I came across this old postcard whilst sorting through the junk/priceless archives in my room. I decided to do a Google search for the “Lady Luppell” the card is addressed to. The only reference to the lady I could find was a blog post I wrote eight years ago, the last time I found the postcard! Recycling is very popular at the moment; so why not recycle a blog post …..
I bought a mucky postcard on Sunday. It was dog-eared, and torn, and stained and cracked, but it was only 50p and that isn’t much to pay for a bit of one hundred year old history. The picture is of the Stray in Harrogate which is an area of open parkland much traversed by generations of gentlefolk who had visited the Yorkshire Spa town to take the sulphurous waters. It will be a machine tinted illustration, but whoever mixed the colours seems to have captured the greyish-yellowish-bluish skies that so often are a feature of Yorkshire. Flipping the card over we can make out some of the message:
“The weather is perfectly delightful place very full and amusements still going on. We return Friday week boys go school – – How long are you staying —-“
It was sent to what looks like Lady Luppell who was staying at the Valley of Rocks Hotel in Lynton, Devon, a rather grand establishment which still exists. I have been able to find no trace of Lady Luppell : she seems to have passed through the world and left little record of her passing other than a mucky old 50 pence postcard.
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