The family consisted of:
- Father - Revd F Binyon, married 1866
- Mother - Mary Binyon (née Dockray)
- Son - John Frederick
- Son - Robert Laurence, b 1869
- Son - Francis Dockray
- Son - Charles Arthur, b 1874
- Son - Gilbert Clive, b 1880
- Daughter - Lucy Caroline, died young 1879
Doctor’s. Sham illness – given holiday.
1st purchase – 1d pack of playing cards. Had them loose in my pocket. Went to church, drew out handkerchief walking up aisle. Out came cards. Consternation of family!
London buses, colour, up on top.
1884-1987
1884 – Bangor and Bearis. Garth Point. Steam Ferry. “Clio” Reformatory ship for boys. We went to a service on board.
1885 – Father took me down to Southampton and I enjoyed a tour of the docks, looking at the big liners for America etc. I was put on board the Jersey steamer “Ella” about 9 pm and stowed away in a bunk. I woke about three and crept out of the bunk and ran on deck. The sun was just rising – there was no land in sight but a brig under full said made a very pretty picture. It was a glorious day and it seemed to me like fairyland as we saw the islands appearing in the distance. We called at Guernsey. We had one expedition to Grave-du-Lec before Father left.
I sat for an entrance examination at St Paul’s in 1884 and passed in but failed to get a scholarship. So in September of that year I entered St Paul’s School. The school had just moved from the City, near St Paul’s Cathedral, to West Kensington. All of us new boys were told to go to a certain room after prayers. There we found a master awaiting us. He told us to get into a line and then he asked the first boy, “What is my name?” Of course we did not know and so he asked each one and when he came to the end and none of us knew his name he shouted out, “You are the most ignorant dolts I have ever come across” then “My name is Horace Dixon Elam”. The he asked if anyone knew anything about Elam and somebody said it was the old name of Persia and that pleased him. But we never knew what he would say next. One little chap who for some reason came a day late was told to sit at a desk “and twiddle your thumbs and think what a fool you are”. He used to call me an “oaf of the first water” and say it was as plain as pike staff. If a boy made a mistake he would say, “I should like to drag you through a dirty ditch”. Still he was a good teacher and I learned a lot from him. We had a lot of homework. He used to comment on events such as the death of General Gordon, and was a very great admirer of Cardinal Newman. But after two terms, the authorities considered I was too backward in Classics, so I was taken away from my form and with several other boys was put into a Special where we did nothing but Latin and Greek. After a few weeks of this I was put into the Lower 4th missing out the Third altogether, the result was that although I could do the Classics, I was all behind with the other subjects and so I found the work extremely difficult, and then during the summer holidays I was sent to a school in Jersey where it is true I only had lessons in the morning, but was left entirely alone in the afternoons with strict instructions I was not on any account to leave the premises. I did escape once and sketched a nearby church. But I did not enjoy my stay in Jersey and was glad to get on the seamer for home. This was a paddle steamer “Brittany” and I remember the Captain shouting to me to get off the paddlebox. I came back by myself and enjoyed the trip.
In September I sat for the scholarship and this time was successful and so became one of the 153 “fiches”. I had a very sarcastic master who was continually jeering at the boy who won the scholarship. I became very worried and on the doctor’s advice I left St Paul’s and was sent to a small boarding school at Margate on Oct 28 1885. Here I had an easy time having plenty of walks on the cliffs or to the harbour and not too much work.
In August our family all went to Hastings for the summer holidays. I left Margate early in 1887. And I had French lessons from a French aristocratic gentleman, and also attended an art school where I watched young ladies painting in oils, but learned very little myself.
This was the year of Queen Victoria’s first Jubilee, and on the day of the procession, I walked to see what I could, but I could not get near the route, and so had to be content with standing at the top of Half Moon Street and could just see the plumes of the Life Guards as they went by in Piccadilly. However I was able to see Queen Victoria on several other occasions.
