Of cooks and sailors

Another beautiful day, without the chilly wind of yesterday it felt warmer too.

The Man worked his magic in the kitchen and we tucked into a yummy breakfast of bacon and eggs. Nom nom nom. Well done that man.

Not wanting to stop in on such a nice day, but also not wanting to go to close to the city as the London Marathon was being run today we decided on a visit to a cemetery fairly close to us.

Why a cemetery, no we have no family connection there So why?  Well I have a book about historic graves in London cemeteries and what better way to spend a quiet couple of hours in the sun.

The 16 hectare West Norwood Cemetery was one of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the Magnificent Seven of London, an informal term applied to London’s seven large burial grounds that were created in the 19th century to ease the overcrowding in existing parish burial grounds.

So, book in hand we set off to look for the grave mentioned.

  Our first find was the suitably stoneware construction of the family vault of Sir Henry Dalton, maker of the fictional Mrs Bucket’s hand painted periwinkle tea set. And don’t we all know somebody very like her?  The   beautifully kept interior looks regularly tended. Unlike some of the mausoleums that are falling into disrepair.

Next we looked for cookery and home care guru of the late 1800, none other than Mrs Isabella Beeton.  Sharing a plot with her husband Samuel, Isabella died in childbirth at the tender age of just 29. The book that made her name famous was published by her husband after her death. It is a collection of the monthly columns that she used to write for a women’s magazine of the day. Betcha didn’t know that…neither did I.

The Man spotted the final resting spot of one Sir Henry Bessimer and wondered if he was the inventor of the Bessimer Converter. A question I asked googled when we got back and yes indeedee he was. And what’s a Bessimer Converter when it’s at home? Well according to The Man it’s a huge crucible full of molten pig iron that has air blown through it to burn of the impurities creating steel (my interpretation of his words)

Then a bit further on we spotted an interesting monument to Mr John Wimble and his wife Mary Ann. Although his title on the memorial is  Mr, he did indeed captain ships and I n July 1841 took his ship The Maidstone  on  round the world voyage that induced a stopover in New Zealand. 

Speaking of New Zealand, somewhere in this   is the grave of James Busby. Believed to have been among the first Britons to set up home in NZ, helped draft the Treaty of Waitangi and introduced the grape vine to Australia thus setting off the wine industry in that country.  Unfortunately search as we might we couldn’t find his grave. It was probably among those heavily grown over with brambles.