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immediatebreakfast · 3 months

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The disonance between the cantos of "In which Judgement is passed" and "In Which We Stop at an Inn" is truly fucked when we compare the situation between Constance de Beverley, and lord Marmion side by side.

Judgement is finally given to Constance, and her cellmate like it's a herald from god itself.

Till thus the Abbot’s doom was given, Raising his sightless balls to heaven:— “Sister, let thy sorrows cease; Sinful brother, part in peace!” From that dire dungeon, place of doom, Of execution too, and tomb, Paced forth the judges three,

Part in peace... there is something so dark about telling the people that you are condemning to a possible death to go in peace, or that their sorrows will cease.

Although, I have to ask if in this canto is where Constance gets... put into a wall because of the metaphors used to convey the sheer terror that comes to the unsuspecting people that are not aware of the judgement.

That conclave to the upper day; But, ere they breathed the fresher air, They heard the shriekings of despair, And many a stifled groan: With speed their upward way they take, Such speed as age and fear can make, And crossed themselves for terror’s sake,

Are these shrieks of despair Constance's doing? Because as the canto goes to describe the overall ambiance that surrounded this unsettling moment, the shrieks got duller, and quieter.

Meanwhile this fucked up idea of justice is happening, or happened depending on the timeline, we start the third canto in an inn where lord Marmion and his army are staying for the time being.

No summons calls them to the tower, To spend the hospitable hour. To Scotland’s camp the lord was gone; His cautious dame, in bower alone, Dreaded her castle to unclose, So late, to unknown friends or foes, On through the hamlet as they paced, Before a porch, whose front was graced With bush and flagon trimly placed, Lord Marmion drew his rein: The village inn seemed large, though rude:

Yeah Constance is going to get trapped inside a fucking wall, but look! Lord Marmion found a problem! The poor lord, and his army didn't get the hospitality they wanted because the Dame rightfully didn't want to open her home to a bunch of men she didn't know while her husband was gone.

And now we are in a inn. There is laughter, food, and a very warm reading in what we now as modern readers can associated with what a medieval inn constitutes. And yet, the dread didn't left because the Palmer, once again a theme figure in contrast to Marmion, and his army, acts in a ominous manner.

Resting upon his pilgrim staff, Right opposite the Palmer stood; His thin dark visage seen but half, Half hidden by his hood. Still fixed on Marmion was his look, Which he, who ill such gaze could brook, Strove by a frown to quell; But not for that, though more than once Full met their stern encountering glance, The Palmer’s visage fell.

Even if Constance's revenge is slowly building towards victory, she is still going to end up dead while Marmion enjoys (for now I hope) all of the privilegues of being an emisary to the king. It's literally a methaporical situation of the people serving the elite, Constance escaped with Marmion and dedicated a good chunk of her life to him, and he repaids her with abandoning her to force Clare to marry him.

The power imbalance is unreal, and it will feel so good when Marmion does a single misstep that brings all of his good fortune crashing down. Well, I hope it happens.

#Poor Constance tho #She still tried to kill Clare for “stealing” Marmion from her but being imprisoned inside a wall sounds like a nightmare #marmion daily #marmion #poetry

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thethirdromana · 4 months

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Me reading up to Canto II, verse XIX of Marmion: wow, this is a surprisingly chill description of Catholicism for a Presbyterian in the early 19th century.

Me reading Canto II, verse XX-XXV of Marmion: ohhhhh never mind.

#marmion daily #marmion book club #i mean the drunken friar wasn't the most positive depiction #but in fairness there are drunken friars all over the place in medieval literature

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warrioreowynofrohan · 4 months

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A few notes on the first two emails of Marmion!

First, I should have made this clearer - the titles of the posts/emails are made up by me, not part of the original poem. I did this to add some clarity. The detailed title of the first post is because, on my first reading of Marmion, I had to get a ways into the first canto, and then reread, before I had a clear sense of who was English, who was Scottish, and relations between them. (The mention of ‘St. George’s banner’ - the English flag - should have tipped me off about the castle being English, but it didn’t register.) And that’s pretty important for knowing what’s going on!

Second, this poem has a historical setting, but even when actual historical characters show up, it’s not intended to be an accurate historical depiction of the people and actions involved; there’s plenty of embellishment and modification for dramatic effect. (Marmion himself is entirely fictional.) It’s ‘about’ the battle of Flodden Field in the way that Captain America: The First Avenger is about WWII.

There’s a very distinct rhyme scheme and meter, but an inconsistent one, which can make it more difficult to read than something with a more stable rhyming scheme. There are eight syllables in the main lines, and six syllables in the indented ones (concluding a thought, or a breath?), and the emphases are on the second, fourth, sixth, and eighth syllables. This would be called a mix of iambic tetrameter (4 sets of 2 syllables, with the emphasis on the second syllable of each set) and iambic …trimeter? In contrast with the iambic pentameter (10 syllables) characteristic of Shakespeare.