It was a glorious but very dry summer. This year we went to Ilfracombe and Mortehoe for the holidays. Mortehoe village was very short of water. Drinking water had to be brought from a distance and the washing water was decidedly green. Laurence used to take me walks, stepping out at a quick pace and very silent until we reached the destination, when he would be most genial. At this time Morte Point was closed to the public and this incensed Father and we watched him trying in vain to uproot one of the notice boards.
1888
My parents must have been puzzled to know what to do with me and at last I was sent to a school near. I had a good time here as the work was easy and I was able to get excellent reports. But as I was about the oldest boy in the school and the work was really only revision it was not anything to be proud of. My age and school experience gave me a certain prestige and so I became the head of the school and with the boys my word was law. But I don’t think I was a hard despot. I left the school in the summer of 1888.
For the summer holidays we went to Ambleside and I had my first view of the Lake District. I was rather disappointed at first with the mountains, as there are none very high in the immediate neighbourhood. But a cousin of ours, Miss M B Dockray, was staying with us and she took me to Coniston one day and then she decided to ascend the “Old Man”. A few days after we went up Red Screes and Fairfield and later with Jack on a pouring wet day up Bow Fell in clouds, but we had a glorious peep through a gap in the clouds of Skiddaw basking in the sun.
Shortly after getting back to London we heard that Father had been offered the living of Winchcombe (Gloucestershire) and had accepted. So maps were bought and studied and I was delighted with the prospect as soon as I learned from the maps the nature of the country and found that the small town was right among the Cotswolds. In order to get me out of the way when packing and dismantling was going on, I was sent off for a few weeks to St Leonards. At the beginning of December I had orders to travel via London. My train to Charing Cross was late so I missed the train at Paddington and had to come on by a later one which was broad gauge and had no third class and meant a change at Swindon. However I arrived at Cheltenham where I was met just in time to catch the bus to Winchombe, 7 miles, but it was dark when we arrived at the Vicarage. Next morning when I looked out of the window and saw the street, I was amazed. Instead of the trim uniformity of the streets I had been used to, I saw a higgledy-piggledy set of cottages of all sizes and shapes all joined together. I started exploring at once. The church was large, very finely proportioned but with rather poor detail, but a tall, solid tower.
1889
I soon got to know the surrounding country and often used to walk to Cheltenham and back. By taking the old coach road across the common I could easily beat the time of the bus, for at the foot of the hill, all passengers were turned out and had to walk to the top.
But in August 1889 I became unwell and was sent to a hydropathic establishment at Malvern Wells. The treatment was very successful and I returned after three weeks. I took the opportunity of visiting Worcester Cathedral, being the first provincial cathedral I had seen.
1890-1891
In 1890, we all had a holiday, this time in Cornwall. First at St Ives, then Penzance. I was much interested in watching a man on the beach at St Erith. He had a sort of scoop which he fitted at a stream and then swilled it round, so as to spill the water and leave the solids. When he had done this several times, he showed me that there was a quantity of small particles of thin inside. We made some grand trips to the Lizard and Kynance Cove and to the Land’s End. We were much amused at a notice on the Scilly Isle Steamer: “When not used for cattle, this deck is reserved for first-class passengers”! On the journey back we had a longish wait at Exeter, and all the party except me got out. Presently the guard comes along and shuts and locks the door and the train started, leaving them all behind. The compartment was strewn with numerous packages. Two ladies in the carriage very kindly offered to lend me some money, but I was able to decline. At Taunton, the next stop, the ticket collector was looking out for me and told me to go on to Bristol and wait for the others there. So at Bristol I had to collect and remove to the waiting room 17 packages. However all ended well without any loss, and I was pleased to hand all complete to the family when they arrived. Father took me to have a look at Bristol Cathedral, but when he said the west front was not so fine as that of Exeter, which he had visited while waiting, I felt a pang of regret.
