Fires in Australia. Please spare a thought for the many members of our families whose lives, livings and possessions are threatened by the current outbreak of bush fires in Australia.
Doreen and Brian Cobbold of Geeveston, Tasmania had their house destroyed by fire a few months ago. They were left with nothing but the clothes they stood up in.
We wish them and all other friends and family, similarly threatened, a safe recovery.
1996 and all that. A letter to the Daily Telegraph from Austin Shorney of East Grinstead seems just as relevant today as it was then. “Sir – One time of rod the child took heed / And early learnt to write and read / Obeyed his teachers, knew his place / Took care he did not fall from grace. / But then they thought t’would cause no ill / To wrap some jam around the pill: / So changes came, and now By Damn / There is no pill, but only jam!”
Recent additions to the Trust archive have included Martin Wood’s book The Unknown Gertrude Jekyll(2006); an advertisement for the sale of The Remaining Contents of Holy Wells Mansion; a post card, Cobbold’s Point, Felixstowe by Mrs Holford-Smith of Felixstowe W.I. under snow, and another of Edward Cobbold’s Patent Applications (1843), this time for Supporting and Propelling Bodies on Water.