Pedagogic Polyglot Bloggery II

An update on the multi-lingual versions of the Balintore Castle Restoration blog...

In addition to the French version described in my last blog entry, there is now a Spanish version:


https://tradulab.blogspot.com/


Many thanks to Dylan, an undergraduate student at the University of Toulon, who has taken on the translation work as part of his academic internship.



He is studying translation, and now, much to his surprise and delight, is fairly fluent in four different languages French, English, Spanish and Bulu (one of the Cameroon languages).

One of my favourite quotes is from Charlemagne:

“To have a second language is to have a second soul.”

Oh, to have Dylan's souls!

Dylan

Pedagogic Polyglot Bloggery

I have recently been approached by a couple of undergraduate students, called Lorenzo and Dylan, from the University of Toulon.  They are interested in translating my castle restoration blog into a different language as their academic internship. Naturally, I agreed straightaway: it is good to get the word out there.  :-)

A friend called Boris is an academic at Toulon and the translation projects were actually his idea. As ever, student projects are incredibly variable affairs - attitudes vary from enthusiasm to indifference - but it is an open-ended opportunity where you get out what you put in.  Internships are intended to reflect the world of work, and recruiters often look closely at internship experiences.

Fortunately, the blog translation project is low risk and there is no downside. We seem to be getting by with a short weekly meeting, that will cover the 8 weeks allocated.

I will be extremely grateful for any translation done. I have given a rough target of 20 blog articles and publishing the outcome as a book on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. This service is free, and if you charge friends £10 for a physical copy of a book, then roughly you will make £5 and Amazon will make £5.

Dylan is on the Spanish translation and Lorenzo is on the French Translation. I appear to be flirting with the romance languages, or perhaps I am plebbing it in vulgar Latin: you decide.

The French blog has only recently appeared online here:

https://chateaudebalintore.blogspot.com/

You are very welcome to send Lorenzo encouragement and comments on his Château de Balintore blog. I know he is working hard to create a translation that is standalone, with an authentic voice and an individual style.

Lorenzo - l’auteur du blog du Château de Balintore

Historic Discovery Identified

In my previous blog entry, there were some photos of a cast iron address stamp for Balintore Castle sent to me by the purchaser of this historic item. The enigmatic initials A.B. appear on the stamp, and the label on the wooden box which holds the stamp is all but illegible. I could, however, make out the words STATIONER, "103 XXXX STREET" and "GROSVENOR" - presumably this was the address of the stationer which produced headed note-paper with this stamp.

A.B. ?

I guessed the address might be Grosvenor Square in London. Are there any streets in the vicinity with 4 letters? I consulted Google Maps.

Bingo, it jumped out at me: "Park Street". I was overjoyed.

I now started to look for a stationer with a shop at 103 Park Street, but hit a brick wall. What about just trying the address? I found this link which indicted the 4th Baron Inverclyde lived at 103A Park Street from 1930 to 1933. Many people would have lived at that address, but what was the baron's real name? Drum roll - the baron went by the name of Alan Burns, our A.B. surely?

Arms of Lord Inverclyde

After military service in WWI and WWII, he became the aide-de-camp to the Governor of Gibraltar, 1920–21. I was born in Gibraltar!

After leaving his regiment, he retired into private life as the master of Castle Wemyss (which he inherited from his father) and as a man-about-town with a bachelor flat in Mayfair.

Castle Wemyss

He acquired hunters, a yacht, and a grouse moor. The grouse moor acquisition suggests he might have bought Balintore rather than rented Balintore. He was, after all, one of the richest men in Britain. However, given I have not heard of the baron before, and leasing shooting estates was so common back in the day, on balance I believe he was just one of the many shooting tenants.

The baron married twice (an heiress and then a film/theatre star) and divorced twice. He died without issue at the age of 59. The title became extinct and Castle Wemyss was demolished in 1984. Castle Wemyss was in Renfrewshire and is not to be confused with Wemyss Castle which is still in Fife.

He published a memoire of two cruises called "Porpoises and People".  I failed to find a copy on the Internet. Can anyone help me out?

A friend did more research on the stationer front, and discovered a Royal stationer called H&M Massey who traded from 41 Park Street. The bill in the photo below, for sale on eBay, is for headed notepaper. We have come full circle.

Bill from H & M Massey

It now beyond doubt: we have identified an A.B. (on the iron stamp) who lived at the address on the paper label on the box holding the stamp, and who bought a grouse moor (Balintore is the address on the stamp).

How fabulous to have such an aristocratic and super-rich individual as a former owner of Balintore. Alan looks like a bit of a playboy, somewhat channeling Lord Lucan in appearance, but he also put in his public service in best noblesse oblige tradition. The fact we both lived in Gibraltar and at Balintore is extraordinary.

It is also a coincidence that the purchaser of the item at a local auction is also called Alan.

The earl would have walked from his flat in Park Street to the stationer in Park Street to order headed notepaper some time between 1930 and 1933. The iron block would, I believe, have been kept at the stationer's. However, in 1933 when the earl moved away (the year of his second divorce) he would have picked up the block and taken it to Scotland with him presumably with the intention of taking it to a local stationer. It is most likely, since the stamp is still in the area, that it came to us via this second stationer.