No Smoking, Bertie!

Here’s another sublime extract from that master of prose, Sir P G Wodehouse, in his novel, Very Good, Jeeves!:-

“These are deep waters, Jeeves.”

“Precisely, sir.”

“And the ghastly part of it all is that he seems to consider it necessary, in order to keep his job, to treat me like a long-lost leper. Thus killing my only chance of having anything approaching a decent time in this abode of desolation. For do you realize, Jeeves, that my aunt says I mustn’t smoke while I’m here?”

“Indeed, sir?”

“Nor drink.”

“Why is this, sir ?”

“Because she wants me - for some dark and furtive reason which she will not explain - to impress a fellow named [the Right Hon A B] Filmer [MP].”

“Too bad, sir. However, many doctors, I understand, advocate such abstinence as the secret of health. They say it promotes a freer circulation of the blood and insures the arteries against premature hardening.”

“Oh, do they? Well, you can tell them next time you see them that they are silly asses.”

“Very good, sir.”

The Ross Memoirs: II

SIR JOHN ROSS (1853-1935), THE LAST LORD CHANCELLOR OF IRELAND, WROTE 

RANDOM REMINISCENCES IN 1924, IN A BOOK ENTITLED THE YEARS OF MY PILGRIMGE

NORTH IRISH HORSE

The first mobilized squadron of the North Irish Horse sailed in the transport Architect to Havre on the 17th August, 1914.

Among the officer were Major Lord Cole, afterwards Earl of Enniskillen, Captain Sir Emerson Herdman, Lord Jocelyn, later Earl of Roden, Lieutenants David Kerr, T Hughes, and Ronald Ross.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ronald Ross MC

Another squadron followed shortly afterwards commanded by Major Lord Massereene, and included R A West, who obtained a VC, but was killed subsequently.

Several ex-service officers managed to get out with them, such as Major Barry, RHA (son of my old friend Lord Justice Barry), who did great service.

A heroic youth, Kenneth Greer, son of T M Greer DL, County Antrim, also contrived to embark with them, who was destined to fall while serving in the Irish Guards, after he had done deeds of reckless courage in France.

I do not propose to narrate the history of this contingent, although afterwards, with Ronald [2nd Baronet] I visited the line of the great retreat of the Old Contemptibles from Mons, and nearly all the battlefields on which he had been engaged.

Sir Ronald Ross Bt MC

He went through the whole war to the end; was awarded the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre, and was an infantry brigade major, serving with the 36th (Ulster) Division at the time of the Armistice.

The Ross Memoirs: I

SIR JOHN ROSS (1853-1935), THE LAST LORD CHANCELLOR OF IRELAND, WROTE RANDOM REMINISCENCES IN 1924, IN A BOOK ENTITLED THE YEARS OF MY PILGRIMAGE

THE AMERICAN ENCOUNTER

ON one occasion, we met an American gentleman, who had formerly been a Foreign Secretary to the United States Government.

In those days, Americans were much more aggressive than they are now; he deprecated all our institutions and exalted those of his own country.

I enjoyed myself very much in contradicting and arguing with him.

After dinner one evening he said: "Are you connected with the miscreant General Ross-of-Bladensburg, who burnt down our capital, Washington, in 1814?"

Out of mischief, I resolved to borrow the rights of my friend, Sir John Ross-of-Bladensburg KCB, for the occasion.

Admitting that I was, I added:

"If you go on as you are doing, we are determined to go over and do it again."

The Capper Series: III

Drum Manor,  Photo Credit: Ashley McLean

Wilfrid Merydith Capper MBE (1905-98) was a former Northern Ireland civil servant whose true passion was for the preservation and conservation of the countryside.

He conceived and created The Ulster Way.

The following article is a selective extract from Caring for the Countryside: A History of 50 Years of the Ulster Society for the Preservation of the Countryside, published in 1987.

BUILDINGS ON FORESTRY LAND

I AM afraid the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry Division, had not a very good record when it came to preserving old mansions.

Those at Tollymore, Clonelly, and of course Belvoir (where the young Duke of Wellington spent his school holidays) were all demolished.

No doubt they had all varying degrees of dry rot, woodworm or general decay, but were they really so bad that with a little money spent on them and treated by modern methods they could not have been saved?

I suppose it was largely a question of money.

Whether the Department had any practical use for the buildings or not must have been a factor.

The job of the Department was to produce timber, not preserve historic buildings.

A number of smaller buildings like the shooting lodge at Ballypatrick Forest which was not in bad condition, were similarly pulled down.

Drum Manor, near Cookstown, was perhaps too far gone when acquired but if the Department had been able to purchase it a year or two sooner it is probable it could, and probably would, have been preserved.

Now only the tower and some walls are left.

Apart from this matter of old buildings the Forestry Service has always been of the greatest help to us.

The Capper Series: II

Carrickblacker House

Wilfrid Merydith Capper MBE (1905-98) was a former Northern Ireland civil servant whose true passion was for the preservation and conservation of the countryside.

He conceived and created The Ulster Way.

The following article is a selective extract from Caring for the Countryside: A History of 50 Years of the Ulster Society for the Preservation of the Countryside, published in 1987.

CARRICKBLACKER

PERHAPS an even greater failure was our effort to save Carrickblacker House, near Portadown.

This was probably the last Jacobean manor house in Ulster.

The owners would have liked to preserve it but the cost of repair and maintenance was fairly heavy.

The architectural "experts" of the day were of no help at all, pronouncing it of no special interest!

It was tragic to see this beautiful old building being battered down by the demolishers.

The lintel over the door with the date 1692 was smashed in two but I was able to pick up two parts and have preserved them.

At the time, in 1956, there was no listing of buildings and the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society had not been born.

If it had been, the building might well have been saved.

Our own overworked and under-funded Society could only do so much.

Prince Edward in NI

The Earl of Wessex has begun a two-day visit to Northern Ireland.

His Royal Highness arrived at Florence Court, County Fermanagh, where he met primary school children from County Cavan in the Republic of Ireland.

Prince Edward, who last visited Northern Ireland in 2015, toured the mansion house before touring the kitchen garden, which is undergoing restoration.

His Royal Highness also met staff and volunteers from the National Trust, which owns Florence Court estate.

HRH's next engagement was officially to open a new £400,000 extension and refurbishment at a scout hut in Cladagh Glen.

He was then entertained with songs around a campfire, before moving on to the Lakeland Community Centre in Belcoo, County Fermanagh.

New Fermanagh Vice Lord-Lieutenant

The Viscount Brookeborough, KG, Lord-Lieutenant of County Fermanagh, with the approval of Her Majesty The Queen, has been pleased to appoint

Mr Charles Patrick Benjamin PLUNKET MBE UD DL
Lisbellaw
County Fermanagh

Vice Lord-Lieutenant for the said County, his Commission bearing date the 22nd day of August 2019.

Signed:

Brookeborough,

Lord-Lieutenant of the County