Snails Tale or is that tail?

Today's tale is about snails. You may recall that we (my husband and I) went to Scotland earlier in the summer and I said that I would give details later. Well we went to Paisley, Scotland so that my husband could attend a law conference. You may, quite understandably, be wondering what that might have to do with snails. Well I'll share some information on a famous case in English common law about a snail.

First though, what is a snail?

A "Snail is a common name which is applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often applied to land snails than to those from the sea or freshwater. Snail-like animals that naturally lack a shell, or have only an internal shell, are often called slugs, and land species that have only a very small shell (that they cannot retract into) are called semislugs." (Wikipedia)

 

I probably don't have to tell you that snails don't move very fast and thus are sometimes used as a symbol for laziness.

"In Christian culture, it has been used as a symbol of the deadly sin of sloth. Psalms 58:8 uses snail slime as a metaphorical punishment."

"Snails were widely noted and used in divination. The Greek poet Hesiod wrote that snails signified the time to harvest by climbing the stalks, while the Aztec moon god Tecciztecatl bore a snail shell on his back. This symbolised rebirth; the snail's penchant for appearing and disappearing was analogised with the moon.^"

"In contemporary speech, the expression "a snail's pace" is often used to describe a slow, inefficient process. The phrase "snail mail" is used to mean regular postal service delivery of paper messages as opposed to the delivery of email, which can be virtually instantaneous."
 

Add to that, they are  hated by gardeners because they seem to "graze" on the fresh new shoots of our favorite plants, and are much maligned indeed.

Here is my husbands synopsis of the famous case celebrated and discussed at the Paisley Snail Conference:

 

In August 1928 May Donoghue went by tram from Glasgow to the small town of Paisley with a friend.  In Paisley they went to the Wellmeadow Café where her friend treated her to a ginger beer float.  Mr. Minghella, the proprietor, brought a glass with ice cream and poured some ginger beer from an opaque bottle into the glass at the table.  When May poured some more ginger beer into the glass she claimed that the decomposed remains of a snail appeared.  In those days May would have had no recourse – her friend had treated her, Mr. Minghella just poured the ginger beer out of the bottle which he had purchased from Mr. Stevenson’s soft drinks company and May had not bought the soft drink from Mr. Stevenson so she had no contract with either of them.  However a law suit was commenced and a motion by Mr. Stevenson’s lawyers to strike out the claim was dismissed but the Court of Session (Scotland’s appeal court) allowed the appeal and dismissed the claim.  May’s lawyers appealed to the House of Lords, at that time the United Kingdom’s highest court.  In May 1932 Lord Atkin allowed the appeal, supported by 2 of the other 4 judges.  He said that when you manufactured a product you had to take reasonable care not to injure your neighbour, who in law was anyone you could reasonably foresee might be injured if you were negligent. (Donoghue vs Stevenson)

This simple case was the beginning of a major change in the law in the Commonwealth as the courts finally caught up with the reality that many products were now manufactured and shipped across a country (in trains) and the users of the product dealt with intermediaries, not the manufacturer.  The House of Lords’ decision opened up the whole area of product liability and other areas of liability such as negligence of professionals.  While there have been many important court decisions, this case probably had the most wide reaching and long lasting effect of any case in the Commonwealth.

Interestingly the case never went to trial so it was never proved that there had been a snail in the bottle.  Mr. Stevenson died and his executor settled the case with Ms. Donoghue.

The conference in Paisley was held to celebrate the 80^th anniversary of the House of Lords’ decision.  Many interesting papers were presented dealing with the development of the law since the decision.

 

 

This way ..........

So with that in mind, how could a snail have gotten into a bottle of ginger beer. As an aside my husband tells me that the term "ginger" is used as a generic word for a soft drink or soda in Scotland.

So when I was in Province in the summer I took "a few" pictures of snails which seemed quite active early in the day.

Since the snails were quite cooperative I decide to try to reenact the alleged event so bear with me as the snail makes his way from the path and over the gravel ...

... to the bottle....

Well there seems to be a problem here, looks like a tight fit or .............

maybe not ......

 

Well they have a saying that in Scotland, the snails are so poor they can't afford houses! Maybe that explains it, but if they don't have houses then according to the previous description they are technically slugs not snails ... and that just doesn't have the same ring to it!

 

I hope you have enjoyed this tale about a very famous snail case. Oh, by the way, no snails were harmed in photographing this reenactment.

 

This week for a change of pace I painted something light and silly. A watercolour again, but this time of a frog, perhaps a frog prince, perhaps a prince frog. I call it "Who did you expect?"

 

 

 

Well thanks for hanging in through this moving tale. Happy Whimsy Wednesday.

 

Until next time ..........

 

 

 

 

Reflections - Part 1

Well I'm back from vacation, having satisfied my wanderlust for now; I took over 3000 pictures, so be warned you will be seeing quite a few in the coming weeks.

