RBW Online

ISSUE 281 Date: 12th April 2013

British Library Legal Deposit

NEW REGULATIONS for e-books and bloggers pg11

Eliza Calvert Hall Eliza Caroline "Lida" Obenchain (née Calvert) (February 11, 1856 – December 20, 1935) was an American author, women's rights advocate and suffragist from Bowling Green in western

Kentucky. Lida Obenchain, writing with the pen name Eliza Calvert Hall, advocated for the abil-ity of woman to marry and divorce, for a married woman to own property and write a will

separate from her husband in her fictional work and opinion pieces. Her best known work is Aunt Jane of Kentucky which received notability when US President Teddy Roosevelt recom-mended the book to the American people during a speech.

It is only a plain tale of plain people told in the plain dialect of a plain old woman. Hall, Eliza Calvert (1910). "Introduction". Sally Ann's Experience. Illustrated by G. Patrick Nel-son, Theodore Brown Hapgood. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. pp. v - xii.

Lida Obenchain's description of her then famous story Sally Ann's Experience. Aunt Jane of Kentucky (1907)

Aunt Jane of Kentucky, a collection of nine short stories that are set in rural western Kentucky in the late 19th Century, recounts an elderly spinster Aunt Jane's memories of life in the rural

south. The first story in the book Sally Ann's Experience was originally published approximately ten years earlier and was the most famous story that she wrote.

I've noticed that whenever a woman's willin' to be imposed upon there's always a man standin' 'round ready to do the imposin'.

Hall, Eliza Calvert. Aunt Jane of Kentucky. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1907. Sally Ann's Ex-perience p. 27.

Patchwork? Ah, no! It was memory, imagination, history, biography, joy, sorrow, philosophy, religion, romance, realism, life, love and death; and over all, like a halo, the love of the artist for his work and the soul's longing for earthly immortality.

Hall, Eliza Calvert. Aunt Jane of Kentucky. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1907. Aunt Jane's Album p. 82.

Audrey Jackson

There may be trouble ahead,

But while there's moonlight, you and me,

A&E and Maternity,

Let's face the music and dance.

Before the fiddlers have fled.

Before they ask us to pay the bill, we're here

together still,

Let's face the music and dance.

We could be without you soon,

Humming a different tune.

So why not switch off the music and

march.

LIFE OBSERVATIONS It’s been a trifle chilly of late ... I could tell this as the bath towels had frozen solid on the washing line and had to be thawed out. The three foot snow drift up the door to the garage was also a bit of a clue. Always best to switch off electrical appliances before cleaning them ... that includes key-boards ... Sigh! Spending time in the waiting room for the chemotherapy unit is a challenging experience. Some little creature has had such a jolly time digging up all three rows of peas planted last week. There’s something deeply satisfying about vanilla sponge cakes hot from the oven each in their own paper case, golden tanned and delicious. When a washing machine floods the kitchen it isn’t always a machine fault. It can some-times be a blocked outlet pipe. Isn’t the internet wonderful for practical information?

Issue 281

Page 5

Impose verb levy or enforce something, to lay down something compulsory upon others such as taxation or punishment; to insist upon something through authority or bullying; to inconvenience someone else through demanding attention; to pass off something on someone via deceit or fraud; in printing to arrange papers Notability noun significance, the importance of a person which makes them worth listen-ing to Lek noun a gathering of male animals for courtship ritual display Cascabel noun a small, round, hot variety of chili pepper, Capsicum annuum, which rat-tles when dry. A knob at the end of a cannon, cast onto the gun barrel, to which ropes are attached in order to control recoil. Amerce verb to impose a fine upon Proppant noun sand or similar particulate material suspended in water or other fluid and used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to keep fissures open. Blemish noun a small flaw which spoils the appearance of something, a stain, a spot. A moral defect; a character flaw.

Comestible adj suitable to be eaten; edible.

Ophidian adj pertaining to the suborder Serpentes; of, related to, or characteristic of a snake or serpent.

Troika n A Russian carriage drawn by a team of three horses abreast. A party or group of three. A twentieth century art pottery company of Cornwall famous for distinctive pots.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troika_Pottery

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Issue 281

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Random Words : Busybody, old dear, waiting-room, inimical, clas-sic, expecting, isotope, action, roundabout, green Assignment: starting over

Crime Thriller Sequel Launched!Crime Thriller Sequel Launched!

