I wish to announce the imminent arrival in town of Thomas Windham, lately Commander of HMS Edrington. Commander Windham is returning to England on leave while awaiting the commissioning of his next ship, and to attend meetings in the Admiralty in London concerning events which occurred in the Red Sea during his last commission.

The Commander will be staying with his sister, Mrs Elizabeth Brant, who is known for her work in the field of charitable help for the dependents of seamen. During his stay, she will be hoping to involve him in this work, and to introduce him to eligible young women of decent society - he is a rising star in the Navy, and has sufficient independent means and a country home to make him eligible.

I did think of arranging a whist drive through the auspices of the Cathedral and Chapter, where for an initial entrance fee, cards will be played, prizes will be won, drink will be consumed, cigarettes and cigars will be smoked, men and women (and some precocious children) will mingle freely, and any money left over will go the good cause. Would that go down well? :blush:

The Windham Frants are not upper-class, but middle class Trade verging towards squirarchy - she is the widow of a (wealthy) draper, but he is a Commander in the Royal Navy. So would any of the city's hostesses invite them to anything?

His arrival will be delayed until mid July, due to an extended trip across Europe (Padua! Verona! the Dolomites! Leonardo's Last Supper! The Little St Bernard Pass! The Eiger!)

But I thought it would be useful to try to get some ideas for a first thread to introduce Commander Windham to the city (although he has been here before, as a junior lieutenant no one will remember him).

Any suggestions which I get before Sailing By on 22 June will be mulled over, over a dish of spaghetti and squid and red wine.

Woooow, lucky! I wish IIII was going on an extended trip across Europe...

I like the idea of a whist drive! It's definitely a very original sort of thread here, too; no one did anything like that before. :) I can think of three people (PCs, anyway, which since we're a small board is a lot :P) off the top of my head that would go, plus some more who might go if it got about that others were going and suchlike, so... yeah! That'd be great, I think!

If you want to look for Eligible Young Ladies, Emma Clayborne would be a good bet. ;) Shucks, look at me, trying to fix Thomas up already... I could think of others, you know, if he turned out not to be partial to her...

As for hostesses, I think they might very well. I don't play any of the city's hostesses, though, so I'm possibly not the best person to say. :/

Madeline Smith would always be interested in meeting a man of good social standing. :D

I will look forward to meeting her. Does she play whist?

I don't think we actually need to give details of the cards, and who's playing against whom. No one will point out that if X was sitting on table 1, North, he would have moved to table 2, East after the first hand, and thus shouldn't be talking to Y who should now be on table 4. But it's a fairly relaxed social environment, open to anyone who can play whist and has a few pence. And it's for the kiddies! Lizzie will work something out, I'm sure. Which will mean also touting for prizes (get them free and the takings go up).

A full diary will no doubt follow. There are times when pirates seem like the easier option.

Hehe, you're gonna make an enemy of the one currently enamoured (unless he's not since that tiff they had...) of her, methinks. Anyone know when Greg's due back, btw?

And yeah, I didn't mean the details! :lol: Although that would be hilarious... I meant, no one had a charity event of any sort yet. o.O Not a very giving bunch, are we?

Do you think a kiddie could sneak in? Hmm...

If they can play whist to adult standards then they can join in (I did at about 13/14). Real kiddies could be organized into tables for a beetle drive, although I do doubt if that was known... Or a game of some kind, anyway. But in those days, people didn't drag their kids along to every event going. There were things for grown ups, like whist drives, dinner parties, dances. Kids got left at home with big sister, granny, baby sitter, nanny or just a hefty dose of laudenum in their hot milk.

Conflict over women already and I haven't even arrived!

I don't think she can make it, then. :) Too young.

And I know! What was with that whole "dope the children" thing? I can't decide if that was more atrocious or if lobotomising the misbehaving ones was worse... cause more kiddies got doped, but then again, lobotomies are permanent...

Ye-es, but it does make evenings out so much more pleasant, when the dear little ones are sleeping the sleep of the drugged, not running around restaurants screaming their heads off.

When I said 'for the kiddies' earlier, I meant that the funds would go to the seamen's dependants, including children. Not that we would let them play.

I am not going to be roped into teaching them to play cricket. Or tie knots and build bridges. Or anything like that. Shan't!

Ooh, I just read the part where his sister wants to introduce him to eligible young ladies...if a proper, uptight lady of the society, she is going to be horrified when he introduces her to Madeline Smith!!!! :D

For more information, read the ball thread :D .

I wouldn't describe Lizzie as totally uptight. But Thomas will do what Thomas thinks best, I'm sure. He's been at sea for a long time.

Cool. :D Madeline is ready to meet him at his earliest convenience. :devil:

That's great. I think this all must wait until Rosina returns from hols, because it's not fair otherwise. But there's so much to look forward to.

Including meeting you, Ma'am. When we have world enough and time...

Maybe Windham and Rebecca can know each other from somewhere? She has not always been a Countess, so maybe their families knew each other or something? She could invite him and his sister for tea sometime, perhaps.

Does she have any brothers/cousins in the Navy? Possibly even on the Edrington? Or Flag-lieutenant to the Commodore of the Arabian sea fleet/flotilla?

Thomas has been at sea, somewhere East of Suez, where the best is like the worst, for most of the last 15 years, except for one trip home, so probably not a close friend.

But their families could have known each other - they're about the same age, and wealthy farmers would have been about the same level on the local pecking order as the Windhams. If so, she'd be on nodding acquaintance with the older Lizzie (although she went down-market marrying 'trade'), and might feel that a Commander is more acceptable than a draper.

PS Thomas isn't a Captain yet, of course, but he rather outranks Captain Clayborn, who's mere Army. I wonder if he'll realize that :rolleyes:

Really!? Navy outrank Army?! Give me more info! I've always been interested in how ranks go across branches but I can't find the info on stuff like that, except as in modern times.

The first post on this forum from the RPG where I met Jess sets it out relatively clearly, for our period, although it needed sorting out for the Napoleonic British Navy. So by 1869 Commanders were between Majors and Lieutenant Colonels, a step and a half above Army Captains. Which makes sense if you look at the crew/value of the ship...

And yes, that's where the name of Thomas's ship came from. But it looks right to me, and isn't a real ship, but could be.

:lol: Cool beans!

"If there is one thing that I know nothing about, it is agriculture."

[For Waterloo fans everywhere.]

:huh:

I'm so embarrassed that I have been away for a few days and come back to find the board moving at such a fast pace.


Hiya!

Miss Clayborne. I am delighted to meet you at last, and look forward to further meetings when our time is less curtailed by International Matters of Great Import.

Oh....you....


Emma: :wub: