Between St Dennis and St George
Jul. 9th, 2021 04:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steepholmYesterday Ayako and I took a trip to the Somerset Lavender farm, near Bath. It's the first such farm I've been to, and I came home suitably burdened with various lavender products, but of course the main point of the exercise was to see the lavender. Whether because of the lusher climate or just a more hands-off attitude to weeding, Somerset lavender lacks the pristine, not to say austere, beauty of the extensive fields of Provence, but I'm not sure I don't prefer its homespun charm and lowering cloudscapes. Chacun à son goût.
Afterwards we repaired for lunch to the nearby George at Norton St Philip, which I've passed many times but never stopped to visit. It's been serving beer non-stop since 1397, as they were quick to tell us, and it's not hard to believe:
The landlady (?) volunteered the information that before the Battle of Sedgemoor this inn was the headquarters for Monmouth's forces, and afterwards a site of the Bloody Assizes. She added that there had been an attempt on "King Charles'" life there, and that you could still see the musket hole in the wall upstairs. Clearly there was some confusion about the kings and potential kings in play in 1685, but when it comes to the Stuarts, what's a Charlie between friends?
Afterwards we repaired for lunch to the nearby George at Norton St Philip, which I've passed many times but never stopped to visit. It's been serving beer non-stop since 1397, as they were quick to tell us, and it's not hard to believe:
The landlady (?) volunteered the information that before the Battle of Sedgemoor this inn was the headquarters for Monmouth's forces, and afterwards a site of the Bloody Assizes. She added that there had been an attempt on "King Charles'" life there, and that you could still see the musket hole in the wall upstairs. Clearly there was some confusion about the kings and potential kings in play in 1685, but when it comes to the Stuarts, what's a Charlie between friends?