January 2011 offcuts_Jan Offcuts 2010.qxd.qxd - The OKS Association

Moderately Musical Meister Omers
Chris Battersby (MO 1971-75) writes in
response to an article in last May’s Offcuts:
“Reading Mark Gutteridge’s report of MO
and the inter-house music competition in
1974/5 brought back happy memories of 20
boys shouting out the chorus of Fortuna
Imperatrix Mundi and actually winning against
stiff competition from musicians. However,
I would disagree that MO was completely
devoid of musical talent at the time – there
was just a shortage of people in the King’s
tradition of Choir School/Music
Scholar/Oxbridge/impoverished freelance
tenor.
Both Richard Paine (MO 1971-75) and
myself shared a study with Mark and set off
on rather different musical tangents after
school. After learning a set of jigs and reels
we obtained two of the first-ever Covent
Garden busking licenses, presumably
making us the first OKS to qualify as
licensed beggars, and hit the Big City. On
the intelligence that the French prefer the
Scots to the English, we then hired a couple
of Macbeth costumes and headed for Paris,
which proved fun and lucrative but
draughty. Richard then returned to
university to take a PhD on the Catalan
composer Federico Mompou, and is now
Rights and Media Director of Faber Music.
My lack of musical talent and looks forced
me into a career in management
consultancy. However, in 1987 I took up
the Euterpian cudgel again and formed the
skiffle band Macavity’s Cat (thanks to Mr
Woodley for the name), the “Best Cider and
Curry Band in the Country” according to
NME. We went on to become the house
band at the Mean Fiddler in Harlesden,
appear three times in a row at the Reading
Festival, headline the Melkweg in
Amsterdam on New Year’s Eve, and still
hold down our day jobs. I’m now playing in
a jazz quintet and still enjoy making a noise.
I would like to say this is down to King’s,
but my memory of the school in the ‘70s is
that music was very “them and us”, and
about skill rather than entertainment, graft
rather than fun. I do hope it has changed as
everyone (with the possible exception of X
Factor finalists) benefits from having a tune
inside them. Which brings me back to
Carmina Burana, and the recollection that if
MO could walk away with the House music
cup, anything was possible. “
The latest remarkable work to be
printed (only 10 copies, so far) at the
School Press is The King’s School,
Canterbury Register 1750-1859.
This, the joint work of Robert Scott
and Peter Henderson, is based on the
King’s School Entry Book, which was
started by Headmaster Osmund
Beauvoir in 1750, supplemented by
other school records. The Register
ends in 1859 because that is the
starting date of the Register published
in 1932. It is hoped to provide more
details and an appraisal at a later date
Unknown OKS 4: John Burnby (1747-1805): Cricket and the Cathedral
John Burnby was born in 1747, the son of
a Canterbury tailor. He was briefly at the
King’s School from 1756 to 1758 and later
became an attorney and something of a
writer. His two most notable works were
published while he was in his twenties.
An Historical Description of the Cathedral
and Metropolitical Church of Christ,
Canterbury came out in 1772. The book
sold well, but did not bring the author
recognition. Gostling’s Walk in and about
the City of Canterbury appeared two years
later and rapidly established itself as the
best guide to the city’s buildings. Worse,
Burnby’s book appeared anonymously, and
as later editions were published “together
with an elegy written by the Rev. John
Duncombe”, the Vicar of St Andrews and St
Mary Bredman, the work is often said to
have been by Duncombe.
The Kentish Cricketers appeared in 1773.
This was a poem written in response to
Surry Triumphant by John Duncombe
(again). Duncombe’s parody of the ballad
of Chevy Chase had provided a full account
of Kent’s defeat in a match at
Bishopsbourne; Burnby focused on the
county’s victory in the return fixture at
Sevenoaks Vine. These two pieces are thus
among the earliest and rarest of cricket
books. Burnby’s verse is not of the greatest
literary merit, though the description of
the Duke of Dorset (Kent’s top scorer in
the first match) is lively and effective:
And far unlike the modern Way
Of blocking every Ball at Play,
He firmly stands with Bat upright,
And strikes with his athletic Might,
Sends forth the Ball across the Mead,
And scores six Notches for the Deed.
His occasional verse, containing much of
personal interest, was collected in Summer
Amusement (1782), including a revised
version of The Kentish Cricketers. His
combative character is evident in a
readiness to enter into the controversies of
the day, writing to the Kentish Gazette and
publishing pamphlets on such matters as
the sale of corn, the poor rates and
freedom of election.
His later years were unhappy. He was
separated from his wife and she died in
1786, and his son Thomas, a Lieutenant in
the Navy, was lost when HMS Invincible
sank off the Norfolk coast in 1801. He died
in Dover Street in 1805, and received a
surprisingly full notice in the Gentleman’s
Magazine, where he was described as “a
man of very eccentric character,
imprudent, intemperate, and, of late years,
in distressed circumstances.” Today his
poetry brings him a measure of fame. A
copy of The Kentish Cricketers, bound
with Duncombe’s verse and another work,
recently sold at Christie’s for £30,000. Yet
even here, bad luck followed him: the
catalogue described him as a clergyman.
OKS Offcuts • Jan 2011 • Issue 31
16
The OKS Association • www.oks.org.uk