Raising Skinny Elephants by Dave LewisRaising Skinny Elephants by Dave Lewis

Dave Lewis’s debut novel Ctrl-Alt-Delete was a rollercoaster ride through the Welsh landscape which introduced politically incorrect hero Hal Griffiths. This second ambitious project plunges us headfirst into

the modern, material world of technology even though set in the remote wil-derness of the African bush where we find Hal in more trouble ...

From Amazon.co.uk: ‘Hal Griffiths is in Kenya taking photographs for National Geographic maga-

zine, but cyber slayer Hagar is there too and wants revenge. As the grid be-gins to close around the serial killer there is another twist in the tail. From the bars of Nairobi to the shoreline of Lake Naivasha and the stunning vista of the Great Rift Valley Hal must

once again fight for his life. A first rate sequel to Ctrl-Alt-Delete. Fast action, graphic violence, black com-

edy and drug-crazed sex romp – what more could any reader want!’

About the Author … Dave Lewis has published six previous books and runs the international Welsh Poetry Competition. Raising Skinny Elephants is his second novel the sequel to his Facebook, cyber-stalking, crime thriller, Ctrl-Alt-Delete.

Raising Skinny Elephants can be found on Amazon.co.uk or by visiting the Dave Lewis web site and follow the links: www.david-lewis.co.uk

Issue 281

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Starting Over Assignment Spring is late this year ... but in the Spring there come that urge to clean out the nest and declutter for many of us ... but not all ... hoarding is a general term for behaviour that leads people, or animals (Squirrel Nutkin), to accumu-

late food and survival things (soap, candles) during periods of scarcity. Hoard-ing gets harder to avoid as we advance in years and items become attached to memories such as baby shoes and broken tennis rackets. Hoarding and caching are common behaviours in many bird species as well. Most animal caches are of food. However, some birds will also collect items for display courtship behaviour: magpies are famous for hoarding shiny items such as bottle tops and jewellery. Wartime rationing, or natural disaster, may lead people to hoard food-stuffs, water, petrol (often with disastrous consequences) and other essentials which they believe will be in short supply. Once learned these behaviours be-come entrenched. Many old folk today still roll up string and stock up on can-dles as they were taught to do in wartime seventy years ago.

Then there are those ‘Survivalists’, who often stockpile large supplies of items in anticipation of large scale disaster. The hunker-bunker mentality is still alive and well in some of those of a right leaning persuasion. Some excessive hoarding may be a form of mental illness, specifically a variation of obsessive–compulsive disorder, where the perceived importance of the hoarded items to the sufferer far exceeds their real value. Sufferers lose the desire to throw away things because of strong feelings of need and attach-ment. In severe cases, their homes become a fire hazard and a health hazard due to vermin infestation, excessive pet keeping, stacking of old food and gen-eral rubbish such as empty milk containers, newspapers and tin cans. For some such sufferers TV reality shows have offered voyeuristic ‘assistance’ in the form of a cleanout of their hovels in exchange for all seeing

cameras to ring out every nuance of suffering at the breakup of their home and the wanton destruction of their much loved worthless possessions. Often little more than lip-service is paid to the degree of metal illness of the victim of this seeming cruelty although sometimes psychologists are on hand to advise. What the long term effect of such public scrutiny of a person’s mental health is not known. It is a fact the sufferer is publically evicted from their com-fort zone and detached from all that made them feel safe in a cruel world that did not understand their needs. If one did this to an addict in the name of great TV it would be the coldest turkey imaginable and would not be permitted air-time. If the hoarder cannot mentally start over and reverts to previous pat-terns of behaviour once the cameras leave is also often not disclosed. However, there are often valid reasons for such savage decluttering and

starting over. For hoarders living in rented accommodation often it is their landlord who is doing the threatening of eviction if their property is not ren-dered liveable again — and few could blame them for this attitude. Hoarding is a complicated issue, there doesn’t seem to be an easy or sim-ple solution, perhaps simply by society being less judgemental, and more open to the suffering of those affected, would be a small step forward, in which case those TV shows could argue vindication for raising such awareness ...

