Faro #SilentSunday #Portugal

Shandon Hydro - A Scottish Gem

 In 1833, Robert Napier, a Scottish marine engineer and shipbuilder bought land on the edge of the Gareloch at West Shandon to build a summer cottage, but soon like many of the Glasgow merchants he looked for an architect to build him a fairytale castle.  John Thomas Rochead had won a competition to design the Royal Arch in Dundee and would later design the Wallace memorial.  Napier commissioned him to create a mansion.  This was to be West Shandon House which cost £130,000 to build and was completed in 1852.  No expense was spared to build a quality house and Napier and his wife Isabelle Denny filled their new home with paintings by artists such as Rembrandt, Rubens, Vandyke and Titian, hung Gobelin tapestries and displayed objet d’art such as Sevres porcelain. They lived there happily until Isabelle died in 1875 and Robert in 1876.

The house was soon sold to a Glasgow based syndicate who intended to turn it into a hydropathic hotel.  Hydros, providing water cures in a luxury hotel, were particularly popular in Scotland at this time with more than 20 opening in the latter part of the 19^th century.  Shandon Hydro, as it was called, included a heated salt water swimming pool, Turkish baths, a bowling green, a croquet lawn, a golf course and tennis courts.  There was a library full of popular books and greenhouses provided fresh flowers.  Smoking was strictly forbidden except in the Conservatory.

Safe pleasure boats were provided on the loch and broughams or landaus could be rented to take visitors on trips to Loch Lomond or Loch Long.  The Hydro proved extremely popular, until it was requisitioned early in World War One as an experimental submarine base and naval hospital.  Although restored to its role as a Hotel between the wars, its position next to the deep sea-loch on the Clyde made it essential to the navy once again in 1939.  Its popularity declined until it was destroyed in 1957 to make way for the Faslane naval base.

An interesting article on golf in Shandon can be found here

The Cornish coast #WordlessWednesday

 Charlestown, Mevagissey and Port Isaac

The East Neuk of Fife #WordlessWednesday #Photography

Crail and Pittenweem

St Laurence Ludlow Cathedral of the Marches #StainedGlass

The church of St Laurence on the top of the hill in the town of Ludlow is the largest parish church in Shropshire.  With its beautiful stained glass windows, it is filled with light.  Around the walls are many fascinating monuments and acknowledgements.

Memorial to Edwatd Waties & his wife Martha Fox

The original church was built in the 11th century but there was major rebuilding of the nave in the middle of the 15th century when Ludlow was an important wool town.

The Jesse window dates from the 14th century but was restored in 1890

Charitable bequests

 

You might also like to see the Misericords in Ludlow.

Edna May - Edwardian actress #biography #oldpostcards

Edna May Petty was born in the city of Syracuse in New York State. Her parents encouraged her ability to sing and entertain and like her sisters, Jennie and Marguerite, she became a child star.  By the age of 7, she was performing in productions of HMS Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance.  At 16, she travelled to New York to study music at the Conservatoire but while there she met and fell in love with Fred Titus, a celebrated professional cyclist and in 1895, at the age of 17, she married him.  Her first performance in New York was in 1896, when Oscar Hammerstein cast her in Santa Maria, but her big break was in September 1897 when she appeared as a sweet Salvationist in The Belle of New York. Although a moderate success the play’s real fame occurred when the production moved to London. Edna May was soon a favourite among postcard collectors.

Now a star, she made frequent performances in London and in New York. Her marriage failed, and she and Fred Titus divorced in 1904. In 1906 The Belle of Mayfair opened at the Vaudeville Theatre. Edna played a similar character to that of The Belle of New York and the Manchester Courier reported,

"The Belle of Mayfair" is synonymous with Miss Edna May, who received a warm welcome last night, but the play is by no means a one part piece, and there are half a dozen actresses who could impersonate the title role charmingly.”

This may have influenced the actress as she later walked out of the cast. Miss May objected to the featuring of Camille Clifford jointly as a joint star on The Belle of Mayfair bills. The theatre management's retort was that they must feature Miss Clifford, because she was engaged to marry a British nobleman.  Edna May was particularly upset that a special song had been written for Miss Clifford, Why am I a Gibson Girl, but that no suitable song had been found for her. More scandal was to follow when the 15 year old, Phyllis Dare was brought back from school in Belgium to take over from Miss May rather than the understudy.

In fact, Edna May soon found her own fiancé, not a British nobleman but an American millionaire. Oscar Lewisohn 6 years her junior, was the son of Adolph Lewisohn, the copper King.  The couple lived in Berkshire but to the dismay of her public Edna was retiring from the stage. Her swan song was the play Nelly, Nelly 

Edna briefly returned in 1911 to perform The Belle of New York York at the Savoy Theatre and in 1915 The Masque of Peace and War in London. Edna’s husband died in 1917. At first she remained in Berkshire but by 1936 she had moved into the Ritz in London. She died in Lausanne in Switzerland in 1948.

To read more about The Gibson Girls

Clouds #WritePhoto

Streams of light reach their fingers through the clouds

Hope of a future still to come

The bare bones of the trees stripped of their leaves

Sign of the battle in my past

Tomorrow I will sail above those clouds

Sue Vincent's Thursday Photoprompt