non sibi sed toti	Parsons Family and Friends

A Year in Dresden Dresden in 1889 by Mrs E. Wynne, 14 Crosthwaite Park South, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin (written in the early 1950s, for what purpose I don't know. It evokes a long gone way of life, and a city before allied bombs whipped up a fire-storm to annihilate it. Some pictures are by Ludwig Richter, the Dresden artist who died in 1880.) These are the recollections of a school-girl, now a grandmother, of a happy year spent in Dresden sixty years ago. Dresden in Saxony! Lovely, beautiful Dresden with all your treasures of Art and Romance un-priced. How enchanting you were then! What are you like now, I wonder? I was a child then, and, with my brothers and sisters, three girls and three boys, was taken to spend a year in Dresden. My Father had just retired frrom long service in the British Army, and it was thought that, before settling down in England, a year in Germany would be pleasant for my parents and good for the children. It was certainly very enjoyable, but whether we profited by it, I do not know. Dresden at that time was a placid, beautiful city lying on two sides of the broad Elbe. All the oldest and the most beautiful buildings were in the Altstadt on the left bank. There was a newer work-a-day part on the right bank. We had a nice flat in Moscynski Strasse, and afterwards we moved to the broad Reichstrasse. That was near the Greek Orthodox Church, which had a number of pinnacles. On the top of each of these was a crescent, surmounted by a cross, all bright gilt that used to glisten and glitter in the frosty sunshine. We had two helpers in the flats. Old Amalis was the cook, a real character, but a great help. Thekla was the housemaid (Stube Madchen), a pleasant young girl. They both spoke German with a broad Saxon accent. We learned many German ways and customs from them. They called my Father "Herr Oberst" - Mr. Colonel - and my Mother was Mrs, Colonel, "Frau Oberst". No, I meant to write "Gnadige Frau Oberst". This meant "Gracious Mrs. Colonel", which sounded very polite. Thekla told us that H.W.G. before a person's name on an envelope stood for Hock-wohl-geboren, which meant High-well-born! Very flattering, but quite absurd. Do Germans still write thus? I expect not, especially in these days of levelling. When we first arrived an extra bedstead had to be brought into the flat. Next morning, poor little number six who slept in it was found to be bitten all over. Very uncomfortable! What was it? F sharps, or B flats? Alas, it was B flats, many - small, flat and brown! So Thekla said a Kammer Jager must come and she knew where to get one. So he came - Mister Kammer Jager, or Mr. Bug Hunter. His name and appearance amused us much. He was dressed all in white, very tight at neck and wrists, and he had a long, white cap like a dunce's cap. He worked away in the bedroom for some time, and after that there were no more bites. It seemed that bug-chasing was a regular trade, as is window cleaning or chimney sweeping in England. Dresden was full of lovely old buildings - churches, palaces, museums. The museums were full of really wonderful treasures, valuable and historical. Looted, perhaps, from Italy and other countries in former times. Chief, or course, of Dresden's beauties was the Zwinger, or Picture Gallery, and its surrounding palace and buildings. Most beautiful architecture and containing many of the world's most valuable paintings. There were thousnads of pictures, I should think, and of all these treasures the greatest was Raphael's Sistine Madonna. This picture had a room all to itself, carefully lighted, and in front was a sofa on which people used to sit for hours studying it. In the middle of the picture stands the Madonna and on the right side kneels Saint Barbara. On the other side is Pope Sixtus, bareheaded and grey-haired. His triple crown is painted in the corner below him. At the side are the green curtains of Raphael's bed. (It is said he had a vision of the picture while he was lying in bed). At the bottom of the picture are the two little cherubs so well known. This picture was reproduced everywhere in Dresden. In every shop you could buy copies of it - photographs, painted copies, on china or on photograph frames. If the whole picture was not reproduced the little cherubs looked at one from every window. We visited the Zwinger often as it was thought to be educational, but numbers four and five took more pleasure in sliding on the parquet floors than in looking at the pictures - that is to say, if the backs of the attendants were turned. There