Hogmanay at Inveraray Castle
The New Year’s Inveraray Castle Ball was imminent. Tamsin, always one step ahead, asked me to make sure my mother rustled up a varied selection of specimens of the opposite species; by that I think she meant boys of the opposite gender. Andrew the stable boy and Raymond, Beecham’s son, would naturally get an invite and one or two of the kitchen ladies would no doubt have sons of Tamsin's age. Mrs Dalrymple I am sure could help here as well. I don't mean as a dance partner for Tamsin but rather a conduit for young males for Tamsin's inspection……and mine for that matter.
It was not to be a night of strictly gaelic dancing, although the evening would have a highland motif, so I dug up one of my Campbell Clan skirts for Tamsin.
A piper from Inveraray Village was going to pipe in the New Year. There had been a very limited number of bookings set aside for overseas tourists for this event made through the Highland Travel franchise in Inveraray village. Father had also taken on two or three temporary catering staff from the village.
Colonel Carter-Brown and his wife Lady Rowena were the first to arrive. Father asked Colonel Carter-Brown how the fox cub was settling in. He replied it appears to be paying less and less attention to the chickens. So that’s a good sign.
The castle manageress lady is still somewhat wary of Reynard since offering it a delicacy in the castle tuckshop to demonstrate to the Japanese tourists just how tame it was. She has only recently had the bandages removed from her hand.
The next to arrive was mother’s friend Mrs Dalrymple. She arrived by taxi although she only lives just up the road. She was all feather boas, beads and mothballs, carrying her little corgi dog. Must not leave poor little Salome alone on New Year’s Eve, must we?
As an aside we had a little dog much like Salome when I was very young. It died suddenly. Whenever we walk by Aphrodite’s grave mother reminds me of the day she was buried and that I was crying my eyes out. For heaven’s sake, I was only 5 years of age.
Over the grave, father recited the following simple words, which were also carved on the headstone. Maybe it was a poem from his childhood, who knows? Maybe it was a couple of lines by Tennyson; anyway I think it was meant to placate me. It did not help.
‘I will see you again.
Oh, Aphrodite, this isn’t the end
You’re my forever friend
And I will see you again’
Love Bridgette.
On a lighter note, the noise increased somewhat as Tamsin arrived with her parents. They then left to join my parents in the saloon. Tamsin’s parents were returning to Loch Awe at the end of the evening and Tamsin was staying for a few days as our guest.
Tamsin suggested that we make our way to the kitchen to see if there was anything lying around of a food nature.
Gentle readers, I suspect Tamsin suffers from worms. The good news is we found some cold sausages that were not earmarked for the evening. We dodged around the kitchen staff as they busied themselves with the evening preparations.
Mother refuses to have haggis in the kitchen; she says it might be New Year’s Eve in Scotland but there have to be limits.
By the time we returned to the saloon the piper had arrived, as had most of the guests. A couple of the boys made a beeline for Tamsin. Maybe her reputation had gone before her, no just kidding. Andrew sidled up to me but I did not want to give him the impression that I was desperate so I did not warm to him, well not immediately that is. There was a distinct lack of boys of our age but as Tamsin pointed ‘just how many do want at any one time?’ She had a point.
Drink waiters circulated, finger food was laid out on the tables and the dancing commenced with the tune Caledonia, followed by Flower of Scotland, followed by one or two jigs and reels. There was a pause when we thought we could make out the sound of a piper.
It was midnight.
Hands were joined as voices sang the most patriotic of traditional Scottish tunes Auld Lang Syne. Father gave a short speech about hopes and expectations for the New Year. Glasses were raised, toasts given and dancing re-commenced but in a more sedate, gentle fashion.
After attending the Inveraray Rabbit Show and now celebrating New Year’s Eve, Mr Crisis, our science teacher, admitted he found our customs most quaint. You may have forgotten but I did mention earlier, he is on a sabbatical from Epsilon Bootis or was it Zeta Reticuli Two. Wherever, it’s like 39 light-years from earth…… or so he says.
