My mind is still boggling over the size of Hedge Fund market and the extent of the borrowing involved to multiply profits, especially as much of the trading is also in buying the warrants to buy share at a certain price within a period so it is possible to effectively increase the quantity of purchases. Listened to the Sunday discussion about Football on Sky it is said that the owner of Chelsea has lost £12 billion on the Russian stock market and that West Ham is back on the market for around £50 million compared to the £300 plus for Newcastle with its players said to be worth £100 million, I wish. However I was unwilling to devote any more of this day to serious matters of the present day.
It is time to switch back into the era and culture of Brideshead with attention turning to Lady Julia Flyte so what do I know about her. Unlike Cordelia she appear to know something of life despite only being a year or two older than Sebastian and more able to cope by fitting in with her mother's life, and having a London Season as debutante. We know that she tries to avoid unpleasantness herself but enjoys scandal and is tempted by wickedness wanting to know about the women arrested with Charles and Sebastian after their visit to the hostess dive. She is not religious like her mother, elder brother and Cordelia but she conforms tot hem but there is a hint of rebellion as she is willing to marry Rex, a non Catholic with money and some ten years older and with a mistress who is even older. She appears to have all the self confidence of her class. And unlike Sebastian appears not to be full of angst and guilt, not sure what angst means when I think of it but sounds right.
When the second book opens Charles reminds of his first contact with Julia when she was eighteen and in first Season and where she was regarded a great success. The main point of the London Season was to find an appropriate husband, one with the money and status to keep her in style of life she was accustomed. Lady Julia had two challenging disadvantages over which she had not control. The first was that her father had run off and set up with a Italian mistress. It would have been different if he had remained married, attending the various national and other social occasions and visiting mistress of whatever nationality in secret. But to do it so openly was socially unforgivable. Being a Catholic was also a major problem and it was only during the life of Queen Victoria that the position of Catholics improved, tied up as it was with the Monarch being head of the Church of England. Despite her social position she would not be eligible to marry the eldest son of someone of the same rank. There was also the problem that Julia had her own ideas of who she wanted to marry and who she did not. It is only if you know the rest of the story from the book or TV adaptation that one can understand how Charles who is voice of this fictionalised autobiography knows so much about Julia during the time when, for example, he and Sebastian were enthralled with each other's company during that first idyllic Summer at Brideshead.
It may be remembered that Julia had wanted to rush off as soon as Charles arrived on her way to a House Party in the South of France and in the next Villa taken by a newspaper magnate and full of politicians and their ladies was Rex Mottram and his mistress, Mrs Champion. He was known as gambler and ladies' man as well as being a Politicians and business man, an ex colonial to boot, a mixture which most of society regardless of their religion regarded at best with suspicion. Rex needed not just a wife but a wife could advance his political career and position within society. In this respect he could be regarded as similar to Charles. He set his mind on marrying Julia and pursued her juggling his political life, business interests, gambling and mistress, none of which he intended to disturb. Julia was to be a value added addition.
Julia is intrigued and to Lady Marchmain this is but one friend within their circle. It is only when she finds that his relationship with Mrs Champion is continuing that she wants him and sets on plan which involves not answering his telephone calls and not agreeing to see him when calls, something her mother says, without understanding the situation, a lady does not do. Julia warns that there could be a scene and scene there is as they not only become lovers in the library of Marchmain House but engaged, news of which horrifies her mother and elder brother who make it clear such a relationship is not possible.
For the next year their continuing engagement is kept secret, and they are forbidden to be seen in public together. This creates psychological as well as emotional problems for Julia as defying parental authority is to Sebastian in being tied up with their religious faith, something which needed to be admitted to at the confessional and where however indulgent the priest he would urge her to respect her mother's views and not yield to temptation again, although as Rex comments, the price of purging such sin was the standard three Hail Mary's.
This was awarded to me throughout all my years whether during the times when I made up sins because not to feel sinful was to put oneself above others, but even when I admitted to some of the forbidden sins of adolescence and early manhood even if sins of thought rather than deed, the penalty remained the same, make an act of contrition and say three Hail Mary's.
