Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe
Encyclopedia
Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, 7th Baronet is a fictional character
from the Blandings
stories of P. G. Wodehouse
. The seventh Baronet
, who resides at Matchingham Hall, he is the son of the Very Reverend Dean
Parsloe-Parsloe and is the rival and enemy of Lord Emsworth
, master of Blandings Castle.
"The Custody of the Pumpkin
" (included in the 1935 collection Blandings Castle and Elsewhere, but written over ten years earlier). He later shows up in several other Blandings tales, including Summer Lightning
(1929), Heavy Weather
(1933) and Pigs Have Wings
(1953).
is preparing his reminiscences in Summer Lightning
, he reveals quite a lot about the Baronet's black past. Although the first twenty years or so of his life were relatively blameless, he went off the rails to a considerable degree, and was considered a dangerous type by his contemporaries.
When Galahad first met him, Parsloe was walking around a supper-table at Romano's, wearing a soup-tureen
on his head and holding a stick of celery
, claiming he was a sentry outside Buckingham Palace
. He is remembered as the only man ever to have been thrown out of the Cafe de l'Europe for trying to raise the price of a bottle of champagne by raffling his trousers at the bar.
Notoriously sneaky, he once tricked Gally into parting with over ten pounds, using a fixed spinning top, and at one point, Gally asserts, doped Gally's dog Towser with steak and onions just before a rat-catching competition in the back room of the Black Footman in Gossiter Street, allowing Parsloe's dog Banjo to win the day.
While living down the river at Shepperton
, where his father was Dean
, he wangled free dinners by getting his dog to do tricks for parties of day-tripper
s, thus getting into conversation with them; he would then blithely follow them into dinner and tuck in to their champagne and cigar
s.
Sometime in the late 'nineties (the exact year is uncertain), he stole Lord Burper's false teeth and pawned them at a shop on the Edgware Road; he was also involved in a mysterious incident revolving around the shellfish known as prawns, of which little is known, save that it took place at Ascot, "the year Martingale won the Gold Cup
".
At some point in his impecunious youth, he became engaged to one Maudie Montrose, barmaid at the old Criterion
, but their wedding was a wash-out thanks to some confusion over dates (although at the time both thought the other had stood them up)
. By the age of fifty-two, he has taken on the appearance of a Regency
buck who has overindulged somewhat.
Like Professor Moriarty
in the Sherlock Holmes
books, Parsloe-Parsloe is the chief villain in Lord Emsworth's life, having first sustained a bitter rivalry in the raising of pumpkins for the Shrewsbury
Show. After many victories for the dark side, Emsworth's prize pumpkin, "Hope of Blandings", finally managed to overturn Parsloe-Parsloe's previous dominance in this critical battle, as related in the short "The Custody of the Pumpkin
".
In "Company for Gertrude
", not long after Emsworth's pig Empress of Blandings
has won the Fat Pigs Contest at the Shropshire
Agricultural Show, Parsloe has lured away Emsworth's pig-tender, George Cyril Wellbeloved, in a sinister attempt to gain a crucial advantage for his own porker, Pride of Matchingham. This dark bit of treachery involved offering Wellbeloved a higher salary in order to switch allegiance, in violation of the old feudal ethic.
Emsworth was understandably shaken to his foundation by this act, to such a degree that, by the time of Summer Lightning
, he is willing to believe (encouraged by his brother Galahad, who had not been on cordial terms with Parsloe since the Winter of the year 1906) that Parsloe would go as far as to kidnap the Empress.
At one time, Parsloe had to consult Percy Pilbeam
on a matter of some compromising letters, and later does so again, offering him £500 to steal Galahad's manuscript, lest the revelations contained therein jeopardise his candidacy as a "Unionist" in a forthcoming by-election in the "Bridgeford and Shifley" Parliamentary Division of Shropshire. Inevitably, Parsloe-Parsloe is a good friend of Emsworth's domineering sister, Lady Constance Keeble
, and the two form a syndicate acting through Pilbeam with the aim of destroying Galahad's book - their scheme continues into the events of Heavy Weather
.
At the start of Pigs Have Wings
, Parsloe has become engaged to Gloria Salt, a health-loving, athletic young girl who makes him diet. He is quite pleased when she jilts him for another, especially as soon afterwards he is reunited with his true love, Maudie.
, made by the BBC
and partners and broadcast in the United States
by PBS
, Parsloe-Parsloe was played by Ronald Fraser
.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
from the Blandings
Blandings Castle
Blandings Castle is a recurring fictional location in the stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being the seat of Lord Emsworth , home to many of his family, and setting for numerous tales and adventures, written between 1915 and 1975.The series of stories which take place at the castle,...
stories of P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
. The seventh Baronet
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
, who resides at Matchingham Hall, he is the son of the Very Reverend Dean
Dean (religion)
A dean, in a church context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.-Anglican Communion:...