Meanwhile it had been decided that I should go to the gardens of Sudeley Castle to learn the rudiments of gardening. At that time as I had no experience of country life, except for the summer holidays, I was profoundly ignorant. I could not tell a gooseberry bush from an apple tree. At Sudeley, I learnt a great deal about formal gardening and the cultivation of geraniums and lobelia, but little or nothing of fruit and vegetable growing. My companion at work was the head gardener’s son, a boy about two years younger than me. He taught me much about birds and used to show me nests which I could never find for myself. On days when the hounds were out in the near neighbourhood, we used to climb up one of the castle towers and so had a good view of the run.
Mrs Dent was the owner and lived at the castle. She wished to add a Tower at the NE corner and in order to judge of the general effect, she had a skeleton tower of scaffold poles and planks erected. The effect was evidently satisfactory as the tower was shortly afterwards built.
The architect employed was one day walking by the moat and thought one of the swans was going to attack him and he struck at it with his stick and broke its wing. He died shortly after in accord with an old superstition.
But on one occasion seeing birds very busy going to and fro, I was delighted to find the nest of a Redstart in the Vicarage garden and watched the old birds feeding the young. I cultivated the Vicarage garden.
On Saturday afternoon when it was fine, I used to go solitary walks on the Cotswolds, exploring the country with the aid of an ordnance map, sometimes covering 20 miles. The winter 1890-91 was very severe. The frost began on Dec 7 and lasted without interruption until January 25th. [Binyon also made a note on the opposite page saying “Started Dec 6th, Finished Jan 21st 1891, Coldest Dec 21 30o of frost, deep snow Mar 10th 1891” – the start and end date differ slightly from the dates in the text.] I think Mother was often anxious when I did not get home until 8 o’clock in the winter, especially when the snow was on the ground. But I thoroughly enjoyed these walks and got to know the country round very well.
With some experience and advice, I did most of the work in the Vicarage garden, which fortunately was not large. There was a lawn with a large pear tree on it, which bore consistently a large crop of poor quality fruit, and enough ground to grow vegetables for the house. The potatoes we grew on a glebe allotment about a mile away.
I bought a tricycle with 2 large wheels abreast. It was very hard work even up a gentle slope, but I made several trips on it, once to Evesham. I sold it when we left Winchcombe.
1892-1894
On February 13th 1892, Father and I walked to Great Farmcote to the reopening of the old church there, which had been disused for a long time. The Bishop of Gloucester was the preacher and said that in a country parish it was a good plan to preach about the gospel for the day and he proceeded to do so. It was the parable of the tares.
In May 1892 Father felt obliged to leave Winchcombe for financial reasons. There were two churches – Gretton as well as the Parish Church. Gretton was 2½ miles away and after 2 years, he felt it was necessary to have a curate. Unfortunately the parishioners did not approve of the curate and consequently refused to contribute to his stipend, and the living was a very poor one.
In May 1892 we left Winchcombe and went to live at Newton Abbot in South Devon. We travelled from Bristol the first day the line was reopened after the abolition of the Broad Gauge. I was apprenticed to a nurseryman at Kingskerwell, a village about 3 miles away. I travelled by train each morning in a beautiful new train – the first I believe to have a corridor. The train, almost empty, was taken down to Torquay, to come up again as the Torbay Express. I generally walked back after work, and in the winter when the skies were clear, I used to study the constellations. I had been given a book on astronomy when I was eight and as it was written by the Astronomer Royal, I had found much of it hard going, but I learned a great deal. Father had a large telescope which now I was allowed to use. On one of these evenings I had my first view of the planet Mercury.
The nursery was chiefly occupied with roses, pot plants and violets. Some of the latter were very fine double flowered and there was a big quantity of these blossoms sent by post. The owner and many of the staff were Plymouth Brethren and the foreman kept a bible in the potting shed, and he tried hard to show me how far the Church of England had departed from the true faith. We had many arguments, but although we both failed to convice the other, yet we always parted as friends. Indeed, the four young men on the staff were always on good terms with one another and with me. They called me “Captain”. I had two pleasant years there.
