Another Look At History

What is thought to be "history" has changed down the years and today not only are there many schools of history but a debate on the sources, their meaning and reliability. As a great deal of "history" is to create a new past or bolster an old one or to impress one theology or philosophy there is plenty of debate.

Something however we do not know is what exactly who said what to whom and where and to what effect. Necessarily, this has to be second hand and what is on paper may differ either in content or meaning. But people did meet and talk. They had family and connections and it is often these about whom we are unsure.

In the 18th and 19th Century in Europe the meeting places were often in private, in homes and as a consequence among the rich and powerful in "salons". Men may have been men etc. but in the salons it was a different matter. We know of a few where an intelligent and well informed lady may well at the centre of talk and debate, but often little about her or her connections.

You will not find Harriet Sneyd, 1795 to 1871, above, in the history books Her first marriage was to Turner Macan of Carriff, Armagh, he died in 1836, and second to William Henry Whitbread in 1845, head of the Whitbread family but it is the story of a remarkable woman.

Born in 1795 as one of the family of a clergyman in Ireland, the Rev. Wetenhall Sneyd, BA, was noted for his descent from Bishop Jeremy Taylor of the 17th Century. He moved to the Isle of Wight in the early 1800's from Hampshire, where he married again, having been widowed in 1797, his first wife, Margaret Cullen dying at Bristol Hotwells, possibly as a patient of Dr. Thomas Beddoes.  He began as the Curate at Newchurch, although Chaplain to the local military, becoming Vicar in 1816.

The family and their connections, were known to Jane Austen, who mentions them in "Mansfield Park". "Sense And Sensibility" might also be a reference. Given that Wetenhall's uncle, Jeremy Sneyd, with an estate in Hampshire, had been Private Secretary to Prime Ministers, Head of the Northern Department and effectively chief of the then Civil Service, as well as being a close friend of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, it would be difficult not to.

Harriet Sneyd married Turner Macan at Calcutta Cathedral on 14 November 1822, aide and interpreter to the Governor General.  Three of her brothers were in India, and a fourth, Nathaniel, had died there earlier of fever. As well as being a cavalry officer and Master of the senior Freemason's Lodge of Bengal, Turner Macan was a scholar who was instrumental in saving works of ancient Persian literature, notably the Shanameh of Firdausi.

Also he had studied the "Arabian Nights" in the original before Sir Richard Burton, who drew on his work. Later apparently the Shah of Persia and Princes of India when in London would visit her to pay their respects.

Harriet's elder brother, Ralph Henry Sneyd, had commanded the Governor General's Bodyguard in Calcutta, later Viceroy's now President's, and had been with Skinners Horse. He retired to Hampshire as neighbour of the Duke of Wellington, another old India hand. A daughter, Emma Katherine Julia Sneyd (Kate), became a Lady at Court and one of the six beauties of England according to J. Hayter in his 1851 "The Court Album Of The Female Aristocracy".

Harriet was widowed in 1836 and returned to England. In 1845 she married William Henry Whitbread head of the brewing family who had been widowed a little earlier that year.  He was chief executor of Turner Macan's will, as an esteemed friend. Whitbread was prominent in the Royal Asiatic Society and in politics. There were no children but Harriet was a major hostess. He died in 1867 making provision in his will for her family.

 This was the same Whitbread who had been executor to the will and estate of Hester, the second wife of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the land holding having been at Polesden in Surrey. In later life Hester had lived for a time in the parish of Newchurch. William was the son of Samuel Whitbread and Lady Elizabeth Grey, daughter of Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey

One daughter, Caroline Nesbitt Macan, married Captain Charles Conrad Grey of the Grey's of Howick, nephew of Charles, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister, both dying young, the widowed Caroline in 1855. Their daughter, Maria Grey, was taken up by Charles Grey, Private Secretary to Prince Albert and later Queen Victoria.

She became Countess of Home in 1881 marrying Charles Alexander Douglas-Home who succeeded as 12th Earl of Home in that year.  Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister, 1963-1964, also Lord Home, was her grandson.