Parsloe-Parsloe and is the rival and enemy of Lord Emsworth
Lord Emsworth
Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth, or Lord Emsworth, is a recurring fictional character in the Blandings stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. He is the amiable and somewhat absent-minded head of the large Threepwood family...
, master of Blandings Castle.
Appearances
Parsloe-Parsloe first appears in the short storyShort story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
"The Custody of the Pumpkin
The Custody of the Pumpkin
"The Custody of the Pumpkin" is a short story by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. It first appeared in the U.S. in the 29 November 1924 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, and in the UK in the December 1924 issue of Strand Magazine...
" (included in the 1935 collection Blandings Castle and Elsewhere, but written over ten years earlier). He later shows up in several other Blandings tales, including Summer Lightning
Summer Lightning
Summer Lightning is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 1 July 1929 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, under the title Fish Preferred, and in the United Kingdom on 19 July 1929 by Herbert Jenkins, London...
(1929), Heavy Weather
Heavy Weather (novel)
Heavy Weather is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on July 28, 1933 by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, and in the United Kingdom on August 10, 1933 by Herbert Jenkins, London...
(1933) and Pigs Have Wings
Pigs Have Wings
Pigs Have Wings is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared as a serial in Collier's Weekly between August 16 and September 20, 1952. It was first published as a book in the United States on October 16, 1952 by Doubleday & Company, New York, and in the United Kingdom on October 31, 1952 by...
(1953).
Wild youth
While Emsworth's brother GallyGalahad Threepwood
The Honourable Galahad "Gally" Threepwood is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. Lord Emsworth's younger brother, a lifelong bachelor, Gally was, according to Beach, the Blandings butler, "somewhat wild as a young man"...
is preparing his reminiscences in Summer Lightning
Summer Lightning
Summer Lightning is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 1 July 1929 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, under the title Fish Preferred, and in the United Kingdom on 19 July 1929 by Herbert Jenkins, London...
, he reveals quite a lot about the Baronet's black past. Although the first twenty years or so of his life were relatively blameless, he went off the rails to a considerable degree, and was considered a dangerous type by his contemporaries.
When Galahad first met him, Parsloe was walking around a supper-table at Romano's, wearing a soup-tureen
Tureen
A tureen is a serving dish for foods such as soups or stews, often shaped as a broad, deep, oval vessel with fixed handles and a low domed cover with a knob or handle. Over the centuries, tureens have appeared in many different forms, some round, rectangular, or made into fanciful shapes such as...
on his head and holding a stick of celery
Celery
Apium graveolens is a plant species in the family Apiaceae commonly known as celery or celeriac , depending on whether the petioles or roots are eaten: celery refers to the former and celeriac to the latter. Apium graveolens grows to 1 m tall...
, claiming he was a sentry outside Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
. He is remembered as the only man ever to have been thrown out of the Cafe de l'Europe for trying to raise the price of a bottle of champagne by raffling his trousers at the bar.
Notoriously sneaky, he once tricked Gally into parting with over ten pounds, using a fixed spinning top, and at one point, Gally asserts, doped Gally's dog Towser with steak and onions just before a rat-catching competition in the back room of the Black Footman in Gossiter Street, allowing Parsloe's dog Banjo to win the day.
While living down the river at Shepperton
Shepperton
Shepperton is a town in the borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, England. To the south it is bounded by the river Thames at Desborough Island and is bisected by the M3 motorway...
, where his father was Dean
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
, he wangled free dinners by getting his dog to do tricks for parties of day-tripper
Day-tripper
A day-tripper is a person who visits a tourist destination or visitor attraction from his/her home and returns home on the same day.- Definition :In other words, this excursion does not involve a night away from home such as experienced on a holiday...
s, thus getting into conversation with them; he would then blithely follow them into dinner and tuck in to their champagne and cigar
Cigar
A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, and the Eastern...
s.
Sometime in the late 'nineties (the exact year is uncertain), he stole Lord Burper's false teeth and pawned them at a shop on the Edgware Road; he was also involved in a mysterious incident revolving around the shellfish known as prawns, of which little is known, save that it took place at Ascot, "the year Martingale won the Gold Cup
Ascot Gold Cup
The Gold Cup is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to thoroughbreds aged four years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 2 miles and 4 furlongs , and it is scheduled to take place each year in June....
".
At some point in his impecunious youth, he became engaged to one Maudie Montrose, barmaid at the old Criterion
Criterion Theatre
The Criterion Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Piccadilly Circus in the City of Westminster, and is a Grade II* listed building. It has an official capacity of 588.-Building the theatre:...
