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So runs the old song, made popular by the singing duo, Mikki and Griff of a few years ago, which relates the tale of a grandmother, waiting for a letter from her family. Chairs are very much a part of our lives, and if we look around at our rooms at home, they occupy quite a large proportion of space. A drive out to the "Chairmakers" pub a short distance from our town here at Waterlooville, is a highlight for many of a special occasion lunch or dinner, with a good selection of wines to be had there on the Menu. The name rather adds to the excitement of the event and captures our imagination. In the woods in the district it seems in days gone by, Chairmakers were indeed at work there turning by hand the framework of beautiful chairs. The Sedan chair, of course, was made famous by Beau Nash, of the City of Bath, and pictures of him seated in one, foppishly displaying lace cuffs and collar, and a velvet coat, are a feature on tins of the famous Bath Oliver Biscuits, a kind of sweet, ginger flavoured confection, which can still be bought in the City today. This chair was fitted with two poles at either end, which were picked up and carried, with the occupant inside the chair, resembling a kind of coach. A few miles along the coast in Sussex, King Canute was said to have demanded a chair to be brought out on to the beach, in which he sat to command the waves to turn back; he got very wet feet that day, but the story has passed into myth and legend, and is still recounted around firesides by the old folk, on cold frosty winter nights. Another famous chair is that of the Kings and Queens of Scotland, which is held in Edinburgh Cathedral, and the Stone of Scone kept underneath it was stolen and taken to Westminster Abbey, placed under the Throne of English Monarchs, to remain there for future Coronations. Perhaps everyone, of whatever age, must be familiar with the 'Chair' at the Grand National Racecourse at Aintree near Liverpool, which presents such a frightening and dangerous challenge to the horses, situated as it is on a sharp bend. Animals, of course, deeply love armchairs, and Crawfie, the somewhat disgraced Governess of the little Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, revealed in her book about her charges, that Princess Elizabeth would not allow anyone to remove her pet Corgi, "Crackers", from an expensive and rare silk damask upholstered chair in her room, muddy paws and all, according to "Crawfie", which was just one of several revelations devoured by an avid reading public, and which led to her ultimate downfall. In Wales at the Annual Eistedfodd, the newly elected Bard is crowned in another ancient Chair, but perhaps not quite so striking as Merlin's Chair, at Tintagel in Cornwall, hewn from solid rock in the cliff face. Thrones are chairs, however grandly they are made, and they are very richly carved and decorated. English chairs command a market the world over, if they are proved to be made by Hepplewhite, Sheraton or Chippendale, with their rounded arches, barley-sugar legs and scroll arm-rests. Chairs kept in Cathedrals for the sole and exclusive use of Bishops, are very grand indeed, often with Tudor double-arches at the base and sumptuously upholstered in fine velvet or handsome brocade. In our own Church here at St George's is an excellent chair which is used on very special occasions, and the Vicar also uses an impressive chair at each Evensong. Salisbury Cathedral has, one might guess at, a thousand rush seated chairs, and this type of design consumes a large amount of rushes, specially grown in fens and wild marshes, usually in Norfolk, perhaps not far from Walsingham. The best loved chairs are our own individual favourite armchair at home, but often in the past, in many an old Church or Village Hall, after finishing up the last of the parsnip wine, "Musical Chairs" were played and welcomed with much joy and hand-clapping, at perhaps a WI or Mothers' Union Social. A long line of alternate chairs were placed down the Hall, and one taken away when the piano stopped playing amongst screams of delight from the ladies at the offered knees of the gentlemen. It was all great fun, especially at the end of the game, when the final chair left was usually knocked over with several of the Contestants in a laughing heap on the floor. Rosemary Goulding |
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page last updated 24 FEBRUARY 2002 |