A few definitions:

And joyfully that knight did call,

To sewer, squire, and seneschal.

I had to look this one up - ‘sewer’ in this older language means “person who set out table, placed guests, carried and tasted dishes, etc.” There’s still elements of this today in uses of the word ‘steward’ - the person in charge of the wine at a nice restarant might be called the wine steward.

The seneschal is the herald, who announces the guest.

Marmion’s coat of arms, appearing in several places, is a gold falcon on a blue field.

In the second post/email, the last canto in particular has a lot of uncommon words:

pursuivant: Similar to a herald (announces the guest), but lower-level

tabarts: Alternate spelling of tabards, a herald’s coat showing the coat of arms of their ruler

scutcheon: Abbreviation of escutcheon; usually a shield, but in this context probably a smaller piece of metal with the coat of arms on it

largesse: Tipping, for the aristocracy. Marmion’s being generous with it, so they praise him.

#marmion #marmion daily #marmion book club #poetry #sir walter scott

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oldshrewsburyian · 2 years

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Mina's Fun Seaside Getaway

Here goes Bram Stoker again, peppering in extremely ominous references to popular literature. It’s true that Marmion was written close to a century before Dracula, but it was written by the one and only Sir Walter Scott, whose works were wildly popular and widely reprinted throughout the 19th century. And Mina Murray, nerd queen, arriving in Whitby, is very excited to see not only the graveyard, but also:

the scene of part of "Marmion," where the girl was built up in the wall.

I was a bit surprised, to be honest, not to find people in the Dracula Daily tag going “where the girl was what?!?” Because yes. Not that Sir Walter had any real historical evidence for this practice (I have lovingly ragged on him elsewhere for his... idiosyncrasies in this regard.) Nevertheless, this is the climactic episode of Canto II of Marmion, which is almost exclusively devoted to history. The poem takes place in the very early 16th century, before the dissolution of the monasteries, but this section is mostly dedicated to discussing the history of Whitby Abbey, including its history of connections to the otherworldly. And Mina alludes to the key feature of Whitby Abbey in Marmion: it features people who are buried but not dead. Two people, to be precise. One is a wicked man who does murder for fun and profit. This might remind you of someone in our narrative. The other is a beautiful, sensual, trusting young woman with gorgeous golden ringlets. This might also remind you of someone in our narrative.

Everything is fine.

#dracula daily #marmion #sir walter scott #gothic #mina my love i am glad you are genre savvy you just need to apply this more #angst and literary allusions

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mzannthropy · 3 months

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I found this blogpost, in which the writer talks about a legend of ghost, a "grey lady" at Whitby Abbey, who is supposed to be Constance de Beverley from Marmion. Except she isn't, of course, bc it was Lindisfarne where Constance was walled up, and Whitby during her time would have been a monastery, so it would have housed monks, not nuns. So my guess is that when Mina was in Whitby, she heard the legend from the locals and noted it down in her diary, trusting their interpretation. Maybe she never read Marmion herself, or she did but a long time ago and doesn't remember all the details. (Look I forget most of the things I read/watch, so can't blame her.)

#marmion #mina murray #dracula daily #still doesn't explain who the ghost at whitby is #mypost

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daily-praise · 2 years

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Today’s Reflection The scholar wanted to know who qualified as his neighbor and in reply, the scholar received a reply that contained some irony, because the person who supplied hospitality and mercy was a Samaritan. However, today, this irony does not affect us as much. Because the hostility that existed is lost on us. Yet, it exists and I suppose that today it would be the hostility between the political left and right. Therefore, with this in mind, when Jesus made the hero an individual of ill repute to a Jew, Jesus is telling the scholar, and us that our neighbor is universal – it is everyone, not just those we like or get along with, and being hospitable to our neighbors and our enemies is important. For it is a means in which we can love God through loving our neighbor all the more.

Today’s Spiritual Links for October 3, 2022

Join the National Eucharistic Revival Today’s Mass Readings Today’s Reflection The Holy Rosary Liturgy of the Hours New American Bible Non-Scriptural Reading Prime Matters Church Life Journal

#Daily Praise #Catholic #Prayers #Blessed Columba Marmion

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sea-creatures-blog · 24 days

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At birth, leafy sea dragons are only around .8 inches (20 mm) long. Within one year, they can grow up to 7.9 inches (20 cm). They reach their mature length within their first two years of life

leafy sea dragon

What does it look like? Leafy sea dragons get their common name from the leaf-like appendages on their bodies. They resemble floating pieces of seaweed, which makes them difficult for predators to find in their natural habitat (it also makes them difficult for divers to see too, so anyone who sees one swimming in the wild is exceptionally lucky!). Most adults are green to yellowish-brown with thin bands or stripes across the body. They can reach a total length of 45 centimetres