, but their wedding was a wash-out thanks to some confusion over dates (although at the time both thought the other had stood them up)
Later life
By the time we are first introduced to Sir Gregory, he is a rotund man in his early fifties. After he inherited a baronetcy from a cousin at the age of thirty-one, he took up a life of quiet dignity at Matchingham Hall, in the village of Much Matchingham, ShropshireShropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
. By the age of fifty-two, he has taken on the appearance of a Regency
English Regency
The Regency era in the United Kingdom is the period between 1811—when King George III was deemed unfit to rule and his son, the Prince of Wales, ruled as his proxy as Prince Regent—and 1820, when the Prince Regent became George IV on the death of his father....
buck who has overindulged somewhat.
Like Professor Moriarty
Professor Moriarty
Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character and the archenemy of the detective Sherlock Holmes in the fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Moriarty is a criminal mastermind, described by Holmes as the "Napoleon of Crime". Doyle lifted the phrase from a real Scotland Yard inspector who was...
in the Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
books, Parsloe-Parsloe is the chief villain in Lord Emsworth's life, having first sustained a bitter rivalry in the raising of pumpkins for the Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...
Show. After many victories for the dark side, Emsworth's prize pumpkin, "Hope of Blandings", finally managed to overturn Parsloe-Parsloe's previous dominance in this critical battle, as related in the short "The Custody of the Pumpkin
The Custody of the Pumpkin
"The Custody of the Pumpkin" is a short story by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. It first appeared in the U.S. in the 29 November 1924 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, and in the UK in the December 1924 issue of Strand Magazine...
".
In "Company for Gertrude
Company for Gertrude
"Company for Gertrude" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared in the United Kingdom in the September 1928 Strand, and in the United States in the October 1928 issue of Cosmopolitan...
", not long after Emsworth's pig Empress of Blandings
Empress of Blandings
Empress of Blandings is a fictional pig, featured in many of the Blandings Castle novels and stories by P. G. Wodehouse. Owned by the doting Lord Emsworth, the Empress is an enormous black Berkshire sow, who wins many prizes in the "Fat Pigs" class at the local Shropshire Agricultural Show, and is...
has won the Fat Pigs Contest at the Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
Agricultural Show, Parsloe has lured away Emsworth's pig-tender, George Cyril Wellbeloved, in a sinister attempt to gain a crucial advantage for his own porker, Pride of Matchingham. This dark bit of treachery involved offering Wellbeloved a higher salary in order to switch allegiance, in violation of the old feudal ethic.
Emsworth was understandably shaken to his foundation by this act, to such a degree that, by the time of Summer Lightning
Summer Lightning
Summer Lightning is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 1 July 1929 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, under the title Fish Preferred, and in the United Kingdom on 19 July 1929 by Herbert Jenkins, London...
, he is willing to believe (encouraged by his brother Galahad, who had not been on cordial terms with Parsloe since the Winter of the year 1906) that Parsloe would go as far as to kidnap the Empress.
At one time, Parsloe had to consult Percy Pilbeam
Percy Frobisher Pilbeam
Percy Frobisher Pilbeam is a fictional character in the works of P. G. Wodehouse. A journalist turned detective, he is a rather weak and unpleasant man, generally disliked by all...
on a matter of some compromising letters, and later does so again, offering him £500 to steal Galahad's manuscript, lest the revelations contained therein jeopardise his candidacy as a "Unionist" in a forthcoming by-election in the "Bridgeford and Shifley" Parliamentary Division of Shropshire. Inevitably, Parsloe-Parsloe is a good friend of Emsworth's domineering sister, Lady Constance Keeble
Lady Constance Keeble
Lady Constance Keeble is a recurring fictional character in the Blandings stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being Lord Emsworth's most formidable sister, a strikingly handsome woman, with a fair, broad brow, and perfectly even white teeth...
, and the two form a syndicate acting through Pilbeam with the aim of destroying Galahad's book - their scheme continues into the events of Heavy Weather
Heavy Weather (novel)
Heavy Weather is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on July 28, 1933 by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, and in the United Kingdom on August 10, 1933 by Herbert Jenkins, London...
.
At the start of Pigs Have Wings
Pigs Have Wings
Pigs Have Wings is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared as a serial in Collier's Weekly between August 16 and September 20, 1952. It was first published as a book in the United States on October 16, 1952 by Doubleday & Company, New York, and in the United Kingdom on October 31, 1952 by...
, Parsloe has become engaged to Gloria Salt, a health-loving, athletic young girl who makes him diet. He is quite pleased when she jilts him for another, especially as soon afterwards he is reunited with his true love, Maudie.
Television
In a 1995 adaptation of Heavy WeatherHeavy Weather (TV)
Heavy Weather was a dramatisation for television by Douglas Livingstone of the novel Heavy Weather by P. G. Wodehouse , set at Blandings Castle...
, made by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and partners and broadcast in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, Parsloe-Parsloe was played by Ronald Fraser
Ronald Fraser
Ronald Fraser was an English character actor, who appeared in numerous British films of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s whilst also appearing in many popular TV shows.-Background:...
.