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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 morning. It's 10-20 Wednesday morning. The sun's shining and the birds
are in heaven. Can you hear? I think it's a robin calling to him, fro. And there's just
a nice murmur of being in a towel. I can hear, I don't know, maybe gardeners in the nearby school
just pottering about. And at my feet, trying to cling onto a ball that I'm kicking as I talk,
is puppy. And I've taken doggo inside because poor things, she just gets pestered non-stop so she
can go and have a rest inside. And the grass is looking duly and there are bits of moss where
husband's been trying to rake it all up. And I'm going to sit down now and watch puppy have
fun in the garden and enjoy the sights and sounds of a proper warm spring morning. What's the date
today? I think it's something like the 18th of March. It's distant. I look similar and I know you'll
hear yellow butterflies just gone past. What's the yellow ones called? I should know.
Oh, it's so lovely. The yellow butterflies just come back again. The deaf adults,
deaf adults on their last legs, but still looking so pretty. There's a variety we've got. And I
think husband did most of the planting. But when we arrived, we definitely had butterflies that
will come up every year. And the Peanies have started to come up. The Peanies shoots are so distinctive,
aren't they? There are some shoots that are difficult to spot what they are for me anyway.
But there are others that are really distinctive. And wherever we've lived, we've had Peanies
to come up. And I don't think it's anything to do with us. I think they're just very resilient,
aren't they? Because, you know, we've been in places where we've accidentally
moaned back the roots as they've come up, but they sort of come back up again a week later.
There's that sort of again. I've got a real tick, haven't I? And I can see the heads of people as
they go past our house. And the sky is proper, sort of, Greek there, the sort of. I've got to
stop it. Come on, Gretel. The Greek are blue skies. So beautiful. It's lovely, lovely, lovely.
One of the loveliest things about going to the Mediterranean is seeing blue everywhere. I mean,
no wonder all the art is full of that beautiful blue because obviously you've got the blue sea
as well as the blue sky. And it blows your mind when you arrive in a place like, I don't know,
well, I mean, I was about to say creep, but I've not been to creeps. I don't even imagine
it, but I've been to robes and I've been to Catalonia and I've been to the south of France.
And you're just blown away by it, but I said this before, but after a week, and that's what it
took for me. My eyes were missing then enormously, the colour green, which you don't get. You obviously
get in the big leaves on the trees, but you don't get the fields of green. And after a while,
you miss it. It's, you can't help but miss the things that you're accustomed to. And I don't know,
you have an awful lot of choice about it. And I'm going to just leave you in silence and leave
me in silence as we enjoy the sounds of existing right this moment in 2026.
12 bongs for midday on Wednesday.
12 bongs for midday on Wednesday.
12 bongs for midday on Wednesday.
12 bongs for midday on Wednesday.
Hello, good morning. That's a robin and a red and you just heard then. And it's 942. It's Thursday
morning. The sun is shining here in Dorset and everything's transformed. All it takes is a few
days sunshine. And everyone's needs transformed and everything feels lovely. The garden is gluing green,
the grass is luminous and that's one bird singing to another. There's one bird in the tree above us.
And then there's another bird on the other side of the garden. And as I look up, I'm right underneath
the robin. So I can see it's very thin beaks. You know, they've got quite thin, stumpy beaks.
And as I look up, I can see as it sings its little chest palpitating. And
okay, so pretty. And the reds more like a tomato red, a splash of hinds to multi-soup.
And the daisies I can see and that's a bumblebee. I don't know if you just heard it.
And all is lovely other than as a family, we're not enjoying the trials of the downsides of having
the puppies. It also sounds so wonderful, but of course, as I mean, we all knew, but I think I
I knew the most just how much hard work it was going to be because when we last had a puppy,
the children were too little to understand it really. And you know, they went off to school,
they were very young. And husband wasn't really around. So I think they're quite shocked because
I think they think it's being nauseous. And I knew them to understand. I might try and find a good
program I can show them where people explain actually this is just puppy behavior.
