Today's article is about women whose names have been captured in history but who perhaps are not so well remembered now.
Everybody's 18 December 1954 (pp34-35) "First Lady of South Africa" by D. L. Hobman
 |
| Everybody's 18 December 1954 (pp34-35)
"Poetess, diarist, hostess, friend of the famous – Anne travelled to remote Boer farms with her husband in a creaking ox-wagon. She has become one of the most remarkable women in British history" |
The first illustration by Raymond Sheppard for this article is the fascinating tale of Lady Anne Barnard. The oval portrait shown here is credited on Encyclopedia Britannica as being "after a miniature by Richard Cosway" and the National Portrait gallery has it as "Walker and Cockerell after Cosway" which seems to be a more complete reference. They also have the portrait of Andrew Barnard "by Charles Turner, after Sir Thomas Lawrence, mezzotint, published 1809"
The doublepage spread by Sheppard shows Anne and husband trekking across South Africa. The article starts:
TWO pretty Scottish sisters, accustomed to sharing every secret, exchanged confidences about the man with whom Margaret, the more beautiful of the two, had fallen in love. Anne, the elder, more gifted sister, was full of sympathy, but not so their parents when the affair became known. The suitor was consequently sent overseas and instead, according to eighteenth century fashion, a match was arranged on Margaret's behalf. Alexander Fordyce was a wealthy banker, considerably older than the bride. He took her away to live in London and Anne was left sad and alone. In order to console herself she made up a poem about a young girl married to an old man, to be sung to a well-known melody, instead of the improper words sung to it before. The last verse ran:
I gang like a ghaist, and I carena' much to spin, I darena' think o' Jamie, for that would be a sin. But I'll do my best a gude wife to be, For O, Robin Gray, he is kind to me.
This song, Auld Robin Gray, soon became wildly popular and was used later as the subject for a play, an opera, and even a pantomime. Yet in spite of such immediate and lasting popularity nobody knew who had written Auld Robin Gray until Anne, shortly before her death, admitted authorship in a letter to Sir Walter Scott. She told him that she had felt melancholy and had tried to amuse herself "by attempting a few poetical trifles ... At our fireside and amongst our neighbours Auld Robin Gray was always called for. I was pleased in secret with the approbation it met with; but such was my dread of being suspected of writing anything, perceiving the shyness it created in those who could write nothing, that I carefully kept my own secret." Such was the modesty of Lady Anne Lindsay, born in Fifeshire on December 8, 1750. She was the eldest of the eleven children of the fifth Earl of Balcarres.
When she finally married at 42, the groom was 30 years of age. Her husband's acceptance of the job of Secretary to the Governor (whose wife did not accompany him to South Africa) meant in 1797 the couple were part of the scene where Dutchmen reluctantly accepted British rule. She soon shone and enticed the children of the Boers to social occasions and won many hearts.
The authoress of this article led an interesting life herself - Wikipedia again comes to my rescue.
Everybody's 2 April 1955 "Betty Mouat's adventure" by J. M. Scott (p.16)
 |
| Everybody's 2 April 1955 (p.16) "'Columbine' was drifting fast before the strong wind. And night was coming on" |
Rather than just point to Wikipedia - which does have a page on Betty's adventure, I'd recommend Claire White's outline with a song too about Betty, which is delightful. Betty Mouat, from Shetland, was the sole passenger sailing to Lerwick in order to sell her knitwear. Unfortunately the storms in the North Sea took the boat and the captain was washed overboard. Poor Betty - then aged c. 61, was alone on a boat tossed here and there at the whim of the weather. It took 8 lonely days in which she used all her supplies - a bottle of milk and two biscuits. Finally she made the rocks off the coast of Norway and was rescued by fishermen. Her name is commemorated by a plaque in Lepsøya but her return to Edinburgh via Hull, meant her fame was widespread. Betty's journey certainly captured the public's imagination in 1886 and Queen Victoria was involved too!
I think Sheppard captures the roaring wind and waves that washed over the boat, and his image of Betty holding on - determined to survive - works really well. The angle of the piecve adds vertiginous feelings for the viewer.
