PADDY: "Scout! Scout, what are you doing?"
SCOUT: "I'm looking, Paddy."
PADDY: "Looking? Looking for what, Scout?"
SCOUT: "I'm looking for Cinderella's glass slipper of course, Paddy! Mijn beste vriend Peter said that I have to look in every corner and under all the cupboards, chairs and tables."
PADDY: "But Scout, there are no cupboards or chairs in here."
SCOUT: *Looks around.* "That's true Paddy, but there are corners. It must be somewhere here."
DADDY: "Well Scout, if Cinderella's slipper is going to be anywhere, chances are it will be in here."
SCOUT: "How do you know that Daddy?"
DADDY: "Well, this is the Billilla nursery, so it stands to reason."
SCOUT: "How do you know this is the Billilla Nursery, Daddy?"
PADDY: "The nice guide lady said so, Scout. If you had been paying attention, rather than looking for Cinderella's slipper, you would have heard her."
DADDY: "That is true, Paddy, but even if she hadn't, you would still know that this was a nursery because of the wallpaper."
PADDY: "The wallpaper, Daddy?" *Looks at wallpaper.*
SCOUT: "Daddy! I'm too small to see!" *Jumps up to try and see past the wainscot.* "Can you lift me up? Please Daddy! Please!"
PADDY: "Oh, could you lift me too, Daddy, so that I may inspect the patterns more closely. Only if it isn't too much trouble of course, Daddy."
DADDY: "It's no trouble, Paddy and Scout. Up we go." *Picks up Paddy and Scout.*
SCOUT: "Wheeeeee!"
PADDY: "Oh look Scout! Now I see what Daddy means. The wallpaper is patterned with nursery rhymes!"
SCOUT: "Why so it is! Look there is Little Miss Muffet being frightened away by a hanging spider beside her! I would be scared too Miss Muffet! And Little Jack Horner, eating his pie!" *Looks Longingly at pie.* "Grumbly tummy Paddy! Grumbly tummy Daddy!" *Rubs tummy vigorously.*
PADDY: "Look there is Queen Anne holding a sun-shaped parasol and receiving letters of the alphabet from cupid."
SCOUT: "Why is that little froggie handing over a letter inscribed “Miss Mouse” to the mouse with the spindle?"
PADDY: "That must be the nursery rhyme, a Frog He Did a Wooing Go."
DADDY: "And there too is Cock Robin and the Sparrow with his bow and arrow that he used to kill Cock Robbin."
SCOUT: "That is a sad nursery rhyme Daddy! No-one should have killed poor Cock Robin!" *Puts paw to mouth.* "Look Paddy, the dish is tying a white dinner napkin to the spoon, both of which are running away!"
PADDY: "And there is the cat, standing on a branch of leaves playing the fiddle, while the cow jumps over a crescent-shaped moon and the dog laughs!
SCOUT: "Oh! He is a jolly doggie isn't he!" *Giggles.* "And up there is Humpty-Dumpty! I do hope he doesn't fall!"
PADDY: "Thinking of falling, there is Hush-a-Bye Baby, swinging from the tree tops!"
SCOUT: "What a magical room! I'd like to play in here all the time!"
PADDY: "Me too!"
DADDY: "Me too, Paddy and Scout! The wallpaper is by a man called Walter Crane."
PADDY: "Don't you have some of his antique books, Daddy?"
DADDY: "I do. That is why I like this room so much. Now, let me take your photograph in here against the Walter Crane nursery rhyme wallpaper before the guide takes us to the next room. Now! Say Hush-a-bye Baby!"
PADDY and SCOUT: "Hush-a-Bye Baby!"
*Camera clicks and whirs.*
It is the rare and remarkably intact wallpaper of the Billilla mansion nursery that is the most eye catching thing about the room. Designed by one of the best-known British decorative artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement, Walter Crane, the wallpaper was commissioned by wallpaper manufacturers Jeffrey and Company in London in 1876. The pattern is very rare with the Wallcoverings department of the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York holding a fragment of the design, whilst a complete piece may be seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which makes this room entirely papered in the design quite remarkable and unique.
The wallpaper portrays popular English nursery rhymes based upon Walter Crane's Toy Books of the 1870s. The characters of nursery rhymes include "Little Miss Muffet", "Queen Anne", "Hey Diddle Diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle", "Little Jack Horner", "Hush-A-Bye Baby", "Humpty Dumpty", "Who Killed Cock Robin" and "A Frog He Did a Wooing Go". They were selected and designed to correspond with the symmetrical form of the vine leaf scroll.
Although machine produced, this wallpaper at two shillings and sixpence a roll, would have been very expensive to paper a whole room in.
Paddy, Scout and I visited the historical Art Nouveau mansion of Billilla in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton recently, after it was opened to the public for the first time in many years as part of the Melbourne Open House weekend 2022.
Billilla Historic Mansion, which was the former the home of the Weatherly family, is a beautiful heritage property incorporating a stately formal garden and the magnificent historic house.
Billilla, at 26 Halifax Street, Brighton, is one of Melbourne’s few remaining significant homesteads. The mansion was built by merchant Robert Wright in 1878 on land which had originally been owned by Nicholas Were. The house has a mixture of architectural styles, featuring a Victorian design with Art Nouveau features. With exquisite formal gardens, which retain much of their original 19th Century layout, the property was owned by the Weatherley family (whom named it Billilla) from 1888 to 1972.
Billilla retains many original Victorian elements and a number of outbuildings still stand to the rear of the property including the butler’s quarters, dairy, meat house, stable garden store and coach house.
Billilla was used as a backdrop in the Australian 1980 Channel 10 miniseries adaptation of Sumner Locke Elliott's "Water Under the Bridge". It was used at the Sydney harbourside home of Luigi, Honor and Carrie Mazzini.
My Paddington Bear came to live with me in London when I was two years old (many, many years ago). He was hand made by my Great Aunt and he has a chocolate coloured felt hat, the brim of which had to be pinned up by a safety pin to stop it getting in his eyes. The collar of his mackintosh is made of the same felt. He wears wellington boots made from the same red leather used to make the toggles on his mackintosh.
He has travelled with me across the world and he and I have had many adventures together over the years. He is a very precious member of my small family.
Scout was a gift to Paddy from my friend. He is a Fair Trade Bear hand knitted in Africa. His name comes from the shop my friend found him in: Scout House. He tells me that life was very different where he came from, and Paddy is helping introduce him to many new experiences. Scout catches on quickly, and has proven to be a cheeky, but very lovable member of our closely knit family.
Being colder in the middle of winter here, both Paddy and Scout are wearing hand knitted scarves and Paddy is wearing hand knitted hat by Lorna's Lovely Looks. Paddy sports a crown pin and Scout insisted on wearing a pink tea cup one, which seems most appropriate. Both were gifts from a good friend who is very fond of Paddy and Scout.