To digress slightly, I think wonderlust is an interesting word, originally from German words "wandern" (to hike) and "lust" (desire), it became an English term at the beginning of the 20th century meaning enjoyment of roaming or wandering or craving for travel.

Today I am going to share some highlights and reflections of our trip; reflections or impressions as well as those created as in a mirror.

We travelled to first Paisley, Scotland,  then a few days in London and Paris, 2weeks in the Luberon in a rental house and then brief stops in Annecy and Lyon; a lot to pack into a month away.

"Paisley  is the largest town in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland and serves as the administrative centre for the Renfrewshire council area. The town is situated on the northern edge of the Gleniffer Braes, straddling the banks of the White Cart Water, a tributary of the River Clyde.

The town, a former burgh, forms part of a contiguous urban area with Glasgow, Glasgow City Centre being 6.9 miles (11.1 km) to the east. The town came to prominence with the establishment of Paisley Abbey in the 12th century, an important religious hub in mediaeval Scotland which formerly had control over the other churches in the local area." (Wikipedia)

We were in Paisley because my husband attended a conference in Paisley. Expecting cool weather I took rain gear and fleece jacket, and we were surprised by brilliant sunshine and temperatures in the 25 to 30 C range. The locals were clearly surprised by the weather and surprisingly many apologized for the unusual hot weather.

This is the town hall building in Paisley Scotland, the site of the "Paisley Snail Conference", but more on that in a future post.

Below are some views of the Paisley Abbey in Renfrewshire, Scotland. It is a former Cluniac monastery and current Church of Scotland located on the White Cart River in Paisley, Scotland.

Reflection of Abbey

Ceiling of the Abbey

The Abbey features many gargoyles (decorated water spouts), some very old, worn (the two below) followed by two much more modern ones.

 

Above detail of the tower and below a view of the Abbey showing the cloister. In the 15th and 16th C the Abbey was damaged by a series of fires and the tower collapsed, after which the site was plundered for its stone. The restoration of the Abbey began in the mid 19 th century and was completed in the eary 20 th C.

I always have time to admire the flora and fauna, and of course take pictures.

Paisley is the home of the paisley pattern:

"By the 19th century, Paisley had established itself as a centre of the weaving industry, giving its name to the Paisley Shawl and the Paisley Pattern."

"Paisley, as with other areas in Renfrewshire, was at one time famous for its weaving and textile industries. As a consequence, the Paisley pattern has long symbolic associations with the town." (Wikipedia)

I visited the museum which featured the history of the Paisley pattern and Paisley Shawls .

The museum gives a history of the shawl which I will summarize for you:

In the early 19 C with the simplified fashions that followed the French Revolution, shawls were a popular accessory (to add some colour), with large rectangular shape being the most popular. In the 1820's came flared skirts and a change in the popular shawl shape to square, worn folded diagonally into a triangle and draped with the point down the back. Shawls were often used as alternatives to coats with the large crinoline skirts of the 1840's; so the rectangular shape was back but the size was much larger. It was the "bustle" dress style that finally quelled the shawls popularity, as a shawl worn over a bustle created an unflattering silhoette and hid the visual point of the style.

Oh, I also made time to sample the foods, after all what's the point in travel if you don't try some local fare; had hagis too but preferred the icecream.

Paisley is a  short train ride from Glasgow. The downtown centre of Paisley is attractive and clean and the people are welcoming. There are many empty stores with for let signs though, evidence of the poor economic times.

After our short stay in Scotland it was on to London for a few days and visits with friends and relatives.

I was enjoying using windows to capture reflections, below in a church window followed by a reflection in window at Sommerset House.

Sorry, I can't remember what this building is but loved the reflection.

We happened to pass the Temple Church, pictured below and statue of the Knights Templar outside. You may recall that the Temple Church is one of the settings visited in the novel " The DaVinci Code".

On the Way to Regent's Park we passed Baker Street, of Sherlock Holmes fame, next door is Hudson's restaurant. I will save the Regent's Park pictures for a later post.

The weather was beautiful causing me to seek out green spaces; I spotted some beautiful flowers and an English Robin in my wanders.

We journeyed out into the country to visit relatives and had a most enjoyable lunch at a country pub. It looks empty because it was a beautiful day and everyone was enjoying the Pub fare outside.

Then we for a walk after lunch along canal and walking path past an old mill and more reflections, including one of the photographer caught in the act.

Lots to see in London, and a good place to walk. Transit is good also but expensive compared to other places we visited.

Still lots more pictures and stories to come, more next time.

I really enjoyed my vacation but I must say it is great to be back home again. After all the wonderful sights and experiences home looks pretty darn good too!

"Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."

John Howard Payne

I took a bit of a break from my usual blog visiting while on vacation, a combination of no internet access, slow connection, lack of time and sometimes just plain sloth, but now that I am home I hope to get around to visiting all your blogs soon.

Thanks for dropping by, and happy Whimsy Wednesday, until next week ......