Eye - 20 May 2011
From breeches to birds
Below the belt?
To claim that the Journal of our notable founder, George Fox, offers no advice in the lingerie department would be questionable and maybe even below the belt, Eye reasons. David Hitchins wrote in to dispute this claim made by Kevin Redpath (Eye 29 April), quoting the Rufus Jones edition of the Journal. Although we shall never know the style of underwear favoured by the radical it would appear that his chosen material was linen, as it was for most people of his day.
On leaving home his relatives remarked: ‘When hee went from us hee had a greate deale of gould and sillver about him. He is always well supplied. He goes to inns, always has a good horse, wears clean linen and frequently gives to charity.’ This quotation provides a testament to his cleanliness, not to mention his wealth and generosity.
Later in the Journal, Fox bares all as he is required to empty his pockets to prove that he bears no letters or intelligence.
He says, ‘I plucked out my linen, and showed him I had no letters. He said, “He is not a vagrant, by his linen”; then he set me at liberty.’
Birds in the bush
Spring is in full flow. Swallows have been spotted, basking sharks have returned to British waters and flowers have appeared on the cover of the Friend.
Eye gives a hearty welcome to these seasonal visitors!
With the spring soundtrack of chiffchaff song in the background, the scouring of hedgerows for suitable nesting grounds commences. This year the Friend is making an unexpected contribution to the annual struggle to find appropriate nesting materials.
In an email lamenting the Friend wrapper’s reluctance to give up the ghost and decompose in a timely manner, Eye’s friend Nigel revealed how we are contributing to homemaking this year.
‘This morning I was looking out of my window where I had spread my latest load of compost on the soil. A blackbird collected a shred of the wrapper from the compost and flew off with it, I assume to line a nest.’ He writes: ‘It did not stop, so I had no time to ask whether it was a Friend or attender.’
