Buffy's Salon

Advent Calendar by Rowan Williams

 
Frost-covered white birch trees

He will come like last leaf's fall.
One night when the November wind
has flayed the trees to bone, and earth
wakes choking on the mould,
the soft shroud's folding.

He will come like frost.
One morning when the shrinking earth
opens on mist, to find itself
arrested in the net
of alien, sword-set beauty.

He will come like dark.
One evening when the bursting red
December sun draws up the sheet
and penny-masks its eye to yield
the star-snowed fields of sky.

He will come, will come,
will come like crying in the night,
like blood, like breaking,
as the earth writhes to toss him free.
He will come like child.

From Light Unlocked: Christmas Card Poems

Read The Archbishop of Canterbury's reflections on Advent.

History of Christianity in England: King Alfred

 
By the eighth century England had become a beacon of Christianity.  A man from York called Alcuin was the spiritual guide to the most powerful man in the world: Charlemagne creator of the Holy Roman Empire, whose rule over Europe extended over a thousand years.  For the first time people were united because of their faith: whether they lived in Northumberland or Naples, they were all part of a Christian Kingdom.

Then a disaster of immense proportions struck: the Vikings started to invade.  In wave after wave thousands of Vikings arrived on England's shores, massacring people and destroying property.  Even Lindisfarne, one of Christianity's holiest sites, was pillaged.  In fact, monasteries and churches were particularly targeted because of their relative wealth and lack of military protection.

"they miserably ravaged and pillaged everything; they trod the holy things under their polluted feet, they dug down the altars, and plundered all the treasures of the church. Some of the brethren they slew, some they carried off with them in chains"  Simeon of Durham, A History of the Church of Durham

"Lo, it is nearly 350 years that we and our fathers have inhabited this most lovely land, and never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race, nor was it thought that such an inroad from the sea could be made. Behold the church of St Cuthbert spattered with the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments; a place more venerable than all in Britain is given as a prey to pagan peoples" Letter from Alcuin to Ethelred, King of Northumbria

By the late 870s, only the Kingdom of Wessex survived as the last pocket of Christianity in a land that had turned savage, pagan and barbarian.  It's king was Alfred, and at his lowest point he was on the run, hiding in the marshes of Somerset. 

In an apocalyptic world his last remaining weapon was his faith, but it was enough to fortify him and rally the people of southern England against the Danish hordes, bringing them to battle at Ethandune in Wiltshire.  The battle resulted in an amazing Christian victory against the pagan Vikings, which was to decide the whole future of England.  Defeated, the Vikings readily converted to what they now saw as the superior faith.  Over time, Alfred's descendants took over the Danish-held parts of the country, creating a single kingdom.  Alfred was Great, not only because he defeated the Vikings and the pagan menace, but because he began the unification of England as a Christian nation under one law, regardless of race, culture or nation of origin.

King Alfred forms a code of law 

Did you know that King Alfred introduced our legal system, our juries, our monarchy and even our counties?  It is because of Alfred that our laws can be traced back to a profound Old Testament influence, combined with Christain mercy.  His great dream was to unite everyone under a Christian government and his legacy remains with us today.

Rest is not idleness

 

"Rest is not idleness and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky is by no means a waste of time." - J Lubbock

Children's Classics: Edwardian

Last year the Children's Laureates were asked to nominate their favourite books for young readers.  Interestingly, only five of the thirty-five books they chose had been published in the past 20 years, so the list reads like a pick of children's literature over the past 200 years.  In this post I am looking at the books written in the Edwardian years, a bumper time for children's literature!  How many of them have your read?

 
Girl Reading

In 1901 Queen Victory finally died and her son, Edward VII, came to the throne.  It was a new era and everything seemed very modern at the turn of the century!  A new trend started for "realistic" children's books about normal children living in the real world.  The characters were children that their readers could relate to: they lived in similar houses and wore similar clothes, ate the same foods and had the same sorts of experiences at schools.  Looking back after two world wars, it seems that this time was a golden age for children, leaving behind the stuffiness of the Victorian era and before the harsh realities of the twentieth century struck.

Five Children and It was published in 1902 and written by the famous children's author E. Nesbit, one of the few authors to have two books on this list!  The story revolves around a group of children who move from London to the seaside where they an encountered IT, a rather bizarre and grumpy sand fairy which will grant them one wish a day.  As you would expect, their wishes do not turn out quite as they had hoped.  Edith Nesbit is credited with inventing the modern children's adventure story, which still endures today.  She wrote many other popular novels, including The Phoenix and the Carpet and The Treasure Seekers.  C. S. Lewis was among the authors influenced by her children's books.
 

