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[The Blog of Phileas Fogg: 1883 onwards] December 27th 1885

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~googlemail.com>
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 2009 14:40:13 -0800 (PST)
To: jvf~at~gilead.org.il

I have always been at a slight loss about what to do on the last Sunday
of a year. It's one of those days that doesn't quite settle with you.
Not that today was a problem for either the Doctor or William, in fact
they seemed to enjoy today a lot making snowmen. Well, I say snowmen.
William made almost a whole battalion of them and the Doctor made some
very odd shapes in the snow. When I asked him, he introduced me to a
snow Dalek, a snow Zygon and a snow Sontaran (whatever those are!)

Just as we were settling down after a warm tea of crumpets and
chocolate melted into hot milk, there was a banging at the door. We all
looked at each other (as I wasn't expecting any guests) and so sent
Passepartout to the door to see who it was. He came back a moment later
and announced the arrival of "Sir Arthur Sullivan and Mr. William S.
Gilbert"

"Gilbert and Sullivan" exclaimed the Doctor and jumped up out of his
seat and practically dashed to the front door and was already leading
them into the front room by the time I had got to my feet. I welcomed
them and then asked what they were doing. "We've come to repay your
kindness" Arthur replied.

Because I had helped them when they were writing Iolanthe with some of
the terms we use in Parliament, they felt that they wanted to repay my
kindness and so had come to visit to premiere their new work
called "Ruddigore". They had all the music with them and so I took them
to the grand piano I have (for such emergencies) and they played the
songs whilst we read the liberto.

I played Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, Passepartout played Adam Goodheart
(his manservant), The Doctor played Sir Despard Murgatroyd, William
played the other Murgatroyds (who were all ghosts), Sullivan played
Richard Dauntless (a sailor) and my dear wife read all the female
parts. After a good couple of hours I complemented them on another sure
fire hit and agreed that I would be more than happy to be at the
premiere whenever it was and demanded that they stay the night.

So what started as a day to ponder what to do, ended up in a good old
sing song. Makes you wonder what other suprises are in the pipeline?

--
Posted By Harry Hayfield to The Blog of Phileas Fogg: 1883 onwards on
12/27/2009 10:18:00 PM

Received on Mon 28 Dec 2009 - 00:40:23 IST

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