Where does it live? The leafy sea dragon lives among rocky reefs, seaweed beds, seagrass meadows and on sand patches near weed covered reefs where it looks like drifting seaweed. This species has only been recorded from the southern coastline of Australia, from Jurien Bay Marine Park to Wilsons Promontory in Victoria. In WA, most sightings of leafy sea dragons are in Ngari Capes Marine Park (from Busselton to Augusta) and you might also be lucky enough to find one in Shoalwater Islands Marine Park or Marmion Marine Park

Sea dragons do not have any predators. Their combination of excellent camouflage, tough jointed plates and sharp dorsal spines offer adequate protection. Researchers have even observed sea dragons curling up to present predators with the row of menacing spines

Because leafy sea dragons are such fascinating and unique creatures, some people illegally collect them for their aquariums (they are totally protected). Unfortunately, leafy sea dragons that are removed by divers usually die quickly because their captors do not provide them with the correct live food daily. Other major threats to leafy sea dragons include pollution and excessive fertiliser run-off, as well as loss of their seagrass habitat

#shark-blog-stuff #sea life #sea creatures #horrorblog78 #strawberrycake78 #leafy sea dragon

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kroashent · 9 months

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Val-Cula Daily - Doki Doki Komuri Update

Last update in the Drac-log, checking in with the final plot threast of the last few days, the continuing adventures of Mina and Lucy-Chan.

Lucy arrives by train to Whitby, a seaside town in North Yorkshire. A common comment I see, and disagree with, is that the novel Dracula involves an "Old World" monster from the past entering a "new, modern world", Eastern superstition pushing into Western reason. Frankly, I find that reading to be lacking. As we saw in Jonathan's recipe-gathering travelogue, Eastern Europe is a vibrant place, just as connected to the modern world despite its remoteness and cultural distance. Likewise, in Mina's descriptions of Yorkshire, England has plenty of its own supernatural mysteries and centuries old history in play in Dracula.

The Larpool Viaduct was constructed in 1884, and would be a brand new example of Victorian engineering.

Whitby Abbey, described in the same paragraph, is a ruin for centuries by Stoker's time, having been built in 657 CE and confiscated by Henry VIII in 1538 CE. Like Dracula's Transylvania, drawing in contemporary law reviews and banking from all across Europe, England is a mix of the mundane and the supernatural in much the same way. Mina makes reference to a "White Lady" ghost who haunts ruins.

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Marmion, referenced as well, is a 1808 poem by Sir Walter Scott full of melodrama and intrigue. Per wikipedia, a summation:

The poem tells how Lord Marmion, a favourite of Henry VIII of England, lusts for Clara de Clare, a rich woman. He and his mistress, Constance De Beverley, forge a letter implicating Clare's fiancé, Sir Ralph De Wilton, in treason. Constance, a dishonest nun, hopes that her aid will restore her to favour with Marmion. When De Wilton loses the duel he claims in order to defend his honour against Marmion, he is obliged to go into exile. Clare retires to a convent rather than risk Marmion's attentions.

Constance's hopes of a reconciliation with Marmion are dashed when he abandons her; she ends up being walled up alive in the Lindisfarne convent for breaking her vows. She takes her revenge by giving the Abbess, who is one of her three judges, documents that prove De Wilton's innocence. De Wilton, having returned disguised as a pilgrim, follows Marmion to Edinburgh where he meets the Abbess, who gives him the exonerating documents. When Marmion's host, the Earl of Angus (Archibald Douglas) is shown the documents, he arms De Wilton and accepts him as a knight again. De Wilton's plans for revenge are overturned by the Battle of Flodden. Marmion dies on the battlefield, while De Wilton displays heroism, regains his honour, retrieves his lands, and marries Clare.

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Mina meets a man in a pictureque graveyard overlooking the bay. An accent assumes. Stoker is a great writer and Dracula ages incredibly well and reads smoothly... until you meet his accents.

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Mina receives one of the letters, via Mr. Hawkin's, that Dracula sent out in place of Jonathan. Mina immediately questions its veracity, because Mina is the smartest character in the book and doesn't get enough credit for this. She's distracted, however, by Lucy's habit of sleep-walking.

#dracula daily #Dracula #Whitby

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cassianus · 2 years

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"When a soul yields herself entirely, out of love, with closed eyes, to the guidance of Wisdom, of Omnipotence and Love, that is to say to God, 'all things work together unto good' for her. Jesus assures us that the Father's love is so tender, so vigilant that not even a hair of our head falls without His permission. That is the way for you; keep to it in spite of all the devil may do to get you out of it. . . .