Their relationship comes to a head when she finds out that instead of spending the weekend at his constituency he been at a country house party with other politicians and city men but also with his former mistress with whom he first claimed there had been little contact implying she was a close friend of his host, something which he did not know about beforehand, and then in a moment of candour he complains that what is he to do if she will not have the passionate relationship with him they both desire? Is he in effect to live as a monk. She turns to her confessing priest, hoping for approval but he can only state the position of the church with its insistence on observing its rules and standards but also its understanding of human nature and its constant inability to live at the standards required by the faith. Try not to sin, sins committed, be genuinely contrite and repeat the cycle time and time again. Julia does not confess to this priest and the over Christmas she does not take Holy Communion thus the gulf with her mother widens who forbids all contact with the ambitious and designing Rex Mottram.
The story moves forward to a meeting between Rex and the elder brother, ostensibly to report the losing of the whereabouts of Sebastian with the £300 pounds of gambling money, sufficient for someone to live quietly drinking in some foreign climate for some time, if not years. Bridey. as the heir is known, informs Rex that Lady Marchmain is taking Julia away for the rest of the Winter thus severing all contact with Rex who then drops the bombshell that he is been to Venice and obtained the written consent of Lord Marchmain to the marriage which will take place as soon as the marriage settlement is agreed. This becomes an obstacle as lawyers for Julia's family, who control the family finances arising from the divorce settlement, are insisting that Rex provides capital security safely invested at a rate of three and half percent. Rex is scornful at this attitude, refusing to tie up his capital in this way because he can get twenty percent through more speculative investment.
While there were no Hedge funds in that era and the Great crash and economic depression was still around the corner for capitalists to make their fortunes grow. You lived off some of the interest and profits. This was something still alien to the landed gentry and aristocracy because their wealth was not capital but land. There is much talk of pre nuptial agreements being introduced in the UK as has been more common in the USA, as if this was something knew whereas the aristocracy have always gone in for marriage settlements especially in situations where the eldest son inherited the estate intact and therefore it was essential that when the other children married, it was to someone who could provide the same quality of life and pass on children and grand children, thus the whole extended family prospered not just through the eldest son. It was important to build up available resources to be called upon if the head or major branches fell on hard times. That is the theory and the standard parental approach, but as we all know one cannot impose such a structure when passions are aroused, especially when this is coupled with romantic love.
It is also the time when the issue of religion and faith again comes to the fore as Rex decides that in order to have a good wedding with a Cardinal officiating he has to convert and asks Lady Marchmain how he can achieve this, " give me the paper and I will sign it" and is horrified when her Ladyship tells him he must take instruction over a period of time and sends him to the priest where she has sent Julia and other members of her family beforehand. He asks Rex to tell him about his understanding of prayer so Rex responds, tell me.
The priest explains that prayer is being in communion with God, seeking forgiveness and his mercy. Rex says great, that's prayer what is next!
Then on the question of Papal infallibility the priest says what if the Pope looks up and sees a cloud and says it is going to rain. Rex says then it will rain so the priests says but what if it does not rain? So quick as a flash Rex replies I suppose it raining in the religious sense and we are too sinful to see it.
Things taken a humorous turn when Rex chides the priest for not telling him about other fundamentals of faith such as the requirement to always sleep with one's feet pointing East because that is the direction of heaven so if you die in the night you can walk there, and what about the Pope who made one of his horses a Cardinal and the Offertory box in the church where if you put in a pound with someone's name written they will go to hell. He explains he has been told these things by a devout and well educated Catholic. The Priest and Lady Marchmain are perplexed about this turn of events wondering who on earth could be the author of such nonsense. Cordelia owns up saying it never occurred that he would take seriously what she had said. This prompts Lady Marchmain to advise the priest to treat Rex as a stupid child.
The conversion to Catholicism is approved and wedding of the year planned with presents arriving on an appropriate scale for those invited but Bridey drops the bombshell that it cannot go ahead because he has learnt that Rex was married when young and this his wife is living. Rex protests that he is divorced. Rex and the family do not understand why the priest did not explain this to Rex and Rex says well he was told that as a Catholic he could not get divorced and he was not a catholic when the divorce took place. He is told that the only way is for the marriage to be annulled and this is not something readily obtained. So they marry quietly in a church of England Chapel, her father having expressed delight at this course of action.
