S3E1:Poems from the lost 1908 Christmas Budget Artwork

100 Years of Cox

I am telling the story of ten siblings from the Machell Cox family, through the letters they wrote to each other. They were born in England between 1868 and 1884; seven of them lived in England and three lived abroad, in the Colonies. One of the siblings was my great grandfather.

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100 Years of Cox

S3E1:Poems from the lost 1908 Christmas Budget

July 18, 2021 • Frances • Season 3 • Episode 1

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Frances reads poems, written by Edmund, Arthur, Aldwyn, Bernard and Cuthbert, originally published by Bernard for the family to read in the 1908 Christmas Budget.

At some point the 1908 Christmas Budget was lost. In 1930 the teenage David Machell Cox, son of Arthur, was writing up his favourite family poems into a new book - 'An Anthology of Cox Frivolities, 1893-1930'. The second edition of this family compilation is safely preserved in the Bodleian Library, although its bindings have disintegrated. In this compilation I disovered these 1908 family poems, which don't appear to exist elsewhere in the Machell Cox archive.

We hear about hockey, the various remedies Mother uses when her many small children were ill, and Cuthbert writes about a peculiar boy who drinks fountain pen ink.

The two hockey poems describe the second match Vera played as a member of the All England Ladies' Hockey team. This match took place at Richmond in London on Wednesday 18th March 1908 and England were playing Scotland. I am still keen to see the photos of Vera which I know exist in magazines called 'Black and White' and 'Ladies' Field' - if you know of surviving editions, please get in touch.

00:00 Intro
09:04 'To the Editor' by Edmund
10:56 'Teardrops' by Bernard (theme suggested by Arthur)
13:14 'A Paean' by Arthur
23:52 'A Missionary's Meanderings in Many Metres' by Aldwyn
36:08 'Of Veronica - and Hockey' by Bernard (with the help of Macaulay, Browning and M.Arnold)
43:28 Notes on Bernard's hockey poem
52:14 'The Advantages of a Proper Education - a Poem' by Cuthbert

You can contact Frances by email - machellcoxletters@gmail.com
or X/Twitter - @CoxLetters
or Blue Sky - @Coxletters.bsky.social

All content is subject to copyright and belongs to Frances Thompson and the Bodleian Library.