I remembered this book sitting on the shelf upstairs yesterday and thought it was just the sort of thing I want to read right now.
A lot of people are very sniffy about Henry (Vollam!) Morton's romantic ramble around England, but for me it is like watching a mediocre 1940s black and white film, just for the the bygone atmosphere and dim memories of how things used to be (although the sniffies would say that it was never like that).
It was written in 1927, when 'cheap motor cars' opened up the country, horses began to thin out and regional accents became less pronounced. My copy is the 39th edition of 1949. Do you (Brits) remember the radio program, 'Down Your Way'? This is the literary equivalent.
I was looking for a bookmark when I found this tucked in at chapter one. It seems to have been written by a German student of philosophy called Christl Bischofberger from Munich, who I presume was the original owner of the book.
This page is a mixture of lectures and notes by the look of it. I would be grateful for translations.
On the other side there is a sentence in French and a shopping list which I am heartened to see includes some sort of sausage.
I will use this bit of paper as an intriguing bookmark. Thanks Christl.
In the French bit I can see that 'secret' and 'heart' are in there. I wonder...
ReplyDeleteOn the back of this I just listened to BBC Sounds, 30 minutes of John McCarthy retracing the steps of H V Morton's In Search of England and a bit about the man. Interesting character. (John McCarthy used to think of England like this when he was held hostage in Lebanon). He went through Devon and found some of what Morton wrote about still there. Thanks. It made me think of Betjeman too. Similar time.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about that program by McCarthy. I used to not like Betjeman when I was younger, but now I love him.
DeleteIt first went out in 2012. Ken Clarke did a similar one on the place of jazz and Bessie Smith in his life which I heard a re-run of the other day. Worth listening to if you missed it.
DeleteOne of my favourites, Tom. Some people say it is all waffle, but it is beautifully written by a skilled journalist and gives a palimpset of 1920's England.
ReplyDeleteAs an aside; a young lad once asked Hilaire Belloc did he really manage to get from London to France on sixpence, as in a book he wrote. "Young man, I am a journalist", was his reply.
Yes - never let the truth get in the way of a good story, etc. I think it is the feel of the book which made it so popular.
DeleteHa! Will have to look at it more closely later. It’s so tiny on my phone. The last item on her shopping list is a large bottle of coke.
ReplyDeleteYes, I saw the Cola.
DeleteI remember this was almost my father's bible when I was a young child Tom.
ReplyDeleteI am going to get his 'London Ghosts' book. Just the thing for the Autumn/Winter.
DeleteI like the sound of this. Added to my to get list.
ReplyDeleteThey mature on the shelf, like we do.
DeleteWell, let me first say what a find this is. If this could be presented to Christl today, she would probably get a real kick out of it.
ReplyDeleteShe seems to have been a woman who made the best use of paper. The document starts off with her name, address, date of birth and number of semesters. But then it turns into some sort of diary, then general notes and then shopping list.
On the 12th of May she went to a concert at the ‘Altes Residenztheater’ in Munich with what looks like a start date of 8 pm.
On the 14th of May she went to a piano evening, also 8 pm.
It looks like she went to a lecture called “Portrait of the Queen” at the Amerika-Haus. “Ohne Karten” means without tickets.
Then it looks like she attended something from the 5th of July to the 19th of July, every day from 8:30 to 11:30.
1. “Studienbeitrag mit Quittung” = student fee with receipt
2. “Studentenausweis …” Student ID, showing that all books, keys and loan notes/stamps have been cleared
3. “Gebuehrenmarke …” Fee stamp for DM 6,- available for purchase at the University register at the Ludwigstrasse/corner of Akademienstrasse
4. 40 (?) stamps or 90 (?) for registered mail
50 grams roher Schinken
1 (?) bananas
1 (?) bell peppers
1 (?) tomatoes
6 fresh eggs
½ liter milk
1 rye bread
1 (?)
1 large bottle of Coke
Hmm, I just don't know. It looks like it says "Hama", doesn't it? But I don't know what that could be. If it said "Rama", then that would be a margarine. But I don't think it's an "R". The "roher Schinken" (raw ham) is delicious, I think, when thinly sliced. It would go well with the rye bread that she bought. I tried to figure out what she wanted to cook - maybe an omelette?
DeleteI was nosy and even gogggggled the street address, but unfortunately there is only the aerial view available, not the street view.
That's great. Thank you Iris. I think the 1 (?) penultimate was a type of wurst?
ReplyDeleteI love this sort of thing. That piece of paper is about 50 or so years old and I am able to use it as a bookmark as she did.
How about the French love note?
Ooops, I put my reply in the wrong spot - see above. As for the French - regrettably I chose home economics over French in high school. One of the biggest regrets of my life.
DeleteI could type it into Google translate.
DeleteThe queens speech reminded me of the first illustration x
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean.
DeleteA new copy of that volume available on Amazon for $850. I bought a nicely used copy for seven or eight dollars. My kind of book.
ReplyDeleteThere are some very optimistic chancers out there.
DeleteThe French says, "If your secret holds back your heart, how can you hope that another's heart will bear it?" I think it's the French equivalent of that saying that if you don't love yourself how can you expect someone else to love you. More or less.
ReplyDeleteThank you Maryanne. The shopping list and the quotation cover just about all of it!
DeleteIt is interesting how programmes are being made following Morton, Bradshaw and Baedeker.
ReplyDeleteFascinating too, how things have changed since their writing.. sometimes more do when they haven't
Sometimes the best way to protect something is to ignore it.
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