The story then moves forward to when Charles hurries back from England to help run the country against the lower classes who have started the General Strike. I remember how excited everyone became when we were taught about the General Strike at school and the Priest said he had driven a bus while at university. I therefore quite understood why it would not occur to someone of the Charles' class being immediately on the side of the government against the Trade Unionists.
His father is delighted to see Charles so soon again. Charles reminds his last visit was fifteen months before.
When he goes to the nearest organising dept he finds that they have too many volunteers and is about to be sent elsewhere when Boy Mulcaster arrives braving the pickets as a member of the Defence corps Milk delivery service and Charles is equipped with his helmet and truncheon to battle his way through the Communists. Later at a London party ( which emphases that during a period of great suffering and real conflict some were able to treat the strike as a jape, a wheeze, and whizo, reverting back to public school and college days, and something which was not affecting the rest of their lives) he comes across Anthony Blanche who is able to tell him the last whereabouts of Sebastian.
Lady Marchmain is dying and Rex tied up as part of the government keeping essential services going during the General Strike does his best to find the location of Sebastian but in desperation Julia at the suggestion of her mother turns to Charles for help, on learning that he is back in England from Paris. He agrees to go to North Africa in search. These are the day when travel in this part of the world was still an individual matter and of a primitive nature so that from Casablanca (a place that has always haunted me since the film, just as Tangier is place where one of my mother's brothers resided with his family running the Ferry line with Gibraltar and Algeciras and Ceuta, and where my mother visited just before she came to England in 1938, something which I have wondered if the purpose had been more than to say goodbye) he journeys in a bus full of people, goods and live stock.
From Casablanca he goes to see the British Consul at Fez and in those days the Consul was able to keep track of British citizens, especially a member of the Aristocracy. Charles is told that Sebastian has taken rooms in a house in the "native" quarter with a disdainful servant caused by Sebastian's friendship with a German young man with a bad leg and syphilis who treats Sebastian as if he too is his servant. Sebastian. away being cared for at the hospital run by a religious order of brothers, has been laid low in a fever because his body is weakened through alcoholism, is cheered up on the news that a friend is visiting, expected this to be his German friend and is not overjoyed to see Charles anticipating that he is an emissary from the family. He is weak and unfit to travel but does not immediately rule out returning home when better, so meanwhile Charles visits everyday, having advised Julia of the situation, agreeing to smuggle in bottles of brandy which leads to Sebastian being evicted and returned to the subordinate relationship. That same day he is notified that Lady Marchmain has died and again we feel as sense of eras in transition moving towards their end.
I still have the feeling that Charles is playing at life, never truly engaged with anyone, even Sebastian to whom he owed his involvement with Brideshead and acceptance in the circle of the aristocracy. Until this errand he has no attempt to keep in contact.
We now move to a part of the book and TV adaptation about which I have no memory, no moments of recognition. This is odd. When Charles returned home he visited Bridey Marchmain House in London to plead on behalf of his former friend for the reinstitution of his allowance and this is agreed. Bride takes the opportunity to mention that the decision has been taken to sell the house for development into a block of flats and Charles is commissioned to create paintings of external and internal views so that the family will have some memory visual record. He feels inspired as an artist to do this work which enables him to become an established architectural painter. While he does this professionally with skill he recognises that it is not great art as such because it lacks inspiration and he also recognises that the only time in his life that he felt alive, responsive to everything and everyone around him, with an intensity in which you never want any moment to end was during his early relationship with Brideshead and discovery of Brideshead. While painting the inside of Marchmain House Cordelia arrives and also mentions the family's adverse financial circumstances, understandable because no one appears responsible for maintaining and creating new wealth. One plan is for Lady Julia and Rex to take over half of Brideshead with Bridey in the other although the future of Cordelia is in question and she considers becoming a nun. She asks Charles to take her out to dinner and the go to the Savoy Grill another fashionable place in these years, alone with the Ritz Hotel, one of many which captured my imagination as a child and young man where heard or read about them. Thus Book two ends
I continued to watch and read eating up what was left and preparing for a two day trip. There was sufficient ingredients to leave for a stir fry when I returned and later I made one slice of bread into an open sandwich and later still defrosted ands toasted two further slices grilling two of the remaining tomatoes. I had previously divided a small packet of instant custard into two and this I made up with two of Mr Kipling's delicious apple pies. Throughout the day I have been search of a missing coffee cup, one of a set of three originally four. It is very puzzling as I have looked at all the places where I could have taken the cup during a move around the house from the three rooms, work room, day room and kitchen where it would normally be located. including bathroom and bedroom, and the patio. Later I received a telephone call from a member of my extended family with new which has upset greatly.