Another daughter of Harriet's, Jane Emma Hannah Macan, became Countess of Antrim in 1855, having married Mark Seymour Kerr in 1849, later McDonnell. He became 5th Earl of Antrim and had family who were later at court.

A son, Schomberg Kerr McDonnell was Personal Private Secretary to Lord Salisbury, when Prime Minister, and prominent in the Conservative Party. He died in action in 1915 serving with the 5th Cameron Highlanders in France, aged 54.

A granddaughter, Fenella Stuart Forbes Trefusis daughter of the Baron Clinton who had married Lady Jane Grey McDonnell, married John Herbert Bowes-Lyon, elder brother of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth.

Harriet's son, Arthur Turner Macan, backed by Whitbread money was Master of the Elstow Hunt, a leading one its day and was "out" with other hunts. Was he ever with the famed Bay Middleton and perhaps "Sisi", Empress Elizabeth of Austria?

Arthur married one of the Longs and his son Ralph Edward Macan in 1907 in the wedding of the year married Dorothy Howard of the Earl of Suffolk's family. His best man was Francis Curzon, brother of Lord Curzon. General Redvers Buller gave away the bride.

A younger half-sister of Harriet's, Emma Sophia, married John Russell Colvin, Wikipedia, Lieutenant Governor of the North West Provinces of India who rests in a magnificent tomb in the Red Fort of Agra where he died at the time of The Indian Mutiny of 1857. Emma Sophia was regarded as the heroine of the Siege of Agra.

They were parents of Auckland Colvin, Wikipedia, later Treasurer of India at the time of The Fall Of The Rupee (silver) when the City of London declared for a gold standard. Rudyard Kipling wrote an acerbic critical poem about Colvin's introduction of Income Tax but left India very soon afterwards.

Harriet had an older sister, Marianne who married Sir Arthur Brooke, Wikipedia and DNB, 1772 to 1843.  He was Deputy Commander, later Commander, of the British Expedition to the Chesapeake of the USA which burned Washington DC in 1814. A son, Arthur Beresford Brooke married Frances Wemyss earlier in 1843.

Marianne was not faithful to her husband with the scandal of having a child out of wedlock, Juliana, who died in 1836 for whom Arthur cared, by the heir to the Earldom of Belmore, she having had other lovers.  The Belmore Estate allowed annuities from rental income to Marianne from certain properties into the 1850's.

There is little doubt that Harriet was a major figure in her time but we can only guess at the extent of her influence in society and perhaps wider matters. Bedfordshire County Council Archive has a great deal of material from the Whitbread Estate, the picture above is one.

Around 1850 a neighbour along the street was Joseph Locke, the Barnsley railway engineer, was he ever a guest among the company kept at her Drawing Room?

Also, if there was music played, what might it have been? It is likely that the Philharmonic Society of London might have had a say, so perhaps Mozart, Haydn, Mendelssohn and Beethoven?

New Deal Old Deal

The party conference season is coming to its end and as the media wend their weary way back to the boozers of Bayswater and adjacent areas of London it is unlikely that there will be much in the way of considered reflection or analysis of what it all means.

At one time they were jollies at seaside towns glad of a bit of post season passing trade. Now they are imprisoned in urban conference centres, Brighton having become an outer suburb of London.

The other aspect is that the parties are singing to the same hymn sheet, prepared by shoals of advisers and experts to appeal to this marginal voter and that and the latest celebrity obsessions and the rest. One thing though resonates from the past, the concept of a "New Deal".

The notion is nothing new. Modern historians link it to the 1932 Presidential campaign of Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the USA Democrat Party to distance himself from the Republican Party's misfortune to be in power during the Wall Street Crash and its catastrophic effects.

Before Roosevelt there was Benito Mussolini of Italy, not long unified. Because of wartime propaganda and being overtaken by Hitler he has become a secondary, almost a joke, figure. But in his first years he was not. After the March of Rome of 1912 he ruled Italy on a New Deal basis and had become an example to ambitious political leaders. His programme of public spending and works seems very familiar.

