Bramley Is So Bracing

"Bramley Is So Bracing"
Author P. G. Wodehouse
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series Drones Club
Genre(s) Comedy
Publisher The Saturday Evening Post
Media type Print (Magazine)
Publication date 28 October 1939

"Bramley is So Bracing" is a short story by English comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. It is part of the main Drones Club canon. The story was published in the US in The Saturday Evening Post on 28 October 1939, and in The Strand Magazine in the UK in December 1940. It was included in the short story collection Nothing Serious, published in 1950 in the UK and 1951 in the US.[1]

In the story, Freddie Widgeon goes to the seaside town Bramley-on-Sea to woo a girl named Mavis Peasmarch who is staying there. Freddie hopes to win her over with a plan that involves Bingo Little's baby.

Plot

Freddie Widgeon warns other Drones not to go near the seaside town Bramley-on-Sea. A Crumpet tells the story of Freddie's ordeals there. Freddie, in love with Mavis Peasmarch, goes to the town to see her. He visits as a guest at the cottage where his friend Bingo Little and Bingo's wife Rosie are staying with their infant son, Algernon Little. Freddie meets a stout blonde-haired woman on her way to meet her gentleman friend.

Freddie learns from Mavis's father, Lord Bodsham, that Mavis's brother Wilfred attends the nearby school that Freddie once attended and which is run by Freddie's old schoolmaster the Rev. Aubrey Upjohn, St. Asaph's (possibly another name for Malvern House). Seeing the blonde woman again, Freddie is perplexed when she suddenly breaks into a run and an angry elderly man follows her. She jumps into Freddie's car and wants him to drive off, but the man catches up and threatens Freddie before pulling her away. Freddie is perturbed and confused. Mavis mistakenly thinks the old man was angry because Freddie had a fling with his daughter, the blonde woman.

To win over Mavis, Freddie decides to do a kindly act: he will get Upjohn to give the school, particularly Wilfred, a half-holiday, and in return, Freddie will get Bingo to eventually send his baby to Upjohn's school. Without permission, Freddie brings Bingo's baby to Upjohn's study. Upjohn is not present. Depressed by the memory of being punished there, Freddie steps outside and sees, over the fence, the blonde girl waving at him from a window. She conveys through gestures that she made plans to elope with a bookmaker named George Perkins, but her father, who disapproves of bookmakers, found out and locked her in her room. Freddie helps her get out. The angry old man appears and chases her, hitting her with the handle of a fork before charging threateningly at Freddie, with the fork turned around. He thinks Freddie is George Perkins. The old man trips and Freddie and the girl escape.

He decanted her and drove off. And it was as he drove off that he became aware of something missing. Something he should have had on his person was not on his person.

— Freddie realizes he forgot Bingo's baby[2]

Freddie drives her to George's place. Realizing he left Bingo's baby in Upjohn's study, Freddie returns to the school, where Upjohn berates his former pupil for leaving the baby. Next, Freddie goes back to Bingo's residence. Bingo, worried, asks Freddie if he has seen his baby. Freddie realizes he has again forgotten the baby in Upjohn's study. He tells Bingo to collect his baby from Upjohn. Knowing Rosie will be angry with Freddie, Bingo says that Freddie should return to London. Freddie tries to explain himself to Mavis, who saw Freddie driving with the blonde woman, but the blonde woman appears, and, now happily married, kisses Freddie out of gratitude. Freddie gives up and flees Bramley-on-Sea, hoping never to return.

Background

The title derives from an advertising slogan, "Skegness is so bracing", created by Great Northern Railway to advertise trains to the windy seaside town of Skegness.[3] The slogan was made famous by the railway company's 1908 poster, The Jolly Fisherman.

Publication history

The story was illustrated by James Williamson in The Saturday Evening Post and by Gilbert Wilkinson in the Strand. This was the last Wodehouse story published by the Strand.[4]

The 1940 American edition of Eggs, Beans and Crumpets featured the story.[5] It was also included in the 1978 collection Vintage Wodehouse, and in the 1982 collection Tales from the Drones Club.[6] "Bramley Is So Bracing" was included in the 1984 collection The World of Wodehouse Clergy, which featured clergy-related Wodehouse stories.[7]

References

Notes
  1. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), pp. 84-85, A70.
  2. ↑ Wodehouse (1988) [1950], p. 40.
  3. ↑ Hodson, Mark (24 May 2002). "Nothing Serious: Literary and Cultural References". Madame Eulalie. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  4. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), p. 158, D59.125, and p. 187, D133.218.
  5. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), pp. 77-78, A62.
  6. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), p. 124, B19a, and p. 126, B25a.
  7. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), pp. 128-129, B31a.
Bibliography
  • McIlvaine, Eileen; Sherby, Louise S.; Heineman, James H. (1990). P. G. Wodehouse: A Comprehensive Bibliography and Checklist. New York: James H. Heineman Inc. ISBN 978-0-87008-125-5.
  • Wodehouse, P. G. (1988) [1950]. Nothing Serious (Reprinted ed.). London: Arrow Books Limited. ISBN 0140025685.
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