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Shepperson Memorial

it then, but I was going birding in that selfsame park. Here was a man with no trace of
pretense. He had been a beekeeper; I was a house painter (and one of my three
painting jobs in Scotland was putting two coats on Ian Cunningham’s chimney!).
Professor Shepperson delighted in this story, and his next letter contained a
set of British stamps honoring Sir Edmund. On the envelope were two, so I carefully
removed the one more lightly cancelled, and pasted it in my tour book, by Sir
Edmund’s signature.
Through the years, Sam shared with me memories of his childhood, so
similar to my own recollections. One post card showed the old Marketplace of
Peterborough, which on the verso “Sam” underlined “Marketplace” and commented:
nd
“I used to buy 2 -hand books here when I was a boy.” (January 16, 1997). In my
own time and place, I had done the same.
Another card depicted a color linocut of the “Dogsthorpe Pliosaur.” (October
1, 2000). Of this he commented in a P.S.: “I lived in the Dogsthorpe district when a
boy; and I was aware of so many curious things which came out of the claypits at the
local brickworks.” This echoes similarly with incidents in the boyhood of David
Livingstone.
To a card depicting “The Old Tower, Longthorpe, Peterborough,” his final
observation was: “Has wonderful medieval wall-paintings of working people.”
(April 1. 2006).
Professor Shepperson and I shared a wavelength with humor: our very
different approaches meshed perfectly. One card depicted the St. Peter Mancroft
Church, Norwich, with a statue of Sir Thomas Browne. Sam’s postscript is: “Sir
Thomas Browne,” … “Author of Religion Medici: I have had a copy of it for a long
time but have never finished reading it!!!”
A card from Colchester reads: “We are paying a brief visit to this ancient
Roman town – where Boadicea defeated the invaders!” (April 12, 1996).
From 1988 to 2012 I lived in Japan, and as one might have expected, Sam rose
to the occasion. He was, of course, well acquainted with Japan long before I
wandered there: on April 19, 1978, he wrote to say: “Am now reading a lot of
Japanese history because I have to do ten lectures next year in a course on Japan since
1850.”
In Japan 1992 was the Year of the Monkey, and I sent him a ceramic piece of
the three famous monkeys which adorn the resting place of the first Tokugawa
Shogun (Iyeasu), which trio the world knows as “See No Evil, Speak No Evil, and
Hear no Evil.” His response (February 5, 1992) expressed “delight,” and he set it in
“the place of honour” on his mantelpiece.
From Newstead Abbey, (where Livingstone, his brother Charles, and a
veritable host of contributors wrote the Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi
and its Tributaries), Sam wrote: D.L.’s “… host, Capt. Webb, had some fine
Japanese wallpaper.” (April 11, 1993).
A watercolor card of “Compton Acres the Japanese Gardens,” which he and
his wife Joyce had visited recently, elicited his observation that the garden was
“Japanese designed,” and thus more authentic than many. (September 3, 1994).
Similarly, another card: “Compton Acres: two views each of the Japanese
and Italian Gardens,” postmarked October 5, 1994, has this message: “Dear Gary: I
was reminded of you recently when BBC television showed a charming technicolor
movie, Escapade in Japan (1957) about two small boys, American and Japanese,
who mistakenly fleeing from the police crossed Japan and finished up at the top of a
temple in NARA! There were many shots of NARA.”

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