A web log, an æthereal scrap-book if you will, with a somewhat vintage flavour. News items, occurrences, experiences, thoughts and opinions related to Victoriana through to Fifties Americana can all be found here.
Taxi to Ceredigion please! Quick as you can, driver!
Honestly, I've been dreaming about something like this for years. Years, I tell you! Many's the time I've thought of Granada TV auctioning off the wardrobe from Jeeves & Wooster or Poirot, and the wondrous clothes of Bertie Wooster and Captain Hastings that could be mine. And now that something very much like that is actually happening, it's on the other bloomin' side of the country! Tchah!
In reality the headline is slightly misleading - it really needs "to the National Trust and other groups" tacking on the end of it. I don't really think that you or I could just roll up to the Ceredigion Museum and go, "I'll have that... and that... oh, and that as well...", more's the pity(!). Still, it might help soothe the bitter sting of disappointment to know that at least the massive collection of 17,000 garments will continue to be appreciated - and what's more, used - by the likes of the National Trust, local community groups and schools. That at least ensures that they can go on being appreciated by people and, importantly, children throughout the area. Plus it looks like fashion designers are taking a welcome active interest in the styles of the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods for inspiration in their creations of today, which must be a good thing if it means we'll see some of our favourite fashions on the high street at some point in the future.
ITV's latest costume drama, Downton Abbey, is fast becoming one of my favourite television programmes and a particular Sunday treat (as I'm sure it is for many of my readers).
Now as well as providing us vintage aficionados with a healthy dose of Edwardiana the series (which, you'll all be pleased to hear, has just had a second series commissioned) has gone some way to improving the fortunes of the stately home where it is filmed.
Eagle-eyed vintage viewers will also recognise Highclere Castle from the early-90s Jeeves & Wooster series, where it played the part of Totleigh Towers. In recent years the building has been in need of some repair but now with the great interest that viewers have taken in it since the broadcast of Downton Abbey the current owners are in a position to embark on the renovation of this historic pile and eventually, it is hoped, open it to the public. It is splendid to see that there is still such a great interest taken in this country's ancient buildings and architectural history and that TV programmes like Downton Abbey are so popular that they encourage people not only to visit but also, ultimately, to preserve these important historic houses. Well done, everyone, and the best of luck to the owners the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon.
Usually more used to wearing a totally different sort of crown, here we have Dame Judi Dench, national treasure and a jolly fine actress, making an emergency trip to the dentist whilst wearing, one presumes, a bustle and a bonnet amongst other things. How I would have liked to have been in that waiting room! I'm having trouble imagining how she got into the dentist's chair wearing all that paraphernalia! A little light-hearted story; the perfect tonic after the recent spate of serious (yet inspiring) war recollections.