And we've all got to take part. We've all got to be involved in the training. I think that's
the other thing I think that they want me to do the training. But of course, everybody has to train
in the same way that I suppose all adults who are living in a family have to be involved in
making sure that children say their pleases and thank yous. And yeah, so I'm a little bit tired
from it. And I just want to think through how I manage it. I'm going to phone a couple of friends
today because all that anything else seeking advice from friends is what helps me to find a way
through. But this sunshine sure does help. And I'm wondering what you're doing,
like this minute. Are you driving along, having just finished day's work? Or are you listening?
Are you doing a bit of ironing or do you chores? Or have you just grabbed this by accident and
you're thinking, what an earth am I listening to? This can't be a podcast. This is someone's
diary that I've just managed to hack by accident. If so, then don't necessarily stick around to
this episode, go and find an episode on a visit to Durham or something like that, speaking of which
I'm almost afraid to say it because it feels like I'm doing something really naughty. But
this time next week on a third on Thursday, I'm traveling up to Edinburgh.
And I just dread to think how the family are going to cope with the dogs I've put Mr. Cat into
a catchery for that particular period of time. But I'm wondering whether I should put
doggo in with someone who can look after her too. In fact, I might try to arrange that this morning.
I'm not sure if it's easier for them to have doggo about because she does help look after the puppy
a little bit. Or more difficult, again, I need to just think, think it through, give it some thought,
work it out. I'm just going to let you enjoy the sound of the robin for a minute.
And of course that's the ren. It sounds like the ren and the robin are chatting to each other.
I sounded like the robin was copying the ren then. Do you know the sound of the ren? It's very
distinct. If you don't know it, it's just quickly. There it is. Do you hear it? It's got that
and that's the robin. It does sound like they're chatting to each other.
So that's the robin. It really sounds like it's slightly copying the ren sound.
And now this is the ren, yeah? It's got more of a little chill at the end.
More like it, you know this sound like it's doing a raspberry.
There it goes. And now this is the robin.
And let's see, and there we go, that's the ren. That's the ren.
And now there's the robin. How funny. I wonder if it's a theme.
But birds from different species sing to each other.
So that was the robin.
They were now singing over the top of each other then. Just then did you hear?
So the robin, this is the robin, just has its own tune. But the ren has the same tune over and over again.
And I'll be blown, I think it sounds like they're singing to each other.
That's the ren. And now the robin.
And now the ren.
And now the robin.
That was the ren there.
The ren's got tune and then it builds up to the little raspberry sound and then it ends
with a little bit of future at the end.
How do you think Barnaby Ferd is first night in the cells?
I'm going to go and get it, I think, and read you an episode.
So I've just been doing some research about robins and ren singing to each other.
And sadly, it's not the romantic situation I had thought.
But I was right that they were singing to each other.
And in fact, they're doing it now as I carry on.
So let me read to you while they sing to each other and say what it says.
All right. So they're territory marking both robins and rens, especially the European robin
and the Eurasian ren, a highly territorial singers. When one sings, that's the ren there.
The other often replies to defend its space. Songmatching or counter-singing in the males in
particular and they respond immediately to nearby birds. And that creates a back-and-forth
effect, a dawn in particular many birds sing at once, where it's not dawn.
It feels like a conversation because their songs are short and distinct, making the alternation
noticeable and they often sing from nearby patches. The timing can almost be a call and response.
But they're not communicating with each other socially. It's more like saying,
this is my patch. No, it's my patch. No, it's my patch. So there we go.
I don't know. I think they might have got some enjoyment from it.
What do you think? Do you think Gretel's too romantic?
So I've ordered to read after Barnaby Rudge, a book called and American.
Oh, Puppies has fallen off somewhere. Americans might know this. It's called Rural Hours by Susan
Fenemore Cooper. And the blurb about it is Rural Hours is a timeless tribute to the natural world
and the joys of country living written by Susan Fenemore Cooper, daughter of famed American
novelist James Fenemore Cooper. This book is a delightful collection of observations and musings
on rural life in 19th century America. From the changing seasons to the daily routines of farm life,
Cooper's vivid descriptions bring to life the beauty and wonder of the natural world.