was a fine opera house and we went sometimes to the opera. I heard some grown ups telling my Mother it was much simpler than in London. The hours were earlier and no one wore evening dress and it was not expensive. But the music and singing were superb. I remember hearing Lohengrin and seeing him drawn on to the stage by his swan, but I was so disappointed in his Elsa. I had pictured a lovely, sylph-like maiden, but the real Elsa was quite different, though of course she had a lovely voice. We saw Der Wildschutz, too, and the Pied Piper. One day we were allowed to see the back of the stage and actually stood in Lohengrin's boat. We were shown how thunder was made. There was a square box of wood with parchment stretched over it, and this was banged with a padded iron. The wind was made by a wheel covered with cloth which made a rushing sound when turned. I think the greatest pleasure we had in Dresden was the skating. It freezes sometimes for three months at a time there. Mostly we skated on some tennis grounds artificially flodded, but the Carols See was a delighful place. It was a long narrow lake of beautiful ice where sometimes the band played and where sometimes a good skater would take one's hand and whirl one along, it was delightful. There were many interesting places to visit in the neighbourhood. The most interesting was the village and castle of Meissen, some few miles down the Elbe. Meissen is where the lovely porcelain is made. The castle is a most delightfully romantic mediaeval place overhanging the river, really old and genuine, and full of history. It was here, in the Middle Ages, that old Botcher, searching for the stone to turn all things into gold, found how to make china instead, and one poor clever artist in china was kept shut up here fore years and years by a Prince of Saxony, so that he should make china for no one else. The lovely Dresden china is still made there. Another place we visited was Moritzburg - a Hunting Box of the Kings of Saxony. Here there were a number of wild boars kept for hunting. They were not entirely wild, for we saw the place where food was put out for them at certain times, when a man blew his horn and they came and fed. This was, I suppose, in a hard winter. Moritzburg was a short run by train from Dresden. The day we went there was a public holiday and the train was so full we had to travel in a Steh-wagen, i.e. a standing-up coach. I had never travelled thus before. As there were no seats, we played the game of sitting without chairs. In this game a circle is formed and everyone sits on his neighbour's knee. It may sound well but is difficult to practise in a joggling train - I should not like to try it now. There must have been a large English-speaking population in Dresden at that time, because there was an English Church. The Incumbent was the Reverend Mr. Gilderdale. There was also an American Church and a small Scotch Church. All these were well attended. We went most often to the American Church, where was the Reverend Mr. Caskey. I remember a lovely font in that Church. It took the form of a kneeling angel, holding out a large shell for the water, and was executed in pure white marble. Perhaps this is a good place to record that wherever we travelled we always attended Divine Worship on Sunday, and I do not remember any of the family objecting to this. Ever since, through storm and war and loss, the family has walked in this way. Moreover, my Father never failed to read to us daily from the Old Book. Speaking with the experience of a long life, I think now that nothing tends to keep a family together as well as the following of these practices, carried out with discretion and common sense. Not that the family was perfect, far from it. Herr Mochmann was not at all pleased with my brothers at school. It was said they did nothing and made the German boys laugh. But how difficult to learn history and geography in a language one could not understand! I went to a girls' school. It was, I think, the best in Dresden, but some of the ways there seemed strange. For dinner we usually had sausages. These were served in a large soup-tureen, filled with hot water. The Head Mistress put her fingers right into the water and took out the sausages, still all joined together, as sold in the shop, pulled them apart and gave us each two or three on our plates. I thought it very odd, but they were quite nice to eat, and I did enjoy their coffee and little white rolls. The bread was heavy and brown and not very good. It was rye bread, I think. Our chief friends were Sir Charles and Lady Palliser, and their