The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History With Jigsaws (41 page)

Books, too, have beginnings and endings, and they attempt to impose a pattern, to make a shape. We aim, by writing them, to make order from chaos. We fail. The admission of failure is the best that we can do. It is a form of progress.

pp. xv,
[>]
'for it would have ... distressed him so often'
James Boswell's
Life of Samuel Johnson,
vol. 1, 1709-1765, p. 317, Oxford edition, 1934, edited by G. B. Hill, rev. L. F. Powell

p.
[>]
'
What is dying ... There she comes'
This quotation from Bishop C. H. Brent was sent to me at my request by the Reverend Tony Pick. I have not been able to trace it further.

p.
[>]
'Everything shone ... for two hundred years'
Alison Uttley,
The Country Child,
Faber and Faber, 1931

p.
[>]
'tiny metallic sounds' 'pursed-up button mouths'
Alison Uttley,
The Button-Box and other essays,
ch. 14, Faber and Faber, 1968

p.
[>]
'
and that is why ... autobiographical notes'
This quotation is from a short autobiographical sketch by P. L.Travers in
The Junior Books of Authors,
ed. S. J. Kunitz and H. Haycraft (H. H. Wilson, 1951).

p.
[>]
'I choose to mention ... favourite amusements'
James Boswell's
Life of Samuel Johnson,
op. cit., vol. 5,
Tour to the Hebrides 1773,
p. 16

p.
[>]
'loved indeed the very act ... and on despising no accommodations'
Hester Lynch Piozzi,
Anecdotes of the late Dr Samuel Johnson
(1786)

pp.
[>]
,
[>]
'the organisation of the collection is itself a substitute for time'
For Jean Baudrillard's essay on 'The Non-Functional System of Objects' see
Revenge of the Crystal: Selected Writings on the
Modern Object and its Destiny
(ed. and trans. Paul Foss and Julian Pefanis, Pluto, 1990.)

p.
[>]
'I have seen little Girls ... more useful to them'
John Locke,
Some Thoughts Concerning Education,
1693,1695

p.
[>]
'
in the same way ... has become "atlantique".'
Georges Perec, from
Penser/Classer
(
Think/Classify
) (
Le Genre Humain,
1982), an essay which appears in
Species of Spaces and
Other Pieces,
ed. and trans. by John Sturrock (Penguin, 1997)

p.
[>]
'
I should recommend ... a perfect Whole!

William Cowper to William Unwin, letter dated 7 September 1780,
The Letters and Prose Writings of William Cowper,
vol. 1,1750–1781, edited by James King and Charles Ryskamp (Clarendon Press, 1979)

p.
[>]
'
a playful visualisation... bosom and rump'
Diana Donald,
The Age of Caricature
(New Haven, 1996)

p.
[>]
'
Whoever has watched children
.
.. slow, but sure, and wins the day'
Maria Edgeworth,
Practical Education,
vol. 1 (vol. 11 of Complete Works; 1798)

p.
[>]
'he
works very hard all day ... or anything else'
Stella Tillyard, ch. 3, 'Homes, Education and Adultery',
Aristocrats
(Chatto & Windus, 1994)

p
[>]
'
The Queen thanked [Lady Carteret ]...that I drew the pattern'
Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville,
vol. 1,1861: a letter dated 4 March 1728/9

p.
[>]
'
Indian figures and flowers ... painting on glass
'
Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville,
vol. 3,1861: a letter dated 11 June 1751

p.
[>]
'
Now I know you smile ... banish the spleen'
Ruth Hayden,
Mrs Delany: Her Life and Her Flowers,
p. 143

p.
[>]
'
a knife, sizsars, pencle, rule, compass, bodkin'
Ruth Hayden,
Mrs Delany: Her Life and Her Flowers,
p. 155

p.
[>]
'
national magnificence ... carry into effect'
The Journal of Elizabeth Lady Holland
(1791–1811), published by Longmans, Green and Co., 1908 (vol. 11, p. 195)

p.
[>]
'
the lamps from London Bridge ... town hall for Swanage in 1881
' Raphael Samuel's
Theatres of Memory,
1994. See also
Swanage Past
by David Lewer and Dennis Smale, Phillimore and Co., 1994.

