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On 04 Feb,08, at 6:10 AM, Melissa Harrington wrote: > Dear Dave and Chas > > Sorry for stating what you two probably know already, but further > to these comments I would add that Gardner came from a relatively > wealthy family and seemed to be free to travel, collect artifacts > and to buy homes in expensive areas (London and New Forest) as he > wished. He was sent abroad on cruises as a child with a full time > nanny, and as a retiree could buy businesses in other expensive > areas ( Isle of Mann, Five Acres of Brickets Wood in St Albans), > and keep a housekeeper in his old age. > All true -- and the American side of the family stayed with the timber business -- but even Philip Heselton with all his legwork has not found GBG's old bank books. He does seem to have been "comfortable" if not wealthy. Anyone wanting to poke around more might look at Morgan Davis's site <http://www.geraldgardner.com> I will say that that one of the books that I would like to acquire for the Pagan Studies series that I co-edit for Rowman & Littlefield would be a scholarly biography of Gardner, one that looks at him as the chief founder of a new world religion, to borrow Hutton's phrase. Chas Clifton