Her observations of plants, animals and landscapes reveal a deep reverence for the environment
and an understanding of the delicate balance between human civilization and the wild.
In addition to her observation, Cooper shares stories and anecdotes of her own experiences
living in the rural countryside, providing readers with a charming and intimate look at life in a
bygone era. I feel like I've either got this and I've ordered it unnecessarily or I've got
something similar because it really rings bells and also make because most of you voted for this,
the book we're reading next is Violet by Charlotte Bronte, her finest book People Think Possibly,
her last novel and it changed my life at a time when I didn't know it needed changing,
but I was glad that it did. I felt myself maturing as I read it and in the same way that maybe
I think it was about eight years earlier, I'd read the Pickwick papers at a time when I needed
companionship and it helped me. Novels can sometimes be a bridge, can't they? A bridge over
those that say troubled waters, but it's true, isn't it? You can read a novel and it can get you
through some difficult times when a friend of mine who was close friend, but with lost touch,
she died when she was 20, nearly 21, and a friend of mine called James, who's actually sadly
very sadly, in the last six months lost his grown-up son, he had a sudden death,
but James was a very good friend of mine, used to get a cricket and we were at university together,
and when my friend died and I went through a bit of a bleak time, I saw a lot of him and he
helped me, but he lent me one of his sister's books, and I don't even know if she ever knew that
her book was lost. Hold on, making sure pop is all right. It's funny how much she looks at me now,
she looks to make sure she's okay and it's good because it means all careful, it's going to
hat your leg. It means that she's checking to see whether she's doing the right thing or not,
which is great. Yeah, so he lent me Anna Karenina and I read that and I don't know if you've
read it, it's obviously a very famous book, and while people might have problems with the plot
as I did, it's worth reading because of what it takes you through and maybe similar to the
return of the native. Anyway, if someone said we'll tell me the plot and you told them the plot,
they would think, well that's not for me, but the plot is more a vehicle to take you on a journey
through landscapes that you're glad you've traveled through. We're now going to turn unusually,
we're going to do it first because it's 19 minutes on and I might do this as a first recording,
as I sometimes do, of Barnaby Raj, and then I've got to go meet someone who is a friend of my
mother's and he's asked to meet me and I'm going to take him to the Abbey and then buy him a coffee
and I'm nervous about meeting him because I don't really know him very well, but I know he's an
awfully kind fellow. So yeah, I just go with an open heart and see what he's got to say.
I'll let you enjoy the bird racket. Ooh, what's going on?
Oh, I think that's a, is it sparrows or is it a collection of tits? A collection of tits. Oh dear,
my children would laugh, they heard me say that. They're scampering around. Two things have happened
today that's great. First of all, I have had really good advice about puppy and the training
and second of all, I've had agreement that I'm going to have a little bit of help with looking
after second dog over the next few weeks because she needs some time out. So I feel a little bit
relieved about that. I was, I was, I woke up and I did feel a bit daunted, not only by all the
jobs I've got ahead of me, but by looking after this little bundle of gorgeous naughtiness.
Actually, I recorded all of that with my microphone, but I'm thinking, wouldn't you prefer the ambient
noise and I think you would. So let's carry on. I've got my tea, I've got my book, let's start with
no further ado because we're all worried about Barnaby and of course poor ruffled feathered
grit. Right, as you hear, the Abbey Bells stoke one and the breeze just come up. I realised
that she were not going to pour that Barnaby. We're returning to the scoundrels because we were with
Hugh and his henchman. So can you hear the bells ringing one? Chapter 60. Actually, let me just
read you the last sentence. Hugh thanked him heartily and as he did so, his laughing fit returned
with such violence. That's right, as tapeted, it was assuming capsency over Hugh and Hugh just laughs
about it. You can't get, you help get the feeling. I'm not saying this because I remember I can't,
but at some point Hugh's going to actually show tapeted who's who's in charge, but I genuinely
don't know whether that's going to happen or not. I just feel the tension rising. Chapter 60.
