Frances Rolleston
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog: Today Back Then
  • People
  • Places
  • Activities & Accomplishments
    • Writings >
      • Mazzaroth
    • Poetry
    • Painting

The Faithful Shelty

1/5/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
In January 1864, Frances Rolleston was doubting if she would ever again be well enough to write, but by February 5th she was enjoying renewed health—although this was to be the last winter of her life. She wrote to a friend about her pleasure at finding herself again able to paint, and she told the story of how for years the money earned from her paintings paid her part in the use of a small pony who pulled her little cart around the Lake District.

Frances became quite fond of this "gentlest of ponies . . . who draws the fairy gig, and looks like a fairy steed in it.”  Even with a group, Shelty was strong enough to go eighteen miles two days in a row. Before Frances gained the use of Shelty, the pony had already had a long life of hard work and hard living,

Readers will enjoy the chapter about Shelty in Frances Rolleston: British Lady, Scholar and Writer of Mazzaroth. 


0 Comments

Adopted Nieces

1/16/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Favorite subjects for painting and poetry: the mountains and clouds of the Lakes District
While in Malvern, just before her relocation to Keswick, FR made the acquaintance of two sisters, Bessie and Caroline Dent. They found their interests so similar and the sisters were so taken with FR's theory of the constellations, that they were instant close friends. These interests included poetry, painting, and the Scriptures. 

Since FR was older than they, the sisters began to call her "Aunt," and she was delighted by this new relationship. So many of her friends had already died that at times she felt bereft. 

The women sent their sketches, paintings and poetry to one another, sometimes just to share it and sometimes seeking advice. This excerpt from a letter demonstrates their mutual affection.

To the Misses Dent. Keswick, January 17th, 1849.


I think I ought to write an epitaph "on two fair sisters smothered in sonnets," by a cruel aunt, as bad as an uncle, vide Babes in the Wood—for lo! here are more that would be written, it's no use resisting, when the thought has rolled in my brain the destined time, out it will come. And of most of these the first idea was spoken to you, on the scenery viewed together.
0 Comments

Move to Keswick

6/6/2014

0 Comments

 
Pictureon Derwent Water
June 5, 1847

FR arrived in the English Lakes District for the first time. At last she laid eyes on real mountains. She had admired them in paintings and copied paintings of them, but had never seen them.

"The vision of my youth is before me, at length I have seen the mountains, and the reality is even far beyond the pictures I have often copied and oftener admired. The forms, the colour, are equally beyond the reach of art; poetry and imagination had gone nearer, in Wordsworth's Excursion I had seen them far better.
"

On this first visit, FR stayed at Bowness. The next spring she moved to Keswick, where she remained for the last 15 years of her life.

The photo above is of Derwent Water next to Keswick taken on my trip this past April
.


0 Comments

19th C Watercolors

5/23/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture1820s Watercolor Box
May 1852

FR writes in expectation of her friend Cary Dent's coming visit for the month of June. FR now lives in Keswick, in the Lake District of England, a favorite haunt of painters and poets. An important activity during the visit will be painting together. FR urges Cary to "Bring all your apparatus for water-colours" because although fine weather will allow them to spend time in the mountains and on the lake, "on rainy days we paint."

The watercolor box above resides in the Victoria & Albert museum. It is probably very like the one FR used as a young woman.

0 Comments

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Categories

    All
    Anglo Saxon
    Anglo-Saxon
    Annesley Hall
    Antiques
    Astronomy
    Ballad
    Bible
    Book
    Buildings
    Canticles
    Character Trait
    Christmas
    Comfort
    Country Life
    Darwin
    Dean Alford
    Death
    Eclipse
    Fables
    Famine
    Ferns
    Friendship
    Geology
    Ghosts
    Hannah More
    Health
    Hebrew
    H K White
    Humphry Davy
    Hymns
    Infant School
    James Fenimore Cooper
    Janet Taylor
    John Milton
    John Musters
    Keswick
    Lakes District
    Language
    Law
    Magazines
    Mary Chaworth
    Mathematics
    Mazzaroth
    Motherhood
    Mountains
    Music
    Newstead
    Notable People
    Oaks
    Painting
    Philosophy
    Poetry
    Prayer
    Reading
    Reform
    Religion
    Robert Burns
    Romantic Love
    Royalty
    Sir Walter Scott
    Slavery
    Sleep
    Song
    Sonnet
    Teaching
    Temperance
    Travel
    Violets
    Visits
    War
    Washington Irving
    Watnall
    William Herschel
    William Hone
    William Wilberforce
    William Wordsworth
    Women
    Work
    Yorkshire

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from eamoncurry123, JamesGardinerCollection, chrisada, Kate. Get the picture., aenigmatēs, summonedbyfells, earlynovelsdatabase, Graeme Darbyshire, deweggis, Bosc d'Anjou, Ross Elliott, meret.fuchs, isawnyu, nillamaria, Stifts- och landsbiblioteket i Skara, Newburgh_pig_rm ( pka piggy raymond morelli), weegeebored, MDreibelbis, Joseph Surface, john_seaman@ymail.com, gailhampshire, j. kunst, Andrew E. Larsen, faith goble, BFS Man, summonedbyfells, ell brown, forum.linvoyage.com, Stuart Grout, PhotoAtelier, Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, kellyv, Chajm, ell brown, riptheskull, Jonathan Rubio, Books18, garryknight, Boston Public Library, Digital Sextant, Tim simpson1, Tim Pierce, Matthew's Foundation, Newsum Antiques, wht_wolf9653, Matt From London, UpSticksNGo, gvgoebel, Matt From London, romana klee, Accretion Disc, Emma, Michael and Elway's Excellent Adventures, postman.pete, quinn.anya, distar97, liebeslakritze, andryn2006, Eddi van W., sarahstierch, Joanna Bourne, Kevin Hutchinson, Graham C99, NASA Goddard Photo and Video, f/orme, Kevin M. Gill, @sage_solar
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog: Today Back Then
  • People
  • Places
  • Activities & Accomplishments
    • Writings >
      • Mazzaroth
    • Poetry
    • Painting
✕