Serene Falcon

At The Court Of The Lord Chief Baron

September 22nd, 2007 at 10:20 pm (Generalia, Literature, Norse, Places, Self Writ)

The most poignant pain is reserved for that which we have lost — I’m gonna merely assume that the word derives from poignard for this truly is the stiletto that never ceases mincing the instantly reconstituted aorta and ventricle chambers.

Aged about 9 I lost on a train my Edwardian copy of Olaf The Glorious; I could get a modern reprint, but I’ve never since seen an original despite spending my life in second-hand bookshops, and asking for it most times. Similiarly, I may, or may not, have lost my copy of Fortescue ( by I think, Sinclair Gaudie and Harold Lamb ) a spoof of mid-victoriana.

Of particular note was the eponymous hero’s descent into — very comparative — vice in attending a Judge & Jury show presided over by the genial Renton Nicholson at the Coal Hole in the Strand ( and also at the Cider Cellars in Covent Garden ) Eheu Fugaces, this was when London still had interesting things to do… A Gabs Ray site can explain a little of the show; plus there’s a puritanic view of the end here. Even Thomas Hardy cheered himself up there. Nicholson was also a writer; here’s a story of his, The Actor’s Tale, from HorrorMasters * although it’s not horror.

A few times I used to bulk up my C.V. with working at Renton Nicholson’s, Strand, London. It does sound like any firm one can imagine, and it was a surety few hiring morons would make any connection.

 
* As a child I was often rather terrified each night; and as a child I read deeply of this kind of Victorian junk on ghosts etc.. It is possible the two facts may be intimately related… ( particularly the one about a nun’s visiting skeleton being shattered, and coming back as individual bones reconstituting at the end of the bed. )