Old South Meeting House; WGBH Forum Network; Belinda Rathbone: Tea with Miss Rose

Today we'll be looking at a different type of Tea Party one that does not include marching to girlfriends or rather lively conversation and tea cakes. Joining us today is Belinda Rathbone. Ms Rathbone is an art historian who has written widely on American photography and is the author of a biography of Walker Evans and the book with Miss Rose More recently she has written numerous articles on Homes and Gardens for Architectural Digest antiques house and garden and the World of Interiors. A few years ago I was asked to participate in a research project on the Beacon Hill Nicholls whose lavish parties will be hearing that today. After the talk I do invite you all down to the shop for a book signing. Please tell me welcome Belinda Rathbone. Thank you and Elisa and thank you all for coming. I'm so honored to be here is this is the sound. Is that working. OK great. Well

I realize I'm in a very historic place and to talk about here is it is sort of overwhelming but it did. The thing about the talk I did begin to think about any possible connection between the Boston Tea Party the one and only and the Tea Parties of Rose Nichols. And there is a little connection. Beyond that being in the same city and centered around the same substance as I thought about it. Rose Nichols tea parties had nothing to do with taxation but they did have something to do with representation. And they definitely had something to do with with free speech which was of great interest of hers. The talk really between people of all kinds

was something that interested her very much. You'll see what I mean when I get to that. But I just wanted to before reading to you about her part her tea parties. I'll just tell you a little bit about how this project began. Elaine Negroponte is really the author of this book. And unfortunately she couldn't join us. But Elaine is really responsible for the idea and the the the whole execution of it. Elaine. It was is a resident of Beacon Hill and a close neighbor of the rose Nichols House Museum at number 55 Mount Vernon Street. Some of you may know this house museum and you may even know more about Rose Nichols than I do but if you don't it's right at the top of the hill.

A very special house in that it looks down to the river as opposed to across the street at other houses. And it was allegedly designed by Charles Bullfinch. This may not be true but it's still a very elegant and. Rose Nichols wanted to preserve this house when after her death. Because she wanted to be sure there is at least one house on Beacon Hill that was that represented the way these interiors were in the old days meaning her days. And this turned out to be a very good idea because as you know since the 1950s so many houses have been converted divided and redesigned every decorated. So at least we have the Nichols house which we can depend on as a place we can walk into the

past. So Elaine's idea came about when she began to think about how she how this house might be even more enlivened in a real way. She was on the board there and at a certain point. A little collection of recipes came forth and this was the this was the collection of Mary Kang who was Rose Nichols cook this and Elizabeth Driscoll who also is a co-author was the one who came up with this group and became very intriguing a very very good cook herself and also a meticulous hostess. And she also knew that Rosa Nichols was an interesting person so she approached

me as a collaborator a collaborator on a kind of biography slash cook book about Rose Nichols. It was also just in time as there were people on the Hill who still remembered these parties and we really wanted to capture of a sense of what it was like to to to be there. Well as you may know that when you write a cookbook you have to test every single recipe several times. And if you're if these are old old recipes that were written some time ago you might have to reinterpret them or adjust them or rewrite them for contemporary cooks. So I also got roped into this recipe testing

exercise which was very interesting and quite fun. And we even staged a kind of reenactment of a rose Nichols tea party at the house in the midst of our research which was amazing. Of that amazing affair really to see it really come alive that way. Now I also learned more about Rose Nichols beyond her tea parties and she in fact was a garden designer of some renown. A real professional. She traveled all over America designing gardens for people in grand houses and. She also was a historian of garden design she wrote three books on garden design one on English gardens which she didn't really approve of.

That is she didn't approve of the landscape style. She wrote another on. Portuguese and Spanish gardens she thought were under appreciated and another on Italian gardens which were not under appreciated and she loved them too. So she was a very accomplished person. She also spent her summers growing up in Cornish New Hampshire so we we went up there to visit another house museum which is the Augustus Saint Gaudens monument. You may own some know about this amazing place. The sculptor St. Gaudens was her uncle by marriage and also an early mentor of hers and also in Cornish which was a very lively summer community of creative people meeting a sort of meeting ground between New York and Boston was

