Eye - 20 October 2017

From a shared hope to a seat of curiosity

Elephants and buffaloes

George Fox on a motorcycle, a smattering of trumpets and an impressive number of glass coaches are scattered amongst the names of leading Friends in an eighty-yearly-old rib-tickler that recently winged its way to Eye.

Chris Lawson, from Minehead, recently discovered a spoof ‘Order of the Procession’ for Yearly Meeting in 1937 amongst his parents’ papers. A note from his father attributes the satire to William Harvey.

The spectacle begins gently but, as the ‘closed van containing the Proprietors of the Friend, heavily veiled’ trundles in front of ‘fifty Young Friends in an attitude of eager challenge’, some exotic flourishes start to emerge…

C F Andrews makes his appearance on an elephant, though it is noted that ‘if the weather is wet and the road slippery the elephant may be on C F Andrews, in which case he would be glad to have the prayers of Friends’.

Hilda Cashmere debuts ‘in her Ashram, drawn by four water buffaloes’, whilst the fashion-forward Friends of the time where able to see a ‘glass coach with the Clerk of Yearly Meeting wearing ordinary dress, and, by special permission of the Lord Chamberlain, trousers’.

Woodbrooke students, the Swarthmore lecturer, ‘a scuffle of Doorkeepers’ and a ‘flurry of overseers’ precede ‘Professor Mingana carrying the third century manuscript of the Apocryphal Epistle of Barnabas, the gem of the Rendel Harris collection, and remarkable for throwing no new light on anything of any importance’.

The clerk of Meeting for Sufferings appears in another glass coach, ‘with an escort of twelve recently convinced women Friends’, somewhat less glamourously followed by ‘one glass truck containing twenty large vegetable marrows, drawn by members of the Allotments Committee’.

Yet, while the fanfares build to a crescendo, a hint of caution to over-excited Friends is detected as Harold J Morland appears ‘carrying on a purple cushion the keynote of this year’s Epistle. The Keynote is protected by glass to prevent its being accidentally struck too early.’

A seat of curiosity

Friends in Newbury are quizzical about a carved creation in their Meeting house.

Local Friend Paul High, who is seeking insights from Eye readers, writes: ‘This chair has been with us for as long as anyone can remember… and Ruth is 101-years-old! Any ideas please contact paulhigh@gmail.com.’

Theories at the ready, trusty riddlers!

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