Singing Sir Walter's praises

A fine performance of my 'Hero of Devon' song last Monday by members of the Exmouth and Budleigh Anglo-French Society in Budleigh Salterton's Masonic Hall. 

It concluded my illustrated talk in French, 'Notre Grand Elisabethain', which I promised them some months ago. I'll be giving versions in English during the coming months. 

The tune to go with the verses is 'The Ash Grove' which I first heard my friend Annie playing on the piano and which I think is rather beautiful, as well as easy to sing.  You can hear it nicely performed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qak5Vb209Ng

Try it yourself!

1. A Hero of Devon –

We hope he’s in Heaven –

He lived in the time of Good Queen Bess.

They said he was proud:

His clothes were so loud.

He had his faults we must confess.

His surname is Raleigh,

Or maybe it’s Rawley,

And as for the spelling nobody is sure.

We’ll call him Sir Walter

Queen Bess called him Water.

He loved her to bits but we’re sure it was pure.

2. His cloak on a puddle,

He said ‘T’is no trouble!

Your Majesty’s feet will now not get wet!’

The Queen smiled and said,

‘We cannot be wed.

But please do become my favourite, pet!’

Sir Walter became

The man in the frame.

Potatoes won fame as his favourite dish.

Virginia known

For Queen Bess on her throne.

A pipe of tobacco his dearest wish.  

3. With bicycles too

His fame grew anew.

His poetry also was not bad at all.

But Bess’ successor,

A man so much lesser,

Did craftily bring about his fall.

He stood on the scaffold.

The crowd were so baffled

To see English justice had gone amiss.

Sir Walter take praise!

Our hero from Hayes

Who wrote loads of poems much better than this.





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Raleigh 300: Who was involved in the tercentenary celebrations in 1918?

Continued from http://raleigh400.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/raleigh-300-how-did-they-mark.html


Here are some of the people who felt that Sir Walter Raleigh was worth remembering and his life worth celebrating in 1918. 

It was the 300th anniversary of his execution, and Britain was still engaged in a world war. But that didn’t stop the nation’s Great and Good. They still believed, as they put it, in ‘one of the great heroes of the modern world’. 



HM King George V

The Raleigh Tercentenary Commemoration was seen as an initiative of national importance. No less a person than the King was its Patron.

A Tercentenary Committee to organise the event included: 

Arthur Balfour, KG, OM, PC, FRS, FBA, DL (1848-1930), 1^st Earl of Balfour.  Politician. Foreign Secretary from 1916 to 1919, noted for  issuing the Balfour Declaration in November 1917.  He had served as Prime Minister from 1902 to 1905.

(Honorary President, speaker at the Mansion House, London, on Tuesday 29 October 1918)

George Forrest Browne (1833-1930). Bishop of Bristol 1897-1914.

(Vice-Chairman)

James Bryce, OM, GCVO, PC, FRS, FBA (1838-1922), 1st Viscount Bryce.  Academic, jurist, historian and politician. British ambassador to the United States from 1907 until 1913. Speaker at the Mansion House, London, on Tuesday 29 October 1918.

(Honorary Chairman) 

Sir Charles Harding Firth, FBA (1857-1936). British historian. Delivered a paper on Raleigh’s History of the World before the British Academy at Burlington House on 30 October 1918).  Image © Royal Historical Society

(Vice-Chairman)  

Sir Israel Gollancz,  FBA (1863-1930). Scholar of early English literature and of Shakespeare. Professor of English Language and Literature at King's College, London, from 1903 to 1930.  Gave an address on ‘Shakespeare and the New World, on Friday 1 November 1918).

(Honorary Secretary)   

Rufus Isaacs,  GCB, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, PC, KC (1860-1935), 1^st Marquess of Reading. Barrister, jurist and politician.  Ambassador to the United States from 1918 until 1919, while continuing at the same time as Lord Chief Justice.   

(Honorary President)

Walter Hines Page, (1855-1918)  

 Journalist, publisher and diplomat. US ambassador to the United Kingdom during WW1.  Illness that year had led to his retirement as ambassador.  Photo credit: Library of Congress

(Honorary President)

Photo credit: Illustrated War News   

Sir Charles Wakefield, GCVO, CBE (1859-1941), 1st Viscount Wakefield. British businessman and philanthropist who founded the Castrol lubricants company. He was Lord Mayor of London, 1915-16. His support created the enduring Raleigh Lecture on History at the British Academy.  

