Today I was a tourist in Cheltenham. I went to see the suggested statues and buildings and parks, not enough time in the park, and visited the upscale Montpelier neighborhood, which, being in the Regency style, is similar to Bath, but maybe lacking that je ne sais quois. Nothing was of OMG quality, but it was all quite pleasant.
First and most interesting stop was the Wilson Museum, where I met Clarence. He would like you to read about him just below:
The emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is closely associated with Cheltenham-born Edward Adrian Wilson, the Antarctic explorer, naturalist and artist. Wilson was one of the first to see Emperors in their natural habitat, and painted the earliest images of them to be seen in Britain.
These images caused a sensation. Wilson was in high demand to give lectures. He delighted his audiences with tales and descriptions of penguins. He also began to campaign for the protection of penguins, which were being boiled for their oil in increasing numbers. He gave papers on this subject for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the International Ornithological Congress. It started a process that finally won success many years after Wilson's death.
The sculpture, which we call 'Clarence', after the street on which the art gallery and museum sits, was sculpted in clay by Nick Bibby and then cast in bronze at Pangolin Editions using the lost wax method.
These snowshoe-skis are from Scott's 1901-1904 expedition to Antarctica on which Wilson was a participant. It is unlikely that they are from the second expedition which, to say the least, did not end well.
How did adventurers (I think the word explorer is out these days) manage without the fabrics and gear we have nowadays? I cannot imagine.
Detail of a Zulu woman's waistband:
The most significant element are the ruby-coloured glass beads known as inkankane, which means "whenever I see you my heart leaps up in little flames." I vote inkankane the best non-English word of the year. Being so entranced by this word, I looked up how to pronounce it, no luck, but I came upon this link, the content of which I doubt anyone will read; if you do, you will plotz from the political incorrectness, but anyway, the author posits a different meaning for the red beads. I, however, am sticking with the meaning offered here.
If this piece of embroidery brings to mind William Morris, that is because it was done by his daughter, Mary:
The afternoon's cultural stop was at the Holst Victorian House, which charges way too much for admission, but OK. Gustav Holst lived there until he was seven, but since he was THE famous inhabitant, the house bears his name. What impressed me was the smallness of the rooms, their dark, stuffy and dreary decoration and atrocious artwork covering almost every inch of wall space.
The accomplishment of the day was the purchase of size four coffee filters, found after searching three grocery stores. Here is what you do: cut the filter in half, put one half into the little strainer, place filter-lined strainer in cup, pour the coffee in, then pour boiling water through the coffee and the result is way better than using toilet paper! If you don't have milk, you can add half a packet of instant cocoa should the establishment provide it. And even if you do have milk, the cocoa-coffee blend is quite satisfying.
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