TC Lethbridge | The Sons of TC-Lethbridge

In the Wake of Poseiden

15th Jan 2006

Tekh’s Journal
This month’s addition to TEKH’s Journal is a short essay entitled Shoney – The Holy One. It discusses T.C. Lethbridge’s understanding of the eponymous Gaelic Sea God, who ruled the waves in the wake of Poseiden.

If Walls Could Talk
I have recently been undertaking some research into Lethbridge’s early days at Cambridge. Just before Christmas, JON-AK and I spent a fascinating morning at the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, scouring through letters and manuscripts pertinent to our ongoing study.

Not only was it fascinating reading through the documents, it was quite enchanting working in a space once frequented by the man we were investigating. Looking down onto the quadrangle below our place of study, evoked images of Lethbridge’s and his fellows going about their daily business in the museum. The documents revealed an enormous amount of fascinating information, but one wonders ‘if walls could talk’, as Lethbridge metaphorically believed they could, what secrets could they reveal? The concept is truly magical and as one wanders around this great seat of learning, one cannot help to be intoxicated by the history absorbed into the very fabric of the buildings.

Rather Sentimental Muck I Fear…. Over the Christmas period, I managed to obtain four books privately published by Lethbridge during the 1930s. The volumes were produced by him as Christmas gifts for his friends and colleagues. The slim editions focus on his obsession with the sea and collectively, they form a fascinating and delightful addition to the Lethbridge library. Each hardback tome contains a short essay, which is enhanced by the inclusion of a number of his unique sketches and drawings.

The books appear to part of the sequence that was first brought to my attention by Daniel Martin last summer. Daniel’s observations can be found in the essay At Sea which appears in The Friends of T.C. Lethbridge section of this site.

The sequence of privately published books now reads:

Some West-Country Coasters – Self-published, 1933
From Dublin to Elsinore in a Sailing Ship - Self-published, 1934
North About - Notes on a Passage from the Clyde to the Åland Islands - Self-published, 1935
Short Splices - Some Notes on Ships and Boats - Self-published, 1936
Umiak – The European Ancestry of the ‘Women’s Boat’ – Self-published, 1937
Fishermen of Durness - Self-published, 1938

A cover scan and review of each volume will shortly appear in Tekh’s Anthological Review of the Work of T.C. Lethbridge. If anyone is aware of further publications that were produced in these sequence, I would be interested to hear from them.

John Fowles (March 31 1926 – November 5 2005 )
Finally, I would just like to add a tribute to the great John Fowles who died at the end of last year. The Magus was one of the most amazing novels I have ever encountered. I remember when I first read it, my whole life turned upside down. So compelling was the story that I was unable to put the book down. I became so engrossed, that I phoned in sick for work two days running. Never before has a book taken over my life – it even occupied my dreams and on awakening, I couldn’t recall whether the story in my mind was one which I had dreamt or one that I had read! It was a similar experience that I had encountered whilst following a story on Jackanory whilst feverish as a child. I recommend the book to anyone who hasn’t read it. But please don’t commence it if you have responsibilities to attend to in the ‘real’ world!

welbourn TEKH – Linden ‘the people of the pool’ – January 2006