Friday 12 December 2014

You will see, my child, if you keep your eyes open, that there is a strong line of demarcation between the people who can't seem to wait for the summer, and those who understand the quality of chrysanthemums, and an early dusk, and the magic of lamplight. And nearly always, as I say, it's a case of breeding. 
Mrs Marie Leighton, in Tempestuous Petticoat , the biography written by her daughter, artist Clare Leighton

I've been enjoying Jane's anthology of dusk which is maybe why this sprang out of the page at me. Marie Leighton would have been Vera Brittain's flamboyant mother-in-law had her fiancé survived WW1.
I'm afraid I must be irredeemably common - Mrs Leighton was quite a snob - because much as I love chrysanthemums, I find the dark, grey dampness of winter rather depressing.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

And I know my place...

mary said...

I could enjoy a week of winter, Sue. Maybe the lower orders don't have the backbone for it! Of course, servants to make the fires and the crumpets might well change my feelings!




Cosy Books said...

I really enjoy those things but when it's put like that...takes the glow out of the lamplight, you could say.

p.s. - Finally able to catch Lucy's dance program and we're really enjoying it, Mary!

mary said...

The next one's about Hampton Court, Darlene. Haven't seen it yet.