Loading...
Loading...

Gretel le Maître likes to look for the beauty and curiosities in life, one day at a time. She shares with you snippets from books about history, art and literature and regularly takes you on adventures to new locations, to explore churches, cathedrals and architecture.
Gretel invites you to accompany her as she navigates the world a day at a time; the podcast is unscripted, it’s ad-free.
Gretel loves the world and history, architecture, literature and people. And so is determined to walk this path with light footsteps and with humour and warmth. Let’s gather up the beautiful things and ponder them in our hearts.
Top 10 in Global Rankings according to Listen Notes. I would be so grateful if you would spare the time to give me a kind review and possibly 5 stars (for effort as I realise it’s not deserved for achievement)🥴
Previous guests include historian Tom Holland; Actor Enzo Cilenti; Art historian Philip Mould; Writer David Willem; Composer Matthew Coleridge; Vicar Angela Tilby; Author Bijan Omrani; Journalist and Historian Sir Simon Jenkins; Dorset garden hedgehog family, the Venerable Bede and other guests.
Future guests (all being well) are Tom Holland, John Simpson, Eleanor Parker, Philippa Langley and Katie Channon.
Unpolished and unscripted but no ads and no requests for anything but your company. Trying to make the world a gentler place with literature, history and nature. Please don’t expect to find a...
Music
Hello, and a very good afternoon. This is Gretel speaking from Dorchester. I'm in the
centre of the town and I've come here on a very sunny day. It's only about a half
an hour drive from where I live and it's beautiful to come here. It is quite a
rundown town centre in the centre that it's got, it's got kind of poor shops and
so on, but it's always very bustling and it's not rundown in the sense that I
don't know, it's not populated. Everyone seems to enjoy coming here. There's a
lovely bustle this morning, so I thought I would take some pictures, get some of
the old buildings in the sunshine and take some pictures, but I wonder what
you're up to this Saturday and whether you're okay and what stresses and
strains you're facing and whether you're coping all right or not and how
relentless your grief is if you're grieving or your pain is if you're in pain
and but maybe you're free from all of it and you're you're having an
unclouded sunshiney sort of day where you feel free of all worries and
worries so whatever you're feeling today I send you my love and best wishes
and as I speak I'm breathing in the smaker someone sitting beside me but
actually I don't mind I used to have the old cigarette and I didn't really
mind it but I'm now going to walk off and get in take some pictures and I'll
probably record from inside the museum by for now. There's a girl singing one
of my favourite songs yellow by Coldplay and I haven't got any money but I
would record a little bit so I'm trying get some money out for her I let you
listen to it for a moment she's quite good she's about I'd say 16
I'm looking for my money so I can drop something to her little box
what do you think she's right she's in shame
and I'm standing to get some money out outside the house that was recruited
as assigned this house is reputed to have been lived in by the mayor of
Costa bridge in Thomas Harder's story of that name written in 1885 I've taken
many pictures of it before and posted them so I won't do that again but it's
it's sort of moving to look at it because I think of the poor daughter and I
think of the poor mayor and I think there's nothing better in books when people
have betrayed with their faults and you're allowed to love them like in
Barnaby Rudge at the moment who the characters you love it's not necessary the
sort of I've got a sort of thing so it's not necessary that the girls you
don't have much character but a perfect seem perfect it's perhaps the lovely
John Willett landlord at the maple who is so distinguished and overwhelmed by
what's happened to him and he's also lost his son but he's got this little
posse of people around him little friends and he's got his
land around him in the sense he owns all that he surveys and I feel for him so
much and what about Mrs. Vaughan who obviously does enjoy her and King
but keeps it quiet and pretends to be the perfect Protestant but has suddenly
found herself ashamed of her support for the for George Gordon so she's
another interesting figure I'm going to read the sign that's by the mayor of
Castorbridge's house hard is Dorchester hard is spent most of his life in
or near to Dorchester and he knew it intimately and made much use of it in his
novels and poems on being made an honorary Freeman of the town in 1910 he
said the freedom of the borough of Dorchester did seem to me at first something
that I possessed a long while so when I consider the liberties I have taken
with its ancient walls streets and precincts through the medium of the
printing press I feel that I've treated its its external features with a
hand of freedom indeed. Castorbridge is his name for Dorchester and the mayor of
Castorbridge written in 1886 is set in the Dorchester of the 1840s among
other places it features this building which is imagined as the mayor's house
the King's Arms Hotel, Aubrey Rings, St Peter's Church, Grace Bridge and the
River Froome. The Dorchester prison old workhouse and corn exchange appeared
far from the maddened crowd written in 1874 in this street that were in at
number 39 he trailed as an architect from 1856 to 1862 and he frequently visited
William Barnes who had a school next door to talk about poetry. Stain plaques
commemorate these two buildings opposite the Hardy Arcade. Hardy was fascinated by
the history of the town as we can see from this passage in the mayor of
Castorbridge. Quote, to birds of the more soaring kind, Castorbridge must have
appeared on this fine evening as a museum work of subdued wets, browns,
grays and crystals held together by a rectangle in a frame of deep green. To the
level I of humanity stood as an indistinct mass beside behind a dense
stockade of limes and chestnuts set in the midst of miles of rotund down and
concave fields. Castorbridge announced old Rome in every street alley and
precinct. It looked Roman, bespoke the art of Rome, concealed dead men of Rome.
