Eye - 26 January 2024

From Never too old to A Quakerish predisposition

Friends flocking despite floods

Harvey Gillman, of Rye Meeting, admired the determination of Hastings Meeting after the recent deluge.
He writes: ‘I attended Hastings Meeting yesterday [7 January]. The Meeting house has been flooded twice recently. Newspapers were scattered over the floor to dry it.

‘I had heard once in a sermon that a preacher should have the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. Here the headlines of the world clamoured from the floor, and Quaker faith & practice bore witness from the table.

‘I admire the persistence of Hastings Friends!’

Eye hopes the Meeting is soon dry and newspaper-free!

Never too old

A Bristol-based Friend appeared on the BBC News website on 15 January, sharing how being in his eighties hasn’t stopped him from undertaking a PhD.

The article, which can be read in full at https://bit.ly/3O2vtjU, opens: ‘An 85-year-old man has said you are never “too old” to study if you just accept it can take time.

‘Roger Sturge, from Bristol, is researching the work of Quakers in Nazi Germany as part of a master’s (MA) degree at the Quaker Studies Research Centre in Birmingham.’

The story goes on to describe how Roger joined the course after his wife passed away in 2021. It also explores his personal connection with his area of study, as his father, Paul Sturge, had responsibility for British Friends working in Germany after being appointed general secretary of the Friends Service Council in 1935.

Ben Pink Dandelion, who is honorary professor of Quaker Studies at the University of Birmingham where Roger Sturge is studying remotely, was quoted: ‘Roger does indeed show that you are never too old to take on a research degree. He has drive and dedication and above all a passion for his topic. That’s the main factor for success, and Roger is able to combine that with great clarity of thought and organisation.’

Gawking in Dorking

It’s brambly and muddy round Dorking
Just the best of terrain for some stalking.
But the Quakers on hikes
Soon get clogged on their bikes,
They are stranded by overmuch gawking.

Alec Davison

A Quakerish predisposition

Diving down into detail can be as satisfying as a picture painted with a bird’s-eye view. Wordsworth fan Tim Jerram got in touch to shed some light on a recent piece (‘Summoned, roused, constrained’ by Jonathan Wooding, 10 November 2023).

He writes: ‘I was a little puzzled by the reference to William’s lodging with “Ann Tyson in Ambleside” as the Tysons did not live in Ambleside itself. When, after the death of their mother, William and his older brother, Richard, were sent to school in Hawkshead, which is just over five miles from Ambleside, they were lodged with a childless couple, Hugh and Ann Tyson, then in their mid-sixties, who had just given up their usual employment and were now taking in boarders…

‘In about 1783 or 1784 it seems that Ann was widowed and removed to Green End cottage in the hamlet of Colthouse…

‘[Wordsworth] became very attached to Ann, so much so that he returned to live with her during his Long Vacations from Cambridge University and mentions her as his “gray-haired Dame” in a later poem.

‘So, when Jonathan quotes Heidi Snow’s description of “the whitewashed Friends Meeting House” as being opposite his new home this is most probably the historic Colthouse Meeting House.’

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