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cnidarian:1. Stop talking about politics for a moment or two.
2. Post a reasonably-sized picture in your LJ, NOT under a cut tag, of something pleasant, such as an adorable kitten, or a fluffy white cloud, or a bottle of booze. Something that has NOTHING TO DO WITH POLITICS.
3. Include these instructions, and share the love.
I went to Stow-on-the-Wold recently, which was the most deliberately, enthusiastically, Englishly quaint town I've ever seen. OMG, the sweetshop.
It also had the most gorgeous chocolate shop (separately from the sweetshop), and various other foodie places. I'm going back at some point to buy stuff for Christmas.
On the way back, we stopped at the Rollright Stones, a Neolithic stone circle, circa 4500 years old. The stones are weather-worn, some of them so much that there are holes right through them, where the stone was weaker.
Local legend says the stones of the circle, called the King's Men, are uncountable (which may sound familiar to anyone who's read Alan Garner's Elidor). Testing that, I counted them, and A counted them, and yes, we both came up with different totals - I counted 70, and A counted 75. According to a website I looked at, there's approximately 77 stones, but there used to be fewer - some of them are broken.
Nearby, there is a separate group, known as the Whispering Knights - a burial chamber.
And across the road - and technically in a different county, is the King Stone (the circle and the Knights are in Warwickshire, and the King in Oxfordshire). There's a legend about a king and his knights meeting a witch, who challenged the king:
Seven long strides shalt thou take,
If Long Compton thou can see
King of England thou shalt be.
My dad (who grew up around there) remembered part of it. Long Compton is the nearby village, but apparently the king's view was blocked by the Archdruid's Barrow (since ploughed away), and he couldn't see the village. The witch enchanted the lot of them to stone. At midnight on New Year's Day, the king and his men go down to Rollright Spinney to drink.
Okay, I must be off, right NOW.
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chasethestars
chasethestars
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They make my helmet look modern.
Oh, I meant to post this factlet as I thought you in particular would find it of interest: the name Rollright has nothing to do with rolling - it's apparently derived from Hrolla-landriht, or 'the land belonging to Hrolla'.
You're telling me that Hrolla was a high-roller? ;-) (And I haven't even started the new meds yet; that's for this evening.)
Oh, I bet that sweetshop has some amazing things - like clove drops? Which are strangely addicting.
I didn't notice clove drops (I loathe cloves with a passion - there was a bread sauce incident...), but I wouldn't be surprised - it had old, familiar things that I remember from my childhood, and that I didn't even know had names.
Interesting legend!
Ta! I was glad I persuaded my dad and A to stop the car, turn around, find it, get out into the cold, and freeze our ears off looking at it. :)
Other then you? lol No one in my circle ever went to England. Heck... most people where I grew up thought that traveling an hour to Amsterdam was "very far" *rolls eyes*.
As for the sweet shop . . *makes grabby hands* :)
Oh, man, that sweet shop. And the chocolate shop... sheesh. We bought some absinthe chocolate! And a ton of liquorice, for A.