Tudor Beds and Bedtimes

Members packed the hall for our January lecture on Beds and Bedtimes during the Tudor and Stuart Period.

The speaker, Dr. David Bostwick, was certainly worth making the effort for. He had a real comic gift and conveyed the grim realities of the time in the most hilarious manner while showing us slides of many gloriously adorned beds. I had always thought that the canopies and curtains were to keep out draughts but the truth is stranger. Owls were encouraged to come into the house to eat the rats which were trying to steal the tallow candles and caused many fires by knocking lighted candles onto the ubiquitous rush matting. The owls took their prey up to the beams and, with no ceilings, you can imagine the result if the bed had no canopy. It is wonderful when a lecturer can entertain and inform while painting such vivid pictures of the past.

Our March speaker is Patricia Wright on The Strange History of Buckingham Palace.

L Lewis
March 2004

The Art of the Party and Dining in the Gilded Age

Our November lecture was given by Mrs. Rachel Layton Elwes, an American, who is a curator of the Gilbert Collection. Her talk "The Art of the Party and Dining in the Gilded Age" covered many aspects of the protocol of dining in America in the second half of the 19th Century and the first quarter of the 20th. This was a period when a very few people had enormous wealth while the great majority were very poor. Rachel showed many slides of luxurious houses and their dining rooms and, with much humour and flair, explained the required standards of behaviour.

As this was the last talk before Christmas the (larger than usual ?) audience enjoyed a splendid tea with sandwiches, mince-pies and Christmas cake produced by the hard-working committee and friends, to whom much thanks.

May we wish you all a Happy and Healthy 2005

M Emery/L Lewis
October 2004

Images of Cleopatra

An exploration of her life by in Art and Music by Elizabeth Rumbelow

Travellers to Italy - Experiences and Inspirations

Our July lecture was given by Dr Katy Brown.

As one of the Mole Valley NADFAS societies we are helping present an
exhibition of children's art on 23rd and 24th October at Denbies as part of
the Mole Valley Arts Alive programme. The artists are aged 9 - 16 so do
come along, between 10a.m. and 4p.m. and see what is being produced at our
local schools.

L Lewis
October 2004

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