An old friend

 Dear Reader,

In Queen Victoria's reign the manor houses shed their fortifications to embrace new domesticity and aristocrats decorated their homes to make them warm and inviting.  The great hall, dating back to the middle ages was used to receive guests and tenants and continued to be used, as such, by the 19th century lords to throw balls and celebrate special occasions.  The site of hospitality later became the more informal living room, furnished with sofas and billiard tables.

Outside of the house gentlemen entertained guests with sport such as croquet and shooting.  While the great hall became more intimate, the drawing room became more formal with the institution of two social functions: morning calls and afternoon tea.  Some of the protocols associated with morning calls had been established during the Regency Era and reinforced by the Victorians with a strict set of rules.  Calling cards, or visiting cards, containing a person's name and title were as essential part of this social ritual.  The habit of having "afternoon tea" became a quintessential English tradition that survives to this day.

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From William Cobbett, 1823, September 1st, in Kent

'From Tenterden I set off at five o'clock, and got to Appledore after a most delightful ride, the high land upon my right, and low land upon my left.  The fog was so thick and white along some of the low land, that I should have taken it for water, if little hills and trees had not risen up through it here and there.'

 

From Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1853, September 1st, in Cheshire

'The chill, rainy English twilight brooding over the lawn.'

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An old friend

dies and all the memories
come flooding back,
the dances we went to,
the picnics we enjoyed,
the boys we talked about
the boys we met and dated.

The marriage and children,
being God parents to each
others brood,
the setbacks, the good times
and the not so good,
getting older, lines and wrinkles
appearing, middle age upon us,
children grown up,
leaving home, us bereft,
comforting each other.

Old now,
sorting out the world's problems,
discussing the books we read,
when suddenly Covid arrives.
She catches it, fought it, and died.

My grief and the emptiness
are constant,
strike me at all times, day or night.
I miss you, my dearest friend, I miss you
more than words can say.

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With very best wishes, Patricia