It was impossible to dig more than a foot or two deep about the town fields and
gardens without coming upon some tall soldier or other of the empire who had
lain there in his silent unobtrusive rest for a space of 1500 years.
I'm taking you now as we walk towards the end of the high street in
Dorchester and basically there's a protest going on. There's a protest going on
about the war in Iran and it's about, I'd say, 80 people.
Tuesday afternoon meeting at one o'clock. I'll hear all that.
Here in Dorchester and to join the council of two of the diverse from these
island companies. People have signs saying stop arming Israel. Stop bombing Iran.
Stop bombing Iran. Stop bombing Iran.
I think it's going to be on the telly later. I can see camera man.
Three times of 2020, June of last year, 2020, from the official figure of
children killed in Gaza was I 10 and a half thousand. I 10 and a half thousand.
It's not that I don't think it's important I do. It's just that that's not what my
our podcast is about. So I'm now taking you to the frontiers and
Peter's church, which is the church that Thomas Hardy knew so well and it's I
think it's 15th century and it's got a tower. It's got crenellation. It's got
pinnacles. It's got the whole work. Really. Gothic windows. The windows of the
church. And the road we're on is called the bow. And outside the church, there's a statue
of William Barnes, the poet and right by them is a dorset museum and art gallery and
I thought I would take you into that if you're interested. So let's go into that now.
So I'm now in the cafe of the dorset museum. I've decided to have a drink here first and
I want all the staff everywhere I've gone here in dorset this morning been so lovely
and kind and it makes a place so welcoming and wonderful when you go around cafes or museums
and everyone working there feels happy to be doing so. It's typical me. I haven't actually
gone into the museum. I've come into St. Peter's because I think of only the energy to do
one visit and immediately I love going into a church where you can write candles. So
I've just paid some money and I'll just drop that taper. I'm going to now light a couple
of candles and okay so and I've paid enough money to cover all this in case you're wondering
all the tapers so funny. It's difficult to light them. Okay so this first one is for
all of you who well all of you who are struggling at all or who are suffering. And then I'm
going to light another one. There we go and that's to all of you who knows someone close
to you that is suffering or needs your thoughts and then I'm going to light a third one for
the whole world including bad people, including people who don't care, including ignorant
people who drive us mad. Every day that's the third one let me play that out. So let's just
stand here for a minute. We're in St. Peter's church, for your church and doctors and I'm
just going to let you enjoy the silence at a candle.
So I'm leading from a leaflet. Welcome to St. Peter's church. There has been a church on
the site since Norman times and the current building dates back to 1454 that's earlier than I
thought. Well now I think I said 15th century but it's not particularly attractive it's a good
church but it's not it doesn't captivate once hard I don't think. The building is open to all
for historic interest and a place of calm in a busy county town. So it existed as a Norman
church and it says it has a decorated arch reset of the south porch which shows that substantial
rebuilding took place in the late 12th century and that would have come from a previous church
or nearby abbey perhaps and is remodeled to its current pointed shape as Norman arch is an only
round it says. In 1420 Robert Greenleaf left 20 marks to the fabric of the construction of the
body of the church so much of the present building dates from around this time. So most of the church
dates in 1420. It's a fine example of the perpendicular style built of grey Portland stone
with gold and the harem hillstone, Gretel's favourite, the weather's to a dark brown colour.