The more I pray for you I see that your way is absolute and unreserved abandon. God will care for you just in so far as you cast yourself and all your cares on the bosom of His Paternal love and providence. When, in His presence, in the darkness of faith, adore Him in His ways, in His providence, His often unfathomable wisdom. Then cast yourself on His bosom just as a child. Unless you become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. He will treat you as you treat Him and give you that 'joy and peace in believing' of which St. Paul speaks. Offer Him a daily holocaust of all sensitiveness, leaving yourself and all that concerns you in His loving care. 'Cast thy care upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee."

(Blessed Columba Marmion)

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riszellira · 1 year

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Reflection: The Joy That Comes from God

There will be problems, discouragements, tragedies, and sorrows in life, but that does not mean there will be no more joy. The Gospel today gives an example: “You will weep and lament, you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy and no one will take your joy away from you.” The good thing about Christian joy is that it is an overflowing grace from a conviction that God is present in one’s life.

The French philosopher Teilhard de Chardin says: “Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.” In the same way, the Irish Blessed Dom Columba Marmion says, “Joy is the echo of God’s life within us.” A religious sister or nun who wears a sad face, as if recently widowed, cannot claim that she has Christ in her life. The joy of possessing Christ is an undeniable event that cannot be hidden or controlled.

Someone who has Jesus in his life will consequently have an irresistible joy in the totality of his personhood. The English anchoress, Julian Norwich, says, “The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything.”

When you include God in making decisions, in planning your projects, in the little details of your daily activities, you will find joy in relating to Him the defeats and victories of your day. When a person becomes complicated, he forgets the simplicity of talking to Jesus like talking to a real person. He tends to put Jesus at a pedestal, like a theory far distant from his concerns.

Genuine joy comes from simply having Christ each day in the minute details of our lives. In the office, in the laboratory, in school, in the kitchen, in every place where we can converse with Him, there we find joy in relating with Him.

Joy is rooted in a deep, loving relationship with God. Joy that comes from Him is the foundation of all our projects in life. It cannot be quenched.

~Fr. Haluendo Amit, OCD

Recall instances when you truly felt joy coming from your deep, loving relationship with God. Share these experiences with someone.

Your presence in my life is enough to give me joy, my Lord! Amen.

Prayer

… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn.

… for the strength and healing of the sick.

… for the healing and peace of all families.

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.

GOD BLESS!

#reflection #prayer

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immediatebreakfast · 4 months

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Ok, so I admit that I'm a little bit confused with the storyline told from the canto XII to the canto XVI when the Saint Hilda nuns finally arrived in Lindisfarne, and are meeting the local nuns there.

Yes the first stanzas tell how the Saint Hilda nuns walked through Lindisfarne to satisfy their curiosity about this new place, all clear with sharp sea-breeze. The confunsion comes when they start to tell the tales of their Saints.

And all, in turn, essayed to paint The rival merits of their saint, A theme that ne’er can tire A holy maid; for, be it known, That their saint’s honour is their own.

This is the start of a comparison of what I can understand is the Saint they dedicated their life to, and their deeds to gain the title of saint. This is where I got confused since I misread the structure of the tales, and somehow forgot that the nuns of Whitby were the Saint Hilda nuns, and the nuns of Lindisfarne were the Saint Cuthber nuns. I mixed them in between the lines.

However, this is where I got confused.

They told, how in their convent cell A Saxon princess once did dwell, The lovely Edelfled. And how, of thousand snakes, each one Was changed into a coil of stone When holy Hilda prayed; Themselves, within their holy bound, Their stony folds had often found. They told, how sea-fowls’ pinions fail, As over Whitby’s towers they sail, And, sinking down, with flutterings faint, They do their homage to the saint.

Is this part about how the nuns themselves are safe within the walls of their church along with the protection of Saint Hilda while telling how her prayers turned a thousand snakes into stone? Or are they talking about how by praying to Saint Hilda, and paying homage to her, then they become as strong as Whitby walls?

Nor long was his abiding there, For southward did the saint repair; Chester-le-Street, and Rippon, saw His holy corpse, ere Wardilaw Hailed him with joy and fear; And, after many wanderings past, He chose his lordly seat at last, Where his cathedral, huge and vast, Looks down upon the Wear: There, deep in Durham’s Gothic shade, His relics are in secret laid; But none may know the place, Save of his holiest servants three, Deep sworn to solemn secrecy, Who share that wondrous grace.

On the other very confused hand, the nuns of Lindisfarne did not tell the tales of Saint Cuthbert, but how his corpse then what I can assume bones are resting in Lindisfarne now. And that makes the site on itself holy? I do understand how the presence of the remains of a saint can purify, and bless a place, but the way the nuns explained it was very roundabout which is something that I expect.

#Are these canto parts about two groups of nuns telling how their Saint is the most awesome Saint ever????#marmion daily #marmion #poetry

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seekfirst-community · 1 year

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The Feast of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order.

"Jesus summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it.

"What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? What could one give in exchange for his life?

"Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

"He also said to them, “Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the Kingdom of God has come in power.” (Mark 8: 34 - 9: 11).

