Letter from the Editor

The big news this time round is that the publication of Lady Anne Blencowe’s Cookbook by Christina Stapley is within sight. I visited her at her picturesque thatched home in East Meon (Hampshire) earlier this month and was treated to an afternoon feast: examples of Tina’s modern-day interpretation of Lady Anne’s recipes. The lemon syllabub was particularly delicious. I was also given a bottle of “Shrub” a brandy-based drink; Lady Anne had said, “Three pints of Hot or Cold water put to a bottle … will make good Punch and, taken sole, a Pleasant Dram”. Trying out the latter back in Oxford I realised it was well that I had not sampled it before setting out to drive home!

The planned price for the hard-cover A5-size volume is £7.50 (or about US$14.00) with a substantial discount for Association members. It should make an attractive and affordable Christmas gift for friends and relatives.

On 7 September Tina will be teaching enthusiasts how to produce modern-day versions of the dishes that the 17thC Blencowes enjoyed at Marston Hall. The one-day course will be conducted at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum at Singleton near Chichester in West Sussex. A booking form is printed in the centrefold. On 28 September she lectures on the same subject at Gilbert White’s House and Museum in Selborne. (Gilbert White was the 18thC parson who wrote the seminal work ‘The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne‘.)

Even if you do not wish to attend the cookery course, I am told that the Downland Museum is an interesting place and it occurs to me that if you were to visit on that day you could enjoy meeting other members and buy your copy of Tina’s book at the same time. Your reactions to this suggestion please!

Jack Blencowe,
Oxford, March 2004.