Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

keen climber and member of the Fell and Rock Climbing Club and the Alpine Club.
(The Westmorland Cairn on the summit of Great Gable, overlooking Wastwater,
commemorates a cousin, Colonel Horace Westmorland whom I was later to meet).
She was an only child (a younger brother Fred had died at an early age), and had
often been on walking and climbing holidays in the Alps and there were many
mountaineering books on the shelves. She was educated at Bolam Hall and the
Mount School, York and spent a year in "finishing school" at Weisbaden, Germany.
She had a very sociable nature, a keen intellect and sensitive mind, always charming,
gentle and courteous, caring deeply for the sufferings of others and felt deeply about
the many causes that she sought to help. She was well read in the arts and
humanities and had a well-stocked library, to which I had full access.
She and her husband Cuthbert were members of the Society of Friends, or
Quakers, and so they were pacifists. We used to go to Meeting quite often on
Sundays, usually driving to Kendal Meeting House via Crook, on a sunny day a
beautiful drive. Other times we went to Hawkshead or further afield. I enjoyed the
peace and tranquility of the Meeting Houses and the opportunity to think, though
not necessarily about spiritual matters! At other times I was required to go to
Anglican services and was being prepared for confirmation by Charles Hay, the
school Chaplain, a “done thing”. I was in fact confirmed by the Bishop of Carlisle,
and was, I suppose, 'conventionally religious' for that time and at my age. Freda
Woods was very well read and held strong opinions; we had lengthy discussions
about life, literature and poetry, religion, beauty and truth, morality, life, which I had
never had in my own family. I think she regarded me as the son she had never had
and was like a mother to me, very concerned to develop my character and
spirituality. One of her precepts, which I have always tried to follow, was "Don't ever
be satisfied with second best". It would have been difficult to find anyone less like
my mother and she was an equal or greater formative influence, but largely in an
opposite direction. This was to cause problems with my parents later.
Freda Woods had married in l914 and gone to live in Birkenhead. They moved to
Windermere in l929, when Green Gables was built to their wishes. Cuthbert Woods
had been a Professor of Dentistry at Liverpool University, but retired in his forties I
think, to look after his wife, who had a chronic heart condition. He had a welldeveloped
sense of humour and a fund of funny stories, many of which related to
the Liverpool music halls of his student days. He was an expert craftsman in wood
and metal. As a hobby he made scale model boats and ships for the Liverpool
Shipping Museum, complete in every detail. He was very interested in ships and
shipping and everything to do with the sea. One of his cousins, Captain William
Tanner, was in the Royal Navy and paid us a visit once. He came straight from the
war and had a lot of impressive stories of his wartime experiences including the
Normandy landings.
Cuthbert Woods also made clocks – starting from scratch, including their
movements, the engraved faces, and their walnut or mahogany cases - both
grandfather clocks and smaller ones. He collected gold turnip watches beautifully
fretted and engraved, some of which he turned into decorative brooches. He was
also interested in local history, mainly of the Liverpool area and North Wales; he
wrote articles on old lighthouses, and various other antiquities. He was quite
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