Friday 17th February 2023 in the 6th Week of Ordinary Time is the feast of the Seven Holy Brothers of the Servite Order, also known as the Order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

On Friday, April 13, 1240, the hermits received a vision of Our Lady, who told them:

"You will found a new order, and you will be my witnesses throughout the world. This is your name: Servants of Mary. This is your rule: that of Saint Augustine. And here is your distinctive sign: the black scapular, in memory of my sufferings."

Ecclesiastical recognition for the order as a religious order was given in 1304. They lead a life of prayer and penance.

Our reflection is from the Gospel of today: The Cost of Discipleship. Being a disciple of Jesus is not easy. It was not easy for the first Apostles: Peter, Paul, Andrew, James and John, etc.

It was not easy for the seven saints we celebrate today. The Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order.

It was not easy for the young St Therese of Lisieux from whom I learned so much about the gentle yoke of Jesus.

It is Jesus Himself in His locution to a Benedictine mystic in IN SINU JESU who showed me that I too can bear His sweet and gentle yoke tailor-made for me.

"Suffering, for you, is the humble acceptance of every [every pain, eg nerve end] limitation, fatigue, humiliation, disappointment, and sorrow. It is the joyful acceptance of infirmity and weakness. It is adhesion to all the manifestations of My will [mysterious], especially those that you are incapable of understanding in the present moment. Suffering offered in love is precious in My sight. Accept the sufferings that I allow and that I will for you; thus will you participate in My Passion through patience and accomplish the mission that I have entrusted to you." (IN SINU JESU - pg 146).

A most recent testimony of the simple spirituality of St Therese of the Child Jesus is Blosius.

"Blosius, a great Benedictine mystic, says that the best form of mortification is to accept with all our heart, in spite of our repugnance, all that God sends or permits, good and evil, joy and suffering. I try to do this. Let us try to do it together, and to help one another to reach that absolute abandonment into the hands of God…."

Blessed Columba Marmion, o.s.b.

Anyone who wants can be a disciple of Jesus and bear his cross daily in His walk with Jesus. As St Therese teaches: You will discover that it is Christ inside you that enables you to bear the Cross.

Daily Bible Verse @ SeekFirstcommunity.com

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warrioreowynofrohan · 5 months

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A note for readers of Wildfell Weekly (as well as others): the book that Gilbert buys for Helen Graham, Marmion by Sir Walter Scott, appears to have been extremely popular in its time; it is mentioned by characters in several other famous novels of the 1800s.

St. John Rivers buys it for Jane in Jane Eyre:

“I have brought you a book for evening solace,” and he laid on the table a new publication—a poem: one of those genuine productions so often vouchsafed to the fortunate public of those days—the golden age of modern literature. Alas! the readers of our era are less favoured.”

…While I was eagerly glancing at the bright pages of “Marmion” (for “Marmion” it was)…

…I had closed my shutter, laid a mat to the door to prevent the snow from blowing in under it, trimmed my fire, and after sitting nearly an hour on the hearth listening to the muffled fury of the tempest, I lit a candle, took down “Marmion,” and beginning—

“Day set on Norham’s castled steep,

And Tweed’s fair river broad and deep,

And Cheviot’s mountains lone;

The massive towers, the donjon keep,

The flanking walls that round them sweep,

In yellow lustre shone”—

I soon forgot storm in music.

It is also mentioned by Mina in Dracula (though she, or Stoker, makes a small error - the scene mentioned involves characters from Whitby Abbey, but occurs in Lindisfarne, a tidal island that was also, long ago, the home of the illuminated Lindisfarne Gospels):

Right over the town is the ruin of Whitby Abbey, which was sacked by the Danes, and which is the scene of part of “Marmion,” where the girl was built up in the wall.

The book is a poetic epic set at the time of the Battle of Flodden Field (1513); I like the poetry a great deal, and the plot is nicely dramatic and Romantic, despite values dissonance (I do not find the title character as sympathetic as Scott does).

All this is to say - would people be interested in reading this story beloved by so many of our favourite characters? I could put it together as a Substack newsletter and email it out a little a day (probably for a few months total) starting in the new year. It’s not long (about 150 pages), it’s a good read with excellent poetic cadences and lots of high drama and imagery, and it gives a sense of what was popular among people who enjoyed the Gothic and Romantic.

#wildfell weekly #jane eyre #dracula #dracula daily #mina murray #the tenant of wildfell hall #marmion #sir walter scott

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flotsam-gazette · 1 year

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The Bohemian Brownes/ Arroyo Seco

The Bohemian Brownes of the Arroyo Seco

Los Angeles' Arroyo Seco of one hundred years ago was a frontier, a rocky wilderness of chaparral and oak. Such a landscape was ideal for that set of Southern California bohemians, whose ideals and aesthetics were inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, valuing craftsmanship, beauty, nature, and community.

