile in too … A big house, not too big, is a delight to grow up in … and especially for Christmas, Easter, and wet summer days …

A large Nursery and a GREAT Kitchen … and a garden …

The third ACE was A MOUSE … from the Animal Experiment Laboratory over the Downs … to do with the Harwell Atomic Centre. He lived in a big lidless white plastic square box in the study upstairs, facing NORTH-EAST onto the School Lane. The name A C E seems to have been popular the year they were all born. We did hear that it was to be seen on MOTORBIKES owned by big brothers. ACE-Mouse

had been given as a present to Peter junior and so saved from the highly controversial career followed by his brothers and sisters : their young short, often painful lives ? were idealistically devoted to taking part in Scientific Experiments for mankind : it is a delicate matter ...

LITTLE PETE ( growing to be 6` 3ins ) and his friends … said it would not be so bad if the MEECES were sacrificing their health and lives because it was hoped to go and put Colonies on Planet MARS & other worlds & solve problems of crowded earth … But they were shamefully used for MARKETING JUNK … and further wasting the resources of the globe …

So, chance : ACE-MOUSE lived also happily in the old gently TIME worn ` Pillar House` across a small meadow where Edward Black Prince had sometimes dwelt as a child in the 13th century , and was great friends with the boy PETER who had saved his life … and no doubt called him PETE in the familiar way …

… They all went out with friends evenings in their teens and observed this and that about LIFE in general - in one village and the next … He was introduced to several sets of parents = who learned not to squeal when he sat politely on a shoulder … It was explained patiently by PETE and his friend DAN to parents, visitors, and Policemen that MOUSE The Master ACE had learned his manners from humans … he had known no parents … he was no used to loud excited voices & cries of `MOUSE` … he had no idea he was a mouse … & he was an apprentice craftsman …

When he came to live with ACE-CAT and ACE-FISH he had no fur, and he was a strange blue-mauve skinny starveling. As the first winter weeks of November hurried into December he had grown for Christmas-tide a lovely light-brown soft furry coat. He had tiny pink feet that became transparent in the early morning sunlight, and a nice strong tail which he used to hook himself onto the bars of his drinking bottle fixture as he took a swig of water. His water was always kept cool and clean. He had no fear of anybody at all and would happily crawl up outstretched hands appearing so full of trust and goodwill …

Once ACE-CAT picked him off his box-home … and carried him in her mouth up and down the stairs and along the sunlit landing leading to the Nursery. It was all the same to him … apparently no different to going out in the car to the local Pub with PETE and friends & Fathers. He was once or twice put to scamper about the glasses and tankards of the young people … lemonade, cherry-Ade, Coke, tomato-juice … and somebody allowed REAL ALE … A stranger howling `MOUSE` could be told it was only the

reflexion in a glass or tankard … AHEM - Ahem … perhaps they had taken a tankard too many … … … ?

However, at the sight of ACE-CAT with ACE-MOUSE in her mouth, the girl to whom the Princess ACE belonged, Victoria-Augusta … she is a Vegetarian … rescued him very promptly and separating them admonished that lady-CAT to “ LET HIM BE ! LEAVE ! LEAVE ! ” She was very firm … in a voice that might topple ancient chimney pots and even any not too secure Church Towers = ACE CAT looked most impressed by this ORATORY = it might have had Julius Caesar not land at Dover White Cliffs …

… As the Princess ACE had no kittens it was generally agreed by the household around the kitchen table and the concerned chatter around the Village WELL that CAT simply wished to `mother` the young mouse … did not mean him harm. But it was sensibly agreed that ACE-MOUSE could not any longer be allowed to sit atop his box home watching the morning Bus Queues outside the artist Mary Freeman her Winter Brooke House … And his box was carefully raised up quite a bit so he might look from the Study window, as had become his custom, B U T a canopy made from an old refrigerator shelf was swiftly designed and although that kept him somewhat imprisoned, he was VERY SAFE …

Life then went on in the desired tranquillity the family tried to achieve as this accomplished much more learning about the world PAST PRESENT and FUTURE : ACE-FISH gave no cause for anxiety, or had any complaints it appeared, and indeed, ACE-CAT showed no interest in him other than an occasional wry mee-owing remark which might mean she was comprehending FISHES and PHILOSOPHY … She did not seem very fond of water, in spite of a CAT-friend at East Hanney a village with a pond and here that CAT took a daily pond plunge, WINTERS too : but it was a semi-wild SCOTLAND CAT …

Perhaps ACE-CAT thought water moved invisibly like wind … Windy nights had given her a nightmare or two … she had acted as if ghosts of meeces came to party … she had to be put at the bottom of a bed and soothed … She gave a little quiver sometimes in the house … and looked over her shoulder … WALLS HAVE EARS … and unfamiliar footsteps are detected by pets ….

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II ACE, ACE and ACE …

… FEAST DAYS and HOLIDAYS

Life at The Pillar House, HARWELL, where lived Amanda Oonagh, Paul James, Victoria-Augusta, and little Peter R.R. Whitehead (1968-1993)

It was a March Easter Tide with daffodils alone braving early grey dawns and frost threatening silvered dusks. The house was alive with young people home from school, college, and even journeys around the globe ...