The Just So Stories gave fantastical accounts of how a variety of wonders, natural or otherwise, came into being, and was published in 1902.  The author was Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book, and the stories were originally made-up for his own children.  Throughout the reader is addressed as "dear beloved", making them wonderful bedtime tales for parents to read to their own children.  Kipling is now seen as the most authentic voice of the height of the 'British Empire".

How many girls over the years have sighed over the trials and tribulations of A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett?  Published in 1904 it tells the story of Sara Crewe, the motherless child who is sent to live at a boarding school and lives in the lap of luxury until the terrible day she learns that her beloved father has died, and there is no money left.  Overnight she becomes a degraded and abused servant and life seems very bleak, but she never loses her loving nature or her vivid imagination.

 

What happens when children lose all their money and their wealthy lifestyle is also explored in The Railway Children, another book by E. Nesbit.  Published in 1906 this story remains a firm favourite and has been adapted for film or television many times.  When their father mysteriously disappears the three Westerbury children move with their mother to a small cottage near a railway, which quickly becomes the centre of their lives.  One of the themes of the book is the unjust persecution of others in an unfair world.  However, despite the penury and the serious moral dilemmas raised by the story, there is something idyllic about the lives of the children, freely running round the countryside and having adventures, and this paradigm became central to children's literature for many years later.

Other classic children's books from the early twentieth century:

Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L Frank Baum
The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm - Kate Douglas Wiggin
Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery

Being an ethical consumer

 
Women sewing in sweatshop

Recently I have come to think about my impact as a consumer.  This has been brought to my attention by a couple of books I have been reading.  These were not books I deliberately picked out on the subject, so this topic has rather come out of the blue.  (Or maybe I was being lead...)

We live rather complacent lives in the modern Western world.  We have a huge range of goods available for us to consume and on the whole we do so because ....everyone else does!  Sometimes when you start to think about how these products have made their way to you it can be a little, well, frightening.  I don't mean to upset people here, but did you know that many of those cheap clothes from China or India are cheap because of child labour, forced labour of political prisoners or just plain exploitation of the poor?  Or that cheap meat is the product of intensive factory farming which results in physically and mentally sick livestock?

This is not to suggest you never again buy something from China or India, or enjoy a burger!  However, I think we need to be a little more aware of the consumer power we have and think about where most of our spending is going.  Here are some thoughts:

1. Buy organic meat; animal welfare is taken more seriously, as is the general quality of the meat.  Humans may have the right to eat meat; they don't have the right to torture millions of animals to produce a substandard product and damage the ecosystem at the same time.  If you can't afford organic then at least have one day a week when you don't eat meat or make one change, for example stop eating battery farmed eggs.
2. Think twice before buying anything surprisingly cheap.  Either it's rubbish or whoever made it has been exploited.  Primark and Walmart both sell goods made in sweatshops.
3. Buy local products and go to small independent shops before they all disappear.
4. Don't run to the doctor whenever you are sick and demand drugs.  Investigate natural cures and plenty of rest.  Leave the big guns for when you really need them.
5. Go for products with the Fairtrade icon which gives a guarantee that producers in the third world have not been exploited.
6. Use cosmetics which have the minimum or no chemicals, and which have not been tested on animals (look for the bunny logo).
7. Consider buying less!  Do you really need it?  If you see something you really want, consider having "time out" to test just how keen you really are.  
8. Don't use plastic bags unless the supermarket recycles them; they don't decompose.  When you go shopping, take a cloth bag.
9. Don't support companies who use unethical marketing.  Really, what is more immoral than modern advertising when you really think about it?  The classic examples is Nestle who promote their formula baby milk over breast milk in developing countries, causing a number of unnecessary health issues.   How about advertising during children's programmes on TV for sugar or salt filled snacks with no nutritional value?  And how often is sexual innuendo used to promote a product?  
10. Have a look at the consumer boycotts list to see which companies or countries are being targeted for unethical practices.  You may or may not agree with some of these boycotts, but I for one will not be eating Kentucky Fried Chicken again. 
11. Support a charity such as Christian Aid who work to raise the profile of workers' rights in developing nations.

Traditional Wedding Dresses

You could be forgiven for thinking that white was the traditional colour for a wedding dress.  In fact it was only when Queen Victoria married in a white gown in 1840 that it started to become popular for brides to wear white.  White did not symbolize purity, as many people now suppose, but wealth.  Only a wealthy bride could afford to wear a dress of such an impractical colour.  Purity was symbolized by pale blue, presumably the reason why the Virgin Mary was so often portrayed in this colour.  Of course, girls from the middle and lower classes would probably not marry in white even during Victorian times; the most popular colour at this time was grey which was considered very respectable.  (The dress at the top is a mid Victorian grey wedding dress.)