The scale of the 15th century stone basins can be seen in the gargles and corbels
and the splendid bosses in the ceiling are from this time but were restored in the 1990s.
On the window sills of the south chap or reclined two medieval knights they date from the 14th
century otherwise nothing is known about them. This looks like a challenge for a local historian
doesn't it say 14th century. We just need to look at what local mobility might have had
tombs in here and leave in the 1300s. I might have a little squirrel about see what I can find.
The hours have started to ring. I'm just going to take you in the sunshine so you can enjoy the
sound of dorset bells ringing in the sunshine here in deepest wussets.
The cars are such a blight really aren't they? We're just constantly surrounded by the noise of cars.
Beautiful sound the bells aren't they?
All right let's go in the church. So I'm going under the porch and yes as you look up you can see
that the lovely old Norman carving has been bodged together and I've taken some pictures so you
should be able to see those on my social media. About the main body of the church and it's a
substantial height I'd say 80 feet and the chance large is huge and pointed beautifully and there
are two aisles north and south and each aisle has four great arches and all of them pointed with
gray port and stone not as attractive as our local north door system but it's still
pretty beautiful and I'm walking towards the choir area and there are lovely wooden choir
pees carved beautifully but looking very Victorian but that's okay and I'm now walking to the
altar so I'm just going to be quiet when I take you to the altar and the display in front of
the altar is the last supper and it's a beautiful carving with Jesus at the center looking down
into his right and looking thoughtful and it looks like it's the exact replica of the famous
last supper carved painting by this is my ignorance was it Leonardo was it Michelangelo or goodness
or was it Rafael come on Gretel I'm afraid I don't know my stuff as much as I ought to
I've now come into a little side porch the south porch and there's the medieval night and we don't
know anything about him so that could be a fun challenge for me because I bet some people have
tried to take on the challenge to see who it might be so the beautiful church bells are ringing
in praise of you listening to this podcast on the sunny day and I've just come to a plan on the
wall it says St Peter's Church Dorchester and it says a plan of the church drawn by Thomas Hardy
at the age of 16 in 1856 so that would be his writing now actually it says this is a copy of the
original plan which is now kept in the doorstep record office and at the big boss at Movese says
Thomas Hardy for John Hicks architect say he was obviously working for John Hicks which I would
know if I remember the details of his life it says Dorchester August 4th 1856 and it's really
beautiful I mean he's only 16 it's the absolute inch copy put together and beautifully done
and it says things like uh eat lists all the aisles like 11 12 13 14 and then it has a bracket
and in his writing says to hold five persons each and then on a different one to hold six persons
under the rule to hold five persons each and then organ vestry, closet, north child salile,
desk, a tower, nave, chancel, organ, vestry, yeah it's really beautiful, porch
so he would have had an eye for these old churches wherever he went and we know that
from his poetry and the biographies we read about him which is partly I suppose why I find him
such an endearing and interesting character to understand and read about all around the church
crosskeys of st. Peter in stained glass and carved on the pews. I'm now standing belay the
bell tower of st. Peter's and you can hear the bells ringing out but under the tower here I can hear
the footsteps of the the ringers the bell ringers above and I could ever now then I can hear
sort of them shouting out I'm just going to see if you can hear
the bell ringers.
It's cute just to think that they're like 80 foot above me and little group of people who come to do this.
