Australian outings: Lawrence

 

My very dear friend, James, and I have only had one outing together this season. Well, it has been a rather 'social' season, and I do 'social' only in limited amounts. And never in the company of more than one person or couple ... because if two or more people speak at once, I simply hear ... noise. I am not (was I ever?) a party creature .... and my hearing is, at nearly 80, what is politely described as 'defective'. Most of the time, I'm happy with that!!

So, when James called and suggested a 'museum and pub lunch' outing, I was delighted!

And it fulfilled all of its promises. How have I been here ten years, and -- although I have passed by -- yet not discovered the village of Lawrence: its museum and its "pub"?

Both museum and pub were a resounding success!

The museum is unlike any other 'local' museum I have ever been to.  It is built in and around the buildings of what used to be the important Northern River radio station.  This means that they not only have a large indoor space in which to display their collection but also ... land!  And that land they have utilised splendidly, with 'exhibits' of C19th farming and professional artefacts of all kinds ... rightly, the whole is named the 'Rural and River' Museum. A real breath of fresh air ... one of my favourite museum visits of recent years.

If you are in the Clarence Valley, this is a must for a visit! And the drive through the countryside from Maclean to Lawrence is a scenic joy in itself ...

From the Museum, we headed for our pub lunch. The Lawrence Tavern.

The sun was shining deliciously, so we sat outside, overlooking the river ..

And what is that!? A manège? No. It is apparently an excessively waterside house. Round. And turns round ...  How? Why? What about the plumbing? Ah! It's for sale. Perhaps the occupants got rheumatism. 5 bedrooms, 1 bathroom. Hmm. James looked up the floorplan on his phone. I couldn't live in it, but hey it would make a brilliant restaurant or cafe ...  Price? Six figures rather then seven ..

ADDENDUM: Courtesy of engineering historian Robert Lee:  The house does not rotate, but it is built on former railway turntable bridge recovered from former steam locomotive depots on the North Coast Railway.

Interesting ...

My companions: James and Brett

Seafood crèpe with chips and a salad which I was actually able to eat ... a pint or two of Toohey's Dark ... very nice!

Lovely way to spend a Tuesday ...

And then home, via that lovely scenery, over bridges and the river ferry ...

Happy days!  

I'll be back soon!

The Fascination of a flop: 1792

 

There is no doubt that, in this day and age, there are musical-theatre fanatics who worship a resounding flop. And not only in America, where Ken Mandelbaum has authored an entire book (Not Since Carrie) on the flop-phenomenon, and where the list of closed-out-of-town productions would fill an even larger volume.

Many -- nay, most -- of these misbegotten musicals have vanished virtually without trace. For which, much thanks. But some have left behind them remnants --- sheet music, demo recordings and the like -- for the 'fans' to sigh over. This last week, I've extracted printed music from a whole heap of extra-briefly-lived shows from the pages of facebook. Mostly from the first half of the 20th century. However ....

I think this one is the granddaddy of them all. It dates from 1792. London. And, in spite of the memorable names attached to it, it ran for just four performances ...

Title: The Magician no Conjurer. Composer of 'the overture and the whole of the music' -- the well-known Joseph Mazzinghi (1765-1844) of "When a Little Farm We Keep" fame. Author ...?  Oh. No author ...

Produced at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden Thursday 2 February 1792 'with entire new music, scenery and dresses'.  Cast: Mr John Quick (Talisman); William Blanchard (Peter Panick); Richard Wilson (Sammy Sapling); Joseph Munden (Grub), John Fawcett (Dareall), Charles Incledon (Somerville); Mrs. Margaret Martyr (Peggy); Mrs. Rosemond Mountain (Nelly); Mrs. Lydia Webb (Miss Talisman); Mrs. Elizabeth Billington (Theresa) et al.

Some cast! Much of the best that Covent Garden could provide. So, what went wrong? Well, I can't find a single review to be able to retail the plot, though the characters' names give us a hint. And though the playbill tells us that 'books of the songs can be had at the theatre', the season summary tells us firmly 'not published'. Well, this song was. Some years after the event. In Boston. Bearing no publisher's imprint. And no author's name. 