… Father, as usual, had visited for a total of three months for the British Museum NATURAL HISTORY exotic places to esearch out his little fishes the Clupeoids, who obliged him by going in and out of salt and fresh water … so that he never had to stop looking into them and could also go places where his history of science, natural history, and voyages of exploration research material happened to be. Every year he informed the household of the next 12 months foreign adventuring and urged everyone to “ … study hard … then you too can circumnavigate the globe again and again …”

Some relatives were staying the weekend the following days, and friends would visit one day or other. Mother had the Airing-Cupboard/linen cupboard very neat and big pieces of cardboard displayed with written messages as to which towels, sheets, etc., went to which rooms as guests came, departed, and others arrived. She seems to have been influenced when growing up by Mrs BEATON her splendid BOOK of Household Management … and ran The Pillar House Harwell household as her great-aunts Bessie-Martha and Annie-Agnes Artist and Irish-Welsh grandmother Mary Helena had instructed her as a small girl, then a schoolgirl in the 2nd World War Bulford Salisbury Plains and CLACTON-on-SEA ...

In the ancient village HARWELL, a decade on to celebrate its Millennium 885-1985, the Five PUBS were preparing to burst at the seams, the beams, with EASTER Saturday crowds and the days onwards … a-comin` and a-going` for a festive drink or two … chatter, gossip, and exchange of serious matters like the forthcoming HARWELL FEAST … crops, weather, fishing,

vandalism and excessive noise from heavily traffic cunningly directed through the village ancient High Street : Planners cutting costs we hear … & possibly Orders of greedy big-wigs WESTMINSTER by MOONIGHT …

Some Villagers and farming folk, that Harwell EASTER TIDE, were “ … all for closing off our ancient High Street either end and putting the sheep and cows in the middle … ” and they vowed to do it some evenings when the talk became firm and serious about them having sent 12 churls sons 13th century to the new University Magdalen over at The Oxford … “ They would put bravely put pen to parchment … when this Pub closes … ” And some did so … remembering in the cold EASTER TIDE daylight that those churls had paid a silver Shilling for their FREEDOM …

( MEMORANDUM : Research/printed work/ Dr John Fletcher & son Anthony a child of Pillar House/Lord Henry Brooke/and Brian LINGHAM, Didcot Librarian who devoted his lunchtimes and weekends to living again the CENTURIES of HARWELL and local history … and there are many others … all who have contributed to what really matters …

Andre MALRAUX at the end of his office MINISTER of CULTURE FRANCE … and before his RETIREMENT 1969 from November 1967 … to 1976 October the month before his death 24th November … walked the HARWELL lanes and could call in for a cup of tea or a supper with many people … But I forget our village book 1985 HARWELL VILLAGE for a THOUSAND YEARS = GRW on artists at The Pillar House & PJPW on the CHARTERS with help from his cousin Dr Martin Brett - Cambridge … )

Most of the ancient Harwell INNS - PUBS - had a history of drinking, ALE making WIVES, and camaraderie, reaching back a thousand years or more : Their names spoke the history of ENGLAND her green and pleasant lands … The CRISPIN, The WHITE HART, The QUEENS Arms, the Kicking Donkey, The Chequers … But they had borne other names, before the CRUSADES, and Agincourt … names reaching back into ARTHURIAN Britain, the times of Queen Boa`dicea=Boudicca :

back through so many centuries of Easters, some perhaps to beyond that very first Easter of all …

PETE of The Pillar House and his friend DAN from Upton Village

Said that Mouse-Ace should come with them and meet friends in The White Hart … where the Landlord had a young persons room (no alcohol) yet fairly open to the old INN so that the young were part of the social landscape of the village. Victoria-Augusta looked at the boys sternly and knowing their minds said (in a voice that startled some birds on the last fruit tree) “ NO WAY ! If you two were thinking of taking ACE-cat too … then I will box your ears ! GOT IT !”

Dan said “ Vicky … VIC … that cat is just a black-pudding … we want a lively companion … ”

One evening when a Policeman had asked PETE and DAN ` What is that mouse doing on the dashboard, young Sirs ?` … they had replied solemnly ` What mouse Officer ? Officer … Officer … is is PINK … do you see a pink mouse … ? ` They could not play this `Saint Malachi` game with a plump medium black cat … so that the Princess ACE-cat was usually safe from their whims …

We can imagine … “ No WAY ” said ACE-Cat to herself, repeating Victoria … and she moved like a shadow underneath a hugh potted plant that had come back from the tropics as a leaf and sprouted roots when put in water … and apparently had a name like `CUP of GOLD` - if not clipped every two months it took over half a room facing south !