daughter, Bertha. Sir Charles was knighted for his gallantry in the Indian Mutiny. How long ago! Then there was Admiral and Lady Brandreth and their gentle daughters, and a family of Cobbolds from Norwich. They taught us this riddle: Why is Norwich like an old shoe? Because it is "cobbled" all over. I do not know how true this is now. I also remember Mr. Row Fogo of Row. He was an ardent Scotsman and always wore a kilt. We thought it such a funny name. There was a Saxon Court in those days - very grand, I believe. We sometimes saw the officers of the Saxon Regiment. They wore light blue uniforms trimmed with silver, beautiful to behold, but slander said they had not very beautiful manners, and would push an old woman off the path, rather than soil their speckless boots! There was a large Market Square in Dresden, full of Christmas trees in winter, and in summer old ladies sitting under big umbrellas for shade, selling all manner of interesting things - fruit, knicknacks, strange little cakes, sweets, bread, slothes, flowers. One never had enough pocket money when visitng the market. The jam and honey was kept in wooden barrels and customers brought their empty jam pots to be filled. A short journey from Dresden is the beautiful district known as Saxon Switzerland - all hills and valleys, and most wonderful rocks of strange formation and natural and vast bridges of rock. A delightful place to spend a summer. There were Bier-gartens here and there, where not only beer was sold but delicious frothing chocolate in large, deep glasses. How we children enjoyed that! Saxon Switzerland must be the same still after sixty years as its beauty depends on hill and river, but Dresden itself, with its palaces and pictures and music and culture, what is it like now? Will these things come back? Post script - I read in the papers in January, 1951 that the Russians have removed the famous Sistine Madonna to Russia. Notes Vice Admiral Thomas E. Brandreth [Third Lord of the Admiralty 1885] Row Fogo family of Row House, Dunblane. Perhaps the author: ROW-FOGO,J. Local Taxation in Germany London: MacMillan & Co. 1901. pp24. Colonel Charles Acton, Evelyn's father, died in 1897, so the year in Dresden cannot have been 1899 as typed, and is almost certainly 1889, when Col Acton would have been 58 years old, and Evelyn would have been 16. Her recollections seem to have been those of a 16 year old, with her appreciation of the Sistine Madonna and the opera. The memoir of Colonel Charles Acton states: "In May, 1889, the Colonel's appointment in Northampton came to an end, and he was placed on the retired list. After an interval of visits and of staying at Tunbridge Wells, the family went to Dresden for a year. On the way the Colonel and his three boys cycled through parts of Belgium, and visited Waterloo and other places of interest. "The time in Dresden passed very pleasantly, though the Colonel had a severe attack of influenza. He much regretted not being able to attend the English Church in Dresden, but he approved neither of the very high ritual is use there, nor of the doctrines preached. He therefore attended the American Church, which he and his family liked much better. Many friends, both German and American, were made in Dresden, and excursions into Saxon Switzerland with members of the Wanderers' Club were much enjoyed. "In December, 1890, the Colonel with his family returned to England..." Evelyn owned two reproductions of the Sistine Madonna, both monochrome, which no doubt were bought in that year. One, in brown, now hangs in Street. The other, just the mischievous angels or putti in pink, was hanging in Evelyn's last home in Vevay Road, Bray, until her death. I don't know what became of it. It is interesting that she appreciated the opera, because in her later years at least she was tone deaf. I tried playing the National Anthem to her, to see if she would recognise it, but she could not! Her son Charles Acton Wynne was also tone deaf, and it was extremely noble of him to take me to an organ recital in Winchester Cathedral! The children in Evelyn's story were: William Parsons Acton, born 1871 Evelyn Caroline Annesley Acton, born 1873 Grace Annesley Acton, born 1874 Charles Annesley Acton, born 1876 Reginald Thomas Annesley Acton, born 1878 Vere Annesley Acton, born 1879. Vere must have been the one who suffered from the bed bugs! Charles and Reggie were both killed in WW1 - see elsewhere in this History section for details. Vere was killed in the Boer War. You can see a photo of Vere and read the details there - see Vere Ball-Acton in the Photo section, History Gallery.