It is time to switch back into the era and culture of Brideshead with attention turning to Lady Julia Flyte so what do I know about her. Unlike Cordelia she appear to know something of life despite only being a year or two older than Sebastian and more able to cope by fitting in with her mother's life, and having a London Season as debutante. We know that she tries to avoid unpleasantness herself but enjoys scandal and is tempted by wickedness wanting to know about the women arrested with Charles and Sebastian after their visit to the hostess dive. She is not religious like her mother, elder brother and Cordelia but she conforms tot hem but there is a hint of rebellion as she is willing to marry Rex, a non Catholic with money and some ten years older and with a mistress who is even older. She appears to have all the self confidence of her class. And unlike Sebastian appears not to be full of angst and guilt, not sure what angst means when I think of it but sounds right.
When the second book opens Charles reminds of his first contact with Julia when she was eighteen and in first Season and where she was regarded a great success. The main point of the London Season was to find an appropriate husband, one with the money and status to keep her in style of life she was accustomed. Lady Julia had two challenging disadvantages over which she had not control. The first was that her father had run off and set up with a Italian mistress. It would have been different if he had remained married, attending the various national and other social occasions and visiting mistress of whatever nationality in secret. But to do it so openly was socially unforgivable. Being a Catholic was also a major problem and it was only during the life of Queen Victoria that the position of Catholics improved, tied up as it was with the Monarch being head of the Church of England. Despite her social position she would not be eligible to marry the eldest son of someone of the same rank. There was also the problem that Julia had her own ideas of who she wanted to marry and who she did not. It is only if you know the rest of the story from the book or TV adaptation that one can understand how Charles who is voice of this fictionalised autobiography knows so much about Julia during the time when, for example, he and Sebastian were enthralled with each other's company during that first idyllic Summer at Brideshead.
It may be remembered that Julia had wanted to rush off as soon as Charles arrived on her way to a House Party in the South of France and in the next Villa taken by a newspaper magnate and full of politicians and their ladies was Rex Mottram and his mistress, Mrs Champion. He was known as gambler and ladies' man as well as being a Politicians and business man, an ex colonial to boot, a mixture which most of society regardless of their religion regarded at best with suspicion. Rex needed not just a wife but a wife could advance his political career and position within society. In this respect he could be regarded as similar to Charles. He set his mind on marrying Julia and pursued her juggling his political life, business interests, gambling and mistress, none of which he intended to disturb. Julia was to be a value added addition.
Julia is intrigued and to Lady Marchmain this is but one friend within their circle. It is only when she finds that his relationship with Mrs Champion is continuing that she wants him and sets on plan which involves not answering his telephone calls and not agreeing to see him when calls, something her mother says, without understanding the situation, a lady does not do. Julia warns that there could be a scene and scene there is as they not only become lovers in the library of Marchmain House but engaged, news of which horrifies her mother and elder brother who make it clear such a relationship is not possible.
For the next year their continuing engagement is kept secret, and they are forbidden to be seen in public together. This creates psychological as well as emotional problems for Julia as defying parental authority is to Sebastian in being tied up with their religious faith, something which needed to be admitted to at the confessional and where however indulgent the priest he would urge her to respect her mother's views and not yield to temptation again, although as Rex comments, the price of purging such sin was the standard three Hail Mary's.
This was awarded to me throughout all my years whether during the times when I made up sins because not to feel sinful was to put oneself above others, but even when I admitted to some of the forbidden sins of adolescence and early manhood even if sins of thought rather than deed, the penalty remained the same, make an act of contrition and say three Hail Mary's.
Their relationship comes to a head when she finds out that instead of spending the weekend at his constituency he been at a country house party with other politicians and city men but also with his former mistress with whom he first claimed there had been little contact implying she was a close friend of his host, something which he did not know about beforehand, and then in a moment of candour he complains that what is he to do if she will not have the passionate relationship with him they both desire? Is he in effect to live as a monk. She turns to her confessing priest, hoping for approval but he can only state the position of the church with its insistence on observing its rules and standards but also its understanding of human nature and its constant inability to live at the standards required by the faith. Try not to sin, sins committed, be genuinely contrite and repeat the cycle time and time again. Julia does not confess to this priest and the over Christmas she does not take Holy Communion thus the gulf with her mother widens who forbids all contact with the ambitious and designing Rex Mottram.
