DISHING THE DIRT AT KENSINGTON PALACE

Kensington Palace and the Golden Gate

Everyone enjoys a bit of gossip, especially when it concerns famous people. I was surprised to learn, on my recent visit to Kensington Palace in London, that there is no end of gossip associated with the British royal family. And I don't mean recent 'gossip' as reported in newspapers and magazine after such tragic events as the untimely death of Princess Diana or the antics of Prince Harry and Sarah Ferguson. The gossip heard at Kensington goes way back to the first royal inhabitants.

The palace gardens

Kensington Palace has been a royal resident since the late 1600's when it was purchased by King William II and Queen Mary II after they assumed the throne as joint monarchs in 1689. Before that it was known as Nottingham House, originally a Jacobean mansion built in 1605.

There's a lot of tragedy in the stories of Kensington Palace too. Sadly, Queen Mary II died of smallpox in the palace in 1694 and just a few years later, King William III suffered a fall from a horse and died shortly after. Then the palace became the residence of Queen Anne whose life was fraught with health issue and unhappy relationships. By the age of 30 she was lame and corpulent. She had 18 children but only two survived past the age of three and many were stillborn. One room in the palace shows all the little chairs representing "Queen Anne's Hopes"

 

In 1710, in the Queen's State Apartments (also known as the Queen's Closet), Queen Anne and her best friend Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough had a huge argument. The Duchess was jealous of the attention the queen had shown to another woman and actually accused them of having a lesbian relationship. After that gossip circulated the Duchess was stripped of her official duties and the two women never spoke to each other again.

There is a "Whispering Room" in the palace where you can actually 'hear' the whispered gossip of all the royal goings-on.  Lean your ear close to the horns of the Victrola and you'll hear it: "Psssss pssss...did you hear...?"  Quite amusing!

 

Queen Victoria was born in the palace in 1819 and lived there much of her life. At the entrance is a beautiful statue of her on a pedestal. 

 

And you can visit several of the rooms she occupied from the nursery to the Privy Council room where she signed her official documents upon become Queenon June 20, 1837.

You will see the piano that her beloved consort Prince Albert used to play music he had composed for her. There is also a display of her clothing, including the formal mourning clothes she and her children wore after dear "Bertie" died.

 

Death and tragedy are as much part of the palace as the titillating gossip.  We all remember that sad day on August 31, 1997 when "the People's Princess", Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris. Within hours of the news the golden gates at the south side of the palace were covered in floral tributes and in the following days ever bit of railing around the palace was covered with flowers.

 

As you enter the Vestibule of the palace there is a beautiful photo of Diana and embroidered pillows of her as well as William and Kate who will reside there once the new renovations are completed.

(The palace is divided into two parts - the historic state apartments which you can tour, and the private living quarters of the royal family.) There is a Diana Memorial Playground in memory of the late Princess located next to the palace.

I really enjoyed the brief visit I made this summer. I didn't have as much time as is needed to see everything because I had a plane to catch.  But I'd definitely recommend this as an interesting destination if you happen to be visiting London.

Check out details for opening times etc at www.hrp.org.uk

HONORING THE DEAD ON ALL SOULS NIGHT

Mountain View Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Vancouver, in operation since 1887.  It covers 106 acres, home to 92,000 graves and 145,000 interred remains.  The cemetery is located in what was once farmland, in the area of Fraser Street between 31st and 43rd Ave.  Buried beneath the ground here are everyone from war heroes to sea disaster and slide victims and victims of the worst transit accident in BC when a transit streetcar crashed in 1909 killing 15 people.  There are wealthy people interred here as well as those who met their ends through violent or tragic means.

The wealthy include Henry O. Bell-Irving, a cannery owner and Yip Sang, a Chinese businessman.  But there are also grave of well known athletes:  Joe Fortes, a popular African/Canadian lifeguard and Harry Jerome, an Olympic runner.  The mother of poet Robert W. Service, Sarah Emily Service, is buried here along with murder victim Janet Smith, age 22, aka "The Scottish Nightingale". Her murder in 1924 was known as "The notorious Janet Smith Case" 

Burials are often grouped together according to religion or nationality or organization affiliations.  Other groups are paupers, and war vets including Canadian military graves.