(Honorary Treasurer)

Apart from the Tercentenary Committee, others involved in the Raleigh 300 commemoration included:

Reverend Ernest William Barnes, FRS (1874-1953). Mathematician and scientist, Master of the Temple Church, London, 1915-19. Bishop of Birmingham 1924-53.  (Preacher at the morning service in the Temple Church on Sunday 27 October 1918).

Reverend William Hartley Carnegie (1859-1936). Canon of Westminster and Rector of St Margaret’s, Westminster from 1913 until 1936.   (Preacher at the special afternoon service at St Margaret’s on Sunday 27 October 1918).

Sir Lionel Henry Cust KCVO FSA (1859-1929) British art historian and museum director. Director of the National Portrait Gallery from 1895 to 1909; co-edited The Burlington Magazine from 1909 to 1919. (Delivered a paper in November 1918 on ‘Raleigh’s portraits’).

Image credit NPG

**Hugh Fortescue, KCB, 4th Earl Fortescue (1854-1932). Landowner and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Devon 1903-28.  Speaker at Exeter Cathedral, on Tuesday 29 October 1918.

*Sir Edmund Gosse CB (1849-1928) Poet, author and critic.  Knighted in 1925. 

*General Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton, GCB, GCMG, DSO, TD (1853-1947) Lieutenant of the Tower of London. Notable for commanding the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force during the WW1 Gallipoli Campaign.  

Sir Sidney Lee, FBA (1859-1926). Biographer, writer and critic. Delivered a paper on 10 December 1918 on ‘Raleigh’s discovery of Guiana’, at the Royal Colonial Institute, London.

Sir Harry Lushington Stephen (1860-1945). Judge.  (Delivered a paper on 27 November 1918 before the Royal Historical Society on ‘Raleigh’s Trial’). [no photo available]

  

*Major John Baker White DSO (1868-1944). American lawyer, military officer, and politician in the U.S. state of West Virginia.  Judge-Advocate, American troops in Great Britain and Ireland. 

*Speaker at the Mansion House, London, on Tuesday 29 October 1918.

Having listed them all, I was awed by the thought of so many distinguished figures working together to celebrate the life of a great British hero. 

I was ready to express my surprise at the relative silence with which Sir Walter’s 400^th anniversary is being greeted today. 

But of course some people I know would say that the list simply reeks of privilege.  

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A Raleigh concert booked for September 2018 in Devon

Continued from 

http://raleigh400.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/friday-23-february-2018-at-national.html

Great news for both Raleighphiles and Renaissance music enthusiasts!

As is well known, Sir Walter Raleigh's many accomplishments included poetry, and a number of his  poems have been set to music. 

This was the basis for the programme put together by lutenist Din Ghani and performed at the National Portrait Gallery in London on 23 February. 

Musick in the Ayre's 'Amor et virtute' tea-time concert in honour of Raleigh's 400th anniversary has just been booked for Saturday 22 September at the church of St Michael and All Angels, Mount Dinham, in Exeter. 

The performance will be from 3.00pm to 4.00pm. Tickets £10 at the door (including refreshments afterwards), online booking arrangements to be sorted nearer the time.

Details about the church are at http://www.stmichaelsmountdinham.org.uk/

So, an important date for the diary which will appear in the Raleigh 400 calendar of events. Do make a note of it now. Further postings will follow.  

Below is the programme for the National Portrait Gallery concert, as presented by Musick in the Ayre.  

  Amor et Virtute: a portrait in song of Sir Walter Raleigh

Time stands still - John Dowland (1563–1626)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Now what is love (W Raleigh) - Robert Jones (1577–1617)

Tobacco - Tobias Hume (1569–1645)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Can she excuse - John Dowland

It was a time when silly bees (Essex) - John Dowland

~~~~~~~~~~~

Sir Walter Raleigh his Galliard - Francis Cutting (1550–1603)

~~~~~~~~~~~

O grief - Giovanni Coperario (1570 – 1626)

What tears, dear Prince (W Raleigh) 

Robert Ramsey (1590 – 1644)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Yo soy la locura - Henry Du Bailly  (1590-1637)

Un sarao de la Chacona - Juan Aranes (d.1649)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Like hermit poor (W Raleigh) - Nicholas Lanier (1588-1666)

What is our life (W Raleigh) - Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Together with singers from his group Musicke in the Ayre in 2018 Din will again be presenting additional programmes of live music from the time of Raleigh: on 7 July as part of the Frome Festival, and in Bath on 11 October. 