As usual on holidays I explored the country. The fringe of Dartmoor could be reached in some 7 miles at Hey Tor, but when I wanted to have a long day on the moor, I used to take the train to Lustleigh, Bovey Tracey or Moretonhampstead, or even to South Brent. There were also splendid coast walks within reach.
1894
When my two years were up, my employer recommended to go to a very large London nursery, which was a very unfortunate choice as it consisted entirely of glasshouse work. There were over 90 greenhouses – many of them heated for tropical plants. Work started at 6 and ended at 6. The wages were 13/- a week, which meant that I still had to be subsidised by my parents. I was put to work with a young Swiss who knew little English and as my French was not very advanced, conversation was rather stilted. The work consisted of washing palms in pots with warm soap and water to kill the insects. It was most monotonous and not in the least helpful and most of the English there were of a most undesirable type from the East End. My explorations on Saturday afternoons were chiefly of the East End of London, Whitechapel, Shadwell, Poplar, Limehouse and such districts. I was careful to go in working clothes. Some of the street markets such as Brick Lane or Chrisp Street were packed with people buying off the stalls. Visiting there after some 40 years, I was much struck with the improvement in behaviour and manners of the people. On Sundays I used to attend various churches. At St Luke’s Stepney, the Vicar was a very old friend of Father’s – they were curates together in Blackburn at the time of the cotton famine, receiving no stipend during that crisis. He conducted the services in a most extraordinary way. For instance, on one occasion where he came to the words in the gospel “the wedding was furnished with guests”, he would stop and point at me and say, “Here is one of my guests”. And he constantly interrupted the course of the service to explain something which took a long time, and then perhaps he would give the blessing after the second lessor or thereabouts. You never knew what was coming.
1895-1897
I had enough of this kind of gardening and as February 1895 came in I returned to Newton Abbot, as my parents agreed it was no use staying on. There was an extremely cold spell just then and before I left London I had a walk ion the frozen River Lea for several miles. I also saw a great fire at the Docks and the ropes and chains which had been reached by the fire hoses were thick masses of ice.
I stayed at home for some time and felt rather despondent about my future, as there seemed little chance of earning enough to live on. However, I wrote to a nurseryman at Exmouth and he took me on. His speciality was chrysanthemums and I did the propagating. After I had been there about a month, a new young man from Sidmouth came and we became friends and our lives have been interchanged ever since. His name was W H Churchill and we used to have grand walks. I remember one splendid day we had. We went by steamer to Lyme Regis and walked back along the coast by Seaton, Branscombe, Sidmouth and Otterton to Exmouth. It was a lovely day, and we did over 28 miles. My work was almost entirely among chrysanthemums, chiefly watering during the summer.
At weekends I sometimes went home to Newton Abbot, crossing the estuary of the Exe in a tiny steamer to Starcross, often walking the rest of the way, as it was only 12 miles.
1897
After two years at Exmouth, I thought the time had come when I should start in business on my own and I saw an advertisement in one of the gardening papers which attracted me. A man living near Warrington wanted a partner to help to develop his nursery business. My parents agreed to provide me with the sum required and so I went to see him. I was pleased with the place but I was not altogether sure I could work with him in the congenial way necessary for success. Then, it was discovered that he was heavily in debt, so negotiations were broken off. Meanwhile it was decided that Gilbert and I should have three weeks in the Lake District, and accordingly, we went to a cottage in the Vale of Newlands. The cottage was situated on the slopes of Catbells, so were right in the middle of the fells. We used to have some lunch in our pockets, and spent all day on the hills whenever the weather permitted. When thirsty we could always find some clear water in one of the numerous becks. We ascended all the mountains within reach, including Helvellyn and Scafell Pike, both of which involved more than 20 miles of walking. On leaving Newlands, we had a few days with my eldest brother, Jack, who had recently married and lived at Grange-over-Sands. Then we stayed with the Fynes-Clintons at Didsbury near Manchester. Thence home.
