Lady Waterford's Paintbrush

Before I say anything else -

I can tell you that harmony is the fee you get paid for making people laugh, or that 'socially' is the alternative to 'so shan't he?'  But I cannot compete with Kaitlin and her father's definitions for 'disembark', which made me laugh out loud.  To read them, view the comments.  The bar is suddenly very high.

Now, Louisa, Lady Waterford.  She was the daughter of a an upper class English family, her father was a diplomat, and she spent many years in France during her childhood.  What's more, she was a very talented amateur artist.  On her marriage to whatsisface Waterford (sorry, I don't have the biographical details in front of me), she moved to Ireland.  By the time he died she had left the local villages better off by a couple of schools and various projects to help the poor.

As a widow with no children she moved to one of her husband's other estates, Ford village in Northumberland.  The village had no school, so Lady Waterford did something about that, and the school she established is now the village hall, and well worth a visit.

Village schools at the time could be quite grim places, but not this one.  Lady Waterford was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite/Arts and Crafts painters, and set about painting the hall with murals of Biblical scenes, using the local people as her models.  As the murals were for a school, there are a lot of children in the pictures - Samuel as a child, young David, Miriam  - and, of course, women bringing their children to Jesus, with all the panels interspersed with flowers and vines.  If I'd gone to that school I might not have learned my tables, but I would have loved looking at the walls.  These were village children with not much access to books or pictures, and that schoolroom must have been a magic kingdom for them.

Lady Waterford was popular, kind, and active in leaving any community happier and healthier than she found it.   She should be an honorary citizen of Mistmantle.