Roger le Poer, better known maybe as Roger of Salisbury, is a Norman who rose from being a priest in a small chapel near Caen to being Bishop of Salisbury, Lord Chancellor and Lord Keeper of England in the reign of Henry I. This is (maybe) his effigy in Salisbury Cathedral.
Category: Travel
The Uncertain Glory of an April Day
In 1794, in the prosperous town of Bradford on Avon, a navvy spat on his palms, picked up a spade and lifted the first sod in the construction of the Kennet and Avon Canal. It opened in 1810 and connects the river Avon at Bath with the Thames at Reading. Thus goods could be transported… Continue reading The Uncertain Glory of an April Day
A Transatlantic Journey
Belize Revisited
Limestone Way, Day Three
Limestone Way, Day Two
The Limestone Way is not an ancient footpath like, say, the Ridgeway or Peddars Way. It was created by the Derbyshire county council, I suppose to promote tourism. Originally it ran from Castleton to Matlock and this is the route, about twenty-eight miles, we are taking. Nobody can accuse us of being over ambitious. (Subsequently… Continue reading Limestone Way, Day Two
Limestone Way, Day One
“Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.” This is what Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in Virginibus Puerisque, a collection of essays published in 1881. What I think this morning is that I will be jolly glad to arrive… Continue reading Limestone Way, Day One