ACE-Fish was in no demand over the EASTER holidays and it was agreed he have peace and tranquillity as much as possible in the nursery-playroom-homework-making things room upstairs over the Great Kitchen with its well lit windows facing north-east and south-west-west … He had no extraordinary wishes to travel the world, visit relatives, friends, or ancient INNS or even Watering-Places : He might well recall the journey he had made in a plastic bag from the APPLEFORD Fair, an orphan … and then bliss he was made welcome and a member of the family at The Pillar House … Anyway, it was recognised that he was with the attributes of a Philosopher … and such persons are known to fare best where they are contented and can THINK … dream …

When mother was younger she had lived near the remains of the house where John LOCKE had retired a decade … a girl called Damarisk dwelt there and he found she and her family and household very comfortable and orderly … so he could think and scribble away at his books … Evenings mid-1960s a live philosopher, a SPANISH and FRENCH War hero, spoke upon what life should mean and the beyond and beyond that … he now appreciated The Pillar House and Village life …

MOUSE-Ace was undeniably a good craftsman … and who knows with training in Ages Past he might have become a Master Builder, or at least advised … Master Builders travelled Europe and the British Isles helping put up the great Cathedrals and Churches… He enjoyed clearly examing the joiner, the beams, the woodwork in old buildings and was never tempted to join his distant cousins who might be living a Refugee or migrant existence year in year out … Perhaps he counted his blessings

The PRINCESS ACE-Cat was planning to spend the early EASTER beside the wood burning fires of the music-room and the great kitchen where food preparation eternally went on … She might arrange herself in adorable positions so that she would be picked up and cuddled and given many a knee ... And her appetite the concern of everyone … We may say she knew she was born beautiful and that she gladdened the eye … and this was her role with guests in the house … ACE-Cat was very agreeable.

As usual … WIRELESSES = radios - TAPE DECKS & RECORD PLAYERS = gramophones … played music of every kind & all Ages all over the old house … and the guitar the piano, would be suddenly taken up … The Church bells rang too and at unexpected times, perhaps they were trying things out : a friend came with a hurdy-gurdy, Recorders, and a string instrument called a Psaltery that he was making … and he followed Father about in the garden and the coach houses playing bits of ancient Airs … while Father talked of the Lost Music Manuscripts … and his long-sought Brazilian 17th century drawings … which he was now able to go and see in Cracow, Poland ...

Mother was in the kitchen cooking a meal for sometime

“ before darkness falls ” … … … … … …

… … There would be chickens, fishes, and masses of dishes especially for the VEGGIES …and breads of all colours and textures and goodness & real butters … and such lovely puddings … and home-made sweets had been made earlier in the week … EASTER EGGS of Chocolate were usually bought from a friendly shop … What they did not eat that night “ the Queen next morning fried ” says the text in a book for children to the drawing of Sybil Diana wife of the Artist L. Leslie Brooke who had known the house as it was 1900-1909.

… Well, what was over would make snacks sandwiches and this and that next day for the unexpected visitors and the cries of “ I am starving ” : while another GREAT MEAL got underway to-morrow for “ before darkness falls ” … … … … … …

… But inevitably sometimes the meal of the day would be by candlelight, firelight, bonfire light, or the new fangled electric light = NB:

HARWELL had no proper electricity until the mid-20th century … no running water - but the Well water was very pure and nearly every garden had a Well …

THE SUN CAME SUDDENLY OUT … of a rather old parchment shades sky that Easter Tide morning … and shone with a white-yellow light … but it was not very warming … And there was a WIND that nipped spitefully - and Mother watched its gusts shake the very early fruit blossoms, mostly on the Black Prince plums : The wood fires had people beside them a few minutes before popping here and there about matters of pleasant interest. AN OLD HOUSE with a garden is very agreeable at FEASTS and FESTIVALS and School HOLIDAY TIMES …

The Princess ACE-Cat did not neglect her morning duties - and she visited all the bedrooms, looking with great curiosity at the arrangements & at some luggage arrived last night … and she circled around strange garments and shoes and other possessions displayed in the daylight … She looked up prettily and very enquiringly at whomever she chanced to find … especially those not of her family - she was trusting and welcoming … She tried the beds and stroked the satin ribbon edges of the blankets … some heirlooms, got from the big linen-cupboard/airing cupboard.

… A foreign visitor hearing this cupboard spoken of, and knowing Father studied fishes, had asked why the HERRING CUPBOARD was upstairs ? … And not downstairs, attached to the kitchen, as in old Scandinavian homes … ACE-Cat may have thought that would be very nice … and perhaps other fishes could be kept in it … for when she was hungry and not certain what she would like to eat …

MOUSE-ACE, when not out and about with PETE and DAN and their friends, was sometimes carried about on coat collars or he sat atop the Piano amidst the Spider Plants … Some young children were playing in the nursery upstairs, and ACE-FISH happily came popping to the surface of his bowl … we felt he was at ease …

A COT FULL OF STUFFED TOY ANIMALS had a BRONTOSAURUS named Madam BLUEBELL … and she, an unusual Nursery animal, always got such loving attention ... And has come to GAUL, Fair France … ( Mother had made her the third year 1970 of our residence/our Stewardship/ in The Pillar House from a pattern got from the London Geological Museum, Albert-O-polis )

It had become a tradition now believed by everyone even the grown-ups, from when they are all very young, and before the two youngest went to School , THAT most certainly Madam BLUEBELL Brontosaurus is THE SCHOOL TEACHER for ALL the OTHER Nursery TOYS … and when ACE FISH came to live with The Pillar House family …

it was mused that ` perhaps ACE-FISH Philosopher talked away with the Nursery toys when everyone was at school … furthering their education too … … … W H O W A S T O K N O W ?

