Annie Sylvia PARKER [1051]

  General Notes:

Julius Jottings No 2
April 1900
Annie Sylvia, born at Rowledge, June 11, 1871; educated at Miss Parker's School, Weymouth, 1884-87; at Fraulein Kloss, Dusseldorf, 1888; worked for some months at St Margaret's Lady's Settlement, Bethnal Green, 1896. Has carved the reredos in Rowledge Church. Managers the Band of Hope and other local good works.
Address: Rowledge Vicarage Farham

Julius Jottings No 4
Jan. 1901
"A Visit To Bavaria"
I returned yesterday from a most interesting and amusing visit to Bavaria.
First, I stayed in a little country town called Rehau, four miles from the edge. of Austria, and which is, I believe, typical of all German towns of the kind\emdash a town of houses with square windows and red roofs, a church in the middle, and a:town,hall, a river spanned by many little bridges; in which everybody rinses their clothes, carts always drawn by oxen, and a great prevalence of geese. Everyone, without excep-tion, lives in a flat. In Rehau there were three classes of people; firstly, the Beampters, i.e., Government officers, which include the clergyman and doctor, etc., about twelve families; then the burghers and big factory owners; and, lastly, the peasants. The Beampters are, for the most part, not well off, the burghers very rich ; but then one does not know that, for all their pennies are saved for their daughters dowries, or put upon the said daughters backs on Sundays and at festivities. In their houses they live as economically as possible, and do their own scrubbing. The reason for this is that German men are so proverbially poor that they always have to look out for a wife with money, and so it happens not infrequently that an officer of good family marries a burgher's daughter because she has deep pockets.
When a girl marries, it is she who has to provide all the furniture of the house. In fact, the man has nothing to provide except the ring, and his own clothes. The amount of etiquette to be observed in these little towns is extraordinary. All over Germany it is the rule that the ;superior lady must always walk on the right, be passed on the right, and go out of the door first. The king of Rehau is Mr. Besirksamtrniann, or Mr. Head Government Man, and his wife is supposed to take precedence. As it happens, she, is very young and retiring, and does not always act up to her role, so then Mr. Chief Judge is pleased to take her place.
When a couple arrive first in a town they set to work to procure a printed list of all the people in the town they should know. They start off to call upon them. These first calls are always paid on Sunday morning between 11.00 and 1.00. The lady wears a silk dress, and it is one of the few occasions that a man wears a top hat. People see them coming from afar, and know upon what errand they are bent. These calls are returned in due course, and the acquaintance may be kept up or not, as the case may be. Every town in Germany has its ,Damen Kranz, that is, all the ladies meet once a fortnight at an hotel and spend the afternoon ; they talk, work, and drink coffee. I went twice to the Rehau Kranz, as a visitor, for it is only intended for the married ones. Such a cackle there was! Every lady is always called by her husband's title, so got to know very few of their proper names. The two ladies before-mentioned sat near the top of the table, Mrs Master of the Woods and Forests was also there, so was Mrs. Doctor, and Mrs. Clergyman, and near. the bottom of the table' sat Mrs Organist, and, most delightful name of all, Mrs. Besirkatierartzt, or Mrs Government Beasts Doctor\emdash about twelve in all. Very little private entertaining is done. Social functions are usually carried on in public places, but we often went out to tea alone with seine lady, where, there was a beautiful spread of home-made cakes, and very, very weak tea, which is supposed to be essential to English people. Dancing is the favourite recreation of Germans, and they nearly all dance well, especially Bavarians. I was taken to the grandest ball of the year at Rehau, which was very wonderful and rather solemn.
Germans work very hard, but have the capacity of enjoying their pleasures like children, and they like quantity as well as quality so we arrived at 7.00 in the evening and we got into bed at 6.00 in the morning. There were tables all round the edge of the room, and at 11.00 a hot supper was brought in, which lasted till 2.00, during which a good band played, and there was also, speeches and toasts, innumerable. When a gentleman wants to dance with a married lady, he must ask her husband first. There were no programmes, and the men took their partners for two or three turns round the room, and brought them back to the same place again, so that either party may have as many as four partners in one dance, but have very little opportunity for conversation. One day we bicycled a beautiful hilly road, through pine woods to Asche, in Bohemia. We had tea there and rode back by moonlight. It is a curious thing that England and Bohemia are the only countries in the world where you pass on the right; so directly you cross the border, you change your mode of riding. Gendarmes career all over the woods, as smuggling is very prevalent, and more than once we saw a tramp marched into Rehau to be locked up for the night, and sent back the next day to his own domains. After leaving Rehau, I stayed with Herr and Frau Director Gross, who have a house, with a most beautiful garden, over-looking a valley, two miles from Bayreuth. This is a Argo garrison town, famous for its Opera House, now shut up till next July. I was taken all over it, and am told that already two-thirds of the tickets for the Wagner Festspiel for the twenty performances are sold. I. also had the privilege of meeting Frau Wagner, the wife of two great musicians, Von Bulow and Richard Wagner, and the daughter of Liszt. She is the queen of Bayreuth, and is quite a remarkable old lady, very lively, rather French. Strangers are supposed to kiss her hand, but I was not quite equal to that, and I think allowances would, be made for foreigners. We went there to tea on Sunday, and sat round the table in the hall. The rest of the party consisted of Miss Wagner, and Siegfrid Wagner, also a composer, as unattractive an individual as his mother is the reverse, and a most splendid Irish wolf hound, of which there are only three in Germany, the property of the latter. I travelled home, spending two nights in Nuremberg and one at Cologne. Travelling done, in Germany is never dull, for people are so much more friendly and less stiff than at home, and you make quite a number of acquaintances on the road ; and a German gentleman is never better pleased than if you ask him if you are in the right. train, for he immediately takes out his train book and tell you all and much more than you want to know. One such was so polite that he insisted on getting out at Cologne and carrying my packages-to the hotel, and went on to his destination by the next train.
By a fortunate accident. I missed the boat-train at Cologne the night I intended to cross, and thereby escaped an awful storm ; and last, but not least, had the privilege of seeing Mr. Paul Kruger and Dr. Leyds off at the station (Cologne) at 10 o'clock the next morning with about 10,000 other people, and such a. roar of enthusiasm went up as never before greeted my ears.
SYLVIA PARKER.
Interesting comments, as at that time Great Britain was at war with the Boer Republic.

Sylvia was unmarried.

Parker Annie Sylvia of Greenhill 5 Oaklands Road Bromley Kent spinster died 4 March 1959 at 53 Park Farm Road Bromley Probate London 6 May 1959 to John Osmond Julius Stevens solicitor and Arthur Herbert Brewin stockbroker. Effects L19007 15s 3d.
Ref: National Probate Calendar.

  Research Notes:

Parker family images courtesy of R Waight 2015

  Other Records

1. Census: England, 3 Apr 1881, Rowledge Vicarage Farnham HAM.
Annie is recorded as a daughter aged 9 a scholar born Rowledge.

2. Census: England, 5 Apr 1891, Rowledge Vicarage Binsted E Hants.
Annie is described as a daughter aged 19 single born Binsted

3. Annie Sylvia Parker, Cir 1898.
In Cir 1898 a reredos was erected in St James church Rowledge carved by Sylvia.
Ref: A Rowledge History by Florence Parker and others researched and published by Roy Waight.