A photo gallery will be added shortly.

John Chichester Constable, who has died aged 84, spent much of his later life overseeing the restoration of his ancestral home, Burton Constable, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Burton Constable is where you will find the skeleton of a sperm whale which was washed up on the beach at Tunstal in 1825. Herman Melville was aware of the skeleton and wrote about it in Moby Dick.

At a place in Yorkshire, England, Burton Constable by name, a certain Sir Clifford Constable has in his possession the skeleton of a Sperm Whale. Sir Clifford’s whale has been articulated throughout; so that like a great chest of drawers, you can open and shut him, in all his long cavities — spread out his ribs like a gigantic fan — and swing all day upon his lower jaw.

The full story is fascinating, and is described in detail in Philip Hoare’s excellent book Leviathan.
About ten years ago John Constable approached us to restore his Debain harmonium. The Constable family were recusant Roman Catholics and the Debain was in a chapel some way from the house and built in penal times.

In the Hall itself we were shown a mechanical tree with a miniature pipe organ and singing birds, alas now long since silent, and also made by Debain.

Although an Albert Hall full of musicians is a glorious sight, I thought you may like to see it empty just for a change. As usual, click a pic for a bigger pic.

Use of Beer in Piano and Organ Factories.

The use of the favorite German beverage in factories during business hours we regard as reprehensible on purely selfish and economic grounds. We noticed, during our recent Eastern visit, that in some of the factories it was a common practice for the workmen to send out for pails of foaming lager to refresh themselves in their work. We would make the point that the establishment whose men are allowed thus to drink at odd times cannot produce as good results in workmanship as that whose men keep within the bounds of strict temperance during business hours at least. A beer-muddled brain transfers its qualities to the less cunning instrument it helps to fashion. We believe it would be a wise step to prohibit the use of beer while employees are at work. Though regarded by most of them as harmless, and by many as a necessity—and we are the last to deny the workman any proper right or lawful indulgence—the use of the cheap and possibly not harmful beverage during the hours devoted to labor is a hindrance to work and certainly not helpful to the worker. In this connection we call attention to the statement of Edward F. Cullerton, one of Chicago’s Aldermen, in reference to raising the saloon license:
“If you saw what I see every day you would condemn me to the pillory for not being in earnest. Up in my neighborhood the men work hard all the year round and earn big wages, but their families are none the better for it. Why? At the opening of the alleyway leading to every lumberyard, at the gates of every factory, there is a saloon. There is a decoy of the saloonkeeper in every gang of workmen who entices his fellows into the gate and alley saloon at every opportunity—at noon, in the morning before work commences, in the evening when work is over—surely every pay-day. I know men working in those shops up in the Fifth and Sixth Wards who earn from $20 to $35 a week, whose slate at the gate and alley saloons runs up to $10 and $15 per week. Those men have families. They have to live on a pittance per week, less than their husbands and fathers spend in the doggeries.”

The church stands in wonderful parkland. Part of Ickworth House is owned by the National Trust and the East Wing is a luxury hotel.