Childhood at Bourne (7)
Emmie Taylor's memories of childhood at Bourne (continued)
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Sometimes before this I used to have awful nightmares. I dreamt that some horrible tall thin men came and tied Auntie up in a brown paper parcel and they only left her face uncovered and I could see her crying because they were going to take her away. I can see those men in my mind's eye yet. I dreamt this time after time and I felt around to make sure she was still there beside me in bed. I played a funny game to myself when I went to bed at night which I called Moses and Aaron. I stuck the bed clothes up with my knee or my foot to make a tent. Sometimes I was Moses and sometimes I was Aaron, but I cannot remember what they did. Then I pretended Jesus came so I should not dream about these men coming to take Auntie away.
Two things I have forgotten to tell you. When we lived down the Eastgate I had some pet rabbits, but we all got fed up with them. My cousins Bert and James Coulson came to stay, they were only young boys then, so Daddy got someone to kill and skin the rabbits, and Auntie cooked them, but when dinner time came none of us could eat them, although I suppose they were better than wild rabbits, because they had been well fed. After we went to Springfield Villas and I was at Miss Burroughs school, Grandma Parker, Auntie Kate and Kitty, Auntie Eliza and Jennie were coming to stay with us and I was so excited. Auntie and I were going to sleep on a mattress on the Attic floor while the others were to sleep in our bedroom and the spare bedroom. They were to arrive shortly after 4 o'clock just as I got home from school and I could hardly live for the time. However the day they came Miss Burroughs kept me in because of my bad writing and I had to write an exercise over again. I don't think the writing would be very good then because I could hardly see for tears. When she did let me out I ran nearly all the way home, but they had nearly finished tea when I got home. (I should think if she saw this writing she would keep me in 2 hours, but I expect the old girl is dead long ago).
The games we played then were different from those played today. We had wooden hoops which we bowled along with a stick on the pathway, but sometimes they went on the road, but it didn't matter much because there were no motors. Girls had wooden hoops but boys had iron ones which they trundled along with an iron with a hook on the end, so they were easier to control. In the spring we played whip and top, you had to spin the top a certain way to get it started before you could whip it along. Then there was marbles, which was more of a boys game. I wasn't very good at it because my eyesight was poor. Then there was Hop Scotch, you marked the pavement in squares and had to hop and ... The one who got it the furthest without putting her other foot down was the winner.
When I was about 9 it was decided I must see an eye specialist, so Daddy took me to Peterborough to see a Dr Walker, and he said if I did not have glasses I should be blind before I was 30, so I have worn glasses ever since. While we were there we went to see the Cathedral which is very beautiful, and we went to see Mrs Sawyer, Annie Ingrhan's sister. That reminds me once when we were on our way to Hartlepool when I was about 6 Daddy and I broke our journey at York and we went so see the Minster, but I do not remember anything about it. He said "you must see it, because who knows you may never go in it again", and I never have. Grandpa and I have passed through, but he was always in such a hurry to get to his destination that we could not stop to look at it.
Well, I seem to have digressed from what Auntie told me that Sunday afternoon, but There were little things I had forgotten to mention. From that Sunday afternoon life seemed to alter. As I have said in my family notes Daddy and Auntie were such great friends, but now they often had quarrels and sometimes poor Auntie would weep. I suppose she realised she would have to leave us and she must have wondered what would happen to her.
At last the wedding day April 5th, 1905 arrives. Auntie and Daisy and Rinie (?) Branston (two of Ethel's nieces were bridesmaids) and I had a new white silk dress with a hanging pocket (quite the latest fashion) and a leghorn (?) hat. I looked on the wedding as quite a party. Grandma Parker and Auntie Eliza came for it.
The day after when Dad and Ma had gone on their honeymoon, the truth began to dawn on me that in a week my dear, darling Auntie would be gone. The day before they came back, Grandma Parker, Auntie Eliza and Auntie went. You can imagine what it was like. Auntie West took me to the station to see them off. She had given me a silver thimble to give to Auntie, but we were all so distressed that I nearly forgot to give it to her. We clung together almost until the train went and then she was gone. Mr Webb had come to the station to see her off. Mrs Brader, Cyril and Frank were going to Boston to see Mrs Brader's sister Mrs Burroughs so Auntie West took me across the platform to see them off. Frank was only about 4 or 5, but I shall never forget just as their train started to move he put his head out of the carriage window and said "Don't cry anymore today Emmie". What I should have done without Auntie West I don't know. I stayed the night with her.