Ah! That author. Oh, we know who he was. His name was Robert Merry, and he appears to have been a very odd fellow. He is mentioned here and there in memoirs of the period - in vastly different tones.  Either he was profligate with little literary talent, or a darling chappie who ...

I don't know which version to believe.  Nobody seems to agree wholly or, sometimes, even partly ... I tend to the former.

Anyway, facts. 'A direct descendant of Sir Henry Merry, who was knighted by James I in 1621'. Grandson of Captain John Merry, deputy governor of the Hudson's Bay Co between 1712-1718, who died 1729. Father, Robert Merry 'of Hatton Garden' then 'of Red Lion Square', married Mrs Margaret Hollings née Willes, daughter of Lord Chief Justice Willes in 1850. So, lots of money and status.

All sorts of sources say that Robert jr was born in 1755. Odd, then, that the London baptism records have a Robert, by Robert ex Margaret, of Red Lion Square, dipped 3 May 1754.  Anyway, he grew up with siblings of Willes, Hollings and Merry denomination, went to Harrow, then to Cambridge where 'he lived irregularly and did not graduate'. His father died in 1774, leaving most of his fortune to his wife, but Robert still got enough to continue his whimsical life, and decided to buy himself a commission in the Horse Guards. The charm of the military life wore off after a few years, and he became a dilettante wanderer around Europe, at some stage taking upon himself the character of a 'literary gent'. He came to rest in Firenze, where he is credited with 'founding' the much-mocked Della Cruscian movement in sentimental poetry. However, he apparently made himself non grata there, and returned about 1788 to England, where he, so it is said, churned out vast amounts of poetry and drama, of which only a little seems to have been published.

In 1791, he did one of those war-zone immersions, visiting Paris during the uprisings, and tried thereafter to make capital out of that. He also, in August, got married. His bride was Anne Brunton, a successful actress of distinguished dramatic lineage. I can only guess that it was through her that he got his 'comic opera' shown at Covent Garden. Alas, it was 'a complete failure'. Failure and Merry seemed to walk hand in hand.

By 1796, he was in all sort of straits, so the couple packed up and emigrated to Baltimore, Maryland. Anne was in demand. Robert was not. But he got his song published in Boston, before he died after an attack of apoplexy at his home in Baltimore. The story of his demise is told in loving detail in John Bernard's Retrospections of America 1797-1811.

Anne remarried Philadelphis theatre manager Thomas Wignell in 1802. He died the following year. She married yet again but, herself, died 28 June 1808.

Robert's mother survived till 1800, so the large fortune in money, shares and bonds which she had amassed stayed safely in the family. I think we can guess what Robert would have done with it!

PS If there is disagreement about Robert's date of birth, there is also wonkhy reporting over his death. One paper says 14 December, another says 24 December ..

Curiosity. Someone must have liked Robert Merry. He has a ridiculously large entry in ther Dictionary of National Biography which tries manfully to make something out of a life and career signifying ... very little.

Curiosity 2.  WHY did someone drag this total flop out of the bin for a Benefit performance at Leeds in 1793...

The NZ Trotting Oaks 2022: the acorns ...

 

Writing up this week's happenings in my blog-diary, I was reminded of the fiasco over the crooked Oaks field 'selection' in 2022, which evicted EMILY from the field.

https://kurtofgerolstein.blogspot.com/2022/11/kurt-of-gerolstein-horse.html

So, I had the idea of looking to see just what had become of those fillies who were deemed worthy of a start in what is, allegedly, the fillies' classic of the year.

Well, only one of them -- easily the best one -- is still around, racing in the top class.  I expect to see HIDDEN TALENT, now of course, aged six, in the Dominion Handicap (NZ's trotting championship) later this year.

After her, the most performing of those still in action would be MIXED FAITH, which has won eight races, and has placed in her last three starts. I can't forbear to remark, on each occasion, behind EMILY.

The others? Well, a few are still around, racing with rather less success than more.