Hello hello I'm now in the garden at home it's only about three degrees but it's a stars tonight
astonishing we do see we do have very clear skies here but tonight it's the clearest I've seen in
such a long time and I can see the plow I can see all my it's just beautiful you notice I quickly
hurried on them because I don't actually know my my star constellations very well I need to learn
there's so much I need to learn gaps in my knowledge are American states start the stars flags
I'm not very good at flags I'm not I wouldn't be able to draw you a map of the South American
countries very well yeah I gaps in my knowledge it's I want to identify them and fill them because
sometimes it's you sort of it's embarrassing when you get on to a subject that you know
little about and you think how have I gone through life without knowing this my sons really really
good on America you know he would be able to pretty much draw you all the states and where they
sit so that's very impressive and I think America's just been much more the consciousness of young
people than it was in my day and age we just thought sort of America is this wonderful place
where everyone just was relaxed and sporty and wealthy and because we watched all the programs
like Dallas and things like that puppy off my bag no no no off my bag but we weren't interested in
the content but I think now that everything's been going on with its deterioration recently
I think there's been much more interested in its history and why it's got to this stage and it's
it means that people who are interested in the world about them have become much more curious
about it and my son was just saying just thanks we just come back from oh we just went to the
rose and crown intent so as I'm speaking I'm throwing the pink pig hello puppy to the puppy in the
garden and you're enjoying yourself and you just did a wee didn't you clever girl you got
my phone and she's just a lovely thing I'm really falling in love with her she's like a little lamb
aren't you a little lamb running along her face is beautiful and in a minute I'm going to go in
and do this as a first episode for tomorrow and or do I actually just publish this with a few
things like Samuel Peep's and publish it as a bonus Saturday episode and that my dear friends
is what I've decided to do it's 2150 I'm sitting at my kitchen table I've got beautiful music in
the background but quite enough so I don't break the rules and also I've got the microphone so
you shouldn't be picking up anything but a bit of a gentle murmur I've got poppy at my feet
in our little bed and candles are lit books in front of me I'm going to do a couple of readings
publish this and then prepare for I think quite a mammoth Sunday session I think I'd like to
think about doing three possibly four chapters of Barnaby I also know that I'm a bit behind with
saints and I know some listeners really enjoy hearing what saint it is and so I mustn't forget
those but I hope you're all well this Saturday evening and it evenings can be tough for people
if you're on your own or finding things difficult and Saturday evenings I've always found a little
bit tough same as Sunday evenings I don't know why it is why is it maybe because when you're when
you're a child the Saturday Saturday evenings are so lovely because you don't have to go to school
the next day and you've got that sense of relief and then in your younger adult years
their Saturday evenings are the fantastic evenings to go out and enjoy yourself
and then there's something melancholy perhaps about being in on a Saturday evening but I'm
perfectly content and feeling really well and after a tricky week at times with my daughter and so
it settled down into a restful weekend as long as I keep away from the news that is
and now we resume Charles Dickens American Notes and we continue from where we were when we're talking
about what he's talking about at America and his views of it as a whole these three characteristics
remember he talked about the characteristics of America I can't remember one of them was
suspicion one of let me go back oh yeah the second one was smart dealing and remember these were
the negatives he had so many positives to say about America just to remind you he said of Americans
they are by nature frank brave cordial hospitable and affectionate I completely agree with that
but the third one seems to be trade which to me I think is linked to smart dealing so but let's
carry on these three characteristics are strongly presented at every turn full in the strangest view
but the foul growth of America foul growth of America has a more tangled root than this and
it strikes its fibers deep in its licentious press yes that was the last one wasn't at the press
schools may be erected east west north and south I'm having my ankles nibbled pupils may be
taught wanting to sit up here aren't you pupils may be taught and masters read by scores upon
scores of thousands colleges may thrive churches may be crammed temperance may be defused
and advancing knowledge in all other forms forms walk through the land with giant strides
but while the newspaper press of America is in or near its present abject state high moral
improvement in that country is hopeless oh dear do remember this is written in the Victorian times
year by year it must and will go back year by year the tone of public feeling must sink lower down
year by year the congress and the senate must become less of less account before or decent men
and year by year the memory of the great fathers of the revolution must be outraged more
and more in the bad life of the degenerate child I hope you're enjoying this Americans or not
I suspect Canadians are huh among the herd of journals which are published in the states there
are some the rediscesely need be told of character and credit from personal intercourse with
accomplished gentleman connected with publications of this class I have derived both pleasure and
profit but the name of these is few and if the other legions of the others Legion I don't
if you heard that but that's England playing rugby and I think we're doing well that's husband
and the influence of the good is powerless to counteract the moral poison of the bad
among the gentry of America among the well-informed and moderate in the learned
professions at the bar and on the bench there is as there can be but one opinion in reference
to the vicious character of these infamous journals it is sometimes contended I will not say
strangely for it is natural to seek excuses for such a disgrace that their influence is not
