It being a Wednesday, I waited in with the cleaners. They are a jolly bunch who seem to like their work. While I sat at the dining table, Mirinda took the girls down to the sea, where she discovered a memorial lamp post.
The lamp post is on top of a plinth which proclaims a number of things.
One side commemorates the first gas lamps to light up the previously dark nights in Lymington. That happened in 1832.
A second side announces that ‘the whole of the public lamps were presented to this town by George Burrard esquire’. Sir George (1805 – 1870) was MP for Lymington from 1828 to 1832. He married Isabella Duckett in 1830. According to Hansard, he made no contributions to Parliament. Then, in 1870, he went swimming at Lyme Regis and drowned. There’s quite a comprehensive history of his time in Parliament here.
While Sir George provided the lamps, the other two sides declare that the iron columns for them were a ‘munificent gift’ from Admiral Sir Harry Burrard Neale. He was Sir George’s brother and was the MP for Lymington from 1790 to 1801. Obviously, this was back when MP was a family business among the rich and titled. Again, in the true family way, he said nothing in Parliament. He adopted the ‘Neale’ surname following his marriage to Grace Neale.
While researching the lamp situation above, I came across mention of Charles St Barbe, the man the museum is named after. He was a very wealthy owner of salt houses from Lymington. The town was known for its salt production back in the mid 18th century. According to Daniel Defoe, “…all of Southern England obtained its salt from Lymington.“
It was quite a thriving business and Charles made an awful lot of money. He was also a banker and sometimes mayor of Lymington. I’m surprised he didn’t get in on the lamp post plinth.
Mirinda also chatted with two local women, while I chatted with the cleaners.
One of the cleaners, the woman, asked me if I played the guitar. When I said that Mirinda did, she told me about how she missed a folk festival last year because she drank some off milk and was rushed to hospital, where they removed her appendix. She said she’s going to make up for it this year.
And the weather was a great improvement today. All sunshine and barely any wind.
Prick of the Week
I spotted this yesterday.
How selfish is this guy? There’s plenty of room on the road but, of course, he has to half park on the footpath. How is that reasonable? Or necessary? A lot of drivers claim it’s perfectly okay to park on the footpath, but how is half-and-half okay?
Not to mention the way he’s parked the car in next to him.
