Gordon Barlow

Since BE members are overwhelmingly of British origin, it stands to reason that I was referring to them, in that sentence. The two critics mis-read that. Here, for the benefit of anybody doubting the popularity of fox-hunting with hounds in Britain, is a link to the Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...United_Kingdom

The one I attended with my cousin back in 1963 was the Duke of Beaufort's Hunt - quite a famous one. (The Berkeley Hunt is famous too, but for quite a different reason!) What surprised me, that day, was how democratic it all was. Lots of toffs, of course, but a lot of farming types as well - and common folk, too, out for a day in the open air, with all the standard picnic gear.

old.sparkles

There was no mis-understanding or mis-reading on my part - I took it as a reference to the UK, although I think it was restricted to toffs and farm hands.

I would be much more likely to be a saboteur than follow the hounds - barbaric sport quite rightly banned as your own link identifies. Control can be achieved in more humane ways, which I think is the point of the exemption - although I don't believe hunting packs would be required.

Pollyana

Didn't mis-read anything, I just thought that with the current make-up of members that are seen lurking in the Barbie, it seemed an odd choice of topic! Most conversations in here have more of a slant towards Aus life than UK life as most members have been out here a fair while. Merely expressing an opinion, as I believe I am still allowed to do!

themerlin

We just need to introduce and animal that eats foxes, what could possibly go wrong

Amazulu

Cheetahs would do it. I'd like to see a fox outrun one of those bad boys

Gordon Barlow

Eminent among those "lots of toffs" at the Beaufort Hunt was my Dad's cousin Lucy - to our huge embarrassment, it must be said. She had a voice that must have startled the fox even more than the baying of the hounds did. David and I spoke very broad Down-Under accents at that point in our lives, so it was quite a contrast. Not that we spoke much! But we forgave her everything when we discovered that back at home Lucy had a croquet court! Now...is that posh, or what! It was in the garden - one acre of lawn, don't you know, down to the Kennet & Avon canal - and we boys were taught how to play the game, with all instructions blared to the world at high volume. She sold the house and its garden before she died, and I suppose the new owners now have custody of the croquet court. I hope they're posh enough to do it justice.

Gordon Barlow

In my experience, barbecues often have a lot of strangers there, and names aren't always exchanged. It's interesting that, except for me and a few others, BE posters follow that example. I don't know about those others, but I feel obliged to explain why I use my real name. Briefly.

It's a freedom-of-speech issue with me, that began in 1989 when I began writing columns in one of the local newspapers. (This was before the days of the Internet, and none of them are online.) The local politicians, were trying to deport me and my family for the unspeakable crime of helping the Chamber of Commerce (I was the Manager) defeat a proposal to impose a tax on incomes. Traditionally, the Chamber had kept out of political matters, but my Directors and I believed that an income-tax would be disastrous for the Cayman Islands, and we convinced the voting public to agree with us. I had enough support - here and with our British rulers - to see off the immediate threat, and one of the local newspapers offered to publish a weekly column by me. No pay and no nom-de-plume, but no censorship either. It was unique in the colony, and my "real name" gave mea credibility that a fake name would not have. It was an open act of defiance, in a "come and get me, copper!" kind of way.

In time the newspaper went broke (no government advertisements), but another one gave me the same terms. When that one also went broke, I called it a day, in 2010. Sadly, my freedom-of-speech campaign largely failed. Even today, there are only about ten of us who dare sign our names to letters critical of government. Sigh... But Cayman still does not have a tax on incomes. So there's that!