YE SLIGHTY OBLONG TABLE OF TRENTBY

YE CAST OF CHARACTERS NB: Historical accuracy is NOT encouraged

Nobles and similar Harffa Ye Kyng. Not ye sharpest knyfe in ye drawer. Queen Agatha (the tight fisted) Don Key O’Tee Spanish ambassador to Court of Kyng Harffa .. Wants saint’s big toe back Baron Leonard Bluddschott (Stoneybroke) Gwenever Goodenough Wyfe of ye Baron Della Bluddschott Ugly Daughter of Baron Bluddschott. GalLa of Hadnt Hall A Prince but Charmless Daniel Smithers Constable of Bluddschott Castle and maybe the Corowner of the County Old Maids Vera, Gloria and Bertha husband hunting sisters of Baron Bluddschott Evil Sherriff and Baron Morbidd up to no good Morgan le Fey king’s evil sister - Merlin the king’s magician Ye Knights [they’re better during the day] Lancealittle, Dwayne Cottavere, Percivere Mailish (Narrator) Page to Baron Bluddschott (Probably Son by wife’s sister) Religiouse Lionel, Bishop of Trentby keeper of the Mappa Tuessdi Abbot Costello of Nottalot, a Nasturtium Abbey desperate for pilgrim pennies Vladimir A monk from far off somewhere, a Calligrapher Wyllfa the Druid Sorcerer Others Big Jock A Welsh poacher and short wide-boy. Robbin’ Hoodie another poacher and wide-boy. Peeping Barry member of Hoodie’s gang of miscreants Clarence the cook and a Wandering Troubadour None living The Ghostly Sword of Bluddschott Castle The Mappa Tuessdi ... Velum maps of the known world bought in a bazaar in Constantinople for a few pennies by Vladimir oft times copied The toe bone of St. Gastric. Gallstone of St. Hilarious Crocodile and a Unicorn and a Dragon carved in stone

Good luck, we ’ l l need it ...

THE ELDERLY HAVE SKILLSET WE NEED TODAY

What is needed in a Blog is an elderly person with all the skills in lighting fires, keeping them going, and so on, but we need someone who remembers the coal burning cooking ranges of old time kitchens, as these are the stove skills.

I am probably doing everything wrong. Whatever happens, the elderly cannot afford to heat their homes with gas and electric as once

over 70 years of age, any room we sit it needs to be heated to 70F all day, every day. I cannot imagine that a frail old person could do the manual task of stoking coal and log fires, but

this is what me gran did all her life with her open fires in all rooms of the terraced house and the fire range

in the kitchen. But then she had the whole of history's women knowledge at her fingertips, about making and

keeping a fire going.

WE NEED OLD PEOPLE’S KNOWLEDGE BEFORE IT IS LOST FOREVER The Children of Empire Generation My stove experience has exposed the fact we have lost survival skills from our ancestors with all

the difficulties in lighting it and keeping it going. Stove Safety A stove is safer than an open fire re fire risk and falls.

The blister on my left index finger (good as I am right handed) and the tops of my fingers (as you can see) are well recovered.

Stress-Buster Offered

The senior moments abound, with putting newspaper under the little pyramid of kindling and the fire instantly going out when you light the newspaper.

Drat, as it is the paper that has headline on Easter Sunday on welfare reform is good for the poor

when the churches say it is not. And major economists say that 80% of the cuts are yet to come, yet the media tell us that all the cuts have achieved are over £60 billion of more debt from borrowing yet to come.

WHERE TO SECURELY STORE COAL AND SAWN LOGS? You cannot buy anything similar to the old coal bunkers that were built into old terraced houses I

was told in local DIY shops, the coal merchants, the local fireplace shops, but then I googled searched and

found these. In towns you would probably need a lockable bunker. There is a coal bunker sales place up Manchester to look at the items before buying and can have it delivered in between 5-7 days. They have lockable coal bunkers. If I ever get a job I’ll tootle up there on a Saturday.

Rural Storage of Coal and Logs: when I have been out into the villages, where the residents have little crime, I noticed they store sawn logs in front of their houses or all up the side walls.

I CAN’T AFFORD TO SUPPORT HALF BILLION PROFIT OF ENERGY COMPANIES

My heating bills started to go through the roof when the first bitter winds blasted us from Siberia. They tell us that this winter was as cold as the winter of 1962-63, but to my young memory there was far less snow. My father remembered the winter of 1946-47 that was a far worse winter, buried in deep bliz-

zards and frozen coastal seas. Heating a whole house with radiators too old to turn down, and without the new controls that have

thermostats that can be turned down or up and with timers as well, just made things worse. The decision

was made and the radiators were turned off at the boiler. The house then became colder than outdoors. Nowhere in the house seemed to be a refuge.