The story moves forward to a meeting between Rex and the elder brother, ostensibly to report the losing of the whereabouts of Sebastian with the £300 pounds of gambling money, sufficient for someone to live quietly drinking in some foreign climate for some time, if not years. Bridey. as the heir is known, informs Rex that Lady Marchmain is taking Julia away for the rest of the Winter thus severing all contact with Rex who then drops the bombshell that he is been to Venice and obtained the written consent of Lord Marchmain to the marriage which will take place as soon as the marriage settlement is agreed. This becomes an obstacle as lawyers for Julia's family, who control the family finances arising from the divorce settlement, are insisting that Rex provides capital security safely invested at a rate of three and half percent. Rex is scornful at this attitude, refusing to tie up his capital in this way because he can get twenty percent through more speculative investment.
While there were no Hedge funds in that era and the Great crash and economic depression was still around the corner for capitalists to make their fortunes grow. You lived off some of the interest and profits. This was something still alien to the landed gentry and aristocracy because their wealth was not capital but land. There is much talk of pre nuptial agreements being introduced in the UK as has been more common in the USA, as if this was something knew whereas the aristocracy have always gone in for marriage settlements especially in situations where the eldest son inherited the estate intact and therefore it was essential that when the other children married, it was to someone who could provide the same quality of life and pass on children and grand children, thus the whole extended family prospered not just through the eldest son. It was important to build up available resources to be called upon if the head or major branches fell on hard times. That is the theory and the standard parental approach, but as we all know one cannot impose such a structure when passions are aroused, especially when this is coupled with romantic love.
It is also the time when the issue of religion and faith again comes to the fore as Rex decides that in order to have a good wedding with a Cardinal officiating he has to convert and asks Lady Marchmain how he can achieve this, " give me the paper and I will sign it" and is horrified when her Ladyship tells him he must take instruction over a period of time and sends him to the priest where she has sent Julia and other members of her family beforehand. He asks Rex to tell him about his understanding of prayer so Rex responds, tell me.
The priest explains that prayer is being in communion with God, seeking forgiveness and his mercy. Rex says great, that's prayer what is next!
Then on the question of Papal infallibility the priest says what if the Pope looks up and sees a cloud and says it is going to rain. Rex says then it will rain so the priests says but what if it does not rain? So quick as a flash Rex replies I suppose it raining in the religious sense and we are too sinful to see it.
Things taken a humorous turn when Rex chides the priest for not telling him about other fundamentals of faith such as the requirement to always sleep with one's feet pointing East because that is the direction of heaven so if you die in the night you can walk there, and what about the Pope who made one of his horses a Cardinal and the Offertory box in the church where if you put in a pound with someone's name written they will go to hell. He explains he has been told these things by a devout and well educated Catholic. The Priest and Lady Marchmain are perplexed about this turn of events wondering who on earth could be the author of such nonsense. Cordelia owns up saying it never occurred that he would take seriously what she had said. This prompts Lady Marchmain to advise the priest to treat Rex as a stupid child.
The conversion to Catholicism is approved and wedding of the year planned with presents arriving on an appropriate scale for those invited but Bridey drops the bombshell that it cannot go ahead because he has learnt that Rex was married when young and this his wife is living. Rex protests that he is divorced. Rex and the family do not understand why the priest did not explain this to Rex and Rex says well he was told that as a Catholic he could not get divorced and he was not a catholic when the divorce took place. He is told that the only way is for the marriage to be annulled and this is not something readily obtained. So they marry quietly in a church of England Chapel, her father having expressed delight at this course of action.
The story then moves forward to when Charles hurries back from England to help run the country against the lower classes who have started the General Strike. I remember how excited everyone became when we were taught about the General Strike at school and the Priest said he had driven a bus while at university. I therefore quite understood why it would not occur to someone of the Charles' class being immediately on the side of the government against the Trade Unionists.
His father is delighted to see Charles so soon again. Charles reminds his last visit was fifteen months before.