The rumor floating around college as he was only taken on by Miss Sefton as the science teacher because, although he appeared to know a bit about science, she thought he was homeless. He has been living in the caretaker's room since arriving although father has invited him to Inveraray on a number of occasions.
Mother and Mrs Dalrymple had found each other and father and the Carter-Browns were being mesmerized by Mr Crisis of other worlds.
Tamsin was not short of dance partners for the evening and for the boys Tamsin was the prize. It reminds me of the time she told Sebastian…….what’s his name, who she met briefly at the Inveraray Scottish dance club that she suffers from worms and that it was a communicable disease. Anyways she told him she is a boarder at a college in Rickmansworth and as he lived in Oban pointed out the impracticalities of him being her boyfriend anyways. Always thinking on her feet is our Tamsin.
So the proposition by Ricky…….er thingy, who earlier on was her first dance partner and had asked Tamsin if she would like to be his girlfriend, almost followed the same script. No Tamsin was not looking for a long-term thing at 15 years of age, getting her youth over was a grim battle on its own.
My partner most of the evening was Beecham’s son Raymond. He was a very quiet person; well he was always just there. I never felt as though I was being hunted, so to speak.
Besides Tamsin, my other college friends Charlotte, Rebecca and Phaedra had also been invited as guests later on in the Christmas break. Unless I stay on at college at the end of this coming year this could be my last Christmas break, but I suspect I will be attending Denham Hall until I am seventeen.
It was the early hours and the numbers of dancers on the floor were thinning out. The party was beginning to break up. Mother had invited Mrs Dalrymple to stay the night as our guest instead of returning home.
The Carter-Browns and the Laceys, Tamsin's parents, were in the hallway putting on their coats and saying goodbye to my parents and Mr Crisis, meanwhile, the kitchen staff was tidying up. I do not think Tamsin had made any regrettable arrangements of a semi-permanent nature with any of the boys or ‘creatures of the opposing species’, Tamsin’s description not mine, which was a big relief.
It was the beginning of the New Year. I was quite looking forward to being one of the seniors; Denham Hall was like my second family. I will miss it terribly when I leave.
It was not to be a night of strictly gaelic dancing, although the evening would have a highland motif, so I dug up one of my Campbell Clan skirts for Tamsin.
A piper from Inveraray Village was going to pipe in the New Year. There had been a very limited number of bookings set aside for overseas tourists for this event made through the Highland Travel franchise in Inveraray village. Father had also taken on two or three temporary catering staff from the village.
Colonel Carter-Brown and his wife Lady Rowena were the first to arrive. Father asked Colonel Carter-Brown how the fox cub was settling in. He replied it appears to be paying less and less attention to the chickens. So that’s a good sign.
The castle manageress lady is still somewhat wary of Reynard since offering it a delicacy in the castle tuckshop to demonstrate to the Japanese tourists just how tame it was. She has only recently had the bandages removed from her hand.
The next to arrive was mother’s friend Mrs Dalrymple. She arrived by taxi although she only lives just up the road. She was all feather boas, beads and mothballs, carrying her little corgi dog. Must not leave poor little Salome alone on New Year’s Eve, must we?
As an aside we had a little dog much like Salome when I was very young. It died suddenly. Whenever we walk by Aphrodite’s grave mother reminds me of the day she was buried and that I was crying my eyes out. For heaven’s sake, I was only 5 years of age.
Over the grave, father recited the following simple words, which were also carved on the headstone. Maybe it was a poem from his childhood, who knows? Maybe it was a couple of lines by Tennyson; anyway I think it was meant to placate me. It did not help.
‘I will see you again.
Oh, Aphrodite, this isn’t the end
You’re my forever friend
And I will see you again’
Love Bridgette.
