February | 2025 | nathanguitars

Monthly Archives: February 2025

February 26, 2025 · 6:56 pm

Saints Alive!

Another HV Morton arrived in the mail today, from the UK. This one is entitled In Search of Ireland, and it was published in 1930. Eagerly inspecting the photos, I came across one depicting the town (village?) of Glendalough, a place associated with St. Kevin, one of the patron saints of Ireland. How the world has changed since 1930. I wish I could return to that time, if only to see the places Morton saw before they were ruined by cars, roads, wars, developers and overgrowth. What would this view show us today?

*Glendalough, the place* – *with 2 lakes*

I’ve never had the pleasure of visiting the Emerald Isle, so for now I will content myself with the book. Morton brings to life the places he visits, which explains the fact that this volume is from the 16th printing in 1943. It is not an autograph edition, at least not by the author, but autographed nevertheless, by Lt. L.W.H. Pollard, R.N.R. He must have been proud of his rank, that chap.

In keeping with the design themes that Morton’s books followed, this book is bound in green cloth and has a shamrock cluster embossed on the front cover. How Irish!

I wonder what the girls of Connemara look like today? Ripped jeans, leaning on a Tesla?

Last Christmas I bought my wife a bottle of Glendalough Irish Whiskey, and that is how I learned about St Kevin. History from whiskey bottles. I used to read cereal boxes, but they didn’t have much to teach, and never anything about saints.

Every Morton book of travel includes maps showing where he went. In this case he went all around Ireland, hitting most of the well known spots. Ireland isn’t that large, so I suppose Morton could scarcely have done less travelling and gotten enough material for a book.

Now to finish up reading Morton’s “In The Steps of St Paul”, so I can delve into Ireland of 1930!

Engraved Invitation

I found this invitation in an old book of Kipling’s Songs. 97 years old and looks brand new. My Dad used to say “are you waiting for an engraved invitation or what?”. Well, now I know what he meant. This is from a world that is long gone, and I miss it. Especially the carriages at 11.45 pm. The good news is that the Masonic Hall and the old Grammar School are still there in Uddingston, a small Scottish town near Glasgow, by the River Clyde. There is a new Grammar School however, so no idea what the old one is now used for. The Masons are still meeting in their hall, from what I discovered.

Meanwhile, here in Victoria BC, we are busy tearing down everything in sight in order to build more apartments, like the Soviet Union. Nobody can stop the government mandate for housing quotas. This is how governments react in knee jerk fashion to the fact that housing prices have gone through the roof and no one can afford to buy or rent, unless they are rich or have a very high paid job. Not like the days when I bought a house for 2 years salary, with a few thousand down. Today, we are facing reno-viction by a public housing corporation, no less. Townhouses, the “missing middle” are suddenly not good enough, so they too will fall to the wrecker’s ball and be replaced with a large apartment block. Welcome to the Orwellian future.

Well, all this peeves me greatly, but all I can do is gripe and write songs about it. Here’s the latest one, called Modern Day Blues. Every word is true.