Farewell to the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire

Deborah Cavendish, 

Dowager Duchess of Devonshire

and a few friends

I was quite distraught to hear of the death last week of Deborah, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire. She was 94. Her funeral was held this morning following a procession, which included Prince Charles, that began at Chatsworth House, the stately home that she and her husband turned into one of the most popular of tourist attractions in England with its gardens, farm, stables, and gift shop. 

Members of Chatworth's staff, 600 in all and dressed in traditional livery, lined the mile-long route from the house to the church. She was buried in the family plot in Edenson's village cemetery in Derbyshire. 

Her coffin was made of wicker.

I read that she had once attended the funeral of a friend who was buried in a wicker coffin. She liked the idea so much that she decided that's what she wanted saying it reminded her of "a picnic basket."   

Wicker coffin of the Dowager Duchess

Photo credit:  Max Mumby

the Daily Mail

She was a great fan of chickens and Elvis Presley. How could you not love a woman like that?

The Duchess was also was a fine writer and memoirist. One of my favorite books of hers is Counting My Chickens...And Other Home Thoughts. It is a collection of essays and excerpts from her diaries and other writings. She writes that her favorite author and artist was Beatrix Potter. She claims she learned all about retailing from reading Ms. Potter's The Tale of Ginger and Pickles. I wrote about all this here early last year.

The Dowager Duchess wrote other books that contained her thoughts on country living: Home to Roost and All in One Basket; her memoirs Wait For Me!; a cookbook; and two books about Chatsworth. In Tearing Haste is the collection of her correspondence with writer Patrick Leigh Fermor. 

How fortunate we are that Our Dowager Duchess left so much behind to remember her by. 

In Which The Duchess Learns From Beatrix Potter

The Duchess of Devonshire writing in Counting My Chickens about her favorite book on kitchen gardens (which she prefers to lawns and flower gardens): 

It is The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter. Held in the palm of the hand, the luxury of wasted space on the pages, the razor-sharp narrative, the warning by the hero's mother not to go into the neighboring garden because his father was put in a pie there by the gardener's wife -- all make you long to see what the place was like. You must read several pages before you arrive there, with mounting anticipation.

Beatrix Potter is not only my favourite author; she is my favourite artist. The illustrations have the magic quality of leaving a lot to the imagination. You are allowed only a corner of the cucumber frame, a couple of pots of chrysanths (no flowers on them luckily), some meagre cabbages, a gooseberry bush, a little pond, one robin and three sparrows.  

Our Duchess knows something about gardens as she and her husband, the 11th Duke, oversaw the revival of the 400-year old gardens at Chatsworth House that include a cottage and a kitchen garden, a maze, fountains, and a greenhouse. 

She also lists Ms. Potter's The Tale of Ginger and Pickles as "the best book on retailing ever written." Ginger the cat and Pickles the terrier kept a village shop which stocked almost everything required by their customers but are brought to bankruptcy by giving unlimited credit. Another village shop prospers because its owner Tabitha Twitchit insists on cash. Another lesson - don't sell faulty goods -  comes from the shop run by Mr. Dormouse who gets complaints that his candles droop in hot weather. Instead of addressing the problem he takes to his bed, "which, as the author tells us, is no way to run a retail business."

These lessons The Duchess put to good use in the estate's Farm Shop.

Isn't it wonderful that a woman who lived in a 126-room stately home (I think she now lives in Edensor House on the estate) with a library at hand containing more than 30,000 books can find such delight in the tales of Beatrix Potter.

Essays from the Stacks

It has been a busy week that has left no room for extended reading time. I haven't even kept up with my 'daily' books. So, I was pleased to finally make a trip to the library this afternoon to pick up a book on hold. 

Happily, I now have a copy of Moranthology by Caitlin Moran, a collection of her columns from the Times of London. Back in the day, before the newspaper put up its paywall, I used to read her funny essays on line for free. Thanks to a stellar review by Simon at Stuck-in-a-Book (here), I was reminded of Ms. Moran and immediately put my name in the pot at the library. 

Since I was going to be there, I checked over my TBR list and added these two to my stash:

Counting My Chickens... and Other Home Thoughts (2001) by The Duchess of Devonshire. Deborah, or Debo, is the youngest of the Mitford siblings - Nancy, Pamela, Tom, Diana, Unity, and Jessica. (What a family.) I have read this before and it is most entertaining. Just three sections: Diaries, Chatsworth, and Books and Company. Bonus: There is a lovely photo of Chatsworth on the back cover to stare at if my eyes grow weary of words.

In Fact: Essays on Writers and Writing (2001) by Thomas Mallon. Mr. Mallon is a novelist and essayist and my first introduction to him came through A Book of One's Own: People and Their Diaries (1995). In Fact is a collection of essays written for his column in GQ and for other publications. With sections on Working Writers, Off the Shelf, and On the Fringe, it looks to be quite amusing. 

Now, where shall I start?