*From: Excellent Women (1952), by Barbara Pym:
” ‘Oh, well, things are never as easy as they seem to be,’ said Miss Statham complacently.
‘No, they certainly are not,’ agreed Miss Enders, who was a dressmaker. ‘People often say to me that they’re just going to run up a cotton dress or a straight skirt, but then they find it isn’t as easy as it looks and they come running to me to put it right.’
‘I wish you could put this right, Miss Enders,’ said Julian, drooping on the top of his ladder.
‘Look,’ I called out, ‘it is drying lighter, and quite evenly too. I suppose it would naturally be darker when it was wet.’
‘Why, so it is,’ said Sister Blatt. It’s quite a nice colour now.’
‘Mildred, how clever of you,’ said Julian gratefully. ‘I knew you would help.’
‘Well, well, now that we’ve seen you on your way we may as well be going on ours,’ said Sister Blatt good-humouredly.
‘Thank you for your help and advice,’ said Julian with a touch of irony.
‘Is Father Malory going to attempt the ceiling?’ asked Miss Statham in a low voice.
‘That’s the most difficult part,’ said Miss Enders.
‘Oh, well, as a clergyman he will naturally wish to make the attempt,’ said Sister Blatt, with a jolly laugh. Perhaps Miss Lathbury will help him. I’m afraid the ladder would hardly bear my weight,’ she added comfortably, looking down at her grey-clad bulk. ‘In any case, I believe the ceiling should have been done before the walls. If you do the ceiling now, Father, the walls will get splashed with white.’
‘So they will,’ said Julian patiently. ‘Excellent women,’ he sighed, when they had gone. ‘I think we will knock off for tea now, don’t you?’”
From The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym (2021), by Paula Byrne:
“Irena (mother of Barbara Pym) was an avid reader and fond of music. She played the organ at the parish church of St Oswald’s and she and Fred belonged to the Oswestry Operatic Society. She was also an active member of the parish and the local Women’s Institute. A practical person, in many respects Irena was the epitome of the ‘excellent women’ that would be at the core of her daughter’s novels.”
From Wikipedia:
“Old gold is a dark yellow, which varies from light olive or olive brown to deep or strong yellow, generally on the darker side of this range.
The first recorded use of old gold as a color name in English was in the early 19th century (exact year uncertain).
Old gold is used as a political color by Mebyon Kernow, a Cornish nationalist party. The color is derived from Cornish kilts and tartans.
Old gold is used for some NFL teams: the New Orleans Saints and the San Francisco 49ers. The reason for its use by the 49ers is the close identification of San Francisco (indeed the very choice of the mascot name) with the California Gold Rush of 1849.
Chinese immigrants, drawn to “Old Gold Mountain”, made San Francisco a polyglot culture, creating the city’s Chinatown quarter. By 1880, Chinese made up 9.3% of the population.
In gold mining, gold of any size, found in an old streambed or parts thereof that have washed into the waterway, or gold found contained within hardpan would be considered “old gold”.”
Julia Upton 