Settling along the Arroyo Seco, between Pasadena and Highland Park, these inhabitants created what Kevin Starr calls the "Arroyoan ideal: the spiritualization of daily life through an aestheticism tied to crafts and local materials," that is "expressed primarily through the home." 1

While the most familiar symbols of Southern California's Arts and Crafts movement remain architectural -- the Gamble House of Pasadena being the most prominent of examples -- fine printing was a craft that flourished among the movement's adherents. One such adherent, Clyde Browne, was a self-identified printer and Arroyo culture character who combined both architecture and fine printing to express his deep regard for the movement's principles.

Clyde Browne is not typically recognized as a Southern California fine printer along the lines of Ward Ritchie or Grant Dahlstrom, although he certainly acted as a mentor to those who are considered exemplary craftspeople of fine print. In a telling recollection appearing in a 1948 Book Club of California newsletter, the author recalls asking an unnamed director of a California library that collected fine printing if his institution held Browne imprints.

The director haughtily replied, "Heavens no! He never made the grade." 2

Although Browne's printed work might not be found in collections of fine printing, evidence of his determination, creativity and craftsmanship can be located at North Figueroa Street, boarded by Marmion Way to the north and Arroyo Glen Street to the south, where his Abbey San Encino, built by his own hands, stands in a neighborhood that used to be the old Garvanza section of Los Angeles.

Browne was a fortunate man who was able to make his living off of what he loved to do -- printing. He started his life in printing when he was only 15, working with the Petaluma Imprint for about one year before taking on a position as an apprentice cabin boy on a Pacific Mail steamer, and then as a seaman for the Oceanic Steamship Company.

Upon returning to San Francisco in 1893 Browne served with a number of Bay Area newspapers, including the Marin County Tocsin, the San Francisco Call, Bulletin and Examiner, the Sausalito News, and the Petaluma Argus and Courier, leaving printing shortly to make a living as a piano player on San Francisco's Barbary Coast.

In 1902 or 1903, he moved his wife and small son, Laurence, to Los Angeles. His wife died shortly after the relocation, and soon after her death Browne took a job in the press room of the Los Angeles Examiner. While working there Browne met Grace Wassum, a typesetter who worked in the proof room of the newspaper. The couple married in 1907, settling for a short while on Fifth and Hill Streets, before purchasing a large piece of land nestled in the rocky hills of the Arroyo Seco. Leaving behind his job at the Examiner after a labor dispute, Browne began to concentrate on his goal of creating a "studio of fine printing", envisioning "a print shop with numerous real old-time printers hand-setting type, each printer adorned with whiskers or a full beard." 3

Despite being shorn of any whiskers and modern-minded enough to realize the necessity of a typesetting machine for his printing operation, Browne's notions on printing were firmly set in the traditions of the Roycroft Movement. Roycroft, meaning King's craft, was a variant of the Arts and Crafts Movement, founded by Elbert Hubbard in 1895. Inspired by English printer William Morriss' Kelmscott Press, Hubbard built his own private press to beautifully print his own manuscripts. The Roycroft Press grew into a community of printers, furniture makers, metal smiths, leather smiths and bookbinders in East Aurora, New York. Their creed, of working with the head, hand, and heart and mixing enough play with the work so that every task is pleasurable and makes for health and happiness, must have appealed greatly to Browne. Browne's desire to create a Roycrofters-like community based in the Arroyo Seco, coupled with his aesthetic appreciation of heavy stone, neo-monastic architecture (both that of the European medieval and California Mission styles) informed the purpose and design of the Abbey San Encino. And so he began laying out the plans for his Abbey San Encino in picas - a typographic unit of measure.

Through the years 1915 and 1929 Browne ran afoot and afar, searching out materials for his home "like a dove seeking the olive branch, returning with bits for the walls" and toiled away on a variety of sophisticated construction projects. 4 During the construction years Browne did much of the work himself, but in the year 1921 there was much headway made in the construction as George Ferguson, Jose Corrales, and his son Dario assisted with the masonry. For the walls of his printers' abbey, chapel, cellar, and dungeon Browne used stones gathered from the Arroyo Seco, building a narrow gauge railway with a mine car to haul in the boulders. The railway was named the C.B. and J. Railway -- C.B. for Clyde Browne and J. for his young son Jack (whose birth name was Clyde Browne II, but who almost immediately became known as "Jack"). Along with the Arroyo Seco stone, the colony of buildings was fabricated with stones from Mount Washington, Monrovia Canyon, and Calabasas; granite blocks from a destroyed building that had formerly stood on Grand Avenue; and bricks from an abandoned brick yard, an old poultry yard and the garden of the Mission San Gabriel.