Charles Platt the architect and garden designer. He was also an important mentor. Really her her style of garden design can be traced very very clearly to his example. So we we have it but we also saw a garden. Probably the only one of hers that still survives sort of in Cornish out there and her family's summer house in Cornish which is also still there the Cornish was definitely worth a visit for all these reasons. It's beautiful countryside too. Rose also spend a lot of time in Europe too in order to research her books. And she is a great excuse to travel all over the place made all kinds of people. She learned about the garden

anywhere and she would simply boldly get in touch with the owner of lee of the house and if she didn't get an invitation right away she would just go there anyway and ask for the head gardener and dress very well so that he would be terrified of turning her away. And this is the way she she got herself around. She also was a friend of Bernard Berenson also from Boston. Their Ensign introduced her to many interesting people in in Europe and in this way she got around and. Just met all kinds of people and I guess this is where I think you would call her a connector if you if you know this

term that I guess Malcolm Gladwell Nabi has coined which means that she was in the among the 20 percent of the population that is responsible for introducing the rest of the 80 percent of the population to each other. As she just thrived on making introductions and crossing all kinds of lines between people's backgrounds and and her and and making other people do do the same. So by the time she got home to Boston kind of to retire. She knew a lot of people and was very worldly. I could talk on any subject from politics to art to gardens and I was ready to kind of step the stage for a kind of

sallow really that was that sort of took the form of these tea parties every Sunday afternoon. Now I'm going to read to you just a little passage from the book about about these tea parties. I hope you get the sense of the atmosphere of them. Tea with Miss Rose Nichols was really a salad on these gatherings had a purpose and it was not to discuss the weather. Quote The whole point of these teas was not really tea but to get people of different beliefs together recalled her nephew's wife who was frequently asked to pour Rose Nickols believed that challenging their beliefs led her

guest to find the common ground on which all people stand and make peace with each other. She would invite an arch conservative like William Loeb editor of the Manchester Union Leader with a nice young Harvard student who happened to be a communist and sort of steer them toward each other quote because she thought they ought to argue together and they did too. One Beacon Hill neighbor and frequent guest of the poet Francis Howard confessed quote I was never really sure why she asked me. We disagreed on every conceivable subject but that was exactly what interested rose. It was not the combination of ginger with clothes that concerned her. That was the cook Mary King's department but rather a dash of liberal in a pinch of conservative that promised a good tea controversy with her Spice. Should you have been among the carefully chosen 12

or 15 people of divergent views to appear at number 55 Mount Vernon Street on a Sunday afternoon. You would make your way from the front hall up the circular staircase to the dining room with its family portrait set against dark floral wallpaper resembling embossed leather. The large mahogany table was laid with trays and tea sandwiches cakes and cookies. One of the lady guests would be asked to pour an honor though a dubious one as she would be lucky to get a cup of tea yourself before the supply ran completely dry. Meanwhile the other guests had plenty of time to graze and mingle and gently warm up to the conversational challenges that lay ahead. Presiding over her Gatherings Rose Nichols had a stately presence the sallow nice to par excellence. She was tall lean and theatrically dressed favoring dark Velvets an embroidered bodices which like her garden designs

hinted at Medieval and Renaissance origins. She always wore a hat and her hats quote were like velvet puddings as we see one of such velvet putting on the cover here as the artist Polly Ferrer recalled anchored firmly in her long by her long thin face sidelong glance an arched brow rose herself was known to have never eaten a thing at her own parties she declared that she could not talk and eat at the same time and given the choice she would always choose talk for Rose quote nourishment was of the mind. As Mary King the cook rightly observed. From the dining room rose directed the party across the hall to the drawing room upon which she had lavished her eclectic taste for a medieval Flemish tapestry. English furniture Japanese porcelain and Persian carpets

blended here in an overall color scheme probably best described as Old Rose which now the late afternoon sun bathed in a spray of gold here the guests would seat themselves to form a circle in her distinctive low voice which some would describe as the Goober as Rose would call on someone in the group. Mr Mitchell I understand you've just returned from China. Can you tell us about it. She would pick on people who would be loud and interesting recalled her nephew. Maybe after 20 minutes or so she would shoot to a new topic. She expressed not the slightest interest in in jokes or small talk or the weather. Frances Howard a frequent guest recalled that if the party was suitably conservative Rose would throw out some remark like. I feel we've been unreasonably rude to the poor dear Russians. She would then sit back and bask in the fireworks.

In the absence of a hot political sed issue she would throw out some sprawling topic like what is your idea happen. Emerging somewhat later on a particularly lively evening as late as 8 o'clock with increasing gratitude for Mary King's cakes and cheese sandwiches and your mental faculties quite exhausted you would have to admit that something had happened. You had met someone you might otherwise have assiduously avoided a stranger had become a friend. You had mixed with the younger or the older generation. You would warm to do a foreigner a commoner or a nobleman and forgotten the difference. Your family held opinions had been tickled or teased or simply trashed you had participated in what Rosa Nichols considered to be that great Puritan tradition. The broadening of the mind.