SOLUTION ONE – STANDALONE CONVECTOR HEATERS So standalone convector heaters with thermostats and timers were put on all day in a clothes dry-

ing room, where mindlessly trawling the internet could keep me occupied. This ended up with an even

deeper debt of energy bills. SOLOUTION TWO – LITTLE TOWER HOT AIR HEATERS Then this was exchanged for cheap tower hot air heaters that were turned on and off. But as they

stood on feet to lift up from the floor so as not to be a fire hazard, feet missed the promise of warmth. THE EFFECTS OF HYPOTHERMIA AKA BEING BLOOMING SHIVERING ALL THE TIME But as the winter progressed, the tower heaters could not heat a room anywhere near enough to

stop the signs of hypothermia, otherwise known as being blooming frozen all day. Shivering deep in the body. A face feeling as cold as the marble top in the old pantry. And seeing

the breath before your face in the loo as of old in the glory hole at the bottom of the garden, with its neat

squares of newspaper to read. It’s the constant lumps at the end of your legs that once were feet that mean you can never settle.

A cup of tea that cools practically as soon as poured, with a taste that does not cheer when stone cold

dead in the market. Yuck! And what’s the point of mashing the tea, as the hot drink was made to warm the cockles of your frozen little heart? The household chores you cannot do as you dare not stay in the fro-zen kitchen but in swift recces and retreat.

STONE-AGE SURVIVAL The tower heater blasts away straight into your frozen seized up arthritic knees, as you spoon into

frozen lips your warming soup, with your lower half wrapped in layers of thick throws like bear rugs of old, sat on a sheep’s fleece, and think yourself back into the stone-age.

Normal blankets, sheets and duvets have to be abandoned, as you move into prehistory. Thick un-

der-blanket of sheep’s fleece and wrapped in thick and thin layers that act as insulation by having the hair side out from

one layer to form like cavity wall insulation to the next layer of blanket, of fake small wild cat and topped with a thick bear fur like blanket.

But all to no avail.

Technology had to be used in the shape of the sheep’s fleece being bought in a sale, of a thermal electric under-blanket, that became a life-saver. Hibernation then became the survival mode. Imprisoned by the cold in a room that was

colder than all but the bathroom. SOLUTION THREE – MULTI-FUEL COAL AND LOG BURNING STOVE IN LOUNGE And so the winter dragged on and on and on, never ending frigid freezing and one wondered how it was that the

windows did not freeze on the inside. Then you decide. The heck with it. The savings will end quite soon enough, so at least be warm in your last few days.

Fitting of Stove and Build of Fireplace where Gas Fire Was

And you spend two grand (about half a year’s house bills less in the kitty) on having a fireplace built where the old gas fire was by a registered fitter, that can safely take out all the live gas piping so you don’t blow yourself up when the fire is lit.

And so the day came. I was lucky with the two workmen, friendly, efficient, cleaned up after themselves. Great. But two days in a house with the front door ajar, the door to the lounge left open for access to the van to do the

work. Brrrrr!

Days went by and no meals were had til night-time. I was just too cold. The little heaters being close to the workmen to keep them well, and me shivering in a chair wrapped up like our

ancient ancestors, the other side of our Ice Age 30,000 years ago, or in our mini Ice Ages first recorded from the 1300s in

mid 17th century when the River Thames frozen each winter enough for frost fairs right up until 1814. It was the coldest it had been for a thousand years. And they say that climate change was caused because the Black Death Plague had killed off so many people, there was not enough agriculture to keep the planet warm!

And so the little stove was fitted. NOW COMES THE STEEP LEARNING CURVE

Get The Right Kind of Coal Multi-fuel stove coal is different to the coal you get for open fires. Getting the right coal is pretty life-saving stuff.

The Right Sort of Firelighter Not getting an open fire firelighter that lights like a flame-thrower, 3 foot up the chimney. Open fireplace firelighters are lethal stuff as I saw one shoot flame 3 foot up the chimney in an open fire.

So pleased that my old chimney was too knackered to put an open fireplace back in. If the chimney is not good then smoke will poison you.

Need Youthful strength to chop logs I cannot chop up wood and must buy sawn logs.

Don’t just burn anything, some have died from poisoning from chemicals in treated and painted wood. But the logs are an occasional upping of the heat in the depths of night and not all day as that would be too ex-

pensive as they do not last long.

Need to be mature to remember open fires today I've finally remembered the craft of keeping coals burning to generate heat, putting on 2 or 3 coals every few hours to keep the fire going.

VERY FIRST VISIT TO THE COAL YARD

Yes, it is cheaper to get coal for a stove direct from a coal merchant, but to get it delivered you need to order at least what was known as half a hundredweight. So I have to go direct to the coal yard and collect the coal.

I discovered a coal merchants in a local village and they do deliver for the amount of half a hundredweight one or two days a week to Stafford.