Musicke in the Ayre’s next London concert will be on 5 May at St Alfege Greenwich; Din will be joined by two singers and two viol players in 'Exiles, immigrants and émigrés'.

To be kept informed of Musick in the Ayre's activities, please visit www.facebook.com/musicke.in.the.ayre or contact din@musicke-in-the-ayre.org

You can hear performances at www.facebook.com/Musicke.in.the.Ayre/videos

(including some of Gillian Wormley) and at https://www.youtube.com/user/MusickeInTheAyre

 

FOR THE RALEIGH 400  CALENDAR OF

EVENTS WORLDWIDE

IN 2018 CLICK ON

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To be continued.

Budleigh Library 'Sir Walter Raleigh' children's drawing competition

Budleigh Salterton Library Poetry Competition

Fairlynch Museum's Object of the Month: April 2018

Click here to see the Object of the Month for March 2018

http://raleigh400.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/fairlynch-museums-object-of-month-march.html

You can read more about 16th century church ornaments like the All Saints' Church chalice at http://budleighbrewsterunited.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/of-cups-and-plate.html 





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Silly Billy, followed by Worthy Wally?

In this special year for Sir Walter my eye is caught by any event which he or his spirit might have inspired. That recent talk on clay pipes for example, presented by Lympstone History Society, proved irresistible, all the more so after my research uncovered the curious story of Sir Walter Raleigh pipes: click on 

http://raleigh400.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/of-pamphlets-and-pipes.html 

to read all about it.

Curiously, the speaker, Charlotte Coles, hadn’t come across the story. In spite of that, the talk didn’t disappoint. I’ll be looking more carefully at my collection of bits and pieces of pipe found when we worked or played as children in the ploughed fields of our market garden in Somerset many years ago.   

So I’ll be adding Prior Commitment’s production of ‘Silly Billy – A Celebration of Shakespeare’ to my calendar of Raleigh events in 2018. From the pen of local writer Steve Andrews, it’s described as ‘a (very) lighthearted evening with William Shakespeare’ with ‘songs, sketches, dances and a simple quiz’ and takes place in the Public Hall in Budleigh on Saturday 21 April at 7.00 pm.

Steve has been writing plays and pantos for Budleigh audiences for many years, raising money for good causes from the production proceeds. ‘Silly Billy’ will boost funds for the charity Brain Tumour Support  

http://www.braintumoursupport.co.uk/

I don’t know whether Steve had Raleigh’s 400^th in mind when he embarked on the Shakespeare project, but as 2018 drew nearer he found himself gripped by the story of Devon’s great Elizabethan adventurer. Originally he’d conceived a play about Raleigh as light-hearted entertainment but his ideas have changed with more research into Sir Walter the man -  ‘self-made, courageous, quite capable of his own political machinations but  ultimately doomed’. 

It’s a dramatic presentation, he tells me, not a historic documentary but he’s aiming at some degree of authenticity. One way of achieving that has been to use Raleigh’s formidable wife Bess as a narrator. ‘It's been rather obsessive doing this,’ he admits. ‘Such a brilliant tale to tell.’ 

I look forward to further news from Steve on the progress of his tribute to Sir Walter – provisionally entitled ‘From Exe to Axe’ – and details of the production.  

Of course there are those who believe that Sir Walter wrote plays in addition to his other achievements, and even that it was his quill which was responsible for some of Shakespeare’s work.  I don’t think Steve is going down that path, but you never know… Creative thinking can suddenly present new perspectives.

Meanwhile, tickets at £8 for ‘Silly Billy’ are available from The Card Shop Too and the Tourist Information Centre in Budleigh  (Tel: 01395 445275). Further information is from Dawn on 01395 222877 or 07966567288.





FOR THE RALEIGH 400  CALENDAR OF 

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IN 2018 CLICK ON 

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Fairlynch Museum's Object of the Month: March 2018

FOR THE RALEIGH 400  CALENDAR OF 

EVENTS WORLDWIDE

IN 2018 CLICK ON 

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