… Perhaps our Readers agree, that MAKE-BELIEVE is sometimes very necessary to our lives …

… FOR WHOM IS TO KNOW … exactly what we, who are CHANCE LIFE upon the planet EARTH, can find a Staff, a sweet secure Shelter of Rest … an unseen friend, as we journey about earth - seas -skies … and to the stars …

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III - ACE, ACE, & ACE - and SPRING

The Princess ACE-Cat came padding on beautifully manicured paws into the upstairs Study at the Pillar House one morning in April, hoping ACE-Mouse might be sitting atop his box. But he looked up at her serilously through the bars of his ex-refrigerator shelf dome … and finished at his drinking water fixture, and he nodded, adding a gentle soft squeaking `Good Morning, The Miss Princess ACE-cat … he said that it was the Day of the God THOR and he must be about his Craftsman work … so that he might rest as usual on the day of the Church Bells … It was known he was allowed to go and hear the Preacher in a Church outside the Village of HARWELL …

` I have just heard mother say ` mia-ahh-owed ACE-Cat, forgetting to acknowledge his greeting in her nervous impatience … ` that SPRING is in the garden` … I am advised by her to go and see. Perhaps I shall not like Spring … ? I am not at all sure miawwow … You know that I am acknowledged to be extremely shy … and therefore rather highly strung … I heard someone reading this aloud beside the winter fire in the Great Kitchen from the old books like `Enquire Within` … or it may have been Dr John Hall … a son-in-law of William Shakespeare who wrote a piece of prose about Full many a SUN rising … ` But I wonder therefore, if you ACE-Mouse, would care to accompany me to the garden to greet this person SPRING …` ?

But MOUSE-ACE had gone back to sorting his nuts, beans, cereals and assorted seeds. He also had to design and build a new nest from kitchen roll paper. This was a regular fortnightly choir after his box was changed and cleaned and dried nicely … and lined with fresh paper and any empty cardboard rolls from the grocery and chemistry shopping. He also had dried branches, seashells, and interesting empty packets such as used by the BLUE PETER BBC television Children programmes : `makings` … that he might explore and hide away in for a nap.

… He had heard FISH-ACE say dreamily one wet afternoon in the nursery ` … thank goodness the family do not empty and clean the house every two weeks … they spring-clean once a year … We should give thanks for this … perhaps on SUNDAYS … That Sage went on contentedly lazily curving at geometric patterns in the regularly cleaned fish-bowl …

ACE-Mouse did not complain, and he enjoyed the creativity and activity of the fortnightly building and his décor works … it kept him brisk, alert, bushy whiskered, young … and the family saw he

had a good diet. He quite enjoyed the company of ACE-Cat staring and purring beside his little homes and Estate, or falling asleep embracing a corner and a half of his box. She snorted gently in her dreams … of what we do not know ? He had no idea that perhaps he lived dangerously … as his ancestors and cousins had when a CAT was on duty …

This very morning the temperature was mild, just perfect for his taste & he was up to his whiskers in work. ACE-Cat must find somebody else to perambulate the garden and Orchard with … to greet and entertain SPRING. He had a natural grasp of the nature of Spring and was perhaps faintly surprised at the nervousness or naivete of ACE-Cat. But perhaps it was just a figure of speech she used … as a Princess ? He found she looked and acted quite poetic and he enjoyed all company that came to visit him … or when he went out and about with PETE and DAN and their friends …

The Mouse-ACE of the family turned to immerse himself in kitchen roll paper creativity & happy, happy work through to the late afternoon … then he might eat and rest in his new décor. VIRTUTE et LABORE said a Family WHITEHEAD motto of 1888 & he saw it on a silver cup a great-grandfather had received for Running at school - and winning = meaning `by Work and Pluck`

And SATTEUS LATEUS was the motto of Mother from her 10th century ancestors RANSOM ` I am joyful with sufficient` … The family and animals strove to obey both …

So that morning ACE-Cat glided delicately like the Princess

she was registered at the VET-girls as `Princess ACE of Cowley Oxfordshire` . She went silently along the nursery landing from the upstairs Study … along the length of the upstairs landing leading to the bedrooms and the beautiful staircase that curled broadly down into the hall …

… From April to October the red and blue glass above the High Street great door reflected on walls and floors, and if doors were left open the colours reached through the small flagged Jasmine hall into `the music room` with an old quarry tiled floor … a procession of colours during the daylight hours. If the reflecting coloured glass caught her fur then she looked as if she wore jewels. Shafts of golden sunlight from the garden facing windows now followed her footsteps and she gleamed gold and silver inlay upon her natural black-black-brown. She was very beautiful and a delight to the eye … and she did chase away strange mice in the garden and the coach houses … but this was not spoken upon by the Family = who had no wish to upset their family member the MOUSE-Ace …

ACE-Cat brushed through the side of the so-called `little hall` and

entered the garden from the Jasmine creeper door … which stood ajar in fine weathers and the white scented Jasmine sometimes had a perfume. She swayed gracefully around the terrace, sniffing the fresh warming air and her mood became quite gay as the pale yellow sunbeams stole about her slow moving form, clothing her in the vital Vitamin D …

