- 2 days ago
Ep 5: May. Evelyn Holden informs her parents that she and Frank Matthews wish to get married, but things take a turn for the worst when soon after mother falls ill. And there is further discord when Kenneth learns that Edith plans to stay for a holiday with brother Bernard for the week, due to his capitalist views at odds with Kenneth's socialist beliefs. Evelyn confesses to Edith that she fears Kenneth may be mentally ill, but things get worse at the annual factory fete when the siblings clash on how to run the family business amid economic turmoil.
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00:00Gowan Bank, Olten, Warwickshire.
00:17Nature Notes for 1906.
00:23By Edith B.
00:30Holden.
00:46To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell,
00:50To slowly trace the forest's shady sea,
00:53Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
00:56And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been,
00:59To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
01:02With the wild flock that never need a fold,
01:05Alone on steeps and foaming falls to lean.
01:09This is not solitude,
01:11It is but to hold converse with nature's charms,
01:14And view her stores unrolled.
01:17The name of the animal is lost,
01:22The name that was found,
01:24And the name of the animal called the mountain,
01:26And trustee is lost,
01:28要求 none.
01:29May the earth be there,
01:30And from the mountain of sea,
01:31And the moon of the bird,
01:33The name of this month is of doubtful origin.
01:49Ancient writers suggest it to be derived from May, the mother of Mercury,
01:53to whom the Romans were accustomed to sacrifice on the first day of the month.
02:03May Day is the name given to the first day of the month when, in old days,
02:15the people went out at dawn to welcome the advent of spring.
02:33How does anyone judge their own work?
02:39What about this one?
02:41I think it's one of your best.
02:43The colouring's so beautifully delicate.
02:47Arthur.
02:49Yes?
02:52Well, it's different from Evelyn's.
02:55Father!
02:58Frank's going to ask you if he can ask me to marry him.
03:01Well, how very proper and formal of him.
03:06What do you advise me to say?
03:10We've been so lucky.
03:11Mr Cadbury's given us the house for the crippled children.
03:14And Frank's raised enough money to keep it going, so I'll be able to help him.
03:18Oh, Edie, congratulate me.
03:21I do.
03:24There'll be Frank's poor children to think of.
03:27And soon, perhaps, we'll have our own children to look after.
03:30But, Evelyn, when are you going to do your painting?
03:34Edie, I'm happy.
03:36Isn't that enough?
03:36Darling girl, it's the only thing that matters.
03:40What excitement we shall have.
03:42We must begin organising the engagement party straight away.
03:47Mother?
03:49Mother, your salt.
03:50Willie!
03:50Don't you think you should let me get her a doctor?
03:56A doctor isn't necessary.
03:59But, Mother, you're in pain.
04:02We must all learn not to give way to it.
04:07Remember that.
04:08Mother's good.
04:09Mother.
04:15Mother.
04:16Mother.
04:17Mother.
04:19Mother.
04:21Mother.
04:26Welcome, my girl. Welcome.
04:40May the 1st.
04:42Weather's still cold and showery with bright intervals of sunshine.
04:47Travel towards home from Dartmoor up to Bristol.
04:52The country is looking much more beautiful than when I came through it three weeks ago.
04:57The hedges are all green.
05:00The primroses are still thick on the banks.
05:04Many of the orchards in blossom.
05:07And the oaks are showing the first sign of golden bronze foliage.
05:11Oh, my God, is this what a holiday does for you?
05:24You're in more need of a rest now than when you set off.
05:27Come on.
05:27Come in, Father.
05:40Edie.
05:42I can't think how glad I am to see you back again.
05:47What should I ever do without you?
05:50May the 3rd.
05:58Warm southwest wind with heavy fall of rain.
06:01Gathered some wild pear blossom and the first cowslips I have picked this year.
06:22Saw two hen blackbirds sitting on their nests, one in a hollow tree.
06:36The crab apple is only in bud here, as are the wild hyacinths.
06:59May the 5th.
07:01Saw a pair of white throats today down Whitney Lane.
07:05They were evidently rivals and were chasing each other through the bushes, singing loudly all the time.
07:17By the blithe I saw a very handsome pair of black-headed buntings.
07:22In the meadows alongside the stream, there was a fine display of marsh marigolds and lady smocks, all silver-white.
07:40Here I gathered the crosswort bedstraw.
07:51Edith?
07:52Edith?
07:53Kenneth's here.
07:54Edith?
07:55How are you, Kenneth?
07:56How are you, Kenneth?
07:57I've just seen Bernard at the factory.
07:58Is it true?
07:59He says you're going to stay with him next weekend.
08:00Why not?
08:01We thought we'd visit Stratford, go boating if the weather's nice.
08:02I thought you were on my side!
08:03Good heavens!
08:04Why does it have to be a question of sides?
08:05Why does it have to be a question of sides?
08:06Why not?