The coal yard was deeply hidden within the village. Turning into where the coal merchant's sign was pinned on a wall, brought me into a little old fashioned garage that would

not have been amiss in a Miss Marple murder mystery. So being cheeky I kept driving towards the Nissen hut

and saw to my right a little tiny coal yard framed by scrap cars

forming a tunnel to its front gates. Two men of my age group were hard at work covered

in coal dust. One in an alarmingly driven bulldozer, spraying

coal nuggets as he moved them from one bin to another, and then to a funnel to put them into sacks.

He drove to the end of the micro coal yard as I drove in

through the gates and then realised there was so much stuff piled up I had nowhere to turn round to come out.

Fortunately the dozer saw me before ploughing into me

long nosed rust bucket. Hello! rang from the dozer as it sprayed more coal

down the funnel by me car and the odd nugget threatened to hit me rust bucket, not that any more scratches would detract from all those already on it.

Going to the rear to open my tail gate of the estate, a van drove up and blocked the coal yard gate, with a smiling

man sitting and waiting his turn to get coal. Then another car came up to the rear, looked at the mess of blocked vehicles and reversed around scrap cars and made it without scraping or crunching his rear.

The man put the coal dust saturated sacks into me boot after me proffering the money and me coins in change came

back with a thick layer of coal. Then I had to drive up practically into the coal bins and do a 5 point turn, trying not to hit more scrap metal, old timber sheds even more precarious than those in me garden and carefully squeezed past the van.

As I drove out the garage, a souped up Ford Capri type car zoomed into the blind sighted entrance and glared at me for having the temerity to be in her way, with white blonde peroxide hair flying in the wind.

Now comes the solution of how to do the impossible...

The fun just never stopped! as when I got home I knew there was not one chance I could lift the two sacks of 50 Ki-los of coal out of the back of my old estate car. So I got a small sandcastle sized plastic bucket and baled the sacks the short distance from the back of the car and the front of the garage into a plastic box.

More coal dust on my old plastic apron, up in my face, in my hair pushed back out the road and coughing and splut-tering from the coal dust flying through the air with the greatest of ease.

Ah the joys of being poor, and old, and knackered.

Stiff upper lip! Keeping on going even in pain: It may be hard (especially with arthritis killing my back) but I cannot afford to pay for gas central heating full stop. I cannot afford to heat a whole house when I am in one room at a time. It makes no sense.

But I am getting the knack of keeping the fire stoked up with a shovel full of coal, just enough to keep the heat kick-ing out from the cast iron stove, from the slow burning effect of coal. I will have to seek out historical re-enactors who may still have that old knowledge.

THE TRIALS & TRIBULATIONS OF STOVE STOKING It gets even funnier when the fire goes out as I am sleeping and I wake up shivering so much I just cannot get warm.

It takes courage to strip off and get in the bath when you can see your breath in front of your face.We are wimps compared

to our grandparents' days. Trying to stoke a fire without a companion set of tongs to pick up the coal, a poker to stoke the fire, and a little brush and dustpan set is not viable. Coal scuttle and fireside small shovel. But then later you yearn for a nice

log basket. More expense. Until one day you go all medieval and put a knight in full armour to look after your companion set HOW TO LIGHT A FIRE?

Did I remember how to stoke up a fire from me days as a historical re-enactor when a teenager? Or was it from me gran’s

open fireplace in the parlour? Bits of memories came back to me. But my fire kept going out or would not light at all. I carefully ripped up and crunched up the newspaper. Put the kin-

dling into a pyramid so that their undersides took up the flames from the newspaper. And carefully used a long nosed gas-

lighter to light the paper. All to no avail. The centre of the kindling burnt nicely and then went out. Then I found a firelighter for stoves. Far too dangerous as they shot up flame, but even these just fired up and fizzled out.

Eventually through fatalistic endeavour, the combination of newspaper and pyramid of kindling lit up with enough time

to put in coals onto the flames with sufficient strength and heat as coal does not light easily. Once the flames took hold, the coals become like bits of solid lava. Kicking out heat for quite a while before burning down to ash. One way to kick out more heat for the chill nights was to place a log over-top the burning coals to add heat from below and above to keep the coals well

lit. GETTING RID OF THE ASH SO THE COAL FIRE CAN BREATHE Now someone has told me that log and coal dust ash are good

sources of potassium for the garden. I hope that is true as me garden is getting the ash when the fire goes out and the ash is cold. How you get all

the ash, with the ash pan tool, out of the house without some going on the floor is another trick to learn.

And can I remember how to use my long handled dustpan and

brush set and not try and bend down to use the usual small set and my back seizes up and I have to lie down a bit to recover. No!

