Farmer George has been
climbing the tree in our back hedge for three weeks. To date, he’s survived
everything that a typical English Spring can throw at him, including rain,
hail, storms and gales, as well as brilliant sunshine. I’m pleased to report
that he’s still looking good. George’s clothes get sopping wet when it rains,
but they dry quickly as soon as the sun pops out again, and the plastic bags
are doing sterling service in weatherproofing his newspaper stuffing.
George has become quite a
character in the village! He’s doing a good job in promoting the scarecrow
trail. In case you were wondering, he is named after George III, who is
arguably the most attractive of England’s Hanoverian monarchs. George III was a
good family man who was devoted to his wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz,
and his fifteen (!) children. King George III took a keen interest in agriculture, especially
in farming his Crown Estates at Richmond and Windsor, which gave him the
nickname of 'Farmer George'.
George III is also known as
‘the King who lost America’. Despite this unflattering description, which suggests an
incompetent monarch, George was a conscientious ruler who read state papers
and took a keen interest in government policy. Belying his epithet ‘Farmer’, George
III was cultured and well read. He started a Royal book collection that was
later given to the British Museum, and eventually formed the nucleus of the
British Library. He also founded and financed the Royal Academy of Arts and he was
the first king to seriously study science. George III’s extensive collection of
scientific instruments is now on public exhibition at the Science Museum.
However, George III is perhaps
best known as ‘mad King George’. Historians used to ascribe his ‘madness’ to
the genetic blood disorder, porphyria. Its symptoms include blue urine, which George
is known to have passed during his ‘mad’ episodes. However, another of George’s
symptoms was that when he was ill his mood became euphoric and his speech prolix.
He is said to have constantly repeated himself, using an extensive vocabulary
of creative and colourful language. This has recently led to the alternative
diagnosis that, during his ‘mad’ episodes, George was experiencing the manic
phase of the psychiatric illness known as manic-depression or bipolar disorder.
So what about the blue
urine? Apparently, King George III was treated with a medicine based on gentian,
a plant with antibacterial and
antifungal properties and deep blue flowers
that may stain urine blue. Gentian is one
of the best agents for promoting scabs to form on spots and weeping sores. I
can remember being treated with gentian violet as a home remedy when I caught
Chickenpox as a child, and also that I was covered in unsightly, large purple blobs
after it had been painted on. Ugh!
Now that Spring has finally
sprung, Farmer George is gradually fading back into the hedge, as the fresh
green leaves sprout and start to cover his bright red jumper. Which prompts me
to narrate a story I was told by a good friend the other day. My friend asked a
male companion if he’d seen the scarecrow in the hedge on the Bradwell Road. He said he hadn’t,
upon which she immediately drove him round to the studio to point George out. Her companion
remained mystified and completely unable to spot a scarecrow in the hedge, even
though he was staring directly at poor George. It turns out that my friend’s
friend is red-green colour blind!
No comments:
Post a Comment