GRACE

Anything that doesn't fit anywhere else, but that's still CH related.

Moderator: Moderators

sejintenej
Button Grecian
Posts: 4092
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:19 pm
Real Name: David Brown ColA '52-'61
Location: Essex

Re: GRACE

Post by sejintenej »

AMP wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2020 2:16 pm
loringa wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2020 10:31 am
Phil wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2020 9:30 am As AMP wrote yesterday,



This was so in the second decade after the War. Several other elderly contributors have already made this point. (In one year in the early 1950s a dozen Oxbridge scholarships were won. Has this number ever been equalled? I don’t think so.)
Soon after I arrived in 1973, I recall the Headmaster (then) Mr Newsome telling us at some big-school assembly that the previous (?) batch of Grecians had achieved 12 Oxbridge awards. No doubt some of them were exhibitions rather than scholarships but clearly standards had been maintained.
I seem to remember the number 17 being quoted one year; we were usually 3rd or 4th in the UK but it was Manchester Grammar School (not a state school) which was always first in my day
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
sejintenej
Button Grecian
Posts: 4092
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:19 pm
Real Name: David Brown ColA '52-'61
Location: Essex

Re: GRACE

Post by sejintenej »

Oliver wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 10:37 am The Grecians’ ballroom dancing classes ended because Mr DCF Chaundy, who initiated and taught them (a teacher of physics, very pleasant chap and junior housemaster in Barnes A) left CH for a post at Malvern College. He was a most enthusiastic folk dancer and successfully taught ballroom and Morris dancing at CH. Lest anyone wonder, after leaving CH he married and had at least one child.
In addition to those Mr Potts conducted Scottish dancing in a dormitory in Col A. As someone else writes, those lessons were extremely useful in later life. It is the sort of thing which, although not strictly academic, should be taught as well as public speaking and .....
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
User avatar
LongGone
Deputy Grecian
Posts: 383
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:17 pm
Real Name: Mike Adams
Location: New England

Re: GRACE

Post by LongGone »

Oliver wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 10:37 am The Grecians’ ballroom dancing classes ended because Mr DCF Chaundy, who initiated and taught them (a teacher of physics, very pleasant chap and junior housemaster in Barnes A) left CH for a post at Malvern College. He was a most enthusiastic folk dancer and successfully taught ballroom and Morris dancing at CH. Lest anyone wonder, after leaving CH he married and had at least one child.
My memories are several. He tended to walk with his arms straight down, and the palms facing forward; a unique gait.
Ballroom dancing lessons in the Library included standards like the waltz as well as group dances like Dashing White Sergeant. The latter were of little value as visiting girls had usually never heard of them.
The Morris dancing, including a fool with an inflatable pig’s bladder, nearly led to my family being banned. My elder brother was so overcome by the spectacle that he starting laughing. It got louder and louder, to the point where Chauncey actually stopped the dance and asked us to leave. I was later grilled by Barker about my family’s behavior and probably escaped further action because it was my final term.
If a stone falls on an egg: alas for the egg
If an egg falls on a stone: alas for the egg
sejintenej
Button Grecian
Posts: 4092
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:19 pm
Real Name: David Brown ColA '52-'61
Location: Essex

Re: GRACE

Post by sejintenej »

LongGone wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 6:00 pm
Ballroom dancing lessons in the Library included standards like the waltz as well as group dances like Dashing White Sergeant. The latter were of little value as visiting girls had usually never heard of them.
The Morris dancing, including a fool with an inflatable pig’s bladder, nearly led to my family being banned. My elder brother was so overcome by the spectacle that he starting laughing. It got louder and louder, to the point where Chauncey actually stopped the dance and asked us to leave. I was later grilled by Barker about my family’s behavior and probably escaped further action because it was my final term.
Those lessons might have been for the school dance but for life also. I don't remember the "Dashing White Sergeant"; we did have a mix of various eras such as the Valeta as well as English waltz, quickstep, Foxtrot, all of which I have needed in later life. It was a pity that I never found a partner who knew them. The one he didn't teach when I was there was the Vienna Waltz - that also would have been useful on occasion. I also had need of one or two of the Scottish dances that Potts taught.
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
Oliver
3rd Former
Posts: 48
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2014 10:59 am
Real Name: Oliver Underwood

Re: GRACE

Post by Oliver »

Another so called ‘party dance’ that was very popular in the dancing class, and also at the formal dances with St Catherine’s (girls') School, Bramley, Surrey, was the Lambeth Walk. There must have been some sort of coordination between the two schools, for those girls seemed to know the few ‘party dances’ on the programme.

Are there any memories of the canoodling and efforts to prevent it at (Horsham) CH’s dances?

