The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name that was posted in Beaconsfield using a ½d. stamp on Friday the 15th. October 1909. It was sent to:
Miss Maggie Rumbold,
c/o Mrs. Rumbold,
The Barley Mow,
Bridge Street,
Hungerford,
Bucks.
The message on the divided back was as follows:
"Dear M,
Am having a fine time
here. It is very pretty.
Hope you are well.
Yours in haste,
Elsie."
-- The Barley Mow
The T&M Register records that the landlord of the Barley Mow from 1909 until 1913 was Thomas William Rumbold.
Alas, the Barley Mow, which was situated at 18-19 Bridge Street, closed in 1956. The premises were converted into a motor garage in 1963.
Edmund Waller
The ornate tomb of Edmund Waller was built in the late 17th. century. Edmund Waller was a poet and MP. In his later life he lived in Buckinghamshire.
Edmund Waller (1606 - 1687) lived at nearby Hall Barn. His tomb in the grounds of the Church of St. Mary and All Saints is a Grade II Listed Monument, described thus by English Heritage:
"A marble obelisk is set on 4 winged skulls,
the whole on a chest tomb type base in grey
stone with relief carved drapery and flaming
urns. Iron spearhead railings around."
-- The Life of Edmund Waller
Edmund Waller, JP, FRS, who was born on the 3rd. March 1606, was an English poet and politician who was Member of Parliament for various constituencies between 1624 and 1687, and one of the longest-serving members of the English House of Commons.
Son of a wealthy lawyer with extensive estates in Buckinghamshire, Waller first entered Parliament in 1624, although he played little part in the political struggles of the period prior to the First English Civil War in 1642.
Unlike his relatives William and Hardress Waller, he was Royalist in sympathy and was accused in 1643 of organising a plot to seize London for Charles I. He allegedly escaped the death penalty by paying a large bribe, while several conspirators were executed, including his brother-in-law Nathaniel Tomkins.
After his sentence was commuted to banishment, he lived in comfortable exile in France and Switzerland until allowed home in 1651 by Oliver Cromwell, a distant relative.
Edmund returned to Parliament after The Restoration in 1660 of Charles II. Known as a fine and amusing orator, he held a number of minor offices. He largely retired from active politics after the death of his second wife in 1677, and died of edema in October 1687.
Best remembered now for his poem "Song (Go, lovely rose)", Waller's earliest writing dates to the late 1630's, commemorating events that occurred in the 1620's, including a piece on Charles's escape from a shipwreck at Santander in 1625.
Written in heroic couplets, it is one of the first examples of a form used by English poets for some two centuries; his verse was admired by John Dryden among others, while he was a close friend of Thomas Hobbes and John Evelyn.
When he died, Waller was considered a major English poet, but his reputation declined over the next century. One critic described him as@
"A fairweather Royalist, an expedient
Republican and mercenary
bridegroom'.
He is now regarded as a minor author, whose primary significance was to develop a form adapted and improved by later poets like Alexander Pope.
-- Edmund Waller's Personal Details
Edmund Waller was born at Stocks Place, Coleshill, Buckinghamshire, the eldest son of Robert Waller (1560 – 1616) and Anne Hampden (1589 – 1658).
He came from a family of 15, many of whom survived to adulthood, including Cecilia (1603 – ?), who married Nathaniel Tomkins, executed for his part in the 1643 plot. Edmund's sister Mary (1608 – 1660) married Adrian Scrope, who was executed in 1660 as a regicide.
In 1631, Edmund married Anne Banks, the orphaned heiress of a wealthy merchant. Anne died in childbirth in 1634, leaving two children, Robert (1633 – 1652) and Elizabeth (1634 – 1683).
In 1644, Edmund re-married, this time to Mary Bracey, who died in 1677, and they had numerous children.
Upon his death, Edmund's estate was valued at the then considerable sum of £40,000 (equivalent to £8,766,000 in 2023).
-- Edmund Waller's Career
Waller attended Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, followed by Eton and King's College, Cambridge. He left without a degree, and as was common in this period did a course in law at Lincoln's Inn, graduating in 1622.
Edmund was first elected in 1624 as MP for Ilchester, when he was the youngest person in the Commons, then for Chepping Wycombe in 1626.
On coming of age in 1627, he inherited an estate worth up to £2,500 a year, making him one of the wealthiest men in Buckinghamshire.
Returned for Amersham in 1628, he made virtually no impact on Parliament before it was dissolved in 1629, when Charles I instituted eleven years of Personal Rule.
