"Puppy-pie"

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When London’s getting hot and dry,

And half the season’s done,

To Marlow you should quickly fly,

And bask there in the sun.

There pleasant quarters you may find –

The “Angler” or the “Crown”

Will suit you well, if you’re inclined

To stay in Marlow town.

1886: A Marlow Madrigal, J. Ashby-Sterry

About three miles upstream from here is the town of Marlow.

I have to admit that I have not previously heard of Ashby-Sterry but I, and I expect most of you, have heard of the poet Shelley.

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He lived in Marlow for short while and the house, still standing, is marked with one of the usual round blue plaques.

An extract from his wife’s diary states…...

"During the year 1817 we were established at Marlow, in Buckinghamshire. Shelley's choice of abode was fixed chiefly by this town being at no great distance from London, and its neighbourhood to the Thames.

Poems were written in his boat, as it floated under the beech groves of Bisham, or during wanderings in the neighbouring country, which is distinguished for peculiar beauty. The chalk hills break into cliffs that overhang the Thames, or form valleys clothed with beech; the wilder portion of the country is rendered beautiful by exuberant vegetation; and the cultivated part is peculiarly fertile."

We have a beautiful suspension bridge here at Marlow which gets a mention in a story and film and has acquired a certain notoriety in connection with a "puppy pie".

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From the Railway Children by Edith Nesbitt -

"You mustn't take no notice of my Bill," said the woman;

"'is bark's worse'n 'is bite. Some of the kids down Farley way is fair terrors. It was them put 'is back up calling out about who ate the puppy-pie under Marlow bridge."

"Who did?" asked Phyllis.

"I dunno," said the woman.

"Nobody don't know! But somehow, and I don't know the why nor the wherefore of it, them words is poison to a barge-master."

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The background to this is thus explained:-

"The landlord of the inn at Medmenham had received private information that certain bargemen meditated that night a foray on his larder. He was a humorous man, who had just drowned a litter of young puppies. So he had their corpses baked in a pie, which he placed in the larder, and did not sit up to keep guard. The larder was robbed, the pie was carried off and conveyed to Marlow Bridge, where the plunderers feasted, as they supposed, on young rabbits."

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