08:07We thought we'd visit Stratford, go boating if the weather's nice.
08:11I thought you were on my side!
08:13Good heavens!
08:14Why does it have to be a question of sides?
08:15Thank two brothers!
08:16I know you were never a convinced socialist.
08:17We have already enough politicians in this house.
08:19What?
08:20Despite
08:39politicians in this house. I am against all inhumanity. everybody claims that.
08:45well that will have to do for my political creed. I don't suppose any of
08:51us intend to mount a revolution here do we? there'll be no need for that. if only
08:55we can make Bernard stick to the old principles.
09:00if only mother were here she'd know what to do.
09:09how are you feeling mother? you really must make yourself eat more. you've hardly
09:17touched your soup. nonsense. I'm feeling much better today. I'm learning that pain
09:26has no real existence. it's the spirit that counts you know. not soup. all the same
09:35I want you hale and hearty by the time I retire. well you must get well before
09:41that. you mustn't miss Evelyn's wedding. no.
09:47good evening ladies and gentlemen. I'm sure you'll all be very glad to know that on
09:51our last meeting we raised the sum of one shilling and eightpence which did allow
09:55us to buy three more copies of mr. charles dickens book a tale of two cities.
10:05what have you decided?
10:07oh there's nothing to decide.
10:11i can't possibly go to london to finish my studies now. but my dear girl.
10:17i should go back to the birmingham school
10:25and work as a teacher afterwards.
10:30so you see i'll be here to help.
10:32edith you cannot give up your own life just like that.
10:36evelyn's going to give up her work?
10:41well that's different. a woman expects to do as much when she marries. it's natural.
10:52may the 7th. weather very close and sultry.
10:58i was stooping down to gather some cowslips today in a marshy spinney in elmden park
11:03when a robin fled out over my hand from under the roots of an older tree growing close by me.
11:13in a cavity was placed the nest which contained five eggs.
11:20the crab apple trees and bushes are looking very beautiful now,
11:24covered with pink blossom and crimson buds.
11:34may the 9th. the common avens bugle and plantain are in flower and some of the oaks
11:40are hanging out their long tassels of blossom.
11:47i brought home a big bunch of bluebells, red campion and wild beaked parsley.
11:52the latter is showing its white umbels of blossom in every hedgerow.
12:15may the 12th went to stratford-on-avon.
12:17oh lovely. gathered hawthorn blossom from the hedges.
12:26isn't it beautiful edith? yes.
12:31i have a surprise for you.
12:38why are you so mysterious? you just wait and see.
12:40a nice surprise, i hope.
12:42you best.
12:43evening.
12:48i wondered if bernard would call you in to help.
12:50you always guess everything.
12:53are we supposed to be on different sides?
12:55i suppose so.
12:57i'm not here to take sides.
12:59i've brought the picnic.
13:00edith.
13:20kenneth has invented me as a villain.
13:23you know me better than that, surely.
13:25i know how deeply you disagree.
13:27even that is exaggerated.
13:30we still pay the best wages in permingham.
13:33but kenneth will have it that i'm grinding the faces of the poor.
13:37you know he's under great pressure, don't you?
13:41everyone knows that.
13:43convinces me what sense it is to remain a bachelor.
13:46oh, do listen, edith.
13:51i'm closer to bernard.
13:52i know he's good and completely trustworthy.
13:56can you honestly say that about kenneth?
13:59i'm afraid he's ill, unbalanced.
14:02well, after the birth of his child, he might go abroad for a while.
14:07the important thing is that we all stick together.
14:10preserve the public face of the family, you mean?
14:12well, isn't that just common sense?
14:18the trouble is, the family is your whole world, isn't it, edie?
14:22don't you think i sometimes long to break out?
14:26go somewhere else.
14:29far, far away.
14:30may the 14th.
14:43visited the violet wood this evening.
14:46it is quite green and shady there now.
14:49the ground was covered with wild arums all in flower,
14:53their pale green spades gleaming out very conspicuously
14:56against the red earthen banks where the rabbits burrow.
15:00some of the sheaths were spotted and i found one deep reddish purple in color.
15:09the large handsome green leaves that were so beautiful in the early spring
15:13are now beginning to wither away as the flowers attain maturity.
15:21i noticed the flower just coming on the beach
15:25scarcely distinguishable from the tender green foliage.
15:33oak apples are plentiful now on the oak trees.
15:36may the 16th.
15:51after a week of warm growing weather which has brought out the flowers and foliage wonderfully,
15:56we have returned to cold north winds and hail storms.
16:03this afternoon i went to gather cuckoo pints for my drawing class.
16:07some of the horse chestnut trees are a mass of white blossom.
16:14it's freezing today.
16:24yes.
16:25let's go on with the weather this year.
16:27a beautiful warm january and then a freezing cold may.
16:30who drops his coat on a winter's day will gladly put it on in may.
16:36very clever.
16:37not really.