It does not begin there. He was drawing on the time of the new Germany and Prince Otto Von Bismarck, he in turn had Napoleon III, Louis Napoleon of the 1850's and 1860's of France with his vast rebuilding of Paris and attempts to spend France into the modern world.

From there it is possible to go further with a choice of rulers both within and beyond Europe who in their time went in for the big build and major revisions of economic policy and the rest. Just one will serve as an example, Tsar Peter The Great and First of Russia. If you want a New Deal he is hard to beat.

I would like to attempt the track back to the Rome of The Caesars, and especially Julius with his vision of a united Europe and a mighty Rome. For our three major party leaders each has an alternative. May has Boris Johnson, Corbyn has John McDonnell and Cable has Jo Swinson.

Et tu Brute?

Getting Into Training

In telling history to those of the present we have to be selective and it is usually what might be most interesting and critically what might have had most attention from the media at that period. That period media in turn would be drawing on limited sources and reflect its ideas and prejudices.

This article in "The Engineer" refers to 1935 and the introduction of the A4 Locomotive Class in the LNER, designed to pull high speed trains to and from London Kings Cross, the North East and Scotland, in addition to ordinary services. It was advanced steam technology and it captured the attention of the public.

This was when we had an Empire and liked to think that Britain ruled the rails. We had led the world into the age of steam and once there hoped to command it for generations to come. It did not last even my generation and now we tell ourselves how good it was when the new A4 "Mallard" left the Doncaster works in 1938 to become the fastest steam locomotive in the world. 

A decade later I was on a special train pulled by this locomotive and it was was to be a great day out. Sadly, it broke down and had to be replaced by a lesser one, the standby one in steam at a local engine shed and designed for slow freights.

There were only 35 of the A4 class built and few streamlined on other railways, the LMS had a parallel class; the Coronation, of which some were streamlined. But these locomotives were not all that they seemed. For one, the external cladding to the boiler of the streamlining may have added a few miles per hour running, but when any work needed to be done it was a bigger and longer job.

Another was that it added cost per locomotive as well as weight, which meant more firing was needed, my source for this was the firemen. It may have allowed the public relation teams to wax eloquent, but my experience was that the drivers and firemen had a more cynical view in that the actual number of miles on which higher speeds might be attempted was limited.

Long distance trains with limited stops meant that water had to be taken in to the tenders, the coal and water supply part from troughs between the lines. It was no easy business to get the collecting spout down and up again exactly as needed. Moreover, the speed at which this could be done was much less than that for normal running. So the fast stretches were matched by slow ones for water, as well as complex junctions and going through some of the local stations.

Not least in a railway system which had over 25,000 steam locomotives dating back to the 1870's three dozen or so with streamlining may have looked good in the media but didn't do much for the overall budgets.

The mass of the population were on stopping trains both long and short distance. Also you did not need expensive high technology etc. for the freights and shunters. The reality of the railways was long clanking coal trains and other heavy freight bringing in the revenue, parcels and newspapers, stopping trains, workmen's specials, commuter and connections to more isolated places.

Yes, we did like the A4's, I recall making journey's in the hope of having one of those or a Coronation on the front. I can say I knew them, but the trains took just as long, they were just as crowded making going to the toilets difficult and the other passengers were just as sweaty and ill tempered as track works here, delays there, being held up at stations and breakdowns made for the inevitable late running.

It is no surprise that among the realities during the 1930's and after my parents generation and my own longed for the time when they could just buy a car and go when and where they liked.

Bright Sparks

During the Party conference season we are treated to people bounding up to the rostrum to say they are going to make extensive changes to make everybody, if not rich, then a lot better off and happy. The buzz word is "transforming".

History tells us that when politicians go in for major changes the one certain thing is that while some people will gain, notably politicians and their affiliates, banks, money men, bureaucrats and those of that ilk down among the workers and peasantry necessarily there are many who will be worse off.