On Saturday, Oct 29,  "All Souls Day",  the cemetery was open for visitors during the night.  Candles lit up the pathways and shrines were set up with candles and incense to honor the dead.  There was choir music,  the Carnival band, and music by a Asian musicians playing instruments made of bamboo.

It wasn't at all spooky wandering the candle-lit pathways.  Occasionally there was a pyre burning in a cauldron or a piece of timber.  There were adults and children, many of them visiting specific grave sites.  My friends and I wandered the labyrinth of tombstones and pathways, stopping now and then to light candles and read the inscriptions left on the shrines. 

It was a tasteful and nostalgic way of celebrating the Hallowe'en weekend.  Inside the cemetery office building tables were set up where you could make your own votive candles with materials supplied including flowers. 

I thought of my many friends and family members who have passed, several of them just this year.  It was a good way to remember and honor their memory.  I've been on the Ghost Tours of Vancouver bus trips which also stop at this cemetery and focus on the more sinister side of the graveyard sharing gruesome tales of old murders and accidents.  But wandering the tombstones by candlelight, listening to music, lighting votive offerings, seemed a much more meaningful way to celebrate the Hallowe'en weekend.

WALES: MY FAMILY'S HERITAGE

CAERPHILLY CASTLE (MY CASTLE!)

This is my sister Jean and I posing with the castle in the background.
My father played in this castle when he was a child and I grew up hearing stories about it. So I call it "my castle".

My cousins tease me that the reason the castle has a leaning tower is because I took home some shards from it as a souvenir. It's really leaning because it was knocked over in a bombardment in one of the sieges.

My dad, Fred Filer, was born in Caerphilly in 1903. He came from a family of coal miners. The year he was born, his grandfather (my great grandfather) and several members of his family (uncles) were killed in a mining explosion in Senghenydd. Dad became a miner himself when he was only 14 years old.

OUR FATHER'S HOUSE ON WINDSOR ST.

Dad lived in this house along with six brothers and two sisters (one died very young). His mother died when he was young and my grandpa remarried. It's a very small house for such a large family. I was lucky enough to visit here several times while two of the old uncles still lived here so I am very familiar with the house. Now it has been sold, so we can't go in. But it happened as we were taking the photo, the new resident came along. I don't suppose it's anything like when the uncles lived there when there were still remnants of the family around.
A lot was lost when Uncle George died and Uncle Reg went live in a home. Apparantly a housekeeper is suspected to stealing a few of the precious artifacts like the family bible and grandpa's fiddle and an old tea kettle belonging to my grandma that my dad really wanted me to bring back to Canada.

SLAG HEAP, BEDWAS NAVIGATIONAL COLLIERY

Dad worked here in the Bedwas Navigational Colliery. When I first visited Caerphilly in the '70's there were still remnants of the mine, but now this is all that remains. Dad went down into the pits when he was just 14 years old. He worked down there, sometimes never seeing the light of day for weeks, until he was in his mid 20's. At that time, there were problems in the mines and Dad was a union organizer so he lost his mining card, forcing him to leave the country in order to obtain work. He immigrated to Canada as a farm worker, but later, because of his oratory skills and desire to be a preacher, he was invited to attend McMaster University Theology college and he became a Baptist minister, working in the south Saskatchewan near the mining fields there.
He teamed with another Baptist minister to work among the mining communities. His friend was Tommy Douglas, "the Father of Medicare" in Canada, who became a well-known and well-loved political leader.

A few years ago my cousin and I visited the Big Pit Colliery in Wales and went down into the mine to see what it was like. It gave me a clear vision of what kind of life my father and other Welsh miners had to live. I also visited Senghenydd where my great grandfather's house still stands. His name, and those of his son-in-law and other of his family who died in the Senghenydd explosion of 1903 are listed in the miner's memorial book in the small mining museum in the town.