During this period, he became friends with George Morley, later Bishop of Worcester, who guided his reading and provided advice on writing, while Waller paid his debts.
Morley also introduced Waller to Lucius Cary, 2nd. Viscount Falkland; he became a member of the Great Tew Circle, which included Edward Hyde, and was greatly influenced by Falkland's moderation and tolerance.
Nineteenth-century biographers dated Edmund's earliest work to the 1620's, largely because they commemorate events occurring in that period, but modern scholars suggest that they were actually written in the mid to late 1630's in an attempt to build a career at court.
As well as Charles Ist. himself, many of his works were addressed to members of the extended Percy family, such as the Countess of Carlisle, the Countess of Sunderland and the Earl of Northumberland.
Hyde recorded that Waller became a poet at the age of thirty:
"... when other men give
over writing verses".
John Pym gave Waller responsibility for the impeachment of Sir Francis Crawley, one of the Ship Money judges, but he confirmed his Royalist sympathies by voting against the execution of Strafford in April 1641, and the removal of bishops from the House of Lords.
Unlike Hyde and Falkland who joined the king when the First English Civil War began in August 1642, Waller remained in London, apparently with Charles' permission, where he continued to support moderates like Denzil Holles who wanted a negotiated peace.
In May 1643 a plot was uncovered, allegedly organised by Waller along with his brother-in-law Nathaniel Tomkins, and wealthy merchant Richard Chaloner. What apparently began as a plan to force Parliament into negotiations by withholding taxes turned into an armed conspiracy, intended to allow the Royalist army to take control of London.
After Waller was arrested, he made a full confession, implicating a number of his co-conspirators; he escaped the death penalty, allegedly by paying bribes, while Chaloner and Tomkins were executed on the 5th. July 1643.
After spending 18 months in prison without trial, Waller was fined £10,000 and permitted to go into exile in November 1644, accompanied by his new wife Mary; however, the affair caused lasting damage to his reputation.
Waller travelled with John Evelyn in Switzerland and Italy; unlike many Royalists, he lived in some comfort using money sent to him by his mother. The Rump Parliament allowed him to return home in January 1652.
He established good relations with Cromwell, writing him a 'Panegyrick' in 1655, and later supporting proposals to make him king; in a poem written after the capture of the Spanish treasure fleet in 1658, he suggested:
"Let the rich ore be forthwith melted
down, and the state fixed by making
him a crown."
When Charles II returned to the throne after The Restoration, Waller commemorated the occasion with his 1660 poem 'To the King, upon his Majesty's Happy Return.'
Reconciling past support for the Commonwealth with the restored monarchy was a problem faced by many. When asked by the King on this point, Waller is reported to have replied:
"Poets, Sir, succeeded better
at fiction than in truth."
Edmund's biographer Samuel Johnson wrote in 1779 that:
"it shows a prostituted mind may retain
the glitter of wit, but has lost the dignity
of virtue."
In 1661, Edmund was elected to the Cavalier Parliament as MP for Hastings; he became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1663, although does not appear to have contributed papers himself.
He played a prominent role in the impeachment and exile of Clarendon in 1667, and thereafter held a number of positions under the Cabal ministry.
Originally viewed as a supporter of the Court, after 1674 Edmund gained a reputation for independence, and was still regarded as one of the best speakers in the Commons.
Generally an advocate of religious tolerance, especially for Protestant Nonconformists, he was however convinced of the truth of the Popish Plot in 1678 and withdrew from active politics during the 1679 to 1681 Exclusion Crisis.
On the accession of James II, Edmund was elected for Saltash in 1685. He wrote two poems to the new king, urging reconciliation and national unity, but James suspended Parliament in November after it refused to pass his Declaration of Indulgence.
Waller died at the age of 81 at his London house in St James's on the 21st. October 1687. He was suffering from oedema. Oedema is a build-up of fluid in the body which causes the affected tissue to become swollen.
He was laid to rest in the churchyard of St Mary and All Saints’ Church, Beaconsfield; his tomb is now Grade II* listed.
-- Edmund Waller's Literary Works and Assessment
Waller was admired by contemporaries including John Dryden and Gerard Langbaine, although his extravagant praise for members of the court and Royal family was later parodied by Andrew Marvell in 'Last Instructions to a Painter.'