'
an overwhelmingly undisciplined example of the City of London style
' John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner,
The Buildings of England: Dorset
(Penguin, 1972, 1975)

p.
[>]
'
creep,/Wretch, under a comfort
.
.. dies with sleep'
G. M. Hopkins, untitled poem, 'No worst, there is none'

p.
[>]
'
Tristes desirs, vivez donques contents ... que j'endure'
Joachim du Bellay, Sonnet VII of his sequence
Antiquitez de
Rome,
1558

p.
[>]
'
the belt buckle of a uniform ... the chandelier'
Georges Perec,
Life:A User's Manual
(1978), translated by David Bellos

p.
[>]
'
I dine, I play backgammon ... with my friends'
David Hume, Conclusion of Book I,
A Treatise of Human
Nature,
1739

'
very cheerful, and even elegant. to my Honour'
E. C. Mossner,
The Life of David Hume,
ch. 37,'Autumnal Serenity'

p.
[>]
'
A peasant and a philosopher ... consciousness with a philosopher
James Boswell, op. cit., vol. 2, 1766–1776

'
Prejudice apart ... always asserted of poetry
' Jeremy Bentham,
Rationale of Reward,
Book 3, Chapter 1, 1830

p.
[>]
'
I am not so great an enemy to cards ... for that purpose
' Ruth Hayden, op. cit., p. 95

'
I can't help when I play deep ... don't feel pleasant at it
' Stella Tillyard, op.cit.

p.
[>]
'
poor little ugly she-mouse ... not being in the house
' John Hervey,
Memoirs of the Reign of George II,
first published 1848, ed. J. W Croker

'
Read to the Queen ... provoke one's understanding
' Flora Fraser,
Princesses,
p. 200 (Harcourt Mss, Elizabeth to Elizabeth Lady Harcourt, 23 July 1802)

p.
[>]
'
always played ... females in a certain class
' F. J. Harvey Darton,
The Life and Times of Mrs Sherwood,
1910

p.
[>]
'
The house itself ... compose a third
' Thomas de Quincey,'Southey, Wordsworth and Coleridge', first published in
Tait's Edinburgh Magazine
in August 1839 and reprinted in
Reminiscences of the English Lake Poets
(also known as
Recollections of the Lake Poets)

p.
[>]
'
a house is never said to be properly furnished ... a kitten rising three weeks
' Robert Southey,
The Doctor,
1834. The story of Goldilocks is also to be found in this publication.

p.
[>]
'
Princess Elizabeth is a lovely little fat ... for the purpose
' Flora Fraser, ch. 2,'Growing Up',
Princesses

p.
[>]
'
cannot be created by charters ... perish by themselves
' Hugh Kingsmill,
The Poisoned Crown,
Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1944

p.
[>]
'
hauntingly still and grave ... expression and gesture
' Helen Langdon,
Travellers' Art Guide to Italy,
Mitchell Beazley, 1984

p.
[>]
'
imitations fondly made. weakness, and his loves
William Wordsworth,
The Prelude,
Book 7, 'Residence in London'

p.
[>]
, '
a sort of existentialist mosaic ... and unpublished
'

p.
[>]
'
An early book I tried to write ... squares of opinion and feeling
' John Fowles,
Wormholes,
Jonathan Cape, 1988, pp. 367, xi of Preface

p.
[>]
'
a map of England ... towns were worked in silk
' H. Winifred Sturge and Theodora Clark,
The Mount School, York,
J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd, 1931

p.
[>]
'
I satisfied my hunger ... seemed to do me good
'
The Prose of John Clare,
ed. J. W and Anne Tibble, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951

Many people helped me, some wittingly and some unwittingly, with this book. Some talked or wrote to me about jigsaws and some recommended further reading.

Amongst my correspondents I thank Peter Barber, Xavier Bray, Anthony Brown, Linda Cameron, William Chislett, Beverley Cook, Alan Dein, Sebastian Edwards, Irving Finkel, Juliet Gardener, Pat Garrett, Daniel Hahn, Howard Hardiman, Roland Huntford, Toph Marshall, Simon Mason, Julian Mitchell, Charles Saumarez Smith, Jill Shefrin, Donald Sinden, Gillian Sutherland and Colin Thubron. Nicholas Tucker was helpful and encouraging in more ways than one. Michael Berry found rare books for me, and Michael Codron submitted to an interview about his jigsaw addiction, an interest to which I was alerted by Michael Frayn.

Julia Hoffbrand of the Museum of London showed me some very early dissected maps and puzzles, and directed me to Alan Dein's BBC Radio 4 programme about the Jackson Pollock
Convergence
jigsaw.

Treasured jigsaws were given to me by Julia Blackburn, Sindamani Bridglal, Carmen Callil, Donald and Shirley Gee, Julian Mitchell, Richard Rowson, Augusta Skidelsky, and various Swift
children and grandchildren. Helen Langdon and Susan Haskins talked to me about aspects of art history, and Kenneth Uprichard of the British Museum about mosaic restoration. Hilary Dickinson, Judith Landry and Julian Mitchell listened to me patiently and came up with comments over a wide and random spectrum of interests. Ronald and Natasha Harwood described to me the pleasure of crosswords, and Valda Ondaatje the pleasure of playing bridge. Jeremy Rosenblatt and Ian Blatchford spotted news items and metaphors, and David Millett explained jigsaws and fretsaws.