CON GRAZIA LOVE has won seven, but nothing else anywhere near the value of the Oaks. (PS good second last night)

TI AMO BELLE has been disappointing. She looked, at one stage, like a top filly. Especially when she won at Rangiora and just nicked a vast outsider, who was having her first start. EMILY.

The nice WESTAR MILLY, exiled to Auckland, finished 4th in a minor race tonight ..

Parenthesis. Why do we breed, buy, train racehorses, at vaster and vaster expense? Me, I want to see them run. Get a cheque, or even win. Give us a thrill. And keep doing it for as long as they are competitive. Any horse which I have owned, which the records show had only a dozen starts or two, either was a no-hoper (and there have been a few of those!) or got injured. So, I truthfully don't understand why these -- which HRNZ reckoned the best fillies in New Zealand, at the time -- hav'n't gone on to the sort of career that HIDDEN TALENT, MIXED FAITH or ... EMILY have.

Two of them never raced again, after this day. Others, little.

PARAMOUNT EMPRESS is the prime example. She was a wonderful juvenile. I remember the day she qualified. Rangiora. Cruised in by 7 lengths. 7 1/4 actually. I remember distinctly, because in 2nd place was ... EMILY! I can only assume that she got injured, or had some other problem. Or not. At six, already, she is a mother and a mother-to-be ...  Is there more money to be made by selling her progeny than by racing her. Undoubtedly. But ... where's the thrill?

Is it the old story of Racing the sport versus Racing the industry or business.  Me, I'm "sport". Silly old me!

Ah, well. All that was a very long time ago ... But I'm still here, Wendy is still here, and little Emily is still up and at 'em, and running the best races of her life!

EMILY: the Final ...

 

Yesterday, was the final of the enterprising Silk Road Series.

All the best horses from the heats were lined up together.  Three Tisbury girls from Kirstin Green's stable and the formidable trio of Williamson brothers ...

Wendy was in the sky, on her way back to New Zealand. Somehow, by a combination of TV-mobile phone-Air NZ-wifi, which is way beyond me, she was able to see the race...

I, in order to watch it live, hitched a ride up to the Pacific Hotel with friend Robert, and, over a pint of Toohey's Dark, looked, with some sort of amazement, at the antics of the zig-zagging Australian betting market. 

'Sadie' was always hot favourite and would remain so, 'Spirit' was always the outsider, and would remain so. But the other four? 'Mixed Gait' seemed momentarily to be heading for second-favouritism, then Emily zoomed down to $1.04 a place, and finally somebody sane put sufficient on 'Kenny' to ensure her the number two spot.

Four minutes from the start, Emily was offered at 30-1.

Then I noticed the size of the betting pool. Minable!

Two minutes from racetime, Emily was a more reasonable $10, behind the three Williamson horses. 

The tapes pinged and, oh no!, race plan (1) out the window. Samantha, who usually begins like an Assyrian arrow, fumbled the start. Would we have to lead to ensure the pace? Please, no!  But 'Mixed Gait' came to the rescue. She started splendidly and whisked to the front, with 'Spirit' on her tail. Emily was in third, with Sadie right behind her ...

And for much of the race, trotting along at an increasingly brisk tempo, that order was maintained, with the backmarkers gradually creeping closer .. and 'Spirit' struggling a little. As they turned for home, the leader, too, got a touch of the stitch and ...Mark swept EMILY to the front. Once again, just like last week, I wanted to uproot the winning post and drag it 50 metres back ...

But, this week, unlike last, I wasn't up on my one good foot, yelling. Sadie had, clearly, yet to launch her last rocket. And, just like last week, she launched it just in time to zip to the front in the last hectometres ...  And, just as in the first heat, Aroha Kenny whistled down the outside to get past Emily in the final strides.

And the wonderfully gutsy 'Spirit' came in fourth!

The record shows that there was a half length between Sadie and Kenny, with a further half-length back to Emily. Well, if she had to get beaten, it couldn't have been by two grander mares. 

