The Darlingtons of Corner Farm, Wettenhall

As a background to explaining the 'Darlingtons of Corner Farm, Wettenhall, I have provided my Cambridge Graduation picture (1965) above. This shows 'my family' - me in my finery, with Meg, Horace and sister Sue.

It sparks thoughts of the incongruous composition of our group. The heart of oak, plain-speaking yeoman; the academic, eager to please young graduate; the young nurse and farmer's wife; and Meg.

Horace looks distinctly ill at ease - perhaps reflecting on the strange 'cuckoo' step-son who he had reared (or maybe, much more simply, not feeling so well - he had already started to get angina pains).

Looking back, as I have frequently mentioned to my sister, we owe an enormous debt to Horace. He gave us a place to stand - the Cheshire countryside. He provided a secure home and livelihood. He taught us hard work, story-telling and humour.

He was very much loved.


HORACE AND MEG’S SIGNATURE TUNE

WONDERFUL ONE
(Best presentation Glenn Miller)

.. that I love you so
Awake or sleeping
My heart's in your keeping
And calling to you soft and low

My wonderful one
Whenever I'm dreaming
Love's love-light a-gleaming I see
My wonderful one
How my arms ache to hold, dear
To cuddle and fold you to me

Just you, only you
In the shadowy twilight
In silvery moonlight
There's none like you, I adore you
My life I'll live for you,
Oh, my wonderful, wonderful one.


MEG

Meg was as her brother Ron commented, at her funeral, ‘life itself’. She was very hard to ignore and sometimes quite challenging.

My ‘cousin’ (actually Meg’s cousin but the generations got out-of-step) the younger Reg Salter (grandson of Joseph Salter) had the last word in an email ….

"I always had great respect for your Mum....she spoke in a way which I had never encountered, of things of which I had never heard.....politics, current affairs, relationships, sex....

It gave me a view of what in those days seemed like a bohemian slant on life.....so novel to my ears.

You may feel there was a price to pay, but you were nevertheless very lucky to have such intellectual stimulation on tap.

As Oscar Wilde remarked:

“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious”

Meg was rarely tedious.