It was because of this experiment that I always hoped Tommie would marry Elizabeth, so they would not have to be parted from her. (Granny and Billy?) Little did I know that in a few years they would lose their Father. We all ought to always be good to Elizabeth and them because they have had sorrow that I can assure you they will never forget.
This was the end of my very happy childhood when I had been surrounded with all the love and care it was possible to have.
Life at Bourne with my stepmother
The night after Auntie went I stayed with Auntie West and the next day my Daddy and my stepmother came back from their honeymoon and I went home. I had grown up with love, so I had no thought of not loving her and of her not loving me. I must be fair, I suppose I had been spoilt to a certain extent. She was the youngest of a family and was rather artistic so she had been used to a lot of fuss. I think she idolized her Mother who was certainly a fine old lady and her Father who was a builder was a quiet, kindly man. I called her Mamma at first and later Ma.
The day but one after Auntie went I had a letter from Auntie. I read it and read it until I knew it off by heart. Very often in the evening ma went down to see her mother. I was now sleeping in the spare bedroom which was fitted up with new furniture. I can remember a few nights after they came back, when Ma had gone to her mother, I sobbed my heart out for Auntie and Daddy came up to comfort me and he said "You have got you mamma now", but I think I already knew that it was not the same.
For several months after they were married we still lived at Springfield Villas. Mr Branston was building 2 semi detached villas, one for his eldest daughter Mrs Casledine, whom I now called Auntie Annie, and the other as a wedding present for Ma, but they were not finished for several months.
There was Ma's other sister Mrs Weble (?) and I called her Auntie Sis and her husband Uncle Bernard. They were quite a jolly couple different from Ma and from Mr and Mrs Castledine. Then there was Ma's brother Uncle Tom and his wife Auntie Nellie who then had 2 girls Marie and Nellie. Marie was a lovely girl but Nellie was a problem and still is. They had another little girl, whom we called Winsome Marguerite, but she died when she was 6 weeks old. Uncle Tom and Auntie Nellie were quit different from the rest of the family, quite gay and they were very kind to me. Auntie made no secret of the fact that she thought Ma did not treat me properly.
I am afraid the marriage was not a happy one for some time. My bedroom was over the study and I heard them having awful quarrels and Ma crying. Auntie West said that Dad told her that when he asked Ether to marry him he told her he would never love anyone like he had loved my mother. Auntie West said he only married her because she ran after him so that he could do no other. I really think Auntie West was very fond of him and would have married him if he had asked her. Auntie West had loved my mother and loved me and always looked after my interest. Then Daddy always showed his love for me so Ma was jealous so that altogether it was rather a tangled situation.
Every Sunday I went to Auntie West's for tea, because I did not go to Chapel at night. We sat up in the upstairs sitting room and when it was light we watched the people go to church all dressed up in their Sunday best clothes. The Bank manager's wife who lived opposite was a plump little person very smart and she wore a feather boa. She was one of the swells of Bourne, then there was Major Bell and his sister, a Chemist and his wife called Baxter and Lawyer Andrews who always said "Good Morning" to people even in the afternoon so that people would know he had late dinner, and of course the Vicar and his wife. All these people went to the Parish Church. There was the Mays family who came to our Chapel. Although they were considered part of the Upper Ten, they were different somehow, not as snobby. Well after Auntie West and I had watched the people go to church we walked up to our house and she saw me to bed and stayed until Dad and Ma came back from Chapel. One Sunday when we were walking home we saw smoke pouring from under the eaves of a house. A Widow and her daughter lived there and we knew they always went for a walk up the West Road on a Sunday evening. Bourne was a small place and it was surprising what we knew about each other's habits. Anyway Auntie West drew the attention of some men to the smoke and one of them ran off to ring the fire bell. The upstairs of the house was nearly burned out and when I went to school the next morning there were pillows and feathers and clothes strewn all over the front lawn of the house.
