Read Online Cherry by Sara Wheeler - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Sara Wheeler
Tags: nonfiction
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achievement. That was yet to come.
In June 1906, on the fiftieth anniversary of military operations in India, the General’s name appeared on the Birthday Honours List as a Companion of the Bath. He had been ill since the spring with an undiagnosed condition that made his legs swollen and painful. Apsley dashed back from Oxford whenever he could and sat for hours massaging his father’s calves. When the old man was no longer able to run the estate his son acted
in loco parentis
. At the age of twenty he helped organise a voluminous inventory and valuation for insurance purposes. The resulting document ran to more than two hundred pages, including twenty-nine pages listing the family silver. He began to seek the advice of Arthur Farrer, a friend and former neighbour of the General’s and a lawyer in his family firm in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London. 8 The relationship between Apsley and Farrer, one which was to last many decades, now shifted gently into professional gear.
That October, though it was term time, Apsley was back at home, attending to the General. He wrote to Farrer:
Father said he would very much like you to bring down the paper you spoke about. I hope you will pardon me for not telling him that it was not necessary for anyone to come, since I know that he very much likes to see you, so much so that I do not think you will mind the trouble though it must mean a lot to you. The Doctor says that it is impossible to say that he is any better, but he is not any worse, and, as was expected, the pain is leaving the right leg, which will enable him to be turned off his back, which is most important . . . Will you let me know yr day and train?
After Farrer’s visit, Apsley wrote again. ‘Sir Lander [the specialist] has just left. He says that he thinks Father is past the present crisis, but that he does not think he will recover quickly. Also he told me that though he does not say that Father will be actually crippled, he will never, he thinks, get about in the same way again . . . I only hope Father will not know this, if it is true . . .’
Some years previously the General had made a will, bequeathing appropriate portions to the girls, a life interest in Denford to Evelyn and the rest to his son. As was standard practice, the Lamer estate was entailed, which meant that it could not be sold or bequeathed to anyone except the heir by descent. Apsley in effect was to be the custodial owner until it passed to the next generation, as the General had been before him. But the old soldier had felt the winds of change. Seeing that things didn’t look good for landowners, he decided to free his son’s hand, and when Apsley turned twenty-one, on 2 January 1907, the General formally broke the entail. Fewer than forty years later, every inch of family land would be gone.
Back at Oxford, Apsley learned to fence during his third year, and in the autumn and summer, when there was no rowing practice, he took an early morning dip in the Cherwell. He progressed to the 2nd VIII, and, in the spring, to the transcendent glories of the 1st. Watching him on the river one morning, the boat club secretary noted in the log book that Cherry-Garrard ‘showed promise’, and in the autumn term of his fourth year he was duly given a trial for the University Boat Club. It was a tremendous honour, though he was not eventually selected, ‘being very short in the water and not giving his crew time’. In the summer he had just missed a place in the college 1st VIII. Christ Church went on to go Head of the River for the first time in forty-nine years, inciting scenes of extravagant debauchery. A few weeks later Apsley was ‘spare man’ at the Henley Royal Regatta, obliged to watch from the bank in his straw boater. He determined to do better next year.
He spent the second half of his third year darting between Hertfordshire and Oxford. In May 1907 the family’s old coachman, Hobbs, who had served the General and his horses since the
In June 1906, on the fiftieth anniversary of military operations in India, the General’s name appeared on the Birthday Honours List as a Companion of the Bath. He had been ill since the spring with an undiagnosed condition that made his legs swollen and painful. Apsley dashed back from Oxford whenever he could and sat for hours massaging his father’s calves. When the old man was no longer able to run the estate his son acted
in loco parentis
. At the age of twenty he helped organise a voluminous inventory and valuation for insurance purposes. The resulting document ran to more than two hundred pages, including twenty-nine pages listing the family silver. He began to seek the advice of Arthur Farrer, a friend and former neighbour of the General’s and a lawyer in his family firm in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London. 8 The relationship between Apsley and Farrer, one which was to last many decades, now shifted gently into professional gear.
That October, though it was term time, Apsley was back at home, attending to the General. He wrote to Farrer:
Father said he would very much like you to bring down the paper you spoke about. I hope you will pardon me for not telling him that it was not necessary for anyone to come, since I know that he very much likes to see you, so much so that I do not think you will mind the trouble though it must mean a lot to you. The Doctor says that it is impossible to say that he is any better, but he is not any worse, and, as was expected, the pain is leaving the right leg, which will enable him to be turned off his back, which is most important . . . Will you let me know yr day and train?
After Farrer’s visit, Apsley wrote again. ‘Sir Lander [the specialist] has just left. He says that he thinks Father is past the present crisis, but that he does not think he will recover quickly. Also he told me that though he does not say that Father will be actually crippled, he will never, he thinks, get about in the same way again . . . I only hope Father will not know this, if it is true . . .’
Some years previously the General had made a will, bequeathing appropriate portions to the girls, a life interest in Denford to Evelyn and the rest to his son. As was standard practice, the Lamer estate was entailed, which meant that it could not be sold or bequeathed to anyone except the heir by descent. Apsley in effect was to be the custodial owner until it passed to the next generation, as the General had been before him. But the old soldier had felt the winds of change. Seeing that things didn’t look good for landowners, he decided to free his son’s hand, and when Apsley turned twenty-one, on 2 January 1907, the General formally broke the entail. Fewer than forty years later, every inch of family land would be gone.
Back at Oxford, Apsley learned to fence during his third year, and in the autumn and summer, when there was no rowing practice, he took an early morning dip in the Cherwell. He progressed to the 2nd VIII, and, in the spring, to the transcendent glories of the 1st. Watching him on the river one morning, the boat club secretary noted in the log book that Cherry-Garrard ‘showed promise’, and in the autumn term of his fourth year he was duly given a trial for the University Boat Club. It was a tremendous honour, though he was not eventually selected, ‘being very short in the water and not giving his crew time’. In the summer he had just missed a place in the college 1st VIII. Christ Church went on to go Head of the River for the first time in forty-nine years, inciting scenes of extravagant debauchery. A few weeks later Apsley was ‘spare man’ at the Henley Royal Regatta, obliged to watch from the bank in his straw boater. He determined to do better next year.
He spent the second half of his third year darting between Hertfordshire and Oxford. In May 1907 the family’s old coachman, Hobbs, who had served the General and his horses since the
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