In the collections at Dorset History Centre, we hold an album of Christmas greetings cards, which are copies of drawings by Leonard Patten and E. L. Grassby.
The album shows a selection of Christmas cards from the Society of Dorset Men. Records exist which indicate that as far back as the 17th century there were friendly meetings of Dorset men working in London and on the 2nd December 1690 a sermon was preached in the church of St Mary le Bow on “The Revival of General Meetings of the Gentlemen and Others of the County of Dorset”.
Each card is illustrated with a pen and ink sketch of local views of Dorset. Of note is the card showing Thomas Hardy’s cottage with a fly flap to showing a sketch of Hardy.
The images show some of the changes in the cover pages over the decades. The example shown illustrates it being sent from The Alderman Mrs and Miss Burt but most cards in the album have no indication of who they are from or to.
The earlier cards include a charming verse to accompany the greeting.
‘Dorsets Gem –
Calm- circl’d in perfection’.
A little gem – well worth viewing