It is arguable that one of the things that did make ordinary people a lot better off was the invention of electricity which owed little or nothing to politicians who, if anything, largely delayed many of its applications and insisted on organising in a way that slowed the rate of progress as well as adding to the costs.

If we go back to 1885 and 1886 in the UK we had a major political shambles when Gladstone's Liberals fell apart after the 1885 General Election despite being the winners only to lose the 1886 one which let in the Conservatives led by Lord Salisbury. There was a lot of change in all this and in Ireland and India certainly transforming was to be had.

Meanwhile in 1885 three Hungarian engineers and in 1886 William Stanley of Westinghouse Electrical on sick leave came up with devices called Constant Electrical Transformer's. This major advance in technology allowed the supply of electricity we have in the modern world to be available on a large scale and for everyone.

The populations of the world and especially those in the UK have a lot more to thank these men for than we have for either Gladstone or Salisbury or any later ruling powers of all nations, including the so-called "democratic" ones. During all the wars, internal disruptions, strikes etc. all too often the lights were turned off.

So when you turn on the TV for the news and get a lecture from a politician about transforming, make sure you have the oil you will need for the lamps and heaters for when the transformers needed for your electrical supply are turned off.

Snow Joke

In the press there have been lurid stories about how we are all going to freeze and it is imminent, at least this winter. The reason cited is an El Nino event in the Pacific Ocean. This is climatic conditions that have a world wide impact as the great movements of sea water affect temperatures, humidity etc..

To go to source this is what the NOAA weather centre of the USA has to say on the subject. For this Autumn it is suggesting around half and for later in the winter perhaps up to two thirds of risk. But this is an estimate based on figures which are variable.

The NOAA is obliged to say that there is a risk and to suggest the level of it. They but not the media are careful to state that it might or might not occur because there are so many complex variables.

Besides the El Nino there are other factors which bear on the UK and differ from others because Earth is a big round thing which is constantly on the move causing stresses of weather, clouds, rain, temperatures, humidity and all the rest. The people who study this are very good and first rate scientists.

But they cannot stop or start an El Nino, or even state precisely what or where will be any consequences. They are obliged to tell the public via the media about what the possibilities are given all the various considerations in play.

We do have very bad winters from time to time and perhaps are due for another one. At the moment I am waiting before mending the holes in the socks.

Allergy And Risk

The story of teenage Natasha Ednan Laperouse, who died on a holiday flight from Heathrow to Nice, from Anaphylactic shock was two things. It was a personal reminder that you cannot be too careful if you are known to be at risk and it will tell many people what Anaphylaxis means.

This BBC item  featured on the main news arising from the Coroner's Inquest. The cause of death was not in doubt. The question was where did responsibility lie? The product, a ready take away of food, did not list all the ingredients and it was an unlisted one that triggered the reaction.

At present with the extent and nature of manufactured and processed foods and their availability, the makers and sellers now assume that consumers prefer strong tastes as well as being attractive to look at. So there are items or chemicals designed to appeal to the eyes and the taste buds and very many of them.

One factor little considered is that while Anaphylaxis is the extreme problem for an unlucky few there are likely to be rather more with either limited or greater reactions with one effect or another. We do not know the extent or numbers of these.

When they have their ten minutes with the family doctor it is likely he will not be thinking of allergy but one of the several other potential features of the problems, such as brain fog. Among the elderly there is the risk of being labelled with dementia onset. There are others.

We have still a lot to learn.

Talking Heads And Tales

It is the Labour Party Conference this week. Two days in and it is already two days far too long.

The media are supposed to be interested so we have to put up with all the usual clatter and nonsense that this conference shares with the others which are no better.

What gives this one an edge is the boredom stakes it that it comes from Liverpool. Well, it is and has been a Labour Party stronghold but we have been here before many times. The conference centre is a new build in what used to be working docks.

Generations of my family were there and this Liverpool is not the Liverpool we knew and have been given by the media.

I wonder how many of the Labour chiefs are staying at The Titanic Hotel?