The three were these turned their faces towards the boot with the intention of passing the night
in that place of rendezvous and of seeking the repose they so much needed in the shelter of their
old den. For now that the mischief and destruction they had proposed were achieved and their prisoners
were safely bestowed for the night, they began to be conscious of exhaustion and to feel the
wasting effects of the madness which had led to such deplorable results. Notwithstanding the
lassitude and fatigue which oppressed him now in common with his two companions and indeed with
all who had taken an active share in that night's work, Hugh's boisterous merriment broke out of
fresh whenever he looked at Simon tapeted and vented itself much to that gentleman's indignation
in shouts of laughter as he bade fair to bring the watch upon them and involved them in a skirmish
to which in their present worn out condition they might prove by no means equal,
even Mr. Dennis who was not at all particular on the score of gravity or dignity and who had a great
relish for his young friend's eccentric humours took occasion to demonstrate with him on this
imprudent behaviour which he held to be a species of suicide tantamount to a man's working himself
off without being overtaken by the law than which he could imagine nothing more ridiculous or
impertinent. Not abating one jot of his noisy mirth for these ramen strances and a reminder to
you that I think that Hugh by the way still doesn't know that Dennis is a hangman,
doesn't like to doubt. Hugh reeled along between them having an arm in each until they
hove in sight of the boot and were within a field or two of that convenient tavern.
He happened by great luck to have roared and shouted himself into silence by this time.
They were proceeding onward without noise when a scout who had been creeping about the ditches
all night to warn any stragglers from encroaching further on what was now such dangerous ground
peaked cautiously from his hiding place. There's the rain again and cold to stop for them to stop,
stop and why said Hugh because the scout replied the house was filled with constables and soldiers
having been surprised that afternoon. The inmates had fled or being taken into custody
and he could not say which. He had prevented a great many people from approaching near and he
believed they had gone to the markets and such places to pass the night. He had seen the distant
fires but they were all out now. He had heard the people who had passed and repast,
speaking of them too, and could report that the prevailing opinion was one of apprehension
and dismay. No, he had not heard a word of Barnaby, didn't even know his name,
but he said it had been said in his hearing that Sonman had been taken and carried off to
Newgate whether or not this was true he could not affirm. The three took counsel together on hearing
this and debated what it might be best to do. Hugh, deeming it possible that Barnaby was in the
hands of the soldiers and at that moment under detention at the boot, was advancing stealthily
and firing at the house. But his comrades who objected to such rash measures,
unless they had a crowd at their backs, represented that if Barnaby were taken he had assuredly
been removed to a stronger prison and they would never have dreamed they said of keeping him
all night in a place so weak and open to attack. Yielding to this reasoning and to their persuasions,
Hugh consented to turn back and to repair to fleet market for which place it seemed a few of
their boldest associates had shaped their course on receiving the same intelligence.
Feeling their strength recruited and their spirits roused now that there was a new necessity
for action, they hurried away quite forgetful of the fatigue under which they had been sinking
but a few minutes before and soon arrived at their place of destination. Fleet market at that time
was a long irregular row of wooden sheds and penthouses occupying the centre of what is now
called Farndon Street. They were jumbled together in a most unsightly fashion in the middle of
the road. It's a reminder I'm always fascinated by how towns villages and so on started and it's
a reminder of how they would start which is there's an important road where people travel and say
the locals if they've got any surplus would go to the road set up a stall to give them some
cover because in England obviously it's off from rainy or windy and and these would become more
and more permanent. Sometimes they might be weekly markets and then they would become more permanent
until before long along the side of a road you'd have a little row of places that could then
become dwellings and then of course once the country was Christianised and it was then a
necessity for these people to have a little church and a place where they could drink and before
you could say Jack Sparrow you've got a little place called like Wilton where you've got a green
houses on each corner and the wealthier people would have had smarter houses overlooking the front
where they would have been seen as more central to the village and so on. I just find it so
interesting. I know I've obviously really really simplified it but
right so they were jumbled together in a most unsightly fashion in the middle of the road to the
great obstruction of the thoroughfare and the annoyance of passengers who were feigned to make their
ways best they could among the carts, baskets, burrows, trucks, casks, bulks and benches and a jostle
with porters, hucksters, wagoners and a motley crowd of buyers, sellers, pick pockets, vagrants and
idlers. The air was perfumed with a stench of rotten leaves and faded fruit, the refuse of the
butcher's stalls and awful and garbage of a hundred kinds. It was indispensable to most public
conveniences in those days that they should be public nuisances likewise and fleet market maintained
the principle to admiration. To this place because it sheds its sheds and baskets for a tolerable
substitute for beds or perhaps because it afforded the means of a hasty barricade in case of need
many of the rioters had struggled not only that night but for two or three nights before.