MOVING FUEL FROM INSIDE GARAGE INTO BY FIREPLACE

Then comes the real back-breaking stuff, even done a little bit at a time. Take the leftover bag from the sawn logs and carry a bit at a time a few logs into the house and put in a bin out of the way of the heat of the

stove, but close by. Result. Sleeping for several hours to recover. Go out and get some

coal from a plastic box and bring in and put in coal scuttle. Stoke up fire,

paper, kindling, coal, sawn log. Result. Sleep ‘til dinner time. By which time the fire has gone out

and you have to go through all the process again, drag yourself to cook up

a pizza. Eat. Watch a DVD. Then sleep some more. Ah the high life!

Blog by Ms Annoyed Senior Citizen of Moss Pit

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Press Release : LEGAL DEPOSITS BRITISH LIBRARY

Six major libraries poised to capture the

digital universe, including the entire UK

web domain Regulations coming into force on 6 April

will enable six major libraries to collect, preserve

and provide long term access to the increasing

proportion of the nation’s cultural and intellectual

output that appears in digital form – including

blogs, e-books and the entire UK web domain. From this point forward, the British Library, the Na-

tional Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales,

the Bodleian Libraries, Cambridge University Library and

Trinity College Library Dublin will have the right to receive

a copy of every UK electronic publication, on the same ba-

sis as they have received print publications such as books,

magazines and newspapers for several centuries.

The regulations, known as legal deposit, will ensure

that ephemeral materials like websites can be collected, pre-

served forever and made available to future generations of

researchers, providing the fullest possible record of life and

society in the UK in the 21st century for people 50, 100,

even 200 or more years in the future.

Culture Minister Ed Vaizey MP said: “Legal deposit

arrangements remain vitally important. Preserving and

maintaining a record of everything that has been published

provides a priceless resource for the researchers of today

and the future. So it’s right that these long-standing arrange-

ments have now been brought up to date for the 21st cen-

tury, covering the UK’s digital publications for the first

time. The Joint Committee on Legal Deposit has worked

very successfully in creating practical policies and processes

so that digital content can now be effectively archived and

our academic and literary heritage preserved, in whatever

form it takes.”

The principle of extending legal deposit beyond print

was established with the Legal Deposit Libraries Act of

2003 – the present regulations implement it in practical

terms, encompassing electronic publications such as e-

journals and e-books, offline (or hand-held) formats like CD

-Rom and an initial 4.8 million websites from the UK web

domain.

Access to non-print materials, including archived

websites, will be offered via on-site reading room facilities

at each of the legal deposit libraries. While the initial offer-

ing to researchers will be limited in scope, the libraries will

gradually increase their capability for managing large-scale

deposit, preservation and access over the coming months

and years.

By the end of this year, the results of the first live

archiving crawl of the UK web domain will be available to

researchers, along with tens of thousands of e-journal arti-

cles, e-books and other materials.

The regulations were developed by the Department

for Culture, Media and Sport in conjunction with the Joint

Committee on Legal Deposit, which includes representa-

tives from the Legal Deposit Libraries and different sectors

of the publishing industry. They establish an agreed ap-

proach for the libraries to develop an efficient system for

archiving digital publications, while avoiding an unreason-

able burden for publishers and protecting the interests of

rights-holders.

Angela Mills Wade, Executive Director of the Euro-

pean Publishers Council, Chairman of the UK Publishers

Content Forum and Joint Chairman of the Joint Commit-

tee on Legal Deposit said: “Capturing our digital heritage

for preservation and future research is essential. As pub-

lishers were among the first to embrace the opportunities

of digital publishing, recognising advantages of dissemi-

nation beyond traditional outlets and the potential of tech-

nology to drive innovation, we welcome the extension of

legal deposit to digital formats and web harvesting.”

“Ten years ago, there was a very real danger of a

black hole opening up and swallowing our digital heri-

tage, with millions of web pages, e-publications and other

non-print items falling through the cracks of a system that

was devised primarily to capture ink and paper,” said Roly

Keating, Chief Executive of the British Library. “The

Legal Deposit Libraries Act established in 2003 the prin-

ciple that legal deposit needed to evolve to reflect the

massive shift to digital forms of publishing. The regula-

tions now coming into force make digital legal deposit a

reality, and ensure that the Legal Deposit Libraries them-

selves are able to evolve – collecting, preserving and pro-

viding long-term access to the profusion of cultural and

intellectual content appearing online or in other digital

formats.”

Full details of how the new regulations will be imple-

mented are available on the British Library website.

Notes to Editors:

The Legal Deposit Libraries are the British Library; Na-

tional Library of Scotland; National Library of Wales;

Bodleian Libraries; Cambridge University Library; Trinity

College Library Dublin.