She meandered now towards a patch of violet leaves beside the brick wall curve that Father had built with a friend along the terrace joining to the ancient wall … a few of the violet flowers gleamed here and there like tiny stars … but you had to go close to see them. She settled herself full length, stretched luxuriously upon the bed of soft new leaves then she felt a short licking and brushing of her fur to be enjoyable … stretched again settling herself and a few bluebells just coming into bell leaned gracefully over one of her ears. The position was warm … she looked like a beautiful painting or photograph …

` … Here I will wait, on my best behaviour, full of best manners, to greet SPRING when he or she appears … perhaps this person is taking a turn about our garden and orchard she mused … and gently drifted off into sweet, sweet sleep …`

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IV - FEAST DAYS & HOLIDAYS Part 2

A very small boy, William, was in the Study being shown the paper house of that fortnight made by MOUSE-ACE … & was truly amazed at the fragile looking but sturdy construction … rather like a Concertina

expanded into a circle. He begged to hold the tiny paper nest in his hands and was allowed to do so. He wished that Pete were able to photograph it .. But he and DAN were away with ACE-Mouse … down by the Church at the house of a friend Jamie … he was black skinned … they had a game of hide-and-seek in the winter dark sometimes. Later a MOUSE-Ace house is photographed … I will try find it amongst the many photographs …

EASTER SUNDAY AFTERNOON everyone went to OLD SARUM … which is the old Medieval town before Salisbury was built two miles away. The Bishop had a row with somebody in expensive togs and upped and moved … taking the Cathedral with him … he carted the building stones down to the valley… and the present Cathedral of Salisbury got going with Master Craftsmen immersed in happy, happy work … and inventing things. The old Cathedral of SARUM is only foundations in the grass, and great mound that was the walled town is some ruins under grass … and well kept nowadays and a nice place to visit at any time of the year … especially in Winter ... Take a picnic - or find a nice hot lunch in Salisbury …

Occasionally there has been a MASS in the Cathedral foundations … perhaps if you visit by moonlight you can see it as it was - this is an old superstition … Mother does not remember where she read it … she has a habit of wandering into other Centuries and having a CHAT … her father and his brother used to send postcards in SUMMERIAN script when she was 4-5 years old … luckily the POSTMAN was learning too … although he was not going to tackle GREENLANDIC … however those letters had the GREENLAND stamps on them … :

… An old Professor told a French hero & Man of Letters 1945 after that awful 2nd World War ended … “ You should join ELSA (Greetah) in her games ANDRE … she can teach you things … we knock on the door of other Centuries … I call her ELSA from Lohengrin as we both like the music of Richard Wagner…”

(They live beside the SEA and his wife a Shropshire lass fears HIGH SEAS for her Austrian-German Chemistry of the Brain Professor husband plays on the gramophone THE FLYING DUTCHMAN at Concert Pitch … `the street to the town can hear it` … she is sure … and not everyone worships Richard Wagner … )

This EASTER SUNDAY AFTERNOON a picnic lunch-tea, and later high-tea would be taken. It had been prepared with eager hands in the old Great Kitchen of The Pillar House. Rows of books, reprints, of cooking back to APICIUS a Roman, were on a shelf then

shelves : the 17th century receipts were extremely sensible and the 1900s-1940s books simple and health wise : So `EAT ART` produced some Scotch eggs and the VEGGIES version/ a whole roasted chicken, fresh brown rolls and butter, cottage cheese and some `mouse-trap` = a firm cheese not expensive but of old lineage : lots and lots of salad vegetables washed, last of the orchard apples … mother could make salad platters and mixes on site. Some biscuits from the Tudor Cook Books with the spice MACE in, not just Nutmeg … which some of the family loved with strong `mouse-trap` cheeses, and some persons enjoyed with elderberry and apple jelly : people have tastes that vary … sweet, sour …

MOUSE-Ace, PETE, DAN, PAUL, and young William probably rode in a car together … there were three cars full altogether and everybody knew the way very well … once the first ancient Barrows were sited they were all going to safely arrive at ROMAN EMPIRE SORBIODUNUM = Old Sarum = Salisbury town. And thus it was so … the cars drove up the Way to the once town of Old Sarum … MOUSE-Ace was first out with PETE and DAN and allowed to scamper to his heart`s content amongst the sheep-cropped grass that EASTER SUNDAY afternoon … there was to be found easily wild Thyme patches … but no Harebells as in the long grasses at Stonehenge …Young William stayed close by MOUSE-Ace to keep him company and they found some beetles going about their lives amongst the thyme and the short grasses, the flinty and chalk specks soil. Underneath could be found broken pot shards and pieces of old metals & bones from ancient meals … from times when other feet had trodden and owned these spaces of TIME … Wood pigeons called soothingly from the tall trees growing around the vanished town buried steep fortifications … where the modern age could climb up and down if you liked to learn mountaineering …

A FEW DOGS WERE OUT ROMPING … but they kept near their owners and were well behaved. Wil;liam was ready to pick MOUSE-Ace up and quickly put him in a pocket if a dog did hear their way. EVERYONE was HUNGRY : so that a picnic spot was chosen behind the cathedral foundations and in the shade of some small overhanging trees. Two hugh clothes for the table … father had brought them back from the Island of BALI when he went to look at fishes … they were quickly spread out and the picnic unpacked, salads cut up on a large kitchen board of Elm wood, and everyone tucked in.