On a lighter note, the noise increased somewhat as Tamsin arrived with her parents. They then left to join my parents in the saloon. Tamsin’s parents were returning to Loch Awe at the end of the evening and Tamsin was staying for a few days as our guest.
Tamsin suggested that we make our way to the kitchen to see if there was anything lying around of a food nature.
Gentle readers, I suspect Tamsin suffers from worms. The good news is we found some cold sausages that were not earmarked for the evening. We dodged around the kitchen staff as they busied themselves with the evening preparations.
Mother refuses to have haggis in the kitchen; she says it might be New Year’s Eve in Scotland but there have to be limits.
By the time we returned to the saloon the piper had arrived, as had most of the guests. A couple of the boys made a beeline for Tamsin. Maybe her reputation had gone before her, no just kidding. Andrew sidled up to me but I did not want to give him the impression that I was desperate so I did not warm to him, well not immediately that is. There was a distinct lack of boys of our age but as Tamsin pointed ‘just how many do want at any one time?’ She had a point.
Drink waiters circulated, finger food was laid out on the tables and the dancing commenced with the tune Caledonia, followed by Flower of Scotland, followed by one or two jigs and reels. There was a pause when we thought we could make out the sound of a piper.
It was midnight.
Hands were joined as voices sang the most patriotic of traditional Scottish tunes Auld Lang Syne. Father gave a short speech about hopes and expectations for the New Year. Glasses were raised, toasts given and dancing re-commenced but in a more sedate, gentle fashion.
After attending the Inveraray Rabbit Show and now celebrating New Year’s Eve, Mr Crisis, our science teacher, admitted he found our customs most quaint. You may have forgotten but I did mention earlier, he is on a sabbatical from Epsilon Bootis or was it Zeta Reticuli Two. Wherever, it’s like 39 light-years from earth…… or so he says.
The rumor floating around college as he was only taken on by Miss Sefton as the science teacher because, although he appeared to know a bit about science, she thought he was homeless. He has been living in the caretaker's room since arriving although father has invited him to Inveraray on a number of occasions.
Mother and Mrs Dalrymple had found each other and father and the Carter-Browns were being mesmerized by Mr Crisis of other worlds.
Tamsin was not short of dance partners for the evening and for the boys Tamsin was the prize. It reminds me of the time she told Sebastian…….what’s his name, who she met briefly at the Inveraray Scottish dance club that she suffers from worms and that it was a communicable disease. Anyways she told him she is a boarder at a college in Rickmansworth and as he lived in Oban pointed out the impracticalities of him being her boyfriend anyways. Always thinking on her feet is our Tamsin.
So the proposition by Ricky…….er thingy, who earlier on was her first dance partner and had asked Tamsin if she would like to be his girlfriend, almost followed the same script. No Tamsin was not looking for a long-term thing at 15 years of age, getting her youth over was a grim battle on its own.
My partner most of the evening was Beecham’s son Raymond. He was a very quiet person; well he was always just there. I never felt as though I was being hunted, so to speak.
Besides Tamsin, my other college friends Charlotte, Rebecca and Phaedra had also been invited as guests later on in the Christmas break. Unless I stay on at college at the end of this coming year this could be my last Christmas break, but I suspect I will be attending Denham Hall until I am seventeen.
It was the early hours and the numbers of dancers on the floor were thinning out. The party was beginning to break up. Mother had invited Mrs Dalrymple to stay the night as our guest instead of returning home.
The Carter-Browns and the Laceys, Tamsin's parents, were in the hallway putting on their coats and saying goodbye to my parents and Mr Crisis, meanwhile, the kitchen staff was tidying up. I do not think Tamsin had made any regrettable arrangements of a semi-permanent nature with any of the boys or ‘creatures of the opposing species’, Tamsin’s description not mine, which was a big relief.
It was the beginning of the New Year. I was quite looking forward to being one of the seniors; Denham Hall was like my second family. I will miss it terribly when I leave.
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