When he goes to the nearest organising dept he finds that they have too many volunteers and is about to be sent elsewhere when Boy Mulcaster arrives braving the pickets as a member of the Defence corps Milk delivery service and Charles is equipped with his helmet and truncheon to battle his way through the Communists. Later at a London party ( which emphases that during a period of great suffering and real conflict some were able to treat the strike as a jape, a wheeze, and whizo, reverting back to public school and college days, and something which was not affecting the rest of their lives) he comes across Anthony Blanche who is able to tell him the last whereabouts of Sebastian.
Lady Marchmain is dying and Rex tied up as part of the government keeping essential services going during the General Strike does his best to find the location of Sebastian but in desperation Julia at the suggestion of her mother turns to Charles for help, on learning that he is back in England from Paris. He agrees to go to North Africa in search. These are the day when travel in this part of the world was still an individual matter and of a primitive nature so that from Casablanca (a place that has always haunted me since the film, just as Tangier is place where one of my mother's brothers resided with his family running the Ferry line with Gibraltar and Algeciras and Ceuta, and where my mother visited just before she came to England in 1938, something which I have wondered if the purpose had been more than to say goodbye) he journeys in a bus full of people, goods and live stock.
From Casablanca he goes to see the British Consul at Fez and in those days the Consul was able to keep track of British citizens, especially a member of the Aristocracy. Charles is told that Sebastian has taken rooms in a house in the "native" quarter with a disdainful servant caused by Sebastian's friendship with a German young man with a bad leg and syphilis who treats Sebastian as if he too is his servant. Sebastian. away being cared for at the hospital run by a religious order of brothers, has been laid low in a fever because his body is weakened through alcoholism, is cheered up on the news that a friend is visiting, expected this to be his German friend and is not overjoyed to see Charles anticipating that he is an emissary from the family. He is weak and unfit to travel but does not immediately rule out returning home when better, so meanwhile Charles visits everyday, having advised Julia of the situation, agreeing to smuggle in bottles of brandy which leads to Sebastian being evicted and returned to the subordinate relationship. That same day he is notified that Lady Marchmain has died and again we feel as sense of eras in transition moving towards their end.
I still have the feeling that Charles is playing at life, never truly engaged with anyone, even Sebastian to whom he owed his involvement with Brideshead and acceptance in the circle of the aristocracy. Until this errand he has no attempt to keep in contact.
We now move to a part of the book and TV adaptation about which I have no memory, no moments of recognition. This is odd. When Charles returned home he visited Bridey Marchmain House in London to plead on behalf of his former friend for the reinstitution of his allowance and this is agreed. Bride takes the opportunity to mention that the decision has been taken to sell the house for development into a block of flats and Charles is commissioned to create paintings of external and internal views so that the family will have some memory visual record. He feels inspired as an artist to do this work which enables him to become an established architectural painter. While he does this professionally with skill he recognises that it is not great art as such because it lacks inspiration and he also recognises that the only time in his life that he felt alive, responsive to everything and everyone around him, with an intensity in which you never want any moment to end was during his early relationship with Brideshead and discovery of Brideshead. While painting the inside of Marchmain House Cordelia arrives and also mentions the family's adverse financial circumstances, understandable because no one appears responsible for maintaining and creating new wealth. One plan is for Lady Julia and Rex to take over half of Brideshead with Bridey in the other although the future of Cordelia is in question and she considers becoming a nun. She asks Charles to take her out to dinner and the go to the Savoy Grill another fashionable place in these years, alone with the Ritz Hotel, one of many which captured my imagination as a child and young man where heard or read about them. Thus Book two ends
I continued to watch and read eating up what was left and preparing for a two day trip. There was sufficient ingredients to leave for a stir fry when I returned and later I made one slice of bread into an open sandwich and later still defrosted ands toasted two further slices grilling two of the remaining tomatoes. I had previously divided a small packet of instant custard into two and this I made up with two of Mr Kipling's delicious apple pies. Throughout the day I have been search of a missing coffee cup, one of a set of three originally four. It is very puzzling as I have looked at all the places where I could have taken the cup during a move around the house from the three rooms, work room, day room and kitchen where it would normally be located. including bathroom and bedroom, and the patio. Later I received a telephone call from a member of my extended family with new which has upset greatly.
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