"Mad Jack" Premium Apple Lager

In our neighbourhood, we noticed a billboard for a new beverage called Mad Jack and wondered what it was. Turns out it's a  "Premium Apple Lager", with 5% alcohol, brewed by Molson Coors. It was released in Quebec in June of this year and is sold in beer and liquor stores in four-packs of 473 ml cans and six-packs of 341 ml bottles. It is also now available at Beer Store locations here in Ontario for $2.60 (£1.43) a 473 ml can, $14.95 (£8.21) for a six-pack and $56.95 (£31.26) for a case of twenty-four. 

Of course, we had to try it.  I was expecting an "alcopop" or "cooler" type drink with an artificial aftertaste. Surprisingly, it was more like a shandy or lime & lager with a crispness to it.

I asked Molson Coors how they came up with the name of this product. They replied, " Mad Jack refers to both our crazy obsession for creating quality brews with a subtle nod to Molson Coors founder John Molson (sic)".

Cheers!

Memorial to John Fuller of Catsfield

Located in St Laurence church, this memorial to John "Mad Jack" Fuller's maternal uncle John Fuller reads:

Near this Place are deposited the Remains 

of JOHN FULLER, Esq.

of Catsfield House in this Parish

who died March the 11st 1810, in the 85th year of his Age

He acted as Magistrate in this county, for fifty Years of his Life, 

and was of a most humane, benevolent, and pious Disposition.

This Tablet is inscribed to his Memory 

by is grateful and affectionate Nephew,

JOHN FULLER of ROSEHILL, Esq.

John Fuller died unmarried and without issue. "Mad Jack" was his principal heir and so inherited Park Gate (also called Catsfield House) and School Hill House in Lewes, among other properties. 

On the Sussex Record Society's church memorial website, Professor Nigel Llewellyn describes the memorial: "In white marble; rectangular panel set landscape-wise with trophies in relief...Signed NOLLEKENS Ft'".  

Visiting the Désert de Retz

The Désert de Retz at Chambourcy, France is an Eighteenth Century folly garden now only open  to the public for guided tours.  I had wanted to visit ever since I started correspondence with Ronald Kenyon, a kindred spirit, who has spent years researching and writing about the life and works of the folly garden's creator  François Racine de Monville.  Visit Kenyon's website here.

In a way, I was disappointed that the garden's centerpiece, the Column House was scaffolded and off limits due to ongoing renovations. Then I realized that it's better that it is being preserved rather than left to the ravages of time. 

Like Fuller, Monville was independently wealthy and had a pyramid, temple and obelisk constructed on his property. Fuller had a townhouse in London and Monville a home in Paris. Both were keenly interested in music, art and science. Read my comparison of the two here. 

Another highlight of our visit to France was meeting Ronald Kenyon in Paris. We had been corresponding since 2002 and it was a pleasure to finally meet him and find out about his latest research. We both wonder whether Fuller ever visited France or knew about the Désert de Retz. Both Monville and Fuller knew Henry and Hester Thrale so one can't help asking what other connections they may possibly have had. 

 Our guide explains how Monville's pyramid ice house was constructed. 

The recently renovated Temple of Pan.

Shropshire Follies

Blogger YMGW recently visited the home of The Folly Fellowship's Alan and Clair Terrill in the Hope Valley, near Minsterley, Shropshire. Unsurprisingly, the garden is home to follies and whimsical metal animal sculptures.

Read more here: ymgw.blogspot.com
Photo by YMGW

Ruin Lust: exhibit at Tate Britain, London

Ruin Lust, an exhibition at Tate Britain from 4 March 2014, offers a guide to the mournful, thrilling, comic and perverse uses of ruins in art from the seventeenth century to the present day. The exhibition is the widest-ranging on the subject to date and includes over 100 works by artists such as J.M.W. Turner, John Constable, John Martin, Eduardo Paolozzi, Rachel Whiteread and Tacita Dean.

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/ruin-lust

Joseph Mallord William Turner
The Chancel and Crossing of Tintern Abbey, Looking towards the East Window1794
Pencil and watercolour on paper