Also, until relatively recently, only the upper classes would have a dress made specically to be married in.  Ordinary women just wore their best dress, as they would to church.  The idea of having a dress that you wore once and then packed away in your attic for the rest of your life would have been nonsensical to the vast majority of women.

For that special gown, royalty and the aristocracy have tended to favour colours such as purple, red and silver and rich materials such as silk, velvet and fur.  A bride hung with expensive jewels would be making a political statement about the importance of her family.  Often jewels were sewn into the dress, making it rather cumbersome. 

Here are some samples, gleaned from various pages around the web, of wedding dresses through the ages.

Tudor

Eighteenth Century 
 
 

Early Victorian

Mid Victorian

 
  

Late Victorian

1920s

 
1930s

A Few Reasons not to Judge Others

Young Girl is sent to Coventry

This is something I have been musing on lately.  (I wonder what the young girl did that the others judged bad enough to stop speaking to her.)  Yes, I am as apt to judge others as anyone else.  On the whole I have come to the conclusion that it's a bad thing to do.  Here are some reasons why:

1. When we judge others we are focusing our attention away from our own faults onto theirs.  Instead of thinking, for example, of ways to be a more encouraging friend, we're shaking our head about their gracelessness.
2. It creates distance between ourselves and others.  It's a way of denigrating them and thinking ourselves superior.
3. No one responds so well to a critical spirit as they do to a loving one.
4. God did not put us on this earth to judge other people.  This job belongs to another. 
5. How can we be in a position to judge what another person has done without living their life, facing the same troubles and drawbacks as them?  How can we ever truly know someone well enough to understand them on that level?  How do we know for sure what we would have done in their exact situation?
6. Many people have been alienated from Christianity because they have been harshly judged by those who claim to be Christians.
7. I like the saying, we think we are here to make others good and ourselves happy, in fact we are here to make ourselves good and others happy.

Good judgment in life is essential.  Let's not be too quick to judge other people though!

What's your favourite quote about judgement?

History of Christianity in England: Monasteries

Ancient Monastic Life by George Cattermole

In 664 AD, at the Synod of Whitby, England had stepped away from Celtic Christianity and embraced Roman Christianity as the official religion.  No longer did Christians look to the islands and to the west for leadership, but turned their eyes instead towards Rome.  Over the next years there was an explosion of building as churches, monasteries and other religious centres sprang up as centres of learning, transforming both the geography and society of England.  The time of the monasteries had come.

The idea of monasteries was hundreds of years old, and probably originated from the deserts in Egypt, and, of course, the Celtic Christians had already built isolated communities, mainly on islands.  However, with Augustine came the Benedictine Rule, on which many communities of men and women throughout the British Isles were to be based.  The rule was based on Ora et Labora, that is prayer and work, and a key rule was that no possessions would be held as personal property, but that the community would share all things.  These centres were self-supporting and offered opportunities for prayer, religious study and worhsip and all kinds of learning.  For many years they were the only means of education and the monastery libraries were the repository for many great works.  Read more about Christian monasticism.

 
The Venerable Bede translating the Gospel of John by J.D. Penrose

This was the time of the Venerable Bede, who wrote the first history of England, and wrote of the peoples as a Christian race, even though the country was not yet united under a common king or government. 

By the eighth century England was renowned as a centre of Christian learning and missionaries departed these shores to convert people in Austria and Germany.  For the first time the English, through their Christianity, became part of an international community, headed up by the Holy Roman Empire.

Then, at the pinnacle of English influence and learning throughout Europe, something terrible happened which nearly destroyed Christian England: the pagan Vikings arrived.

Trip to Wells

Here are some photos from my first trip to Wells, and Wells cathedral.

On the way we stopped off in the small market town of Wincanton in Somerset, where the pub signs for Uncle Tom's Cabin caught our eye!

This public inn was opened by Thomas Green in 1861, and presumably he was an admirer of the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe!

Then on to Wells, which is the second-smallest cathedral city in England.  There are only about 10,000 people living here but it has had "city status" since the thirteen century.  It's called Wells because it has three wells, all dedicated to St Andrew.  Below we have a clash of ancient and modern as we approach the walled precinct of the lovely Cathedral.

We entered through the left-hand archway which is called The Penniless Porch.  A sign in the porch explains that it was built in 1450 by Bishop Bekynton and that here beggars used to ask for alms.