Apparently at Hertford such discipline was much stricter, on the very few occasions when males were allowed to dance at Hertford. I understand that at most of their dances the Hertford girls (wearing their Aertex shirts and shorts) all danced the male part and were partnered by their mistresses, clad in evening dress. This of course was during the reign of head mistress Miss Dorothy West.
sejintenej
Button Grecian
Posts: 4092
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:19 pm
Real Name: David Brown ColA '52-'61
Location: Essex

Re: GRACE

Post by sejintenej »

For the School (grecians) Dance I am not sure how the ladies were found. I did recognise most as being staff members - my partner was one of the nurses. I am certain they didn't import any girls from the nearby girls boarding school
For the dance lessons AFAIR some boys took the ladies' part - I don't recall any females attending
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
Foureyes
Grecian
Posts: 926
Joined: Mon Dec 25, 2006 11:26 am
Real Name: David
Location: England

Re: GRACE

Post by Foureyes »

There is a charming (and true!) story about a particular Grecians' dance in the 1950s which was held, at their invitation, at a local girls' boarding school towards the end of the Summer Term. The C.H. party duly arrived, accompanied by a master to ensure that well went well. The master was the youngest and most recently joined in the Common Room, consequently, and as happens in so many organisations, he was duly 'volunteered' for this onerous duty. When the music started not one of the (up to that moment) dashing Grecians would stand up to invite a girl to dance, so the master, feeling that the honour of the school was at stake, invited the Head Girl to join him. The master and the Head Girl duly danced the first dance - and the second - and the third. A week after the end of term at the two schools the master and the now ex-Head Girl announced their engagement and were married later that year.
David :shock:
Katharine
Button Grecian
Posts: 3285
Joined: Mon Dec 26, 2005 10:44 pm
Real Name: Katharine Dobson
Location: Gwynedd

Re: GRACE

Post by Katharine »

Oliver wrote: Tue Jul 21, 2020 8:09 amApparently at Hertford such discipline was much stricter, on the very few occasions when males were allowed to dance at Hertford. I understand that at most of their dances the Hertford girls (wearing their Aertex shirts and shorts) all danced the male part and were partnered by their mistresses, clad in evening dress. This of course was during the reign of head mistress Miss Dorothy West.
In my time, males were never allowed to dance at Hertford. We had one dance a year on Founder’s Day in October. Joy of joys we could wear our own clothes for it, the one time of the year we could. Miss West sat in glory on the stage watching the proceedings, with girls taking it in turn to sit with her, two at a time. Luckily I never had that honour so have no idea how they were chosen!
Katharine Dobson (Hills) 6.14, 1959 - 1965
AStaverton
2nd Former
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Feb 29, 2020 5:25 am
Real Name: Anthony Staverton

Re: GRACE

Post by AStaverton »

During my days at Housey in the fifties Grecians’ Dances were of two types. There were the alternating home and away fixtures with girls’ schools, firstly Roedean near Brighton and later St Catherine’s at Bramley Surrey. One boy organiser was in Mr Chaundy’s house and a so-called “Captain of Dancing”. The other, rarer dances were with local ladies participating. They were appropriately aged masters’ wives and daughters, nurses, some temporary junior dieticians (interns they would be called today, I imagine) and a few others.
Martin
LE (Little Erasmus)
Posts: 67
Joined: Wed Nov 14, 2012 6:11 am
Real Name: Bill Hurst

Re: GRACE

Post by Martin »

Reflecting on the Court Room still makes me very sore when I consider the 1778 painting Watson and the Shark, by the American pre- and post- Revolutionary artist, John Singleton Copley. That work was most important in his development. It is part of his transition from portraiture to other work and is described as taking “the pictorial representation of terror to new heights”. Copley was the pre-eminent pre-Revolutionary American portraitist, with one US President, two signatories of the USA Declaration of Independence and Paul Revere amongst his subjects. It was given to Watson, who lost a foot in the encounter and was a friend of Copley. Watson, an OB, bequeathed it to CH. I suppose he would not have wished it to be sold. The National Gallery in Washington, DC, bought it in 1963, allegedly for £20 000 and without any announcement being made. This transaction remained generally unknown for over a decade. However the only redeeming feature of the sale was a condition that, with the purchase price, a copy of the picture would be given to CH. Was this greed on the part of both parties, for there were and are two other versions of the striking work, both by Copley, in other cities of the USA. (This erudition is not mine. It’s Wikipedia’s.)
User avatar
Spoonbill
Deputy Grecian
Posts: 240
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2005 10:45 am
Real Name: Bill/Will/Willie/William
Location: Market Weighton

Re: GRACE

Post by Spoonbill »

Ajarn Philip wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2020 11:48 am Sadly, I don't remember ever being cheered! :lol:
On the other side of the coin, do you remember being booed? Or pelted with horse manure?
rockfreak
Grecian
Posts: 972
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:31 pm
Real Name: David Redshaw
Location: Saltdean, East Sussex

Re: GRACE

Post by rockfreak »

Happily, all this courtly dancing old cr*p came to an end in the early sixties with the onset of Motown, Stax and the Rolling Stones. Everyone decoupled, bopped around and did their own thing. The Black Power figure Eldridge Cleaver dated it from the onset of The Twist which he said was the first dance to liberate the dead white pelvis. White girls never looked so pretty back then and white kids never danced so well - often because they had snuck into the black "blues" parties that took place in and around London and copped the moves (and the fashions) of the rude boys.
Post Reply