HAPPY XMASTIDE. 2024

It's still Christmas. And not just for children. Book Review.

The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift. (2008).

The Glory of The Garden by Patience Strong (1947).

Both these books are treasure troves. Both are beautiful in words and imagery. And both are about REAL gardening. And much else.

The woman who,at the date of publication of this book THE MORVILLE HOURS,was the approved National Trust tenant of Morville Hall and creator and curator of a garden there is one Katherine Swift. I do not know if this lady is still there,or the garden she writes about. But it's a beautiful book and a work of literature that will live forever. This Katherine Swift was/is a trained Archivist and it was work for the last Lord and Lady at a place called Dudmaston Hall,a little south of Bridgnorth in Shropshire that got her the neccesary approval with the National Trust to be the tenant (paying rent) at Morville,a little west of Bridgnorth,a more minor NT house and garden. I have only just looked up these locations on Google maps. Katherine has structured her book on the medieval Books of Hours,and the year is divided up not into months but into the divine offices that measured out each day,- Vigils,Lauds,Prime,Terce, Sext,None*,Vespers,Compline.

* pronounced ‘Known.

The book covers every subject you could think of from geology to nomenclature,from the traces of ancient peoples to the last village Baker and “right to buy”. It's not a book of instruction but there is a lot to be learned of gardening procedure in it. It's just a beautiful and inspiring book.

The Glory of The Garden. - It was my Mums book and I didn't “inherit” it. I asked Mum if I could have it and she gave it to me. I love my Mums assertive inscription in it in her odd sloping wrong way handwriting because she was naturally left handed but at school got hit over the knuckles with a ruler by the teacher every time she used her left hand to write. And this was not a light pingy plastic ruler. It hurt. This book is beautiful too. Here are some of the pictures

Patience Strong is out of fashion now and even at her heyday of popularity was looked at askance by the intellectuals both real and fake. But ordinary people loved her work. It spoke to what a lot of people want in life,not what up-themselves people tell us we should want. My sister chose a Patience Strong poem to be read at my Mums funeral. I chose a poem by Yevtushenko (People) Guess which evinced WTF faces,albeit polite ones! Patience Strongs short homily poems are beautiful and calm and peaceful and I bet they are good in grammar terms too.Many years ago I read the autobiography of the woman who wrote under this pen name. I can't remember much except she was one of those people who sees the beauty in the world. If you think-what's wrong with that?,well,it is not always appreciated. There are people and often in influential positions who only see the ugly side of life or MAKE MONEY from the ugly side of life and have to keep up their business. These people will call you out as a fool,a simpleton. They have to,to keep their money stream valid. In this book Patience writes about her garden and also in the process covers a range of other topics. It's down to earth too and you could learn some practical gardening from it,just as in the Morville book.There is no flannel,no purple prose. It's a straightforward celebration of one's home garden.