16:39she got me straight out of my own notebook.
16:47oh winnie i'm not even sure i teach them anything that will help them.
16:50well if you're teaching children to look at nature the way you do and feel its beauty.
16:55then that's important.
16:56i struggle with 10 school girls once a week.
16:59a private student every now and then.
17:02the occasional painting in an exhibition.
17:05no commissions.
17:06no sales.
17:08but if you get through to just one of those girls.
17:10oh winnie how sensible you are.
17:15and kind.
17:16how we all take your tenderness for granted.
17:25well i've filled nearly all the hampers.
17:27now i'm depending on you and evelyn for the buttonholes.
17:31if the weather isn't fine after all this i shall probably weep myself.
17:35while earth herself is adorning this sweet may morning.
17:48and the children are culling on every side in a thousand valleys far and wide fresh flowers.
17:54while the sun shines warm and the babe leaps up on its mother's arm.
18:00then sing ye birds sing.
18:06sing a joyous song.
18:08and let the young lambs bound as to the tabers sound.
18:13we in thought will join your throng.
18:16ye that pipe and ye that play.
18:19ye that through your hearts today.
18:21ye feel the gladness of the may.
18:35you look a picture of benevolence father.
18:51these outings make all the problems seem worthwhile.
18:55it shows that it is possible for everyone to get on together.
19:00all seems to be going very smoothly.
19:02no particular thanks to you.
19:03now that's enough.
19:05there are workers and employers getting on marvellously here.
19:08you two stop this.
19:09this child is squabbling.
19:12you know very well the works outing would be dropped under bernard's regime.
19:16just one of the many benefits for the men and their families that would disappear in the name of progress.
19:20that's not true ken.
19:22evelyn.
19:23i think bernard should speak for himself.
19:25we are no longer a private family firm.
19:28the days when father took his papers home for the afternoon
19:31opened his own letter stamped the replies then paid the wages himself every week are gone.
19:35we are a public company with a responsibility to the shareholders.
19:39who are not going to stand by and watch this waste forever.
19:42so you would put a stop to all this.
19:45and several other of father and kenneth's ideas.
19:47we lose a workman from the factory every week because of father's scheme to make them each a director for a time in turn.
19:53has it never struck you as odd that the two older men have the more progressive ideas?
19:56it is those ideas which force me to be as i am.
20:00they would not be able to afford their paternalism otherwise.
20:03where would your home for crippled children be frank without companies like ours?
20:06i wouldn't want my children to gain at the expense of others.
20:09well we shall have to take decisive action soon.
20:12no one in the company has seen a dividend on their shares in years.
20:15you can't expect people to remain loyal forever under those conditions.
20:19you mean we can't expect your friends to remain loyal do you bernard?
20:22if you two do not stop i shall make the next two workers position on the board permanent.
20:28i could put an end to all this bickering.
20:41whoever lives true life will love true love.
21:12i learnt to love that england.
21:15very oft before the day was born or otherwise through secret windings of the afternoons
21:21i threw my hunters off and plunged myself among the deep hills as a hunted stag will take the waters
21:29shivering with the fear and passion of the course.
21:31and when at last escaped so many a green slope built on slope betwixt me and the enemy's house behind
21:40i dared to rest or wander in a rest made sweeter by the step upon the grass
21:46and view the ground's most gentle dimplement.
21:50as if god's finger touched but did not press in making england.
21:56such nooks of valleys lined with orcuses
22:04and open pastures where you scarcely tell white daisies from white dew.
22:14at intervals the mythic oak and elm trees standing out self-poised upon their prodigy of shade.
22:27i thought my father's land was worthy too of being my shakespeare's.
22:44style.
22:46make sure you can all see the camera. smile.
22:53Hey!
23:13May God bless you both.
23:15May you both be as happy as we have been.
23:18Mother, I do wish you could have seen it.
23:21All Frank's children decorated the chapel so beautifully.
23:26Dear Mother, how pale she is.
23:31Do you think she ought to go in out of the sun?
23:34No.
23:36No, it makes no difference now.
23:39She does so like to be part of what's going on.
23:42Now, can you move in just on this edge?
23:44May the 19th.
23:50The hedgerows are haunted by young fledglings, chiefly blackbirds and thrushes.
24:02May the 29th.
24:04Saw some dog daisies in flower on the railway bank.
24:09My sister brought home some beautiful white meadow saxifrage she had picked in some fields near Hatton.
24:16Oh, Winnie, how lovely.
24:21You've quite cheered me up.
24:24I'm going to leave these boring books.
24:29Advise me what I should paint for the summer exhibition at the Royal Society.
24:33Oh, that's quite beyond me.
24:36Besides, Father will be wanting his supper now.
24:38Well, I must do something.
24:58May has been a cold, stormy month.
25:08May I sit down, I have to call the
25:35Meow.
25:36Yeah, I'm going to leave my book.
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