For the bells of the chapel's bell tower Browne scavenged the school bell from Garvanza Elementary School, and bells from a Southern Pacific train and a local fire engine. The windows of the chapel came from a Van Nuys hotel bar that had been shuttered during Prohibition. The frames and timbers of his doors came from railroad ties he would char to show age, their locks and keys also fabricated by Browne. He also carved an eight foot tall grandfather clock, inspired by the bell tower of the Mission San Gabriel, out of a single oak timber and the pipe organ in the chapel was shipped from Germany, but assembled by Browne, who recorded its assembly in a manuscript.

Inside the abbey the interiors were decorated with a hodge podge of scavenged relics and collected treasures. The metal ornaments of the chapel were pounded and shaped from the bodies of old automobiles. Friends gifted Browne with a gargoyle cast from a mold used to produce gargoyles for the Cathedral of Notre Dame, stones from Westminster Abbey and bolts from the Tower of London to decorate his dungeon. Stained glass artists at Highland Park's Judson Studios created a circular window showing a Franciscan printer and an Indian operating a hand press -- a depiction Browne claimed "to represent the first [press] in the Californias, the one at San Francisco Solano Mission which was later used to print manifestos after the Bear Flaggers took charge." 5 Historian Kevin Starr objects to the depiction as "historically untrue" as the Franciscans of California never ran a printing press. 6 While, in fact, this image might be historically inaccurate -- it was Augustin Vicente Zamarano who first brought a Ramage Press to Monterey in 1831, not the Franciscans at the Solano Mission -- it does speak to Brown's deepest ambition to build and foster a community of diverse artisan and craftspeople, dedicated to fine handmade, well-designed goods. Browne admired the image so much he sometime used it as his printers mark.

Browne had set up a small print shop in his home at the Abbey San Encino shortly after moving to Highland Park. In April of 1910 he printed the first number in a periodical titled The Anti, an Iconoclastic Potpourri, Printed for Toilers by a Toiler and for All Who Care for the Different Things. The periodical ceased upon the death of his infant son, William. Also in 1910 Browne began a partnership with Alexander B. Cartwright. Under the imprint Browne and Cartwright they published the "Frosh Bible" for Occidental College. Browne became the college's "semi-official" printer, printing the Student's Handbook, the weekly Occidental, the campus literary magazine Sabretooth, the Occidental Alumnus, a few volumes of La Encina, the campus yearbook, and hundreds of pamphlets, programs, menus and handbills. Browne also printed University of Southern California's daily newspaper and did some job printing for Pasadena College, all while he was also working on the construction of his great Abbey San Encino.

Once completed, the Abbey resembled a ranch-style home, with rooms and studios laid end to end, and encircling a shady courtyard. A wood frame house crawled two to three stories up a hill, housing the Browne family, with the attached apartments home to a variety of tenants, including a painter, wrought iron worker, wood-block cutter, cactus grower, dressmaker, an earthworm grower, and married authors Lanier and Virginia Bartlett , who wrote "Adios!" (1929) and "Los Angeles in 7 Days, Including Southern California" (1932). Scott E. Haselton, a secretary to the Cactus and Succulent Society of America, editor of the society's journal, and later printer for the Abbey Garden Press in Pasadena, also lived at the Abbey. Browne helped Haselton with the layout work for the society's journals and other printed materials.

Browne's printers' abbey was a haven for many of the printers making up Los Angeles' fine printing and bibliophile scene. The printshop was professionally equipped with a Linotype machine, a drum cylinder press, a Kluge automatic feeder platen press, and a hand fed platen press. House Olsen was employed at the Abbey around 1923. He would go on to open the Castle Press with Roscoe Thomas in 1931, using Browne's type and equipment to produce their first pieces. Carl Bigsby also worked for Browne's print shop, later becoming owner of the Compton Printing Company. He may best be known in Los Angeles cemetery lore -- his gravestone, located in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, is a replica of the Atlas 10B missile launched by the United States in December of 1958. Ward Ritchie and Lawrence Clark Powell rented a studio from Browne, paying him a dollar to use the abbey's printing equipment on Sundays. Powell would later become the head librarian of UCLA's William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, and Ward Ritchie would become one of Los Angeles' most highly regarded fine printer, bibliophile and the founding secretary of the Rounce & Coffin Club, a Southern California book collectors club.

While acting as a mentor to many novice printers Browne continued to run his printing business. Along with his printing jobs for the local colleges, Browne found much work printing handsome engagement announcements, wedding invitations, and birth announcements for the three to five happy couples who would wed weekly in his chapel at the Abbey San Encino.

Browne would sometimes perform as the organ player for these nuptials.

Browne also continued to write and print his own works, including Cloisters of California (1917), which floridly described the California missions and Abbey Fantasy (1929) and Olden Abbey of San Encino (1932) both pamphlets about his Abbey San Encino. He also encouraged his son Jack to pursue the printing craft. Together they shared the imprint "The Fathersonian Press" on How to Live Life (1929) and on a monograph celebrating Jack's marriage called A Couple of Good Scouts (1940).