Now we approached the cathedral which was so huge it was impossible to get far enough back to get all of it in the frame.  It is so imposing that one can only wonder at the awe such buildings must have inspired in pilgrims hundreds of years ago.  It was built between 1175 and 1490 in the gothic style which was popular at this time.  Parts of the film Elizabeth: The Golden Age were filmed inside the cathedral.

This is Vicars' Close which is next to the Cathedral.  It is the oldest complete medieval street still inhabited in Europe!  It was built in the fourteenth century to provide 42 bachelor dwellings for the "Vicar's Choral" and they were basically "one up, one downs".  The house on the left of the photo is the only one with the original window frames.

Here you can see the length of the street (the houses run on both sides, all with those amazing turrets!).  Wells Cathedral School currently rents several of the properties and still uses the chapel and library which were included in the original buildings.
 

 
  

Children's Classics: Nineteenth Century

Last year the Children's Laureates were asked to nominate their favourite books for young readers.  Interestingly, only five of the thirty-five books they chose had been published in the past 20 years, so the list reads like a pick of children's literature over the past 200 years.  In this post I am looking at the books written in the nineteenth century.  How many of them have your read?

 
 
  
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens is our first book, and was published in 1838.  It was the only novel written by Dickens to be nominated, and presumably it is seen as the most child-friendly!  I expect every child has seen at least one film version of this classic story ("Please sir, can I have some more?")  This book exposes everything that was bad about early Victorian life as the eponymous hero moves from orphanage through workhouse to a life of crime living on the streets.  Dickens used his imagination and talent for writing to change society, for he had a great social conscience.  What this book teaches is an understanding and empathy for the severely under-privileged and vulnerable, and also to keep an optimistic spirit, like Oliver did.  (The photo is from the 2007 BBC Production of Oliver Twist).

A Book of Nonsense by Edward Lear was published in 1846 and is a collection of limericks that went through many revisions and reissues over the years.  He is most famous for penning The Owl and the Pussycat and, along with Lewis Carroll, is credited with creating a whole new genre!  The Victorian era was a time of great change and all sorts of ideas that had been accepted for hundreds of years were turned on their head, and it has been suggested that "irrational nonsense" provided balance for the serious, scientific and ultra rational trends of the time. 

 

Little Women by Louisa M Alcott was such a favourite of mine!  I think every girl who reads it identifies with one of the sisters.  Published in 1868, the story of four sisters in Concord whose father is away serving as an army chaplain may be set in another era, but the adventures and trials of the four girls, and the moral lessons they learn, are as pertinent now as they have ever been.  I suppose young ladies don't change much! 

What Katy Did is another American classic (the nineteenth century was a good time for American children's literature!).  I liked it nearly as much as Little Women, and remember being particularly inspired by the handicapped Cousin Helen.  Published in 1872, and set in the mid West, it was written by Susan Coolidge.  Headstrong Katy lives a sunny life until a moment of disobedience results in a nasty accident and she is consequently forced to spent months lying in bed, uncertain if she will ever walk again.  Thanks to Cousin Helen she learns how to face the challenge with a cheerful and loving spirit.  An inspiring story for any child going through difficult times.  What Katy Did and Little Women give the lie to the idea that women were all doormats in the nineteenth century: you don't get much stronger characters than Katy and Jo March!

Back to Blighty (well, Scotland) and one for the boys with Robert Louis Stevenson and Treasure Island.  Published in 1883 it's a tale of pirates and buried treasure that can be credited with making tales of pirate and the high seas a classic ingredient for children's entertainment (Pirates of the Caribbean being the latest installment).  Like Oliver Twist, it contains a protagonist who is neither wholly good nor evil (Fagin in Oliver Twist and Long John Silver in Treasure Island); a sophisticated concept for children, who want to see everything as black and white.

Back to poetry for another classic by Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses which was first published in 1885.  A beautiful collection of poems as delightful to adults as children.  Many of the poems reflect the author's own sickly childhood, but with a positive spin that would be comforting to sick children.  Read examples of RLS's poems.

The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde comes from a collection of poignant stories published in 1888, which includes one of my favourites, The Selfish Giant.  These are moving stories of incredible self-sacrifice with Christian overtones, the like of which are simply not written anymore.  (In fact secular editions of these stories are available for modern readers!) These stories are vibrant and poetical.  The Happy Prince tells the story of a golden statue and a swallow who literally give of themsleves to aid the unfortunates in the city around them.

Other Nineteenth Century Classics

Here some other favourites that were not on the list:

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley
Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Under the Window by Kate Greenaway

Is your favourite here?