'The most improved mare in Southland', commented one horseman. Yes, I'll buy that. And in Southland she will stay. I have no wish to make her travel back to Canterbury, to race Hidden Talent and I Dream of Jeannie and Eurostyle, on Cup Day. Even were it just to stick one up one end, or the other, of the Met Club assholes who illegally ruled her out of the Oaks in her year ...

Yes, that still rankles. Especially when one sees that the said Oaks winner, Con Grazia Love, is reportedly retiring with just seven wins, almost all in rather feeble company, up north. Yes, it is one of ranklingest moments in my quarter-of-a-century racing horses ..

But, at the moment, I am in love with harness racing, in love with our little mare...

I was even about to say 'with Harness Racing New Zealand'. But today a bombshell exploded.

For the past years, we have been forced into an unnatural system of race- and race-meeting management and construction. This business of the R-ratings. A wholly inept effort to keep older horses racing in New Zealand rather than being sold overseas. So it was said. Of course, like any system, it quickly found advised practioners who 'used' the system ... but, even if we others didn't 'use' it, we learned to live with it, and plan our and our horses' year around it. 

And today, Friday, HRNZ is changing the rules. Yes, they needed changing, but NOT at 72hrs notice ... and not in the way they have been changed. An investigation is needed. Or total transparency. There are too many 'interested parties' involved. 

Why the hurry? Very suspicious. So, has HRNZ done a volte face? do we no longer want to keep older and winning-types on the game? Is this an attempt to foist yearling racing on us instead. Two year-old racing is, already, a sad affair.

Wouldn't be great if we could go back to the 1950s style of racing. But no. We've become a midget-widget in the great global gambling game ....   

Who cares for the horses? Some of us.

Awwww. Look, here's our Em having her supper, tonight, with her girlfriend RASPALIA ("Polly, you're winning too many races, too quickly ... those devils at HRNZ will find a way to penalise you!).  Back home with trainer Kirstin. The home where she has blossomed so beautifully ...

EMILY: Heat Three ...

 

The field for Heat 3 of the Silk Road series was small, but decidedly classy. 

Six horses, including the winners of the first two heats, AROHA KENNY and SAMANTHA'S MOON, plus little EMILY, who had finished second on each occasion. However, the boilingly hot-pot was a newcomer to the series. One of the very best New Zealand three year-old fillies of last season; PRINCESS SADIE. Two starts back, in the NZ Oaks, she had gone down only to the Australian champ KEAYANG ZAHARA. 

Barring accidents, the rest of us would be battling for minor money!

Alas, there was an accident, but not to SADIE. And not on the track. The lovely AROHA KENNY had a paddock accident and had, along with its stablemate, to be scratched. The field was down to four!  Well, who says you can't have a grand race with four horses ...

Wendy, Sarah, Jen and I made our way to the Pacific Hotel, on the hill ... and sat down with a drink to await the race, broadcast on the banks of TV screens ...

Sadie was, of course, odds-on favourite. Samantha and Emily were equallish second -- at a distance. Each of them at a little worse than 4-1. 

Now, Samantha is a noted fast-beginner and front-runner. Would she do her thing again this week? Or would Sadie run them all ragged, in her first run for five months? 

Samantha set off at a great rate, gobbled up her handicap and made sure there was no hoof-dragging on her watch. Emily followed, just like last week ... Sadie sat in 4th until 500 metres from home, and then moved up...  

But, surprise, Emily moved too! As they came round the last bend, she hit the front. Samantha had had enough .. and Sadie? She put in a queer step or two....

We were all on our feet yelling ...!  Hurry up, finish line!!

But the young Hayden Douglas, in Sadie's sulky, knew what he was doing. Inexorably he nibbled away Emily's advantage, and two strides from the post - while Mark and Emily were throwing everything into the battle, - Sadie (with Hayden doing just enough) hit the front. Our girl was beaten by a neck.

The time for the race was impressive. 2400m from a standing start ... 2 min 02.8 mile rate ... I think that is just about Emily's fastest race to date ...

So her record now reads 70 starts, 6 wins, 11 seconds, 9 thirds...