Kevin Copley opened my eyes to a whole new area of speculation when he mentioned mosaics, and Tom Holland sent me off on a search for a jigsaw of the Alexander mosaic at Naples, which I never found. Alan Sillitoe talked to me about his fondness for maps, and Doris Lessing about the therapeutic uses of jigsaws. Mia Beaumont and Bernadine Bishop also offered very useful comments in this area. Simon Mason alerted me to Georges Perec's novel,
Life: A User's Manual,
which was the starting point for many further quests.

Joyce Bainbridge, who, with her late husband Eddie, was a lifelong friend of my aunt Phyllis Bloor, has been immensely helpful with this book. She has many memories of my grandparents' house, Bryn, and of Long Bennington, the village where they lived. She is a custodian of village history and our visits to her keep the past alive. She has treasured photographs and stories that would otherwise have been lost or forgotten.

I thank all my family for their support. My daughter Becky has shown a keen interest in doing jigsaws with me, and some of her friends have helped to assemble impossible puzzles in my absence. I would never have finished the Jackson Pollock without them. (Paula Smith has a particularly good eye.) Michael Holroyd, who has no personal interest whatsoever in this curious pastime, has
watched over me tolerantly, and taken some bizarrely revealing photographs of my works in progress.

I also thank my editor Toby Mundy, for publishing this eccentric book and for sending it off in new directions during various stages of its composition, and Caroline Knight, for her encouragement and help with the text. My thanks also to my agents, Michael Sissons and the late Pat Kavanagh, who looked after me, supported me and encouraged me over many years.

An essay called 'A Day Out in Kew', which incorporates and enlarges on an episode in my research for this book, appears in
Jane Austen Sings the Blues
(ed. Nora Stovel, University of Alberta, 2009), which is a Festschrift in honour of Austen scholar Bruce Stovel.

This book, as I explain in the foreword, began as a book about jigsaws, and I read widely if randomly round this subject and the subject of children's games and literature. The most important single source was
The English Jigsaw-Puzzle 1760–1890
by Linda Hannas (Wayland Publishers, 1972), a pioneer text that led me to F. R. B. Whitehouse's
Table Games of Georgian and Victorian Days
(Priory Press, 1951) and Chris McCann's
Master Pieces: The Art History of Jigsaw Puzzles
(Collector's Press, Inc., Portland, Oregon, 1998). Jill Shefrin's work in this field – 'Make it a Pleasure not a Task',
Princeton University Library Chronicle,
LX: 2 (Winter, 1999) and
Such Constant Affectionate Care: Lady Charlotte Finch, Royal Governess and the Children of George III
(Los Angeles, Cotsen Family Foundation, 2003) – has been invaluable. Shefrin's
The Dartons: Publishers of Educational Aids, Pastimes & Juvenile Ephemera, 1787–1876. A Bibliographic Checklist. Together with a description of the Darton Archive as held by the Cotsen Children's Library, Princeton University Library & a brief history of printed teaching aids
(Cotsen Occasional Press) will be published in 2009. Peter Haining's
Movable Books: An Illustrated History
(New English Library, 1979) colourfully illustrates an adjacent area.

The specialist literature on children's literature in English is extensive, and the key text for me was F. J. Harvey Darton's
Children's Books in England
(1932; third enlarged and revised edition, ed. Brian Alderson, Cambridge University Press, 1982), which in turn introduced me to his edition of
The Life and Times of Mrs Sherwood
(Wells Gardner, Darton, 1910) and his pseudonymous novels
My Father's Son: A Faithful Record
(Hodder and Stoughton, 1913) by 'W. W. Penn', and
When:A Record of Transition
(Chapman & Hall, 1929) by 'the late J. L. Pole'. Marjorie Moon's
John Harris's Books for Youth 1801–1843
( Five Owls Press Limited, 1976) was also useful, as was
The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature
(Oxford University Press, 1984) by Humphrey Carpenter and Mari Prichard. The new
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(Oxford University Press, 2004) is a storehouse of well-researched lesser lives, including those of the Spilsbury family. The account of Robert Southey's childhood is from the first volume of
The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey,
ed. C. C. Southey, 6 vols. (Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1849). Information about Lindley Murray is from
The Mount School, York
by H. Winifred Sturge and Theodora Clark ( J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd, 1931).