Wednesday’s Wise Woman … Hannah Mitchell
Hannah Mitchell (born Hannah Webster 18721-1956) was an English suffragette and socialist. She lived with her family at Alport Castles Farm in the Peak District of Derbyshire; it still stands, a mile north of the A57 on the Snake Pass that links Manchester with Sheffield and crosses one of the wildest parts of the south Pennines. In her autobiography The hard way up.the descriptions of her childhood home are a rich source of rural memories and remained for her a much enjoyed place of refuge away from the anxieties of modern life. Well into her 70s she continued to walk the moorland paths even those she would have taken when she ran away from home as a teenager.
Life on the farm was poor and isolated; however, she was able to go Derwent, a village nearby for a little freedom and a limited education.Hannah’s main difficulty was her mother and her scolding tongue. She only got a fortnight’s schooling in her whole life. Hannah, unlike her siblings was keen to learn. After some persuasion Hannah’s mother allowed her to attend the local school with her sister. After two weeks the weather became so harsh the girls were not able to make the journey. When the weather improved the sister returned to school but for Hannah the opportunity didn’t arise again.
Her mother was vehemently aggressive; physically and mentally towards her daughter’s aspirations for improvement. Education, even basic schooling was not for girls. Hannah suffered terribly as she struggled against the social restraints of the time.
Her Uncle was sympathetic to the situation and came to the rescue; he bought her some exercise books and set her some lines to copy ‘Procrastination is the thief of time’ and ‘Never put off til tomorrow what you can do today’. Although these moral lessons were not needed; the exercises did give Hannah the chance to improve her handwriting.
Hannah didn’t have a dictionary so when she did come across a word she didn’t understand or couldn’t pronounce properly she copied it and listened carefully to the preacher at the chapel until she heard the use the ‘doubtful’ word. Often they would mispronounce it ; after all they were only lay preachers, farmers or shepherds, with no more education than her father or uncle. Hannah went on to say in her book that she took every opportunity to talk about books and reading to visitors and passers by. This, the mother overhearing; saw as a slur on her character and would beat her. Hannah, not wishing to waste a valuable lesson’ soon learned to be discreet.
So with this continued cruelty, and non-existent education and the bleak isolation of the farm; Hannah had no alternative if she wanted to ‘better herself’ so she ran away from home. First to Glossop and then Bolton; described by her grandson; ‘she moved from Wuthering Heights’ to the ‘Coketown’ of Charles Dickens’s Hard times. She endured great poverty and strong friendships.. From here she married and had her only son. It was early in her relationship with her would-be husband that she decided against a marriage as held by her brothers. By now, in a strong mining community and surrounded by socialists there was much talk about marriage as comradeship. There was the idea that limiting population as a means of reducing poverty. She says that ‘I soon came to believe that although birth control was not the perfect solution to social problems it was one of the first and simplest ways at present for poor to help themselves and the surest way for women to obtain a measure of freedom’ … to be continued.
Weekly Photo Challenge … Escape
Those of us who live in Reading, Berkshire either love the town or hate it, people escape to Reading and many escape from it.
We moved here in the early 1980s from north London; we were pleased to escape from semi-detached suburbia to somewhere where we might find work and affordable rent and a subsequent mortgage.
Little did we know that we had moved to the home of the Reading Rock Festival. To where every teenager in the UK and further escape to; very August Bank Holiday; when all the locals escape from, to avoid the noise and violation.( this in my opinion is unfounded)
However, it was Reading Prison that came t mind when I read this week’s Photo Challenge; It is not the most visually pleasing of buildings. It does have at least one ‘romantic’ connection; it was the ‘home’ of Oscar Wilde for a time and where he wrote the Ballad of Reading Gaol.
I understand from a recent visitor (not an inmate I hasten to add) that the cell where he was imprisoned is marked accordingly. But, It does beg the question, does anyone actually care about this ridiculous fact?
The prison is relatively new, built in 1840 and described in the Illustrated London News as
‘Standing, as it does on the rising ground at the entrance of Reading, and close to the site of the venerable abbey, this new prison is from every side the most conspicuous building, and, architecturally, by far the greatest ornament to the town’
It is the largest of the town’s public buildings and before the other buildings had encroached the surrounding walls then it would have looked very imposing. It is built of red Tilehurst brick with decorative quoins of Bath stone, the turrets and crenulations give an impression of a 15th century castle. Nonetheless I am sure each prisoner would plan to escape such a vile environment.
Last week I learned that …
I was very pleased that last week I picked up my Sanskrit translation. When I went to Brazil I took a break from my weekly sessions and it has taken me far too long to back into the routine again
I translate a few verses each week and then I meet up with another student and over a cup of tea we compare notes and come up with fair translation … I am not sure that that Professor Deshpande would agree but it gives me a lot of joy and pleased I am back on the road of reading Sanskrit.
We are reading the Bhagavad Gita which is one of the most studied and translated texts in the history of world literature. Coming from the post-Vedic India and considered to be the standard and universal work of the Hindu tradition and renowned as the jewel of India’s spiritual wisdom.
Silent Sunday
Saturday … On the campus!
Unashamed late blooms
not wearied by late harsh winds
the brazen hussies!!
Aesop’s Fables are a collection of stories credited to Aesop; a slave and story teller who lived in Greece in 5th Century BCE. It was at the time of the first enlightenment when scholars, slaves and singing bards where beginning to question their existence and the notion of good and evil. Long before the words were recorded so the tales and songs were memorised and passed down through the ages.
The fables have been compared with Buddhist Jataka Tales and the Hindu Panchatantra; as some of the tales are similar. There is some debate over who actually began the tradition. Although Buddha and Aesop were contemporaries; the stories would have not been written down until centuries later and no scholar is interested enough to take a stand either way. This particular book was reprinted (1926) from a 1692 edition translated by Sir Roger L’Estrange (1616-1704) and the wood engravings are by Celia Fiennes.
Alphabe Thursday … Z is for Zero
Since I did not study mathematics beyond ‘O” level in 1966; I think I can be forgiven for not knowing too much about the relatively new mathematical sign ‘0.’
Zero did not appear in the European understanding until it became necessary in the 14th century. According to Brian Rotman in Signifying nothing : the semiotics of Zero; the sign for nothing originated in Central India and was established by the 10th century as the ‘distinguishing element’ in the now familiar Hindu system of numerals. By the 1300s the Arab merchants had adopted it readily in their culture. Meanwhile the Christians of Europe dismissed its use as it was incomprehensible and unnecessary.
Numbers, were until then were bound to the confines of the church; the educated clerks remained devoted to the holy Latin orders. While the merchants, artisans and architects; speakers of the local languages needed to become familiar with the arithmetic of trade and technology. It was important for them to understand the Arab mathematics and in particular Hindu numerals
It was the need for accuracy and the zero balance for double entry book-keeping that broke down any barriers to the ‘infidel symbol’ of zero. By the end of the 17th century the Hindu numerals had completely replaced the holy Roman ones and became the dominant mode for recording and manipulating numbers throughout Europe.
Please note the letter press image was provided by Diana Milne
