The Bluestocking, where the short days shorten and the oaks are brown

[MarieDeGournay]

Welcome all, regulars and newcomers, to the Bluestocking Women's Pub, a place of refuge and inspiration and camaraderie and silliness, where all alcoholic drinks are non-intoxicating, cakes contain no gluten, sugar or calories, but still taste yummy, and the attentive staff are small but very professional rodents wearing snazzy little outfits.

Other roles - such as acting as foot stools, looking decorative in the garden, or just being impossibly cute when you need something impossibly cute to go awwww at - are filled by a team of miniature pigs, quokkas, wombats, etc etc.

If real life is difficult, you can bring your troubles to the Bluestocking and a comfy chair will be found for you at a roaring fire, a miniature pig will settle down happily to support your tired feet, and a gerbil will serve you promptly with a comforting drink - very large G&Ts or massive mugs of hot chocolate with extra cream and marshmallows are popular choices [don't forget: no calories in the Bluestocking].

Oh Myrtle, this is awful! All this gearing yourself up for the op, and then being let down again and again. Poor you💐
Fingers, paws, claws, everything we have at the Bluestocking are all crossed for today.

I'm so sorry, Myrtle - everything crossed for today!

Thank you Deano and Edith for your hymn-related memories, which are lovely.

When I watch Songs of Praise I often think that 'non-Catholics' if I may use that term as a convenience, have the best hymns in English - majestic, uplifting, inspiring. Wesley and The Methodists seem to top the charts
Gregorian Chant and other Latin hymns are great too, but aren't in the same category as they are not in the vernacular.

'Hail Queen of Heaven' has something of that majesty when sung - composed in England in the early 19c., it probably reflects some of that great English hymn tradition.

But it is also so personal: 'pray for me' - she may be the Queen of Heaven and the Star of the Sea, but she is my heavenly mother and I can 'claim her care'.
As the 'Memorare' prayer says: 'inspired this confidence, I fly to thee, oh Virgin of Virgins, my mother'.

The historical context is interesting - a Catholic hymn written in the English language and in the style of the English hymn tradition at a time when the writer, John Lingard, was involved in the fight for the repeal of anti-Catholic laws.

Was this great hymn an attempt, whether conscious or unconscious, to reconcile suspect Catholicism with 'Englishness'?

One for Pedantry Corner😄

I was brought up in the CofE tradition, now a staunch atheist, but I do agree, there are some absolute belters in the Anglican hymnbook. A fair number of dreary dirges too, of course.

I have been a church singer my whole life (oh ok, from the age of 4) in the Methodist and Anglican traditions. I love a good hymn, or an anthem; a bit of Byrd or Tallis or Mozart or Wesley.

Currently I sing in a worship band ( the only option open to me at the moment) and have to put up with an endless stream of forgettable modern crap.

As my friend (and fellow band member) said " Sorry God, you used to get the Hallelujah Chorus and now you get this"

Oh Fuzzy, I know what you mean!

When it was decided to vernacularise the Catholic liturgy and take away a lot of the pomp and splendour of the vestments and the incense and the Latin, the replacement was an abomination called 'a folk mass'.
By 'folk' they meant mediocre strumming on guitars, not any deep connection to musical roots, accompanying paltry words.

I can't speak for God [that makes a good quote, doesn't it?😄] but I'm guessing he sorry He often yearned for a good Missa de Angelis like in the old days!

That said, the composer Seán Ó Riada, who was a traditional as well as classical musician - he founded the group which later became the Chieftains] composed a sung mass drawing on the oldest traditions of Irish music, and The Ó Riada Mass' was wholeheartedly accepted into the liturgy and into the world of traditional music.

Christmas carols are a great survival of fine old hymns, aren't they?
You must get a chance to belt out wonderful ones like 'Angels We Have Heard On High' or 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing' at Christmas, Fuzzy? But I suppose that doesn't make up for the other 11 months of forgettable modern crap😟

I was singing in a church choir from the age of 8 and although like Magpie I am also atheist the music stays with you. These days I sing in a community choir that does a bit of everything from folk to musical theatre to hymns. There are a few good modern composers of religious music - John Rutter is one that I really enjoy singing. His harmonies are wonderful🎼

In keeping with my Bluestocking name, I’ve sung in a school or college Chapel Choir for decades. It’s where DH and I met. I love a good hymn, too.

At my last school the two favourites with the students were Cwm Rhondda/Bread of Heaven and Jerusalem. Jerusalem isn’t in the Methodist hymn book because they don’t consider it to be a hymn, so a bit of paper with the words had to be pasted into the back of the book.

As an annoying feminist I used to change some of the words to stop them just being about men, for instance replacing ‘he’ with ‘they’. I can’t remember the hymn now, but there’s one when I had to just stop singing for a few lines. I don’t imagine anyone noticed but me. Wikipedia tells me that “He who would Valiant be” is the school song for several girls schools, I hope with lots of he -> they swops.

