Obviously today’s title refers to St Helena and the last years of Napoleon Bonaparte and not the song by Steve Knightly of Show of Hands.
The whole island was cloaked with history and everywhere you moved you touched it. Tumbled down fortified walls, discarded cannons and battlements were everywhere. There were two buildings on the island where Napoleon had stayed –The Briars and Longwood House both these buildings are now under French jurisdiction with the tricolour flying; the place where Napoleon had been buried is also French property.
The Briars was the home of the Balcombe family and Napoleon stayed in a pavilion in the garden, while his new home Longwood House was being made ready for him.Here he struck up a love/hate friendship with the Balcombe’s fourteen year old daughter. It is a great story and maybe I will write about this in the future. I have read a couple of books on the subject.
Longwood (pic above) is where Napoleon and his retinue lived till his death. During his time here the relationship with the island governor grew increasingly fractious and his movement on the island became more restrictive as a result. I loved walking round Longwood especially the garden that Napoleon had designed (the paths were sunk into the ground so the British guards outside wouldn’t be able to see him-picture below). During my time I was invited for a meal at Longwood Farm House (where one of his officers lived) my hostess Robina took me to a window with shutters on the outside. She told me to stand by a spot by the window and pointed to a hole in the shutter. Apparently Napoleon had the hole made so he could look out at the Marshall Bertrand’s horses but the soldiers outside wouldn’t be able to see him. It was a spine tingling moment to be able to stand on the same spot that Napoleon had once stood.
I had some inkling of how Napoleon must of felt because when the ship left us to go to Cape Town. Once the ship departed the island was completely on it’s own . There was no way for us to get off the island and there was only minimal contact with the outside world -no email at that time. Obviously I knew I would eventually go home. There was a phone but at £1.35 a minute (really expensive 22 years ago). I did communicate occasionally with my family by fax to Clare’s school from the Island’s Education Centre not exactly private correspondence! Fax seems an old fashioned means of communication now-it seemed fairly modern then. Once when the ship called when I managed to send a burnt letter to my school (It was from Cedric the Dragon telling the children he had bumped into me on St. Helena and he updated them on how I was!)
The one moment when I did feel homesick was day the phone rang out of the blue. It was my son David to tell me his GCSE results. I maintained my composure until I put down their receiver when I promptly burst into tears (possibly not a surprise to those who know me!)
In the next blog if I am brave I will put in a poem I wrote at the time that encapsulates many of the themes I have touched on while writing about St. Helena!
Yesterday’s Cotswold Quiz answers:
a) in 1966 the Cotswolds became AONB b) Corinum is the Roman name for Cirencester c) Gustav Holst was born in Cheltenham d) Gloucestershire (inc South Glos), Worcestershire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Somerset (inc Bath and NE Somerset), Warwickshire are the six traditional counties for the Cotswolds. e) Wold means open country usually upland it is derived from the old English “wald” meaning forest.
Today’s Quiz (I decided on castles as I mentioned fortifications in the blog!
a) Leeds Castle is found in which English County? b) Which famous castle can be found on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset? c) Which castle was Edward 11 murdered in 1327? d) What is the largest castle in Britain? e) Castle Stalker appeared in what film but in the film was called the Castle of “Aaaaarrrrrggghhh?”