Browne's last printed piece was a reprint of Ben C. Truman's Tiburcio Vasquez, the Life, Adventure, and Capture of the Great California Bandit and Murderer. Work on the book began in 1941, but Browne fell very ill before he finished. His son Jack completed the book, issuing a limited 100 copies.

Browne died on July 1, 1942 at the Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles.

After Browne's death Jack Browne closed his father's press, sold much of the printing equipment, and enlisted in the army. Stationed in Germany, he worked on the army newspaper Stars and Stripes and played piano in a ragtime band.

Browne remained in Germany after the war and it wasn't until 1951 that Browne, his wife, Beatrice, and their children

Berbie,

Jackson, and

Severin

moved back to California, returning to Clyde Browne's Abbey San Encino.

Jackson Browne was three years old when he moved back into the old Browne family home, but by the time he was twelve his parents had decided it was time to leave Highland Park. "We were starting to become delinquents, carrying chains," said Jackson. He and a friend were caught smoking, and when his friend returned the cop's admonishment with backtalk, they were searched. Jackson held "a mini-arsenal" of chains, a straight-edged German razor and his father's lifted cigarettes. 7

Jackson's time at the Abbey was over, for now, and the family moved into a tract community in Orange County's Fullerton.

As a teenager in 1960s-era Fullerton, Jackson tried various hobbies but nothing quite engaged him like beach hootenannies, guitars, folk music (he especially liked the Los Angeles band The Byrds) and psychedelics. Jackson's craft as a teenage singer-songwriter was influenced by the Southern California folk rock scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s, where hippies and musicians flocked to live among the beauty and nature of Laurel and Topanga canyons, "where musicians gathered in enclaves, up in the hills where the streets turn into dirt roads, and there is a feeling of deeply buried privacy. Amidst the cacti and other exotic vegetation and the tall, majestic palm trees any kind of creativity is enhanced." 8

As a young member of this exceptional group of Southern Californian musicians, who included Linda Ronstadt, J.D. Souther, Van Dyke Parks, and Graham Nash, Jackson flourished. By the time he was eighteen, he had written "These Days," been a short-term member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and was combating his shyness well enough to do some gigs in New York City, backing German singer Nico to an audience of Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, and rock critic Richard Meltzer. Jackson released his self-titled debut album in 1972, to be followed by "For Everyman" in 1973.

The cover of "For Everyman" showed Jackson sitting in a rocker in the shady courtyard of the Abbey San Encino, a beautiful Native American throw at his side, perhaps as a nod to an aesthetic most appreciated by the Arts and Crafts bohemians of the Arroyo Seco of his grandfather's time.

In 1974 Jackson returned to live in the Abbey San Encino with this then-girlfriend Phyllis who was expecting his child. The story of their romance was told in the song "Ready or Not," included on the "For Everyman" album -- in short, he meets her in a bar after getting knocked out by an actor who was bothering her. On his return to the Abbey Jackson remarked, "That house, it's funny, but I've always known I'd live there again some day. I have a real appreciation for the bare walls and plants, and I have a real appreciation for family too. My grandfather was an incredible person. Even back in 1906, he was totally unhappy with modern things. He built that house like something out of the past -- with a pipe organ and stained glass and a choir loft. And now I'm gonna be a father there, in the house where I was a child." 9

Though Clyde Browne and Jackson Browne never met in person, it seems their spirits met in the Abbey San Encino. Both were bohemians who were active in socio-cultural movements in which ideals of beauty and nature informed their craft. Clyde Browne demonstrated his adherence to the principles of beauty, nature and craftsmanship in the construction of his Abbey San Encino and Jackson in the writing and performance of his songs.

The Abbey San Encino stands sturdy in its place in the Arroyo Seco and is now occupied by Jackson's older brother Severin, also a musician. It is occasionally open for tours. Jackson Browne continues to release albums and will be embarking on a solo acoustic tour this summer. Contrary to the inclinations of the previously mentioned unnamed library director, Clyde Browne's printed works can be are held in Special Collections at Occidental College Library and at the UCLA's William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.

[CORRECTION: The article previously mentioned that the circular stained glass window came from a Van Nuys hotel. It was actually manufactured by Judson Studios, while the chapel windows had come from the hotel.]

FURTHERMORE:

https://am-records.com/2019/04/09/a-jackson-browne-study-part-one/

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/off-the-beaten-tracks-a-jackson-browne-study-part-2/

https://musicianguide.com/biographies/1608004205/Jackson-Browne.html

https://www.jacksonbrowne.com/news/jackson-browne-on-cancel-culture-his-shelf-life-and-how-to-survive-rush-hour-in-l-a/

DADDY’s TUNE (1976, on The. Pretender) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSLRDEZZjV4 _____