“ … After breakfast work awhile …

After dinner rest awhile … (midday dinner as of old)

After Supper run a mile …

quoted mother as usual … remembering a little rhyme of advice

from her Great Aunts Miss Bessie Martha and Miss Annie Agnes artist … they had founded with other young persons a MISSION at Liverpool from the 1880s when families lived 20 or more in cellars and single rooms … and they had found willing helpers once a plan was established … daughters of the CLASSICIST Teresa Carroll Mrs John Williams raised in an ancient Merchants house Manchester they found themselves with dead parents … 5 girls with classical and bible names, the eldest 17 the youngest 2 years old … they shaped lives that upheld civilized standards … Colonel Georges-ANDRE MALRAUX from 1945 calls them “ … my aunts, my INTELLECTUAL EQUALS … ”

I think you had all better run a mile” she said while packing the picnic remains bowl and plates and things … I do not think you will want much supper after eating all this … and it will be well after 9 o`clock when we get home to Harwell. The family set out to run, walk, skip towards the fortified deep ditch which had protected the town a thousand years ago. They would as usual make their ways to a great tree with a long thick rope tied to a high branch. This rope had been put up by the family many years before and it was the custom to visit Old Sarum and swing, swing, swing across the former old twon ditch. MOUSE-Ace, of course, had to swing too, sitting on the shoulder of PETE …

Several family members wondered aloud if that MOUSE knew how dangerously he frequently lived ? They had not forgotten finding him carried by ACE-Cat, a mere tail dangling from her mouth, as if she thought him a kitten … But then he had been born into danger from his birth at the ATOMIC Site …

Everyone swung, expl;ored the ruins, sat and looked at the landscape north, east, south, west : some scrambled up and down the fortifications for exercise. The SUN was arcing in the WEST very fast and the AIR was growing CHILL … and it was agreed to make a quick dash to the Cathedral Salisbury and perhaps catch the ORGAN playing … look at the Medieval clock which was everyone`s favourite. Mother always said “Hello” to Sir John Montacute for he was the first Crusader Knight she met when she aged 7-8 years lived in the Wartime at HADZOR on the Estate of the old Captain Barclay and his sisters … she went to Catholic Mass with them in a double-dog cart drawn by 2 friendly horses.

The Family came over to FRIENDS DAY at the Cathedral every July … the children had all climbed up to the Tower and seen the construction of the Spire from the inside … PETE was the youngest child to go up just before his second birthday 1972.

Mostly he was carried by mother on her hip as she was recognised to be very strong from her SEA TRADERS ancestry of 14 Races 27 nations ... Victoria-A insisted on making the slightly perilous

climb-up as it was in those days, on foot … the last bits she was pulled aloft by a Vicar who said … “ `Hhhm … well … let us sing

… here we go … getting up to heaven … up we go … nearly up to Heaven …”

The Family made the Cathedral “before clocking-out time” quitted Dan and Pete together and they rushed to the oldest clock in the British Isles. The tallest spire still thrilled everyone, and inside the sheer grace and delicacy had the usual over-powering impression : with great eloquence, in a VOICE of SILENCE, the building imparted its spirit in unheard but highly visual words of fortitude and joy … “ Virtute et labore ” … said Father in a whisper of awe. Ah … it never fails to thrill me … since Mother insisted we visit some years ago … I a Marxist of sorts, want to kneel down to the whole edifice … those who built it … ”

The JOURNEY HOME was begun with everyone in a reflective mood and PETE summed it up to DAN and the COMPANY before they got into the three cars … Turning around three times in front of the building and balancing on one long leg … delivering as if on a stage … “ WOW ! WHAM ! WOW-wham … THAT`S A BUILDING ! Now everyone … you have to ADMIT … ” And DAN answered as an ancient chorus “WOW-WHAM … WHOW MAN ! … Why can`t we have one in Didcot ~

Give all the yobs something to do … give em some work … Whhhowwww ” … and DAN stretched his arms out full length on either side in his new yellow and blue anorak echoing ` WOW … Wow-MAN ` … PETE turned around three times more and did his one leg balancing act again … one of his usual antics … and swept his arms and did an artistic bow …

In the DARKENING EASTER SUNDAY evening they drove across the ancient Plains, passing the Barrows where dead warriors, kings and queen perhaps, and ancient persons … who might have travelled as far as Rome or Egypt, had been lain to sleep their spirits into a world of the dead such as they understood in those times. PETE and DAN were sleepy in back seats … Mother heard them happily going over the day … “ I`m surprised they did not write us letters … we down the ages …” said PETE … “ They had history books … most of them could speak LATIN around here …

They could have written us ` HI Pete and Dan … hope things are not too bad ahead - are you having to learn this flipping LATIN grammar too … love … from Cornelia and Flavia …”

DAN continued in a solemn deep voice … “ Ahem ! P.S. Love from BOADICEA … Wish you were here … and kisses … from Boaw`diceaaaahhh … ” Mother wandered how they thought of such funny little things …