And well that's that should give you a little idea of what I could try to put together from various witnesses. And now I just want to tell you a little bit about the recipes in this book which are which are quite unusual but some some are unusual because they're very old fashioned things like boiled raisin cake and and oh Aunt Alice Coles almond cake. Then there are such wonders as the candied mint leaves which I tried and it it's not that hard actually. And then the

souffle had crackers which is really the only ingredients here are crackers sole teens and I think that's it. It's extremely hard in fact. Almost impossible. But there's a challenge. There are also several recipes that involve tea but aren't just tea such as pilgrims punch emerald ice and Ginger frappé and Elaine also includes instructions on how to make a decorative ice block for the punch bowl. That is with flowers or whatever you want in them. Elaine also became kind of obsessed with the idea of Boston frugality she mentions this in a lot of those sidebars through the book. There are wonderful anecdotes about and quotes about

Boston hats and and ways of reusing things and things that charmed her a great deal. And then there are little snippets of history little bite size. So we say. Stories like the one about who Quad the T. You may all know this but let's see. I'll just read to you about about who Chua. Many people wonder about the difference between China's Hu and Lapsang Souchong TI's who Chua the milder of the two is smoked over pine needles Lapsang Souchong is smoked over the more pungent wood of the camp for a tree. The name who Chua it was used by Mr. Wendel in honor of who Chua the

famous Chinese team merchant with whom Wendell's uncle the original owner and importer had traded in the early 19th century. So you learn all kinds of things like that. And as well as I I must also say that a plane is a real perfectionist when it comes to how to do things and it has great taste as well. And so everything that's that's really every everything she describes here is. It is kind of invaluable information if you're if you really want to do a property. I can promise you that. But what really matters of course in the end is the company. And that was really the essence of of Rose Nichols tea parties.

I'm just going to read you one last paragraph and then I'll be happy to take questions about Rose or garden design or soup plate crackers or anything. Let's see. Right. So there's one last word of advice on tea parties. There is no precise recipe for Rose Nichols gatherings Rose Nichols gathering of minds for every Tea Party contain different ingredients and unpredictable combinations add a dash of The Sweet to the savory mix the frivolous with the frugal the glamorous with the plain the old with the young and something interesting in the best Boston tradition is bound to happen. Thank you.

We certainly have some time for questions. Yes. How old were she when she died and was she acting right up to the end. She was OK now. Now you're good. I'm going to find that I'm a little rusty on my bro's niggles history. I can't remember how old she was exactly but she was old and she was active though less active. I mean the whole point of the tea parties was that this was her her way of being active without really leaving home and with having the support around her. And it was a kind of extension of her. Of her earlier activities which began with her mother trying to get her mother involved in reading groups on the Hill.

The suffragist movement and CORNISH And she was always part of these kinds of group activities these groups of people getting together to talk and exchange ideas that you know she the best of her day. Well let's see. I mean was she was she very glamorous or. I don't know how hostess par excellence Exactly. She was in a I think she was in in Boston anyway but she was definitely this is this is more of a intellectual kind of gathering than a glamorous one. You know my name is Flavia the director.

I just wanted to mention that Nichols was 88 when she when she died. And I wanted to mention that there are two gardens that that have been recreated in the past decade past maybe 12 years. They're both in the Midwest one is the house of the four winds which is in Lake Forest. It's in private hands the the red fields on it and they have recreated the garden and the second garden that has been recreated to her design is the grounds of what is the Museum of decorative arts in Milwaukee. It is called Villa Tara. And both of those have been recreated. And thank you so much for talking about this this was very good. Thank you thank you thank you I'm glad you're here. I'm bill payer I'm also from there and I write things I will trade you. OK.

Larry King told me that Rose had given a party a birthday party two weeks before she died when she turned 88. There's a major party on the main floor and then she died upstairs two weeks later having spent the whole summer she was 87 in Switzerland seeing her friends and exchange I want you to tell us how you so play the crackers. So I read you the recipe. Yeah. Because I don't know how to supply crackers I think I tried this was really hard. I'm not sure it's worth it either. But anyway it's it comes later this is the book is divided into these recipes menus and everything from the Cornish tea to the Beacon Hill tea European tea tea and bed which is a great idea. And this one I think is in the kitchen tea.