1898
In January 1898 I went to Didsbury again, as I was led to believe there might be an opening there and in February I started at the Botanical Gardens at Old Trafford. I had sole charge of the chyrsanthemums. The chief drawback was that the Botanical Society seemed to be very short of funds and it was impossible to obtain anything beyond the bare necessary requirements. My requests for fertilizers remained either unheeded or granted inadequately. So rather than make a failure, I had to subsidize them to a small extent. However I was able to stage a large group at the November show.
I found much to interest me in Manchester. There were splendid lectures at the Free Trade. One by Dr Nansen on his attempt on the North Pole was most thrilling. Then I had joined a Horticultural Society, even giving a talk on one occasion. I also became a member of the British Astronomical Association (Nrth Western Branch) and we had lectures and discussions. The Jesuit Fathers from Stoneyhurst were most interesting and helpful at the meeting and it was an opportunity of meeting other enthusiastic astronomers, one who showed me a Solar Prominence by means of a differential grating. Later we were allowed to use the large telescope at the Wesleyan College at Didsbury. Sometimes I acted as showman. On March 12 1899 I had the satisfaction of seeing the moon less than one day old.
I had a few strenuous days off in August 1898 at Llanbedr near Harlech. I arrived on Saturday evening. There was a large party there, Gilbert and the Fynes-Clintons. Gilbert and I started off on Monday and walked to Beddgelert and climbed Snowdon. We came down by Nant Gwynant and seeing a butcher’s trap coming along, we asked the driver for a lift. He could not understand and a little boy had to interpret, so he took us as far as Beddgelert. There we found a char-a-banc waiting so we asked the driver if he could take us to Portmeadre. He agreed to to this for a shilling cash, but presently a large party of girls came out of the hotel and we found they had hired the vehicle and did not approve of this addition to the party. However, they did allow us in and we got out at Portmadoc, one of the girls saying, “Now we shall have more room”. It was now getting dark and we still had a walk of some dozen miles. We arrived at Llanbedr after midnight, and found everyone asleep (31¼ miles).
On Tuesday we all went up to a lake (Llyn Cwm Bychan) and I proposed ascending Rhinog Fawr but no one would come, so I had it to myself. The next day we took the train to Barmouth Junction and Arthog and ascended Cader Idris coming down to Dolegellau, coming back by train. The next day we explored the valleys and then I returned to Manchester.
Some very hot days in September 1898. On 17th, the maximum sun temperature was 135o.
On Sundays I often attended the services at the Blind Asylum, Old Trafford. Most of the patients were blind, others quite deaf and an attendant used to use the finger alphabet to let them know what the preacher was saying.
The Free Library was a great attraction, especially when I found they had all the one inch ordnance maps.
I frequently went to the Fynes-Clintons at Didsbury. I went to Newton Abbot for Christmas 1898.
1899
On my way back to Manchester, I had a Sunday at Peterborough where Frank had his first curacy, and had my first curacy, and had my first view of the cathedral. Back in Manchester, I used sometimes to go to the Ancoats Settlement. On one occasion Sir Walter Besant came to speak and the Bishop of Manchester. The Bishop and I had a struggle as to who should carry Sir Walter’s bag. I won. I was sometimes able to visit some works. Rob Fyne-Clinton and I went over a big paper making works and I was able to take him over the engine sheds and we had a ride on the footplate of a Great Northern Engine to control station where a new large hotel was just begun. We also visited a ramshackle zoo at Chadderton Hall where one saw wolves in large packing cases. The name of the animal was chalked on the case.
Once I even went to an organ recital!
On May 14th I went with my cousin (Rev M Ransome) to Whalley via Blackburn.
On 27th, with Arthur Fynes-Clinton, we went to Doncaster by day trip and walked to Teckhill Church which has a very fine tower. We were also able to get some fine walks in the Peak District.
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[The diary continues in the same exercise book. From June 1899 onwards, the diary relates to the period when Charles Binyon moved to Badsey and may be seen in the next section.]