Gordon Barlow

As an expat for the past 59 years, I've always found it interesting - when gathered around the barbie - to chat about the origins of ancestors, especially those who emigrated to Australia. My own ancestors came from the West country, mainly. Grandpa Barlow came from Bath as a merchant-marine officer shortly after the Boer War; and later married a paying-passenger from Toowoomba. She was the daughter of a builder who had been an "ag-lab" - agricultural labourer - on a farm outside Hereford, and of a bog-farmer from a village in Tipperary, Ireland. The other side of my family were a policeman from Bath (by coincidence) who grew sugar cane outside Mackay in Queensland and who married the daughter of a farmer down in the Helston area of Cornwall; and some Hancocks from Truro. Four brothers were wool-combers there before being recruited as scabs to replace striking mill-workers in Leeds. When the unions were legalised, two of the four took the boat to Sydney and drifted up to Ipswich in Queensland where they both - separately - became timber-merchants. One of them married the daughter of a blacksmith from Tintinhull, an obscure village in Somerset.

They're not a very inspiring lot, I suppose, except for the strike-breakers. I'm hoping our BE barbie can attract stories of more interesting immigrants. Go for it!

brits1

I am currently enjoying a coffee in a sunny Newbury and last night I had a conversation with a Kiwi who has lived in Northern Queensland for many years, he was an old gent and had just been on a cruise around the Med was leaving the next day to visit friends in Stirling and then another cruise around Iceland and then a visit to friend in the midlands before returning to Aus he had no family connections that he could recollect from the UK despite having an Anglo name, I explained that we were Aussie citizens but had no family in Australia currently or from the past, my husbands family back a few generations were from the the southern areas of the midlands (uk) mine ancestors were either Scottish, Welsh but on my mothers side were from Devon and Somerset my Nanna being a Somerset lady, I do have relatives in the USA and Canada and Kenya (since deceased) so quite a travelled family in the past my DH side of the family have not moved from their current town for generations lol and are shocked my DH has no desire at all to return to said town/area etc they think he has become “posh” lol this is not so at all

Gordon Barlow

Now I'm interested to know what that town/area is! Places change over the years, don't they? I well remember driving through Sheffield, many years ago, and being appalled by all the downtown shops boarded up as though the place had been bombed or something. Sheffield is where my Barlow ancestors lived, and were scissor-smiths there, until one of them somehow turned himself into an engineer and started erecting gas-works up and down the country. He wasn't much of a businessman, because he and his brother went bankrupt in London in the mid-1800s. If you've ever been up Sheffield way, I wonder if you ever drove through the village of Barlow a few miles south, in Derbyshire. My lot probably originated there.

DeadVim

Been busy

Gordon Barlow

In 1981, doing an ancestry-hunt in the British Isles, I visited the village of Drom, where my Hickey and Leamy great-grandparents had been baptised. The local Catholic-parish priest was horrified to learn that in my home town of Toowoomba Catholics and Protestants were at daggers drawn. "We've always had a very friendly relationship here," he said. Pointing to the Church of Ireland church, he said "Your [RC] ancestors would have helped build that church." (My parents had a "mixed marriage", and their kids were all brought up C of E. That's how I knew about the daggers-drawn!)

He showed me his old parish registers, in which I saw that my grandma's mother had been christened "Ellen", not "Eleanor" as she became in Australia. (The two religions' parishes' boundaries overlapped to a large degree, but not 100%. That was interesting.) He refused the ten pounds I offered for his time, until I told him it was for his church, not him personally. He gave me a lift back to the Templemore train-station, and we parted friends.

brits1

We did do some homework after the initial decision was made (well as much as you could without the Internet etc lol) We had a good time in Australia and we are glad we did “go for it” but we are that much happier back in the UK and nearer to destinations we enjoy visiting.

Retirednow

Origin #1 tonight. Let’s see how NSW go without some injured stars.

Gordon Barlow

Another thing I used to love about backyard barbies when I was young is that it was a good place to come across jokes - some decent, of course, some indecent. I'm not going to risk being blackballed here for repeating some of the latter, except maybe one or two told in the form of limericks, which I've long regarded as a store of wisdom. The daddy of all limericks - which actually explains them all - is this one:-

A limerick packs jokes anatomical
Into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I've seen
So seldom are clean,
While the clean ones so seldom are comical.