So, on to the Final. Who is qualified? The HRNZ website doesn't seem to say ... I guess we will find out on Monday. 

Go, little girl!  (Er   ... little?)

Monday ... and here we are. All the old friends and rivals ...

EMILY: The second semester of a six-year-old

 

 Yesterday, our little girl was back to the track. Autumn holidays over!

 

Term one had gone quite well. Although she had not actually won a race, she had notched up multiple second and thirds and given us a tremendous amount of fun.

 

So, roll on term two! First up was to be a fillies and mares race -- nice, I wish there were more of those --- what was not quite so nice, for Emily, was that it was over 2700 metres, a touch further than her best distance. What was definitely not so nice was the race rating. 35 upwards. So it was, basically, a free-for-all. From the glummest maiden to multiple race-winners. So much for Harness Racing New Zealand's profession to have like-racing-like! 

 

When the field came out, it certainly wasn't like-against-like. Handicapping made it more reasonable, but ... 

Actually, Emily came out of it rather well. The front line was definitely not of the level of the rest. The back lines, with Emily's stablemate SAMANTHA'S MOON (20 metres), and the decidedly classy AROHA KENNY (30 metres) were another world altogether! Emily shared the 10 metres line with two recent lower-grade winners and another fine trotter in MIXED FAITH. How that girl ever got so low in the ratings, I know not. 

Hmmm. I thought. We ought to have a chance for a cheque .. oughtn't we?  Then the local tipsters' picks came out. Oh.

Fair enough. AROHA KENNY had all suffrages. But one measly fourth pick? Was I being too hopeful? 

What WAS I hoping for? Well, second place would be good. A couple of thousand dollars, and you don't get any added rating points. Just like the old days of C1, C2, C3.  A win? Well, you never say no to a win! That's what you are there for. Aroha Kenny COULD gallop!

Well, she certainly didn't begin well. And two of the 10-metre horses blew themaelves out of the race. EMILY began well, but not brilliantly. She still does that funny little dance step when the tapes fly. But, nowadays, it's not much more than half-a-step. But SAMANTHA simply flew the start, made up her handicap in no time and zoomed, as is her wont, to the front, at a great rate. The front markers glued themselves grimly to her back wheel and EMILY slotted in to fourth, as they ate up the first kilometres ..

Mark wisely nipped EMILY off the fence, as the trailing horse imploded outrageously with a whole lap left to go, then nipped back in again, once she was out of the road, following Samantha, as MIXED FAITH loomed up on the outside of her ... it looked as if it would be a three-horse finish ... AROHA KENNY was still half-a-dozen lengths back!

Into the straight, EMILY took inside lane. Past MIXED FAITH she went, past SAMANTHA (who had a puncture!).. and she hit the front!  But half-a-dozen lengths deficit was nothing to AROHA KENNY who flew down the outside, past all three of them ...

Second. Open the bottle!  Exactly the hoped-for result!

Wonderful start to the new term!

Onwards and upwards! Invercargill has a second round of this series next week. I guess most of these same mares will be out again ... well, it seems EMILY can cope ...

PS. These four finished 8 lengths ahead of the 5th horse (which was hampered by the imploding one). And FIFTY lengths ahead of the remainder. Steeplechase distances ...   Are free-for-alls really fair-for-all ...?

PS I see the imploded one has been stood down. Rightly so.

Addendum:  The second heat.  No Aroha Kenny, this time. She has done her stuff and qualified for the final. So SAMANTHA (20 metres) is, this time, the back-marker. And it's 2200m. EMILY is off 10 metres.

So, it's the same race again, without the winner, and with one addition. Why should the result be any different? Well, the southern "tipsters" (often a feeble lot, especially number two)  thought not. 

The TAB was a little more dignified

Well .. here's what happened ..

https://www.youtube.com/wach?v=fyOPWouBc90&t=113s

On to heat three ...  the stiffest one yet!  Both the so-far heat-winners plus a couple of classy young 'uns!  

Go, little girl!

An Art-filled adventure day, or 'the best Pies in Australia'!