secret as a visitor would suppose I must be pardoned for saying that there is no warrant for this plea
and that every fact and circumstance tends directly to the opposite conclusion
when any man of any grade of dessert in intellect or character can climb to any public distinction
no matter what in America without first groveling down upon the earth and bending the
knee before this monster of depravity when any private excellence is safe from its attacks
when any social confidence is left unbroken by it or any tie of social decency and honour
is held in the least regard when any man in that free country has freedom of opinion
and presumes to think for himself and speak for himself without humble reference to a censorship
which for which rampant ignorance and based dishonesty he utterly loads and despises in his heart
when those who most acutely feel its infamy and the reproach it casts upon the nation
and who most denounce it to each other dare to set their heels upon and crush it openly
in the sight of all men then I will believe that its influence is lessening and men are returning
to their manly senses but while that press has its evil eye in every house and its black hand
and every appointment in the state from a president to a postman while with ribbled slander
for its only stock in trade it is the standard literature of an enormous class you must find
their reading in a newspaper although will not read at all so long must its odium be upon the
country's head and so long must the evil it work be plainly visible in the republic
now i've missed out a paragraph and then this sentence that comes next i think is brilliant
it would be it would be well there can be no doubt for the american people as a whole
if they loved the real less and the ideal somewhat more it would be well if there were greater
encouragement to lightness of the heart and gayity and a wider cultivation of what is beautiful
without being eminently and directly useful but here i think the general rep before actually
before i go on i'm just going to say go over that again just that few lines there
a few words i beg your pardon and a wider cultivation of what is beautiful without being
eminently and directly useful now that gets to the heart at what i'm trying to achieve here in
the podcast which is about being curious and interested in things that are beautiful and
for their own sake therefore wonderful to have in the world whether it's art on the wall of a church
or a piece of music or you know it's to it's to not think of things in a utilitarian way but
to to ponder things in our hearts that make us feel happy and safe and warm
and edified and that we find interesting and that we're happy to tuck up and read about when
we're tucked into bed at night you know and i Stephen Fry said something similar he talked about
the fact that if we if everything has to be useful then we're we're would strip away
everything that's most important to us because at the end of our lives i imagine it's the things
like walking in the rain or holding our child's hand or swimming in the sea it's all the things
that are actually completely free to us that we would miss and yearn for and think about the most
and it's something i i do try and bear in mind because it's so easy to be swept away with thinking
or what's useful and to offer and i think politicians and the sort of political environment is
is set up to discuss and think about things as as if they always have to be of some use it's
well what's the what's the merit what's the economic merit are people worse or better off with
those in their lives and by that they mean are they financially better off or worse off
and and actually there's something called contentment and happiness and although those things are
based on financial security they're not entirely based on financial securities we all know and
it's the moving away from that and the moving towards the things that make our hearts sing
that i'm trying to do so much with this podcast so it saves me from doom and gloom within my own
head and heart and enables me to enjoy life on a grander deeper warmer lighter
lovelier scale so it would be well if there were greater encouragement to lightness of heart
and gayity and a wider cultivation of what is beautiful without being eminently and directly
useful but here i think the general remonstrance we are a new country which is so often advanced
as an excuse for defects which are quite unjustifiable as being of right only the slow growth of
an old one may be very reasonably urged and yet i hope to hear of there being some other
national amusement in the united states besides new newspaper politics they are certainly not a
humorous people and their temperament always impressed me as being of a dull odour and gloomy
character in shrewdness of remark and a certain cast-iron quaintness the Yankees or people of
New England unquestionably take the lead as they do in most other evidences of intelligence
but in traveling about out of the large cities as i have remarked in former parts of these
volumes i was quite oppressed by the prevailing seriousness and melancholy air of business which
was so general and unvarying that at every new town i came to i seemed to meet the very same
people who might left behind me at the last such defects as are perceptible in the national
manners seemed to me to be referable in a great degree to this cause which has generated a dull
sullen persistence in coarse usages and rejected the graces of life as undeserving of attention
there is no doubt that Washington who was always most scrupulous and exact on points of ceremony
perceived the tendency towards this mistake even in his time and it is utmost to correct it
so folks what do you think of that i mean things like this couldn't be written now which is
again why it's good to go back to old books because people are prepared to say things that they
would be too scared to say now for fear of being cancelled and i'm not saying i agree with
any of it or anything but it's interesting and it's just interesting to see what people have
thought before but i think i'm going to leave it at that because it's 37 minutes and i'm going to
publish this and then look forward to see you tomorrow for our usual sunday episodes where we focus
on Barnaby Raj so i wish you a due and good night and send you love and best wishes see you tomorrow

Gretel le Maître Ponders Beauty, with Bede & other guests

Gretel le Maître Ponders Beauty, with Bede & other guests

Gretel le Maître Ponders Beauty, with Bede & other guests