Ahem: I have been in groups conducted by John Rutter on several occasions 😉 and agree about his music. It is accessible, which I think is a good thing.

I like a bit of Rutter...especially "The Lord Bless You and Keep You". The soaring "Amens" in that are glorious.

I have been known to not sing various verses in hymns, usually those using old fashioned language around disability...I'm not singing about "dumb" or "lame" people.

ha - I remembered that the not actually all that good but VERY up itself school I went to when I lived in England had that as its school hymn and sure enough, there it is on the list.

I do wonder about people who put stuff on wiki sometimes, why would anyone think that a secondary school's choice of song is of anything more than passing interest even to the people singing it, never mind a worldwide readership?

I do wonder about people who put stuff on wiki sometimes, why would anyone think that a secondary school's choice of song is of anything more than passing interest even to the people singing it, never mind a worldwide readership?

Passing interest is OK, though? I enjoyed reading it.
The more words on Wikipedia the more it costs to host, perhaps.

My school's hymn was Jerusalem. There's probably a Wikipedia page listing those schools too!

Fair enough. We were not encouraged to change 'he' to 'she' but the headmistress used to get exercised about using the original version with hobgoblins, not the sanitised Songs of Praise words. I suppose regular exposure to hundreds of adolescents would do that to anyone.

I think I have mentioned before that when I did my read-aloud of the Bible a few years back I quickly started reversing the sexes in the Book of Proverbs.

Our headmaster at my secondary school was a Methodist lay preacher, and we had assemblies every day with a hymn and a Bible reading and a homily from him (and extra sessions of hymn practise if he thought the singing wasn’t up to scratch). Honestly I think it turned most of us into atheists but it gave all of us an invaluable resource in knowing the English hymnal and the Bible very well, which otherwise I would not have known as my mother was a very lapsed Catholic and my dad was an atheist so we only ever occasionally went to church on November 11th as my dad wanted to remember his fallen comrades from the war. It was very helpful in my studies of literature, and I can still sing many hymns without needing a book for the words.

Operation moved to 5pm. I won't believe I am having it until they come to get me.

It is a valuable resource, Britinme, isn't it?

Sometimes my friends and I fall into a session of trying to remember all of the Mass of the Angels, or all the verses of Hail Glorious St Patrick, etc.
A great way to occupy a long car journey
We're the last generation to have things like that tucked away in our memory, and I value it, both for the beauty of the language and the music, and the shared references it gave us.

One of the positive things about the education I got was the introduction to difficult words and concepts at a very early age: 'omniscience' 'calumny' 'eternity' 'intercession' 'sacerdotal' 'transubstantiation' 'purpose of amendment' 'ex cathedra' etc. - we were dealing with words like that from a very early age in primary school.
Our understanding of them may have been limited at first, but at least we were being challenged by them.

We also had to learn the meaning of the Latin and Greek words used in the liturgy, which is how I can work out etymological roots - I never studied Latin [or Greek, obvs!] at school but liturgical Latin is enough of a basis to understand ante, contra, supra, etc.

Contrast that with today when the 'hard words' are taken out of Beatrix Potter..🙄

I just glanced at the clock and thought of you Myrtle.
They are keeping you in limbo, so it's probably best to 'believe it when you see it', poor you😟
Mustering all the good vibes and magical thinking for 5.....💐

@MarieDeGournay i feel somewhat similarly about TV programmes. Streaming and catch-up has meant that children now have an unbroken diet of cartoons and action. They never seem to have to watch anything like the news or fiction or nonfiction appropriate adult programmes. How does this stretch them in any way? Nothing wrong with Bluey or Paw Patrol, but as a sole diet it’s like only feeding your kids Fruit Loops for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

You lucky thing - I was booked into one of his sessions in January this year but came down with a terrible cold and could not sing a note so didn't go.

Oh Myrtle that’s so unfair. All this hope and let-down can’t be good for you - physically and mentally. Fingers crossed for 5.

Only an hour to go, Myrtle 🤞🤞🤞

A story:

Myrtle the lion had been starved ready for her operation. Then the operation was cancelled - again! Poor Myrtle had spent the whole day watching the clock, her tummy rumbling & no dinner in sight.

Time passed so slowly: 2 o'clock... 3 o'clock... (the AI refused to play ball at this point)...

Finally Myrtle could stand the hunger pangs no longer. She took matters into her own paws & set off for the operating theatre. Flinging open the doors, she shouted, "GET THAT PATIENT OUT OF HERE! IT'S MY TURN!".

to be continued

Excellent story, Android 🙂🤞

Yay, go Myrtle. This is probably what you actually need to do.