February Fill-Dyke
"Why are they getting married in February?" asked my friend Connie.
"Emily says it's a much neglected month," I said.
"There's a reason for that," said Connie. "February Fill-Dyke, Be it black or be it white, But if it's white, it's the better to like."
"Yerwha'?" I inquired with gentility.
"Old country rhyme," said Connie. "It means that the ditches get filled in February either with mud or with snow. The snow looks better."
I've never heard this rhyme before. Connie's not in her first flush of youth, as she'd be the first to agree - she won't see eighty again. Or eighty-five again. Or eighty-six, come to that. She was probably around when the rhyme was invented. But, to use another Connie phrase, she's got all her chairs at home (meaning she's still totally all there mentally). So I googled her little rhyme and found this Victorian painting, called February Fill-Dyke, by Benjam Williams Leader. who is Worcestershire's most famous artist, apparently.
Sadly I had never heard of him: though this doesn't mean a lot as I don't know much about a good deal of Victorian painting. I find a lot of it too heavy and gloomy and - well - Victorian. The Communist brought me up with anti-Victorian prejudice, at least as far as furniture, decor and paintings are concerned - not literature, for he has always been a great admirer of Dickens - and it's taken me a long time to overcome that.
But hey, Benjamin Williams Leader, I really like February Fill-Dyke. It is atmospheric, with a pleasant melancholy of the kind I so enjoy when visiting estuaries when the tide has gone out. If I'm ever in Birmingham, I'll call in at the Art Gallery to see it.
"Emily says it's a much neglected month," I said.
"There's a reason for that," said Connie. "February Fill-Dyke, Be it black or be it white, But if it's white, it's the better to like."
"Yerwha'?" I inquired with gentility.
"Old country rhyme," said Connie. "It means that the ditches get filled in February either with mud or with snow. The snow looks better."
I've never heard this rhyme before. Connie's not in her first flush of youth, as she'd be the first to agree - she won't see eighty again. Or eighty-five again. Or eighty-six, come to that. She was probably around when the rhyme was invented. But, to use another Connie phrase, she's got all her chairs at home (meaning she's still totally all there mentally). So I googled her little rhyme and found this Victorian painting, called February Fill-Dyke, by Benjam Williams Leader. who is Worcestershire's most famous artist, apparently.
Sadly I had never heard of him: though this doesn't mean a lot as I don't know much about a good deal of Victorian painting. I find a lot of it too heavy and gloomy and - well - Victorian. The Communist brought me up with anti-Victorian prejudice, at least as far as furniture, decor and paintings are concerned - not literature, for he has always been a great admirer of Dickens - and it's taken me a long time to overcome that.
But hey, Benjamin Williams Leader, I really like February Fill-Dyke. It is atmospheric, with a pleasant melancholy of the kind I so enjoy when visiting estuaries when the tide has gone out. If I'm ever in Birmingham, I'll call in at the Art Gallery to see it.
posted by Daphne at 9:01 pm
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