Abstinence makes the brain grow clearer. We are supposed to be acquiring a reputation as a nation of heavy drinkers, but Eye thinks there is a reverse trend in action, as the following story from Peter Fox, of Kendal Meeting, illustrates. He was moved to talk to us after reading the Quaker Action on Alcohol and Drugs review in last week's issue.
Peter appears to have been a teetotaller right from the start, even though at the age of five he found the smell of his local brewery quite alluring.
Later, however, the reality of the 'real stuff' did not live up to promise. 'In my youth I did try a few alcoholic drinks but did not find those I sampled particularly appealing. The cost compared with such lovely and healthy fruit juices seems out of proportion!'
Peter feels that people who know they are susceptible to excessive drinking find it difficult to resist when all around them are being sociable. There aren’t many good examples for them to follow, although he tries to be one. 'I feel it is my duty to show that some people are prepared to stand out, and perhaps they would then be more able to refrain.' Peter made his stand at management meetings at work, where he was invited as a senior member of staff.
The obligatory glass of sherry was always declined – he chose orange juice as it could be seen to be non-alcoholic. By the time of his retirement nearly half the meeting had swung his way. They may be drinking canned lager in the streets but in meetings, receptions, parties and restaurants, the non-alcoholic drink is very much in evidence these days.

Those extraordinary bathing machines which ferried decorum-minded Victorian ladies and gentlemen out for a dip in the sea (unwatched by the hoi polloi one presumes) were invented by a Quaker called Benjamin Beale.
This gem of information comes from the FH library, along with an etching (pictured) and a snippet from the Journal of the Friends Historical Society (1909 vol.6, no.4) which pointed out that the inventor did less well from his gadget than his successors (often the way).
Benjamin's machine enabled 'the pleasure and advantages of sea-bathing to be enjoyed in a manner consistent with the most refined delicacy.'
According to the Journal, Benjamin's machines were placed on the beach at Margate, where he lived, around 1750. They appear to have been hugely popular and waiting rooms were constructed in the bathing houses adjacent to the sea. The waiting rooms, says the Journal, contained grand pianos, newspapers, and telescopes for the use of subscribers awaiting a swim via a machine.

This magazine has often told the story of support Quakers gave to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. Now the Jewish community is seeking a permanent record of our help in those chilling years.

Dr Peter Kurer was seven years old when he came to Britain. ‘My parents, my brother and I escaped the holocaust due to two Manchester Quakers, Horatio and Mary Goodwin, jewellers of Swan St. Manchester,’ Peter has told us.

'They gave the 'Guarantee' which made it possible for our family to escape from Vienna. My brother and I were given two years free education at Friends School Wigton, Cumberland, by the end of which time my father could afford the fees and we had virtually all our education at Quaker boarding schools.'

Peter and his brother recently went to the Old Scholars reunion, 50 years after leaving Wigton (and 20 years after the school closed). Two of his daughters went to the Mount school in York – 'and were as happy as we had been at Wigton.'

Peter is trying to get a more detailed picture of the help the Society gave to Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria. After writing an article for the Association of Jewish Refugees magazine, he had a remarkable response. 'I have had letters, emails and phone calls, all full of praise and gratitude to the Quakers who made their escape possible, thus saving their lives or helping in myriad of different ways.'

But it is all such a long time ago! 'The generation who received the help are no longer with us. We, their children, are well into our seventies and so now to record accurately details of the help given is hard and gets more difficult by the day. There are many Jewish organisations looking for the names of those who were involved and about the interest, care, help and generosity which they know was showered by Quakers on those escaping.'

Peter's ambition is to get acknowledgement of Quaker help in a prominent site such as Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.

If Friends can assist Peter in his task –'I would welcome any information, from the smallest detail onwards', he says, please contact him via us.

Eye’s little sojourn in the Woodbrooke garden last week has brought us some green-fingered Quaker reminiscences. Here's one from our Friend in Angus, Pamala McDougall.

'In my garden I have Quaker bonnets (double primrose), Quaker Grass (planted when I was governor of The Retreat) and a new species of Digitalis named 'Pam’s Choice' is thriving despite some neglect! Now I discover the Common Quaker moth – surely an oxymoron – which I hope to add to my collection. I would have the Quaking Aspen but at a height of up to 50 feet it is too big for my garden. I fancy the Friendship plant (Pilea Urticaceae) but still looking for a stockist. Are there any more flora or fauna suggestions on a Quaker theme?

There was an old Quaker from Ware
who wrung his hands and cried in despair
I cannot truly remember
If I'm a member or attender
'Please forget it' said Fox 'we don’t care.'

Anon

Those engaging monks with their telly series The Monastery are certainly winning hearts and minds. Pam Lunn tells us 'One of the outcomes has been a huge number of hits on the Worth Abbey website and retreats there are filling up fast, with people asking for guidance. As a result, the abbot has started a 'finding sanctuary' movement/network (www.findingsanctuary.org)'

One intriguing snippet from that network announces – 'a network of city churches throughout Britain will be opening their doors for times of quiet, with guidance for meditation. More soon.'

Pam asks if any of our Meeting houses are involved? Eye suspects there might be a spin-off in this for Quakers. Silence seekers might discover we are the original quietists. Christopher Jamison, the Worth Abbot, acknowledges such in his book Finding Sanctuary: monastic steps for everyday life. We are, he says, the denomination that knows about silence. Incidentally, The Friend will carry a review of the book soon.

While we’re all gearing up to celebrate the abolition of slavery, Eye would like to pay homage to a 19th century Englishwoman who campaigned successfully on behalf of prostitutes and abducted British children sold into sexual slavery on the continent of Europe.

This year sees the centenary of the death of this crusader, Josephine Butler. She was supported in her battle by our Society and by individual Quakers. She is a lesser known social reformer but the editor happens to live in the village where she died and had her roots. Plays, lectures and tours have taken place throughout the summer in the Glendale Valley in Northumberland, bringing the extraordinary story of Josephine’s struggle to local people. This picture of Victorian sleaze has been a revelation to many. 'We know generally what they got up to but the details are quite shocking' the editor tells us.
Josephine tackled head on the sexual double standards of her time, particularly those of the wealthy. She campaigned for 16 years to have the Contagious Diseases Acts repealed. These Acts made medical examination of prostitutes compulsory, but any woman living in a garrison town was in danger of being ‘examined’ if police suspected her of being a prostitute. Women sometimes miscarried as a result of these forced examinations. Men were not exposed to such indignities.

During her long campaign Josephine uncovered other vices of the Victorian middle and upper classes, notably child abduction and forced prostitution. In seeking to prove this white slave trade she was helped by brave men who went undercover and by Quaker repealists who funded their investigations and published the findings. Quaker bankers, led by Benjamin Scott, Chamberlain of the City of London, formed the London Committee for the Exposure and Suppression of the Traffic in English, Scotch and Irish Girls for the Purposes of Foreign Prostitution.

The story of how this was exposed – including the ‘tabloid’ escapade of the flamboyant editor of The Pall Mall Gazette who 'abducted' a child in England and sold her on the Continent to prove the trade existed (and who went to jail for his efforts) - is told in the excellent biography Josephine Butler, by Jane Jordan (John Murray, ISBN: 0719555841).