Sarah Porter ends her year in South East Asia with a return through Greece and England. Here are some snapshots to complete our Keeping Up with Sarah Porter series.

Corfu – In Search of Steve McQueen

Athens -In Search of the Elgin Marbles

Wiltshire – In Search of Law Ancestry

Many thanks to Sarah for sharing her travels with the clan, and best wishes as she begins business school in the Big Apple this fall.

LC

Thus did Time Magazine (April 15, 1946) title their sports recap of that year’s English Grand National steeplechase. This horse race has special relevance to the family for reasons you will learn. But first here is Time’s rundown:

The English bookies, loaded down with big bets on the favorite in the Grand National, stood to lose up to $20 million if he won. The favorite: Prince Regent. In the 103rd running of the famed steeplechase at Aintree, one of the bookies’ best hopes was Symbole, a big French horse. But Symbole fell at dreaded Becher’s Brook, and had to be killed. With two fences still to go, only six of the 34 starters in the world’s toughest jumping course were still in the race—and Prince Regent was ten lengths ahead. The bookies were sweating.

At that point, a redheaded amateur jockey on a bay Irish gelding, running second, saw the favorite tiring. Jockey Bobby Petre, an ex-major in the Scots Guards and a veteran of Normandy and Italy, gave Lovely Cottage a crack of the whip (“He’s dead lazy, you know!”). At the final fence, Lovely Cottage was only two lengths behind. Then lazy Lovely Cottage—bred in County Cork and bought four months ago for $8,000 through a newspaper ad—spurted ahead, won by four lengths. Prince Regent came in third. The win was worth $35,320 to his owner, John Morant, a well-to-do ex-captain of artillery. Lovely Cottage paid off at 25 to 1, and the bookies wiped their brows.

Winning jockey Capt Bobby Petre was husband to Delphine Chambers Chichester and thus was a clansman by marriage.

For those of us not familiar with English horse racing some background is in order. The Grand National is considered by many the world’s most famous National Hunt handicap horse race. It has been run in April each year at Aintree in England since 1839. From the Grand National World site:

Often called the world’s greatest steeplechase, The Grand National is one of the most famous steeplechases in the world. It is a unique test of horsemanship for the rider and also a test of a great significance for a horse….Horses and riders have to contend with drop fences that is to say that the landing side of the fence is lower than the take off side and this means the horse approaching the fence is unaware of this fact until in the air. There are also fences where the landing side is higher than the take off side and this is an extra test of ability for the horses that run in the race.

Halfway through the course is a fence with a 90 degree turn after the jump which is another chance to test a horse and riders ability to stay balanced and at the end of four and a half miles there is a long run in to the finish line which when tired can take a lot of getting.

All this adds up to a true test for horse and jockey and that is why The Grand National is the race that most jockeys owners and trainers want to win.

Tersh Skinner alerted us to the existence of this incredible YouTube footage of the Grand National of 1946. Here is the video – the amazing courage of these riders is unlike anything you’ve seen before.

For those interested, Wikipedia has an excellent article on this illustrious race and its history.

Many thanks to Tersh Skinner for notifying us about this video.

LC

Keeping up with Katherine Law (KUKL) Part I

As you may know, Katherine is studying Mandarin in China and is keeping family appraised of her doings. Here is what she writes:

“Hello, all is well here in China, I’m settling down to the life of a student in the dorms, with dictionaries, calligraphy books, internet connection, tea pots and water bottles, food, room, subway and Id cards. I am having a wonderful time and am making progress with my Chinese.

Anne Mao and Gu, Qun’s friends and Virginia Moore helped introduce me to China. Lunch and breakfast with Virginia from restaurants with wonderful river views: the barge traffic waiting to take advantage of the tide and then the river is full of barges with the ferry weaving in and out between. Huge cranes such as Virginia and Mark use working their way up river.

Anne and Gu took me to Pudong and we arrived just as a storm was threatening: skyscrapers against a matte gray sky, just glittering….hours in the shanghai art museum-just fabulous.

I have visited Tian’an men square, the Forbidden City with its outstanding palace museum, a taoist temple with priests chanting. Just wonderful and then walking the streets and seeing wonderful sights, people out dancing to music set up in a park, exercising, playing cards, making wonderful flowers and birds out of palm leaves, such as we know for Easter, rows of bicycles outside the subway station, such a good public transport system.”

Here are some of the photos that Katherine has sent:

 

Dongyue temple, Beijing. The Dongyue temple is a Taoist temple and these are priests heading to the altar to chant and play musical instruments, oblivious of the few tourists sightseeing in their temple. The altar is laden with platters of fresh fruit. Several flags flutter displaying the traditional yin-yang symbol. In the courtyard of the temple are numerous rooms, each one representing a Department.

Here is the Department which controls the demons that roam around and makes them behave. One of my friends in Malaysia goes around the world giving Qigong breathing workshops for cancer patients. Qigong breathing has a connection with Daoism.

Me on the Bund, Shanghai. This is a wonderful restaurant right on the Bund with terrace seating and surround views of SOME of the skyscrapers in Pudong. The sun is so bright, so one needs to think of bright, bright light hitting the steel frames of these structures. To see what one is taking one has to take cover with an umbrella or big hat, otherwise it is click and shoot. Just imagine Pudong this way: right before a storm gleaming silver structures against a matte gray sky. Absolutely striking. Entrepreneurs are trying to work with some of the old buildings and rehabilitate them.

Weapon, Xia dynasty, 1800 +/- BC, Shanghai Art Museum. This is my first-ever viewing of a Xia object. How exciting. It is inlaid with turquoise. The exhibits are arranged by material, so jade, calligraphy, painting, coins, bronzes, porcelain, seals, etc. And within each exhibit one travels through the dynasties viewing just that art form. This time table format of exhibiting is fascinating. One does not have to love what is under one’s eyes as if this is what there is and it is Chinese and so just love it. One has a wealth of objects from each dynasty and one can wait until the jewel appears and then say “Ah, this is the one I love!”

 

We look forward to further postings from Katherine. She has had difficulty posting to her Ling in China site and for now we will carry her postings…