Described by Francis Atterbury as "the Parent of English Verse", by the nineteenth century Edmund's work was out of favour. Edmund Gosse, author of his biography in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, wrote:
"Waller's lyrics were at one time admired
to excess, but with the exception of 'Go,
Lovely Rose' and one or two others, they
have greatly lost their charm."
By 1995, the protagonist of 'The Information', a novel by Martin Amis, dismisses him as:
"...a seat-warmer, air sniffer
and mediocrity.'
However, H. M. Redmond argued that 'immoderate censure of his life' had combined with 'interest-killing appreciation' of his verse to prevent a dispassionate assessment.
One suggestion is while his writing is limited, he played an important role in developing a format and style adapted and improved by Alexander Pope among others.
Much of Edmund's early poetry was written for the Caroline court, while he was famous for his 'Panegyricks', written in support of Cromwell, then both Charles II and his brother James, as well as other members of the Royal family.
His longest and most ambitious work of this type portrayed the inconclusive 1665 Battle of Lowestoft; presenting it as an heroic victory and heaping praise on James, it was widely ridiculed.
Edmund was strongly influenced by Thomas Hobbes, whose Leviathan he admired, and whose De Cive he at one point proposed to translate.
His early work was far more successful than later efforts, and during his exile an unlicensed collection of his poems was published in 1645. They were popular in part because they were easily set to music.
Two volumes of previously uncollected writings, 'The Maid's Tragedy Altered' and 'The Second Part of Mr Waller's Poems' were published after his death in 1690. They included 'Divine Poems', self-published by Waller in 1686; most critics view them as 'indifferent' and showing his decline as a writer.
Dover Harbour
So what else happened on the day that Elsie posted the card?
Well, on the 15th. October 1909, Dover Harbour was opened as a suitable port for the British Navy after eleven years and $20,000,000 worth of improvements.
The Prince of Wales dedicated the harbor, which could now accommodate the largest British dreadnoughts.
Margie Hines
The day also marked the birth in NYC of the American animation voice artist Margie Hines.
Margaret Louise Hines was known for her work at Fleischer Studios, where she was the original voice of Betty Boop.
Hines served from 1930 until 1932, and again from 1938 until 1939, before voicing Olive Oyl and Swee' Pea in the Popeye the Sailor cartoons from 1938 to 1944.
She also provided the voices for Fleischer's animated films Gulliver's Travels and Mr Bug Goes to Town.
-- Margie Hines' Career
Hines was the original voice actress for Fleischer's cartoon character Betty Boop. Whilst she was touring vaudeville, she was heard by vocalist Billy Murray, an employee at Fleischer studio, who suggested that she was the right choice for the voice of the character.
Sstudio head Max Fleischer hired Hines, as she was a Helen Kane sound-alike, and Kane was the basis for the character.
Margie made her debut in the cartoon short Dizzy Dishes in 1930.
Hines and several other actresses voiced Betty until Mae Questel took over the role in 1931.
Beginning in 1932, Hines also did vocals for Aesop's Film Fables and Tom and Jerry, produced by Van Beuren Studios. Her Van Beuren credits were erroneously attributed to Bonnie Poe, another actress who had worked for Fleischer on Betty Boop cartoons.
Mae Questel, who was Fleischer's voice for Betty Boop and Popeye characters Olive Oyl and Swee'Pea during the mid-1930's, left show business in 1938 to start a family.
It was that year when Margie Hines was recalled as Questel's replacement. She moved with the Fleischer Studios staff when they left New York City for Miami. As a result, Hines assumed the roles done by Questel in both the Betty Boop and Popeye series.
Hines voiced Betty Boop through her final series entries in 1939, and continued to voice Olive until 1943, when the studio, by then taken over by Paramount Pictures and renamed Famous Studios, returned to New York.
The Marry-Go-Round (1943) was Hines' final short as the voice of Olive, with Mae Questel returning to the role in 1944 in The Anvil Chorus Girl.
-- Margie Hines' Personal Life
On the 3rd. March 1939, Hines married her 29 year old co-star Winfield B. "Jack" Mercer, who provided the voice of Popeye. At the time of her marriage, her mother lived on Long Island and had the two remarry at a New York church.
The two later divorced in 1950. Hines married for a second time in 1951, to Raymond Brenneis (1922–1981), in Greenwich, Connecticut. However, the couple divorced in 1954. In 1956, Hines married Jesse William Heidtmann (1918–1997) in Southold, New York.
Margie died in Seaford, New York on the 23rd. December 1985, at the age of 76.
