If you regretted the long empty weeks of the summer I hope this edition of the magazine will cheer you up. It’s very much back to work in the parish. [If instead you rather regret the return to ‘busyness’ – well, there’s quite a lot of fun along the way.] The Sunday School year starts with ‘move-up Sunday’ on 12th and the Friends of Music hold their annual garden party that day in the vicarage garden. Some photos from last year are on display in the church. It’s a fund-raiser to support the choir, as all Friends of the Music events are, but good value for money – do come along. Continuing the musical theme we dive into the Hampstead and Highgate Festival on 24th Sept. There are lots of events here, which are listed on page……. and programmes at the back of church give details of events at other venues. New this year is the series of lunchtime concerts during the week of 27th Sept. Because of the concerts we’ve moved our Harvest Festival to October 10th – more of that next month.
Much cleaning and decorating has gone on this summer. The office for Father Stephen’s new PA [Paula] in the vicarage was redecorated by a team of volunteers and looks, I hope, very spruce and welcoming. The choir vestry has undergone a transformation of clearing and tidying to allow a teaching area for the Junior Choir’s theory lessons. The room had become a bit of a dumping ground for everyone’s odds and ends so congratulations to David and Lee for setting it to rights. With cleaning in mind Beryl Dowsett has typed up the notes left by Mary Knox in 1986 when she handed over the cleaning and polishing of the choir stalls. Mary was the Mary Shepard who illustrated the original Mary Poppins books and she would have embellished the article with delightful little drawings – her hand drawn Christmas cards were a delight to receive. My own memories of her include the times she chased her ‘ tramps’ away, shaking her broom at them in a way I wouldn’t dare. They went.
The churchyard project is nearing completion – they plan to finish before the end of the month. Whilst the re-laying of the paths has caused a fair amount of havoc it will look nice when it’s done. The Columbarium is much improved – paths relaid, the roof and guttering cleaned, repaired and straightened, and walls and fencing renovated. The garden around the seat will be planted during the autumn/spring. There’s never enough money for everything and one of the repairs that might not get done is the Hopkins memorial. This small stone to Gerard Manley Hopkins’ brother Felix, erected whilst their father was churchwarden here, fell over sometime last winter. In an attempt to raise money from family, friends, fans, I’ve been in touch with a number of G M-H societies and have discovered [without raising any money] that the story of him taking the name Felix Randal from the juxtaposition of Felix’s stone with the Randall grave nearby may be a fabrication. Father Joseph Feeney SJ says “The blacksmith who was the subject of the poem was himself named “Felix Spencer,” so that’s the origin of the name “Felix” in the poem; I rather think the story about the name’s connection with the Hampstead gravestone is not well founded.” And that Randall was a common name in Liverpool where Hopkins wrote the poem. Hmm.
Another exciting find is the grave of Eliza Acton [1799-1859] one of the first women to write a cookery book – Modern Cookery for Private Families was published in 1845 [16 years before Mrs Beeton]. Eliza introduced the practice of listing the ingredients at the head of a recipe and had the first recipe for Brussels sprouts [on toast – see below]. Also a poet, Eliza Acton wrote love poems [rather long] and others of which I’ve been unable to find the text.
130 years later Hampstead Parish Church had its own cookery book. Some of us still use its recipes. Perhaps it’s time we did another – it would be interesting to see what our new generation of parishioners came up with as compared with 35 years ago. Any offers?
Judy East
Brussels Sprouts on Toast – Eliza Acton
These delicate little sprouts, or miniature cabbages, which at their fullest growth scarcely exceed a large walnut in size, should be quite freshly gathered. Free them from all discoloured leaves, cut the stems even, and wash the sprouts thoroughly. Throw them into a pan of water properly salted, and boil them quickly from eight to ten minutes; drain them well, and serve them upon a rather thick round of toasted bread buttered on both sides. Send good melted butter to table with them. This is the Belgian mode of dressing this excellent vegetable, which is served in France with the sauce poured over it, or it is tossed in a stewpan with a spice of butter and some pepper and salt; a spoonful or two of veal gravy (and sometimes a little lemon-juice) is added when these are perfectly mixed. 9 to 10 minutes.
September
Judy East