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The young companion, 1897 January-1898 December
- Title(s):
The young companion.
- Published/Created:
- 1897 January-1898 December.
- Physical Description:
- 2 volumes (204, 130 pages) : illustrations ; 25 cm
- Holdings:
- Rare Books and ManuscriptsPN624 .Y68 1897Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon FundView by request in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details. - Copyright Status:
- Copyright Information
- Full Orbis Record:
- http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/12626712
- Classification:
- Archives & Manuscripts
- Notes:
- Bound in tan half calf and marbled boards; rebacked in tan cloth.
Unpublished juvenile manuscript magazine produced by teens of the notable literary Strachey family. Contributors include Richard, Andrew, Elizabeth, and Elinor Rendel, and Ralph, Alma, Anna, and Harry Ricardo (who would become a well-known engineer). Elinor Rendel, née Strachey, the children's mother, was the eldest child of Sir Richard Strachey and Jane Grant. (Giles) Lytton Strachey was their uncle. Jane Strachey and 'Aunt Pippa' were leading figures in the Women's Suffrage Movement.The volumes also include contributions by Dorothy Shakespear (artist and later wife of Ezra Pound), including an early drawing and a photograph of her as a teen.
Each issue begins with a full-page watercolor title page, depicting scenes such as the six children walking on stilts, the baby on a bicycle, a view of the Queen's carriage on Westminster Bridge on the Jubilee procession, a girl bicycling while reading a copy of The young companion, and "A view of Nell Gwynn's stable from Parkhurst Schoolroom." There are 39 photographs, mostly very small, and approximately 10 full-page watercolors, and other pen and ink and watercolor illustrations in the text. Articles include recipes, plays, puzzles, scientific experiments, family gossip, and descriptions of stays at relatives. There are scores and photographs of a cricket match played at Rickettswood, "the residence of Sir Alex M. Rendel," between two family teams, and a description of the house.
Also present are descriptions of fashions, with a detailed description of the Queen's Jubilee procession by four different children. The family had "a lot of seats in a window of a store house on Westminster Bridge ..." Their grandfather hired an omnibus for them, and there is a photograph of the baby on top of the "private omnibus" in front of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and four other very small photos of the procession. The children partake of "a Jubilee cake with red white and blue sugar made by our cook, we could not think were (sic) she got the blue sugar from."
A letter from "Jungly Wallah" sent from India (presumably their grandfather) is pasted in: "I believe your very valuable paper could be made even more interesting by publishing a series of scenes depicting Native Life and Character in the East ... I am sending some photographs of performing bears ..." These eight small photos are pasted in.
There are also recollections by older family members, for example the grandmother's memories of her house Ashwick, near Shepton Mallet, and holidays in Weymouth: "we made excursions to Portland & were deeply interested in seeing the convicts at work in the quarries ..." There is a memoir by Jane Strachey of her childhood at Rothiemurchus, Speyside, and in India (being called "Mother Bunch" by Lord Elgin etc.), and later at a house called Wittenhall. There is an 80th birthday poem for General Sir Richard Strachey, and a detailed description of the dresses worn by "Grandmama, Aunt Dorothy and Aunt Pippa" when they were presented to the Queen. Visits to Whitestaunton and Marlborough are recounted, with photographs. Milestones in the life of the baby (presumably, William Vincent Rendel) are noted, with photos, in "Baby's chronicle." Robin Rendel describes Winchester slang and rituals.
There is a brief family tree of the Rendels, and one of Richard and Jane Strachey and their children, showing Giles Lytton the last but one child. There is a description of a stay at Lawford Hall ("The day that Grandaddy came back, Lytton stepped out on the balcony and made several speeches to us in an exceeding comic manner about the abolition of slaves.")
There are two contributions by Dorothy Shakespear: a sketch of two hens titled "Quand ce coq chantera mon amour finira," and a comic letter, in the style of Brutus' speech, to one of the Rendels who was ill. A photograph of Dorothy is pasted in, next to the minutes of a meeting at which she is admitted as a new member: "The staff who very much wished to have a proof of Miss Shakespear's Oratorical power asked her to honour the assembly with a few words from the platform ... Miss Shakespear choose for her subject: The Play of Julius Caesar at Her Majesty's Theatre ..." (November 1898). - Subject Terms:
- Cycling -- Great Britain.Fashion -- Great Britain.Great Britain -- Social life and customs.India -- Description and travel.Pound, Dorothy.Rendel, Andrew James, 1888-1917.Rendel, Elinor Strachey, 1860-1944.Rendel, Elizabeth, 1883-1923.Rendel, Frances Elinor, 1885-1942.Rendel, James Meadows, 1854-1937.Rendel, Richard Meadows, 1887-1966.Rendel, William Vincent, 1898-1974.Ricardo, Harry R. (Harry Ralph), Sir, 1885-Rrendel family.Strachey family.Strachey, Lady (Jane Maria), 1840-1928.Strachey, Lytton, 1880-1932.Strachey, Philippa, 1872-1968.Strachey, Richard, Sir, 1817-1908.Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819-1901 -- Anniversaries, etc., 1897.
- Form/Genre:
- Manuscript magazines.
Children's magazines.
Periodicals.
Juvenilia.
Children's art.
Humorous pictures.
Puzzles.
Albumen prints.
Photographs.
Graphite drawings.
Ink drawings.
Watercolors. - Export:
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