Today has been unique because I usually have Bible study on a Friday morning and work all afternoon. But with it being school holidays, we are having a bit of a recess. Work-wise, with it being school holidays overseas as well, everything has quietened down. I lay in bed til about 10am!!!! What a fabulous treat. I kept checking my email from deep beneath my blankets but there was nothing to attend to. I spoke to my friend for half an hour on the phone and later had another half an hour to Stacey, which was also a treat. It’s wonderful to get a lazy day off.
I got up, showered and joined Mike in the kitchen to have breakfast. By then it was 11ish. I came upstairs and have done about an hour of work or two, but there is truly not much to do.
Meantime, it’s very wintry here in Cape Town. Cold wind, rain and possible snow on the high lying mountains, makes spending some time under blankets reading a very good idea. The book I will pick up to read right now has this photo on the front cover…
It’s that of Lady Anne Barnard. She was the ninth child of a large family and had 8 older brothers! She had at least 2 or 3 sisters younger than her as she talks about them in this book – The Cape Journals of Lady Anne Barnard 1797 – 1798. Lady Anne lived in Cape Town with her husband, Andrew, (12 years her junior) up to 1802. She died at the age of 75 in 1825. She describes her days in the Cape as the happiest in her life.
Her journal of her voyage to Cape Town followed by the first couple of years residency is entertaining and quite adventurous. The detail she goes into is quite fun, from the horror of having her ‘ladies maid’ bail on her a day or two prior to departure and the extensive description of her replacement to the expansive account of her fellow travellers. Her wit and, at times, sharp tongue, makes me think she was not to be trifled with and she clearly carried her title of Lady to her full advantage.
There was a young girl who was on the ship who Lady Anne describes as a ‘crumb’. Lady Anne asked the brother-in-law of this poor lass how she, being by far the least of all the ‘handsome daughters,’ had come to be the one chosen for such an adventure. The brother-in-law agreed she was the worst of the lot. It was so sad! I hoped none of this awful conversation was in front of the person in question, whose name is Mary Mein. Such is the power of Lady Anne’s words to grab the attention of the reader.
Because poor Mary was spoken of with such disdain, I read up on what happened to this ‘crumb!’ Shortly after she arrived at the Cape, she married a man named W.M. Proctor Smith and on 17th September 1799, she gave birth to a son who they named William Mein Smith. He rose through the ranks of the military, became a captain, married and produced 5 grandchildren for his parents. In fact, William Proctor Smith and Mary returned to England from the Cape and he became secretary to the Port Admirals at Plymouth. So much for the crumb.
“Shush, Lady Anne, you know not what you speak!” In fact later in the book, (I flipped forward), she says she was so surprised to hear the crumb had married!
I am sure if I had been on the ship in my teens with Lady Anne, she would have referred to me as a crumb as well.
Fortunately, by God’s grace, we don’t stay that way.
Psalm 40:2
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
God is the God of resurrection!
These are the days.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you!
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