PETE continued in a drowsy voice “ I am going to write letters to

girls who will live in two thousand years time …” “ I wonder what their names will be…” said DAN … But they did not go on to explore future names of girls … Pity ! Mother remembered that she must rub out on the first LATIN book the alterations to the title … which had been changed to `EATING the PEOPLE` … from MEETING the PEOPLE ... Then she wondered if she needed to rub it out … it would be nice to remember when the grandchildren used it …

THE WAY HOME lay towards Wantage where ALFRED Anglo-Saxon King , had burnt those cakes … The bakery with tea-shop, of course, had become known as `the burnt cakes shop` … Father his twin and cousins had grown up some years about here and knew many places of interest for exploration like bluebell woods

The Clumps, and where Toad Hall of the book was. His grandparents had lived at `White Cross` Wallingford between the two great Wars. All schools did woodwork in his days and he had impressed the children by making a little 2 child toboggan one weekend christened `The Rolls Royce` … it had been used in winter snow on local hilltops.

WANTAGE was empty as usual late Sunday evenings, and the air was gathering more than chilly cold. The opportunity was taken to circle twice times around the Market Place where stood a fine statue of ALFRED King who defeated the Danes but was not too good at cooking cake watching. ALFRED born in Wantage got many Waves of arms and caps and cheery calls of `SEE YA` …

The cars headed north-east into the dark night …

A detour to pass East Hendred where the poet Christopher Cauldwell had lived as a child, before he lost his life in the Spanish Civil War 1930s … Then soon the Harwell Saint Matthew Church bells were heard ringing out Easter Sunday. The set of 6 bells in the 13th century church is the oldest working set in all the world … outside China that is . The bells ring every week for Services, weddings, celebrations of national and local importance … baptisms and sadly funerals - they rang out for the Funeral of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603 …

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

? Chloe PRINT for me to send … KEEP on this ACE file … it is ideas =

THINK ABOUT THIS -

Friends of the Ashmolean /foam(a)ashmus.ox.ac.uk

Ashmolean Record Keepers :

From your Member styled Mrs G.M.C. Whitehead

Address :

Sud de Villiage

Monleon Magnoac, 19 Rue Principale

Hautes Pyrenees 65670 FRANCE

Because the restored Ransom Ancestry & Histories, the work of my young soldier father (22 years at my birth) Frederick John RANSOM 1911 November - March 1969 is issuing on www.greta-ransom.com &

assembling/editing work on WORDPRESS for the Medievalists :

I wonder, therefore, if you could easily adjust my Records to read as Mrs Greta RANSOM Whitehead for post and your LIST of Members ? We joined `FRIENDS` late 1960s when artist friend Mollie-Mary (she nee Cotton/Bowdler/Dudley-Short families) Broke-Freeman brought us to a gathering of the `early friends`

Greta Frobisher Weddell RANSOM

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ we may send the below when they acknowledge the above

DO NOT SEND : the below can be useful in other ways :

For your ARCHIVES you might find a slot and the connexions below of use/it is all on web 3,000 pp not yet well indexed in `scaffolding` plus connexions, RANSOM HISTORIES & ANCESTRY going to exceed initial 3,000 plus pages : therefore while

penning this in name of R A N S O M … I add some snips Art world 20th century from work assembled for web released & on-going

… We were not strangers to ASHMOLEAN … I in person 1937 and Peter J.P. Whitehead ( W. identical twins of the Quaker lines of Philip Henry RATHBONE Liverpool Museums & Art Galleries 19th century /Greg Quarry Bank/Reynolds Bristol /Darby Iron Bridges and things/ etc etc … one line they share a 3 times back Granny with Horatio Nelson ) digging & delving with ASHMOLE & Tradescant family & DODOS and Brazilian Tapestries …

… PJPW of BMNH whom I married 1967 soon had history of natural history connexions with Ashmolean via Trandescants/Cook RN/and Tapestries … he died 1992 ... Last events were Ashmolean Tercentenary 1983 and I created a Tudor Supper in the gardens The Pillar House Harwell for your scholar guests from overseas ... The house, gardens, intact until 1993 when I sold and came to GAUL …

… A series of stories ACE ACE & ACE (it was a popular name for pets that year) I wrote for the four children about their village life & they growing up in the beautiful old worn 18th-19th century house, using only their speech, may perhaps come to be read … as the immortal books for children of BRITISH ARTISTS L. Leslie Brooke/Warne/ began in Pillar House 1900s … previous tenant R.C. John Henry Frederick BACON painter of great men … Turn of the 19th-20th century they are fairly well known artists … Robert Anning-Bell was across the fields for a time in Hagbourne …

My stories `Life in The Pillar House` have begun on WORDPRESS - a useful web site for quick publishing & informing family/friends they can pick things up immediately … ` Stories really for little Peter the youngest child 1970-1998 ` : I intend them an introduction to his photography-philosophy work … that I must set about … He was an Ashmolean FRIEND … his kindness his beauty and his common sense gave hope to those who knew him …

1940s-1980s … the miles between Harwell and OXFORD were still a small world = I could recall 1938 we had to go from Clacton-on-Sea to Castle Hedingham as the delicate water-colourist RAVILLIOUS held a serious meeting in a nice Pub garden = It was about Maniacs who had picked up garbage from the FUTURISTS =

… It is known we RANSOM family can fly people about the globe in the thousand little seaplanes that go with the RANSOM seashores Estate … & all that need be said is `can we go to … so-and-so … for a beer` … We also have Actors Uncle Fred MacMurray

on our RANSOM line and cousin Clarke Gable to my grandmother ballerina choreographer Jean Minerva Weddell R … Hollywood was useful for persons artistic wanting a rest … they could pass unknown or wear a wig !