The Joint Committee on Legal Deposit includes the Legal

Deposit Libraries; Publishers Content Forum; Association

of Learned and Professional Society Publishers; Associa-

tion of Online Publishers; PPA Business Media Group

(Data & Digital Publishing); International Association of

Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers; Newspaper

Publishers Association; Newspaper Society; Professional

Publishers Association; Publishers Association.

Some Thoughts on Hats .... I suppose Hats, however you may define the term, have been around since the Dawn of Time. As Dawn was a very nice girl, and excellent at the recycling bit, she com-

posted her early attempts using natural fibre and completely forgot to pass the designs on to posterity. Still you can't have everything, can you? What is the purpose of a hat? I mean; you've got hair on your head (some of us have anyway) and clothes on your body, so what on earth do you need something on your head for? There isn't really a single answer to that question, pick any that suit you.

Stone-age man had hats, the carvings on the Egyptian funerary monu-ments and the Persian frieze in the British Museum show us the Bronze-age descendants of some of the early fashions in head wear. At this point some-body is going to say, or at least think, 'But they where Formal Dress items'.

Quite right: they were. However, this overlooks the fact that, with the exception of protective

headgear: iron, bronze or plastic helmets etc., until comparatively recently hats were always formal items. They indicated status, rank and position in so-ciety.

The Papal Triple Crown and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s' Mitre,

both direct descendants of the Ancient Roman Galerus. Crowns, of whatever sort, are used to indicate high status and date

from the very earliest times. The pin-striped suit and (relatively modern) Bowler hat of the arche-

typical City Gent was a marker of his position The Tweeds and Deer-stalker marked out a high class male on holiday

in certain parts of the world at certain times

and the Top Hat was worn by 'Those in Charge'. It didn't matter what you were in charge of, too much anyway, but it usually involved money and/or power. The first policemen wore a top hat as part of their uniform to denote that they were in charge.

Naturally the ladies wore their own versions of hats to perform much the

same function. It's no great leap from the medieval Coif to the Poke Bonnet to the modern Fascinator, although you may have to look hard to see the pro-gression.

Today’s Bride, sweeping down the aisle in her wedding dress and wearing a veil, may not know it but she is echoing a female rite of passage of brides of 2 or 3 millennia ago. The Roman bride wore a Flammeum an all enveloping,

rectangular, veil that was dyed a deep yellow colour, like the flame of a can-dle.

If the Flaminica Diala, a high priestess, was involved in the ceremony she would wear, as part of her regalia, a purple-bordered version.

ABOVE: Some VERY nice party hats, except that they aren’t of course. Some of the designs we can see in the streets today have very long ante-

cedents; others, fortunately, have disappeared.

The modern Baseball Cap [Hat (USA)] was, supposedly, invented in 1849 and originally made of straw and worn in New York by a team called the Knickerbockers. However, there is evidence on a mosaic from North Africa that they had been beaten to it by fishermen around there a Millennium or so earlier. Both are working hats having the common function of using the bill (peak) to keep the sun out of your eyes.

A 'Beanie' is an increasingly common piece of head-wear with a remark-able similarity to the military hat known as a 'Cap Comforter', this is the hat beloved of film producers making WW2 'Commando' films.

A hat is what you make it, and, naturally, what you make it of. Leaves or

felt or whatever; and what it’s supposed to represent. The ladies in the pic-

tures above obviously spent a LOT of time making their hats and enjoyed wearing them.

(Images CMH Midland’s Re-enactment Fair)

Regional Poetry Competition and Reading by Roger McGough The Alsager Summer Festival includes a poetry competition on the theme of Books and we are delighted that Roger McGough, one of the UK's best-known poets has agreed to judge the shortlisted entries. As well as generous cash prizes, winners will be invited to Roger's reading at St Mary's Church, Crewe Road, Alsager on Friday 28th June free of charge. The competition deadline is Friday 10th May. Full details can be found at www.itsallaboutalsager.co.uk/poetry or on www.leopardpoetry.wordpress.com.

NB RBW does not endorse any competition, or workshop, or event organised by third parties.

Latest Competitions: The Poetry Box International Dark & Horror Poetry Silver Cup Trophy Award 2013 | Closing Date: 01-May-13 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/competitions/?id=1326 Poems Please Me Prize 2013 | Closing Date: 31-May-13 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/competitions/?id=1327 Latest News: 26-yr-old performance rapper wins Ted Hughes Award Kate Tempest wins Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry | 28-Mar-13 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/news/poetryscene/?id=1039

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/27/kate-tempest-ted-hughes-poetry-prize

http://www.katetempest.co.uk/about

Items added to the Poetry Library in February 2013 | 24-Mar-13 http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/news/library/?id=1037

NB RBW does not endorse any competition, or workshop, or event organised by third parties.

