The skylight dilemma in Martin Chuzzlewit

The house central to the murder in Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit.  The London Walks 'Dickens and Shakespeare Literary Tour' leader told of addressing a group one day when the door of the house opened and the current owner appeared.  On asking if he had a dirty skylight the owner said, obligingly, 'yes, I do as a matter of fact, why?'

Ezra Pound's house in Kensington, London

Ezra Pound's house in Kensington, London between 1900 and 1914--only about 10 minutes walk from T. S. Eliot's home.

Julia at T S Eliot's former home, South Kensington

Julia at the TS Eliot house at South Ken.  Eliot's widow still lives at the house, with curtains permanently drawn. Apparently she wants to be buried at East Coker with Eliot--so the real estate developments planned for East Coker will be of interest.

Walking with Julia

Radclyffe Hall's house in Kensington, London.

Proust's bedroom--reconstructed

Proust's bedroom reconstructed at the Carnavalet Museum in the Marais district of Paris. His cork lined room is now part of a bank but it is, apparently, open to the public.  The furniture is now in the museum as part of a display of the bedrooms of important writers.

Jewish memorial Paris

French law

French law in action at the Palais de Justice,  an area of government action since Roman times.

Foucault's Pendulum, The Panethenon

Foucault's Pendulum in the Panthenon on a lovely late summer day in Paris.

Memorial to Saint Exupery at the Panthenon

Memorial to Saint Exupery at the Panthenon.  Not a bad inscription: Poet, Novelist, Aviator.

A Paris lady buys a hat

Shopping in Paris.....in the Marais

St Chapelle on Ile de la Cite

The St Chapelle chapel on the Ile de la Cité  inside the newer courtyard of the Palais de Justice. Wonderful stained glass.

Notre Dame

Just around the corner from the Albe.   I visited in the 70s so I avoided the 1000 person queue this week and opted for less demanding sites.

Paris--at last.

The Coleridge Bridge

The new Coleridge Bridge crossing the Otter.  The installation of poetry stones (the Mariner) leading up to the Bridge at Ottery St Mary has generated a lot of local interest--especially the bid to win a Guinness Book of Records title for the longest such placement.  The hard working local Coleridge group raised the money for the stones and carried out an extensive survey regarding the best option for a Coleridge memorial and the stones won out.

The River Otter

The River Otter -- young Sam fled to the banks of the Otter and hid out for the night.

The site of the great battle.......

The spot where young STC had a knife battle with his elder brother.  His mother broke up the fight (their home was around the corner) but Sam fled to the River Otter and remained hiding there for the night.

The Ancient Mariner clock

The clock in St Mary's Ottery St Mary. Said to be the model for the clock mentioned in The Ancient Mariner.  Coleridge's father was the Vicar here for many years.

Sue at Ottery St Mary

Sue on the Ottery trail, a 1.5 hour trail around the Coleridge sites in the village. Its a well thought out, logical and interesting trail.

The word from the street

Ottery painters Russell and Graham know how to take the best pictures of the Church across the road,the best Coleridge viewing spots, and knew the 17th century history of the house they were working on in Ottery: tourist gold.

Ottery St Mary Anglican Church

Coleridge's father was Vicar here and Coleridge spent a lot of time playing in the churchyard and its environs. In many ways Ottery is a macro version of Nether Stowey. It is not hard to see why Coleridge liked the Somerset location.

Farewell to the stunning Quantocks

My last walk on the Quantocks for some time - and they put on a good show. The Coleridge Study weekend will move to another location (not too far away) and a new date (October) after many years at Kilve Court. The weekend is a very welcoming event--high quality papers and a mix of attendees; academics; locals; interested bystanders...and local journalists such as Martin Hesp who has published a fictional account of the Walford Murder and included Quantock personalities. Hesp has upset the French company EDF who operate the nearby Hinkley Point nuclear station by suggesting that a tsunami in the Bristol Channel (yes, there was one in the 1600s) would wipe out the plant and forthcoming extensions.

The Coleridge Society Study Weekend final walk

The Coleridge Society study weekend on Hare Knap; fantastic views over hill and sea after a easy/moderate for an hour or so. The path descends back down into Holford Combe and the Holford Green carpark.

Higher Hare Knap

Higher Hare Knap at the top of Holford Combe, looking towards Wales,  purple and yellow heather on the hills and moor ponies in the distance.

The Coleridge Society walks Holford Glen

The Coleridge Society Kilve study weekend walks Holford Glen. There were several wonderful papers (invitation only) over the weekend and the focus was Biographia Literaria.

Caroline at the Coleridge Cottage

Caroline Taylor, National Trust manager of the Coleridge Cottage and the team of volunteers.  Some 1,000 visitors  have seen the cottage since it re-opened on August 11. Not a bad effort for literary tourism in the south-west.   Caroline worked at the Sydney Harbour Zoo last year and has an MA in Heritage Management. 