 

Wednesday.  Market day. And Robert and Louis are off on a jaunt to the Blue Mountains. Which meant shanks's pony for me ... but today was my lucky day :-). 

As I set out on my dawntime plod, a car stopped and a glamorous young lady, who was heading the same way, said 'hop in'!  I didn't need asking twice! Because I knew what awaited me at the market: $144-worth of glorious Dorper Lamb fillets, ordered from Warren Wiggins at the Boorabee Dorper Sheep Stud. Lamb mightn't weigh quite as much an bananas, but I wasn't looking forward to trudging that parcel up the hill! 

Well, I pulled in my horns, didn't buy (this week) any more orchids, only five punnets of blackberries and raspberries and a huge bunch of basil, and then ... the wonderful Bonnie drove me back up the hill!  

So I had two hours in which to do the day's paperwork, before ... yes, the next part of the day's adventure. Dear friend James was taking me to Ulmarra for a snack. Now, Ulmarra is my favourite village hereabouts. Especially because it has a big second-hand bookshop ... and nice riverside pub ... 

https://kurtofgerolstein.blogspot.com/2024/08/out-and-about-in-new-south-wales-or.html

but now it also has a café which I was to 'discover'!

But first, we had culture. James is VP of the Friends of the Grafton Regional Art Gallery. I had never visited. Alas, these days I cannot walk around a big art gallery. Nor stand, looking ...  But this Gallery is of a sensible size, beautifully laid-out, and housing, at the moment, two delightful exhibitions of which Maggie McDade, head honcho, gave us a tour.

The first was a collection of works by the senior art pupils of the area. Amazing work. Sure, some of the paintings showed the 'influence' of childish trends, but some ...!

I had no difficulty in sorting out my gold and silver-medallists.  GOLD for Miss Olivia MacDonald with her wonderful rural pictures

These were the first items I saw, when I walked in, and my immediate reaction was, 'are these for sale?'  Of course, they ar'n't. Not yet, anyway. I predict Miss MacDonald will make a career.

The other exhibit which grabbed me was a group of exquisitely imaginative small pieces by Thomas Mc Farlane

When I bought my apartments, here, there was a piscatorial print on the wall. Not one-tenth as good as these!

I had to sit down, so I went and sat with the cows, till Maggie was ready to take us to the second exhibition.  No amateurs here. Michele Beevors is an artist whose 'sculptures' are widely known. Models of animal skeletons, the bones covered in knitted-wool. You can read all about her and them on the www. Remarkable stuff!

From tiny frogs to a life-sized giraffe, a horse ..

and I forget what this was!

I also forgot it was raining outside!  But we bundled into James's car, and headed for Ulmarra.

A small disappoinment. The bonzer bookshop is still there. More bonzer than ever. But I and my walking-stick cannot, any longer, manage the narrow aisles, not having to bend down to boxes on the floor. I investigated a box of tattered sheet-music -- some sweet if well-loved items from my period -- but I couldn't make it to the bottom. I had to give up.

Out into the rain. Now, for the café. The Ulmarra Food Co. Seen its ads on face-book. Goodness, what an array of home-made pies. Big and bulgy ... every combination of meat and veg you could think of! I, wilfully off-centre, chose 'cheese and cauliflower'. 

Well, I am here to tell you that was the best pie I've eaten in memory. Light, bright, tasty ... 10/10 for the  pasty, 11/10 for the filling!  Before we left, I bought some 'takeaway' frozen pies. I have had my Winter Palace for nine years, and I have never yet used the oven. Here goes ....

Ulmarra, if I can't manage your bookshop any more, I sure as hell can manage your Food Co!  And I will!  Preferably on a non-rainy day, so I can sit in the pretty courtyard and stuff myself with 'the best pies in Australia'.

But the day wasn't over. When James delivered me back to The Cove, there was the contract for my new book ...

And now it's Thursday. The rain is gone, the sun is out, the refrigerator is full to bursting ...  and .. I guess I had better get down to writing that book!

PS. Friday. I have just devoured my take-away Reuben pie.  Sen-sa-tion-al!!!!!