There's no index. OK. Kitchen tea. Were you there for the reenactment. Yeah I don't think we had super good crackers there anyway. But let's see. OK so let's see. It does say fry a few ahead of time so you know what to expect. One package of Vermont common crackers. That would be it's all teens. One stick on salted butter parchment paper well-greased ice water ice tray container of ice. Preheat oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cut parchment paper to fit into a large shallow sided baking pan and grease well split crackers in half and place on a parchment paper and then cover the crackers completely with cold water and ice cubes using the ice to weigh down any of the crackers that float soak the crackers until they have softened up to four minutes for the harder amount crackers. Approximately two minutes for the more fragile saltine type cracker they must not be falling apart in italics. Drain water if necessary rearrange crackers in the pan each cracker with a mortar take TI's bit of butter and bake 10 to 15 minutes at 500 degrees until dry and puffed. Do not open the oven door during this time. Reduce oven

temperature to 375. Continue to bake for approximately 30 minutes or until thoroughly dry and lightly browned. The Crackers can be made several hours in advance and then loosely covered with oil reheat it in a 375 degree oven for three to five minutes serve with sweet butter and good homemade preserves yield approximately 50. As I say I'm not sure it's worth that. But but this is one of the that's the extreme end of this cookbook. There are also some dead simple and amazing record recipes. One of my favorites is for broccoli two sandwiches where it's it's just the flowers of the broccoli sort of shaved off with a very sharp knife mixed with mayonnaise white bread delicious. We we had to endure cracker pointing at my grandmother's house

and it was a very similar recipe and by common crackers. She had those great thick tasteless ones which I'm sure you will to people are familiar with where you split and butter and put on the bottom of the bowl when you're putting chowder on top of them. And we had a different twist where my grandmother would split the big thick crackers and layer them with salt Tanna big raisins and then and nutmeg and then another layer of crackers another layer of raisins in a bag and doused the whole thing with evaporated milk and let it soak overnight and then bake it. And the idea at Christmas time was to get as small as possible portion of it so that you could then lump the brandy to hard sauce and the ramen whipped cream. So my grandmother always accused us of using cracker pudding as a vehicle for hard sauce and whipped cream but I think it's a similar idea. That's thank you that's sounds amazing. You can you can get online kind common practice at

the Christmas Tree Shop and Linfield and occasionally on marble head. Thank you. Could see we're all going home to try with other questions. We have two more. Well I was just curious when you mention the punch bowl. Did she believe in serving a little alcohol with a tea party. There's another question for maybe you because you know what do you think. She wasn't much for alcohol and I do understand that the doctor in her later years were structured to have a little sherry and egg nog. Eleven o'clock in the morning go. That was about it. You know but there was a recipe in there which we do every year in honor of Rose and Mary King eggnog. Oh yes.

And we used to have prices Howard's nephew played but he also put more alcohol in him. We didn't do that last last week it was much better. Here is the recipe doesn't large and this is bell ringers eggnog that's in the cards is to marry Mark you know that's in here too. How did you serve milk or bourbon. Pike rum and a pint brandy. And there's that about nutmeg. Maybe they can make you can double it. There's very little left over. I'm sure there are. I should say there are a number of recipes here. This began with Larry King's collection but we embellished it with a few of our own just for fun. And I know others. Yes I had one last question. I wonder if anyone knows what has become of the Nichols home in Cornish New Hampshire. I visited it probably five or six years ago and at that time it was a Maxwell

parish gallery and they actually served tea in the porch overlooking the garden that she had designed and an interesting thing that the the gardener told me was that she felt that when she was in the garden working she definitely felt Rose's presence there but I understand it's no longer a Maxwell parish gallery and I wondered if it's open to the public anymore a private home. That's exactly the time I was there. So here we go. Yes it was. The home actually of the Cornish colony at the Museum of the Cornish our colony the art colony unfortunately did not do well. Colony museum did not do well financially and the house had the the family home. The Nichols family home in Cornish had to be sold. It is in private hands at this time and is again once again for

sale. The woman who owned it for about three years did open it very generously to whomever was interested in in seeing the in seeing the building but it was not. It was not a museum and to my knowledge right now it is. It is on the market unfortunately. The Nichols house here in Boston is not in a position to be able to invest in that but it's a it's a wonderful It represents very well that that wonderful lifestyle of the the Cornish colony at the beginning of the 20th century. Other questions. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.