We received emails recently asking why we have not been posting some of the earliest Hattingdon cartoons on Fridays like we used to.
We used to post them on what we called “Flashback Friday”. But there was very little traffic. We were hardly reaching anyone. Let’s see what happens today.
Do we ever have a flashback for you. This is one of the earliest Hattingdons Vivian created. She got the inspiration literally while taking a bath. The bubble bath she used at the time came in a big pink plastic bottle. And from that she created “Bubbles”.
It is that time of year when it sometimes feels a little like Summer and a little like Spring.
Hattingdon has the perfect classic hat for the coolness of Spring and the promised warmth of Summer. After we enjoy the hat, how about a few lines of beautiful poetry?
Savannah.
Spring
‘Lines Written in Early Spring’ by William Wordsworth
Through primrose tufts, in that green bower, The periwinkle trailed its wreaths; And ’tis my faith that every flower Enjoys the air it breathes.
The birds around me hopped and played, Their thoughts I cannot measure:— But the least motion which they made It seemed a thrill of pleasure…
The night is dewy as a maiden’s mouth, The skies are bright as are a maiden’s eyes, Soft as a maiden’s breath the wind that flies Up from the perfumed bosom of the South. Like sentinels, the pines stand in the park; And hither hastening, like rakes that roam, With lamps to light their wayward footsteps home, The fireflies come stagg’ring down the dark.
About these marvelous poets.
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was one of the founders of English Romanticism and one its most central figures and important intellects. He is remembered as a poet of spiritual and epistemological* speculation, a poet concerned with the human relationship to nature and a fierce advocate of using the vocabulary and speech patterns of common people in poetry. The son of John and Ann Cookson Wordsworth, William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumberland, located in the Lake District of England: an area that would become closely associated with Wordsworth for over two centuries after his death.
*Epistemologists study the nature, origin, and scope of knowledge, epistemic justification, the rationality of belief, and various related issues.
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was the son of African parents who had been slaves prior to the American Civil War. Dunbar also wrote novels and plays, as well as penning the lyrics for the 1903 musical comedy, In Dahomey — the first all-African-American musical that was ever produced on Broadway. But it was as a poet — one of the first internationally popular African-American poets — that Dunbar would achieve real fame and success. He died young, of tuberculosis, aged just 33.
Happy Monday. We have a lovely hat for you. Pretty in pink.
Loretta Hattingdon.
Wikipedia, the fount of all knowledge (wink) mentions this about the color pink:
“Pink is the color of a namesake flower that is a pale tint of red. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century.”
“According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, politeness, sensitivity, tenderness, sweetness, childhood, femininity, and romance. A combination of pink and white is associated with chastity and innocence.”
So there you have it! Hope you are feeling “in the pink”.
Hattingdon is so pretty in pink in this Chanel inspired fashion hat. Vivian named the hat Harper. But there is much more to the story.
Harper Hattingdon.
Harper is the second Hattingdon horse created by Vivian.
Curtis was the first and only Hattingdon for a long time — about two years.
Curtis merchandise did very well. We saw Curtis tee shirts all around the D.C. area, and eventually around the country and other countries too. This helped us immensely in raising the necessary funds to lobby and take action on behalf of horses who were in harm’s way.
For those of you who do not know Curtis yet, here he is — Mrs Farrell’s first and truest love!
Curtis the First.
Is he handsome . . . or is he handsome?
Back to the Harper story.
Staff continued to bug Mrs Farrell about creating another “Hattingdon”. So one snowy evening in 2009, two years after she created Curtis (also on a snowy evening), she created Harper — a sophisticated, very girlish Hattingdon— and that is how Harper “was born.”
Hattingdon Horses is the cartoon horses’ series name, and each hat is given its own distinctive name.
Hattingdon 