We have been having the house painted. Jordan, pictured with Ann, outside our house, is doing the job, which is nearing completion. He is a very conscientious worker, self employed, and trying to build up a one man business. He deserves to succeed in this. It's nice to meet a young man who so obviously takes a pleasure, and a pride in his work.
Today we motored over to Wisbech to have a natter to our accountant. We've been discussing (Ann and meself that is) the possibility of my retiring. This came up when I had that pest of a heart attack in March. My considered (and, I'm afraid, often stated) opinion is that antique dealers do NOT retire. They simply, as the years advance, become steadily more in keeping with their stock. Anyway, Elizabeth has been my accountant since (I think) 1978, and during those years has become a personal friend of both of us. So today we gave her lunch at the Red Lion on the North Brink in Wisbech and discussed the matter. She gave us her usual well considered opinion. This, when boiled down, seemed to be that there is no hurry to decide; and that any decision need not be final, anyway. Eventually we adjourned to the pub car park, handed over the books for this last year, and parted with mutual expressions of esteem.
We then popped into Wisbech to call on 96 year old cousin Sid, and spent half an hour with him- he looks after himself, and, although having had half a leg amputated last year seems to be pretty spry still.
Then pottered round Wisbech, and took the below three photos.
This one is of the Museum, which I used a good deal as a reference library when I was a boy. It hasn't altered much since then, or indeed since the 1830s when it was founded. Ann's (several greats) grandfather, John Peck, helped to set it up. It's a lovely, early museum, and, in my opinion, should be in a museum.
Above is Wisbech Castle. It's not a castle now, but a private house, with a lovely great circle of a garden, behind the house. It's in the centre of the Crescent in Wisbech. Bit like a smaller version of the Cresent in Bath, but a complete circle, in two halves.
Ann standing at the start of the Crescent in Museum Square. The Crescent stands on what was The Castle in Wisbech - hence Castle House- above. Bad King John (gnash, gnash, curses, curses) dined at Wisbech Castle a few days before his death, made a pig of himself, and it was here that he probably indulged in the celebrated 'surfeit of lampreys', or peaches, or whatever, of which he died, in the year 1216 - or so it is believed in this area.
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Good night All.
8 comments:
I thought Wisbech was a revelation when I visited about 10 years ago / I had no idea it had such wonderful architecture. I handled the original manuscript for Great Expectations there and it felt magical.
Hello Rog. I went to the old Grammar School there in the 1950s so I know the place well. Quite agree with you, it's a pleasant old dump.
Hi Mike,
Sounds like Johny Lackland took after his great-grandad Henry I;
according to the chronicler Henry of Huntingdon, Henry I (Beauclerc) ate a fatally excessive number of lampreys at the Castle of Lyons-la-Forêt, Saint-Denis-en-Lyons, Normandy on 1st December 1135.
Just found this doggerel Monarch-list:-
(although it excludes Empress Maude who was officially de facto queen in 1141)
Willie, Willie, Harry, Ste,
Harry, Dick, John, Harry three;
One two three Neds, Richard two,
Harrys four five six, ... then who?
Edwards four five, Dick the bad,
Harrys (twain), Ned (the lad);
Mary, Bessie, James the vain,
Charlie, Charlie, James again.
Will and Mary, Anna Gloria,
Georges four, then Will, Victoria;
Edward seven, George and Ted,
George the sixth, now Liz instead.
re Wisbech architecture, while I have the greatest respect for the noble stome-built Castle, Crescent & Museum, Reckover House and such, for me the greatest delight was to sit in the bus-shelter next to the fire-station on the Fleet and look across at the higgledy-piggledy red tiled roof-line beyond the canal where the early homes of dock-workers clustered since the earliest years of the town.
Just been checking on John's death, and I think the people of Wisbech have an over-simplified version. Put simply, the likeliest version is that he died on October the 19th 1216 at Newark Castle of a surfeit of peaches (of all things!) I can't imagine peaches being available in Newark in mid/late October. He was first taken ill at Sleaford, then taken on to Newark where he died of a surfeit (of some sort). Wisbech - Sleaford- Newark sounds an entirely reasonable progression. The rest is, as the schoolboy said:- lost in the mists of iniquity.
With him a-losing his treasure in the Wash he probably spent some time groping around for it in the mud and he may have collected a surfeit of LEECHES (later typographical errors misconstrueing it as Peaches.) Too many leeches can be very bad for your circulation.
Like oysters, you should never eat peaches in a castle with an 'R' in it
Or, as the Scotsman said you should only ever drink scotch on a day with a 'Y' in it.
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