Wood walking

One of the lovely old trees in the woods.  We became lost in the woods on a long walk the other day (due to following deer tracks rather than a path) and we went through gorse bush higher than our heads,  bracken ridges and then  then finally to what is known as the 'white woods'--where Rosemary found a path down to a stream and the right combe.  

The start of the morning walk

The high point of the hill walking out of the village.  Over Stowey is in the hills to the left.  Mornings walks took us up into the trees at the edge of fields at the top of the photo.

Watery Lane

Watery Lane.  On the Coleridge Trail, but not signed as 'Watery Lane' but called Watery Lane by everyone in the village--who just tell you to go to 'Watery Lane' and start there for the hills.

Looking towards Walford's Gibbet

John Walford was hung near here for the murder of his wife in 1789. Coleridge and Wordsworth knew the story well via Tom Poole who had known Walford from boyhood. The story still excites a lot of local interest and debate.

Bex on Bank Holiday..

Bex on Bank Holiday. Sun over Nether Stowey after two days of intermittent rain.

Walking beyond Nether Stowey

Walking in the hills beyond Nether Stowey.  

Bex in the woods on a dark rainy day.

Romanticism and the rest

Where it all started--the fantastic Holford Combe between Nether Stowey and Alfoxton.

A memorial, of sorts

The cairn at Shurton Bars.  The plaque asks that visitors place a stone on the cairn to mark the place where ashes are scattered.

Shurton Bars beach

Shurton Bars beach near where Coleridge wrote "Ode to Sara"--reached via a maze of lanes through farms.  Hinckley Point nuclear reactor in the background. Much of this area is going to be the site of two new reactors (shaped like golf balls) and therefore out of bounds.

The Great Wood Ranscombe

The Great Wood Ranscombe at Adscombe. This is the area that Coleridge wanted to settle in before he found accommodation at Nether Stowey. A wonderful forest full of hiking trails...nothing changes, someone had just burnt down the toilet block.

Rosemary and Bex.  Bex knows all the trails and is quite vain about his appearance--he will only roll in mud puddles if other dogs jump in the water and he then succumbs to social pressure. He will also taste blackberries and spit them out if they are not ripe.

Rosemary and Bex in the Quantock woods

Rosemary and Bex in the woods, near Bincombe Combe.  We have walked twice through Walford's Cross (Lesley,you will remember the story) and past the spot where he lived --and from where his family could see his body hanging at the Cross.  I am going to a lecture on Broomsquires--another cottage involved in this saga.

Coleridge Cottage coffee shop

The coffee shop at the Coleridge Cottage, Nether Stowey.

Garden, the Coleridge Cottage, Nether Stowey

Garden at the Coleridge Cottage Nether Stowey. A new bower is at the back and there are plans to plant a lime tree nearby. The poppies sprung up when the garden was cleared of weeds--they have been there a long time. Tom Poole's garden joined at the very back at a right angle to this block.

Ode to Sara

Ode to Sara, written in 1795 at Shurton Bars .  Shurton Bars is a beach at the hamlet of Shurton, near Stogursey, near Nether Stowey, near Bridgwater.  The beach is near the Hinkley Point nuclear power station in a tidal zone that that can be treacherous. This was written prior to the marriage of Coleridge and Sara.

Coleridge's sword: part of his kit when he ran off to the Light Dragoons. Never used--he spent his time writing love letters on behalf of fellow soldiers.

Coleridge family at the Nether Stowey cottage

(L-R) Rosemary and Sarah Middleton, direct descendants of Coleridge at the Cottage in Nether Stowey on the first day of its post-renovation opening.  Rosemary told family stories about Coleridge's wife burning the nappies at the fireplace (in the photo behind Rosemary) and Sarah is a PhD candidate in Maths.

Entrance to the pathway down to Culbone Church

Culbone Church (correct title is St Beuno's Church) is on the South West Path walk but can also be reached from the 'top' via farming lanes and tracks.  Rambler Helen knew her way into this area.  The church seats only 33, has a newly donated organ, and there are recent headstones in the graveyard.

Bossington, near Porlok

Self at the Packhorse Bridge, Bossington. Bossington is a National Trust village, only one mile from Porlock--but a world apart.

The leper's window, Culbone Church

There was once (16th century) a leper colony in the woods at Culbone--they could look through into the church from outside via this window or 'squint'.

Holford Glen, near Nether Stowey

Deer stalking by car Holford Glen, where Romanticism started, so they say.  The hunt starts soon so this animal's days may be numbered.

Helen and Jackie at Culbone Church

Helen and Jackie at Culbone Church, north of Porlock. This is the smallest church in England that is still operational.  You have to access by a forest walk from Porlock or driving to a farm and then walking down into the combe.

Purple haze

The heather has just turned a deep purple on the moors north of Porlock. Wales in the distance across the water.

The moors north of Porlock

The open top bus on Exmoor north of Porlock.  Getting up Porlock Hill was fun--the gradient is 1 in 4 and I was stuck behind an antique Austin that almost seemed to go backwards.  The Hyundai never made it out of first gear.