Stafford Art Group

Annual Awards Exhibition

ANCIENT HIGH HOUSE

starts

MAY 8th 2013

Thomas Hardy Thoughts of Phena At news of her death

Not a line of her writing have I, Not a thread of her hair, No mark of her late time as dame in her dwelling, whereby

I may picture her there; And in vain do I urge my unsight To conceive my lost prize

At her close, whom I knew when her dreams were upbrimming with light, And with laughter her eyes.

What scenes spread around her last days, Sad, shining, or dim?

Did her gifts and compassions enray and enarch her sweet ways With an aureate nimb? Or did life-light decline from her years,

And mischances control Her full day-star; unease, or regret, or forebodings, or fears Disennoble her soul?

Thus I do but the phantom retain Of the maiden of yore

As my relic; yet haply the best of her–fined in my brain It may be the more That no line of her writing have I,

Nor a thread of her hair, No mark of her late time as dame in her dwelling, whereby I may picture her there.

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy, (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist, in

the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and poetry by Romanticism, especially by William Wordsworth. Charles Dickens is said to have been another important influence. Like Dickens, he was highly critical of Victorian society, though Hardy focused on a declining rural society.

While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life, and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially he gained fame as the author of novels Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). Since the 1950s Hardy has been recognized as a major poet, and had a significant influence on The Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s. The bulk of his fictional works, initially pub-

lished as serials in magazines, were set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex and explored tragic char-acters struggling against their passions and social circumstances. Hardy's Wessex is based on the medie-val Anglo-Saxon kingdom and eventually came to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset,

Devon, Hampshire, and much of Berkshire.

Tryphena Sparks was Thomas Hardy’s cousin some speculation has surrounded their relationship. Whilst we cannot know what they meant to each other, it is clear Hardy was deeply upset by her death.

He published fourteen novels and over fifty short stories before, abandoning prose in favour of poetry. His last novels were highly controversial dealing with love and marriage, divorce and hypocrisy of Victorian attitudes towards women. They were uncompromising and sometimes deeply pessimistic: Jude the Obscure caused outrage and was burnt by the Bishop of Wakefield. Hardy concentrated from 1898 on poetry, producing over nine hundred poems in the next thirty years. Incredibly inventive in terms of rhythm and rhyme and the structure and language of his poems,

he influenced later poets W.H. Auden and Philip Larkin. It is claimed his greatest poems deal with the response to the death of his first wife Emma Lavinia Gifford in 1912.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy

A CHRISTMAS GHOST-STORY

South of the Line, inland from far Durban,

A mouldering soldier lies--your countryman. Awry and doubled up are his grey bones, And on the breeze his puzzled phantom moans

Nightly to clear Canopus: "I would know By whom and when the All-Earth-gladdening Law

Of Peace, brought in by that Man Crucified, Was ruled to be inept, and set aside?

And what of logic or of truth appears In tacking 'Anno Domini' to the years?

Near twenty-hundred livened thus have hied, But tarries yet the Cause for which He died."

Christmas-eve, 1899.

A WIFE IN LONDON (December, 1899)

I--THE TRAGEDY

She sits in the tawny vapour That the City lanes have uprolled, Behind whose webby fold on fold

Like a waning taper The street-lamp glimmers cold.

A messenger's knock cracks smartly, Flashed news is in her hand

Of meaning it dazes to understand Though shaped so shortly:

He--has fallen--in the far South Land . . .

II--THE IRONY

'Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker, The postman nears and goes:

A letter is brought whose lines disclose By the firelight flicker

His hand, whom the worm now knows:

Fresh--firm--penned in highest feather -

Page-full of his hoped return, And of home-planned jaunts by brake and burn

In the summer weather, And of new love that they would learn

THE DEAD DRUMMER

I

They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest Uncoffined -- just as found:

His landmark is a kopje-crest That breaks the veldt around;

And foreign constellations west Each night above his mound.

II

Young Hodge the Drummer never knew -

Fresh from his Wessex home - The meaning of the broad Karoo,

The Bush, the dusty loam, And why uprose to nightly view Strange stars amid the gloam.

III

Yet portion of that unknown plain Will Hodge for ever be;

His homely Northern breast and brain Grow up a Southern tree.

And strange-eyed constellations reign His stars eternally.

Source material: Project Gutenberg

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