On Saturday I took two of my sons and four others to a camp reunion in Worcester. I quite enjoyed last year's trip but the constant rain this year combined with one or two other things to make it not quite so hot a trip. The best thing perhaps was stumbling across the very impressive Elgar Birthplace Museum in Lower Broadheath. I'm not well up on my Elgar (1857-1934) and the following things struck me.
1. Though very much a Worcesterhsire man his parents had moved there from elsewhere
2. His dad was a piano tuner but Elgar was largely self-taught
3. He was not really famous until he was in his forties
4. He lived in 25 different places including Hampstead (Severn House has now been demolished)
5. His wife was 9 years older than he and not a Catholic by birth
6. She was in fact the grand daughter of Sunday School founder Robert Raikes (no wonder the family refuused to attend the wedding)
7. he had an excelent sense of humour evidenced in various visual jokes on display
8. He was one for fads including bicycling and chemistry at different times
9. He was very interested in gramophone records and made several recordings; he opened Abbey Road Studios in 1931
10. Despite many honours including a Lordship he thought of hismelf as an outsider (as I have remarked before this is just the way some of us feel - it was not due to his being RC, etc, I'm sure).
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