It was now broad day but the morning being cold a group of them were gathered round a fire
in a public house drinking hot pearl and smoking pipes and planning new schemes for tomorrow.
Hugh and his two friends being known to most of these men were received with signal marks of
approbation and inducted into the most honourable seats. The room door was closed and
fastened to keep intruders at a distance and then they proceeded to exchange news.
The soldiers of taken possession of the boot are here, said Hugh, who knows anything about it.
Several people went, several cry that they did for the majority of the company having been
engaged in this sort upon the Warren and all present having been concerned in one or other
of the night's expeditions. It proved that they knew no more than Hugh himself, having been merely
warned by each other or by the scout and knowing nothing of their own knowledge.
We left a man on guard there today, said Hugh, looking round him, who is not here, you know who it is,
Barnaby, who brought the soldier down at Westminster, as any man seen or heard of him.
They shook their heads and murmured an answer in the negative as each man looked round and
appealed to his fellow when a noise was heard without and a man was heard to say that he wanted Hugh
and that he must see Hugh. He is but one man cry Hugh to those who kept the door. Let him come in,
eye eye, much of the others. Let him come in, let him come in. The door was accordingly unlocked and
opened. I think I might put the microphone on, actually, folks, because yeah. Right, microphone
on, it's getting a bit windy. Here he is, replied the person he inquired for, I am Hugh, what do you
want with me? I for message for you, said the man. Do you know one Barnaby? What of him? Did he send
the message? Yes, he's taken. He is in one of the strong cells in Newgate and he defended himself
as well as he could but was overpowered by numbers. That's his message. When did you see him?
Ask Hugh hastily on his way to prison where he was taken by a party of soldiers. They took a
by-road and not the one we expected. I was one of the few tried to rescue him and he called to me
and told me to tell Hugh where he was. We made a good struggle though it failed. Look here.
He pointed to his dress and to his bandaged head and still panting for breath,
glanced round the room and then faced towards Hugh again. I know you by sight, he said,
for I was in the crowd on Friday and on Saturday and yesterday, but I didn't know your name.
You're a bold fellow, I know. So is he, fought like a lion tonight. But it was of no use. I did my best
considering that I want this limb, again he glanced inquisitively around the room or seem to do so
for his face was nearly hidden by the bandage and again facing sharply towards Hugh, grasped his
stick as if he half expected to be set upon and stood on the defensive. If he had any such apprehension,
however, he was speedily reassured by the demeanor of all present. None thought of the bearer of
the tidings, he was lost on the news he brought. Oaths, threats and execrations were vented on all
sides. Some cried that if they bore this tamely another day would see them all in jail. Some that
they should have rescued the other prisoners and that this would then not have happened. One man
cried in a loud voice, oh follow me to Newgate and there was a loud shout and a general rush towards
the door, but Hugh and Dennis stood with their backs against it and kept them back until the
clamour had so far subsided that their voices could be heard when they called to them together
that to go now in broad day would be madness and that if they waited until night and arranged a
plan of attack they might release not only their own companions but all the prisoners and burn
down the jail. Not that jail alone cried Hugh but every jail in London they should have no place
to put their prisoners in will burn them all down make bonfires of them every one of them here
he cried catching at the handman's hand let all who are men here join with us shake hands upon it
Barnaby out of jail and not a jail left standing who joins every man there and they swore a great
oath to release their friends from Newgate next night and to force the doors and burn the jail
or perish in the fire themselves and the next chapter will be this evening in its chapter 61
look forward to seeing you then thank you so much for joining me
you

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
