Thrills from Trelawny Published by: Deeks Designs TITLE: THE JAMAICAN (COLLECTOR'S EDITION) EDITED BY: LORRAINE MURRAY REVIEWED BY: BALFORD HENRY Ihe resources and assets of the parish of Trelawny are considerable when taken into account, and will stand the parish in good stead in the new millennium," says writer Marguerite Curtin. The quote is taken from her story, "TRELAWNY: The Forgotten Parish", featured in the latest issue of the independent magazine, THE JAMAICAN (Collector's Edition), which also feature the works of Anthony Johnson, Laura Tanna, Barbara Nelson, Peter Carson, Angela Ross and Ricky D'Oyen. This issue pays much attention to Trelawny, "the forgotten parish"; its capital, Falmouth, "once the El Dorado of Jamaica"; The Good Hope Estate; The horses of Orange Valley Estate; the Cockpit Country; Braco; and simply being "out and about" in the parish. But, there are also stories on Donna Duncan, chief executive officer at Jamaican Money Market Brokers; Pat Ramsay and the Sculpture Park at the University of Technology; remembering Morris Cargill; and the culture of Japan. If we could find a way to take every primary school student around the island to see the rural beauty of this country, it could instil sufficient national pride to make them much more patriotic. It is an idea triggered by interesting and revealing stories about the parish of Trelawny that make up this edition. Hugh Shearer might have been disappointed when they moved the capital from his hometown, Martha Brae to Falmouth, but since the latter is more of an El Dorado we find it hard to sympathise with the former Prime Minister. Maybe he was born in the wrong town. Even Falmouth's founder Edward Barrett might have been surprised by the decision. But Martha Brae was too small and too inland to suffice, so the plantation owners chose the fastest growing town in the parish. An historian writing in the Jamaica Handbook in 1871 suggested that the town of Falmouth seemed to "mushroom overnight". Proud parish The ravages of poor economic and educational programmes have relegated the parish to the bottom of the ladder in those aspects, but we learn that Trelawny was one important and proud parish. "Falmouth was a boom town; there were visible signs of money changing hands everywhere. In its peak of affluence, Falmouth had twice the number per capita of taverns, newspapers being published in town, hotels, department stores and carriage makers than Kingston", we are informed. John Kenyon, the poet and cousin of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, had a townhouse in Falmouth. Joseph Kidd, during six years of residence, painted some of the most revealing records of the buildings and places of the town. Today, Falmouth is but a ghost of that past, having declined from being a major commercial centre in the late 1890s: "It was almost as if it drew a cloak of past around itself". The town still tries to cling to that illustrious past, but time has not been very sympathetic, yet we learn that in the midst of the decay, there are new signs of urban renewal. The report provides a great deal of information on memorable sites, for example, the police station built in 1814; the 19th century foundry; the Tharp House, built by the rich planter/merchant and slave owner John Tharp, the largest land owner then in Trelawny; and the solitary canon left from Fort Balcarres. We learn that the "finely dressed limestones from one of the elegant Georgian buildings from Gales Valley were used to build the chapel at the University of the West Indies. The 2,200-acre Orange Valley Estate, transformed from a sugar plantation to one of the island's leading stud farms, still produces proud steeds. Hampden Estate still retains some of the ambience of the parish's sugar past while adjusting to modern business competition. An elegant publication, THE JAMAICAN (Collector's Edition) is a must for those of us still deeply fascinated by our rich tradition.
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