1954, I Miss Greta Ransom working in Colchester Castle Camulodunum C.V. … a SHADOW in trilby hat came up to me saying “ … its me … the SPY … remember … I grow your PORRIDGE … Lennie and your father used to call in to see my OAT fields … ” … This was the real RICK/NICK of the film CASA BLANCA … I last saw him 1938 when I was 5 … if only only only they would produce a photo !

1937 - My young father and I, after he collected me from the Saint Clare Convent School, took the completed genealogy (we main line) down to the West beaches of Clacton-on-Sea … we measured them all out … they took over two beaches : An April evening & we read their names, their branch lines, off into the setting sun …

… 1937 an April evening THEY WERE ALL BACK UPON EARTH again ~~~ from Gaius REDEMPTIO = Ransom … he came from Italy-Jutland BC ancestry 77 AD sails into LONDINIUM … & had useful ` plastic cards` = OSTIA, JERUSALEM, one saying `MITHRAS` : retired to DUNWICH (coastal erosion) Suffolk 92 AD … We main line RANSOM move up and by 1500 buy farm Montrose Basin, leaving daughters married along the coasts … and sending NO XMAS cards to the Suffolk RANSOM line of a disagreement in 1249 AD !

RANSOM ancestry had not been lost up to 800 AD : and a private printing great book for the Family early Victorian bound in moss green and gold was in possession many lines RANSOM … I was not sure I wished to re-use the name Wulfwine … but a Marcus Britannicus seemed agreeable : War came 1939 :

As Cleopatra RANSOM ( “ … last of 13 children & Dad got into Egyptian Archaeology his last term of Office … call me Pat or Cleo - I had no idea it was funny until I got to big school … ” ) tells us 1938 “ We have not had a Christmas together since 800 AD …” : but WAR came 1939 …

1924 - My father began assembling the Genealogy he age 12 years with encouragement and help from a Retired Herald and friends - I recall us 1938/1939 all rushing off to Norwich to see Medievalists & Doctor Rainbird Clark of the Museum … because there was a possibility the RANSOM School of 35O AD was on or near the site of the present Boys School THE ORATORY … WAR came September 1939 …

In 1953 help was forthcoming from Camulodunum Colonia Victricenses = Colchester Museums and connexions … where I was employed a `British Maid of All Work ` … and my practical and aesthetic education went on especially from Harold Walter POULTER the Deputy Curator 1870s-1962 … A `Master Greene` early 1950s

( who scribbled novels upstairs in Castle corners ) came with RANSOM-Weddell historical information INCA = Y. Josef San Julian f. San Miguel line. He could call in on the VAT = Vatican …

I remember coming into ASHMOLEAN 1937 and 1938 to visit your restorer `NOSEY`  and he knew our Weddell INCA cousins when they were all young …

I see you have Suffolk Members ` RANSOM, John` , on your Records and this is no doubt the branch I stayed with in June 1936 when we had returned from our 8 months Nord-Sud Poles Tour for Aunt Margareth Ransom Mrs T.I.G. … I recall a son or grandson of the Suffolk RANSOM family was in the City of London 1950s ...

They were a 2nd cousin branch who romped about the Continent with William the Conqueror … we rather disapproved at that time … but gave them some lands Suffolk & did not lose ours : In 1249 we struck them OFF our guest list because, as Cleopatra says, `they got too IN with Westminster & Courts and wanted `dough` if we continued Trading around Mediterranean as we had done with bridal lines since 1st century BC ` …

( Its about a LAW they should not have signed up to … )

However 1936 June, I stayed in some peace with RANSOM Suffolk = I can see them in my memory ... I am coming 4 years and my co-heir my Uncle Len Immanuel RANSOM is a diary keeper since age 12 years - now he is 16 years and a FLYER with a most excellent Certificate earned from 2 Pilots … he had to fly the Channel in FOG then take us to WEST GREENLAND … “ for a beer ” … the usual casual remark when we fly up in sea planes …

? So perhaps I could have my birth name Greta RANSOM on your records and the post without too much trouble to your RECORDS Department …

NB : … I think then, perhaps, the Procession of RANSOM 92 AD East Coast BRITAIN through the DARK AGES might agree to park their AXES under the trestle tables … ( “ THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN LOST BEFORE … & come to you and me to be saved … ” Ref. Dr John RAY Ransom NASA & USA State Department 1917-1969 …)

We always keep friends with ELY 6th century onwards & appreciate Queen ETHELDREADER and her sisters … & get 3 Palestine brides 11th-12th centuries with dowry lands = down to me we are 14 RACES and 27 Nations …

Greta (Greetha) Frobisher Weddell Maureen Caecelia RANSOM …