Herefordshire
Is an English County in the West Midlands. It is part of the borderland that once sheltered the rest of the English from the rapacious and warlike Welsh - or possibly it was the other way round? No matter it as rural a County as it's possible to get in England without running into a Northerner or a distressed celt.
Some statistics...
Population: 183,000 and change...
Population Density: 84 people per km2 (3rd lowest in England)
Ethnicity: 97.1% White, 1.2% Asian, 0.8% Mixed, 0.4% Black, 0.3% Other and 0.2% Fae(1)
Herefordshire is famous for potholes, top quality beef, cider, being the inspiration to Edward Elgar(2) and, in a spurious attempt to link the place back to Rivers of London/Midnight Riot, the birthplace of actor David Garrick.
(1) Or possibly Aliens...
(2) Amongst other things he wrote Pomp and Circumstances which is known the UK as Land of Hope And Glory and thus causes British people to burst out laughing at American High School graduations(3)
(3) Some British people anyway.
The Glorious Twelfth
The 12th of August when grouse come into season and thousands of people tramp around the countryside banging away with shotguns. Unlike foxhunting you're supposed to eat what you kill and it's supposed to be enormous fun - although not, presumably, for the grouse.
vəˈnakjʊlə/
noun: the vernacular
1. the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people of a country or region. "he wrote in the vernacular to reach a larger audience"
synonyms: everyday language, spoken language, colloquial speech, native speech, conversational language, common parlance, non-standard language, jargon, -speak, cant, slang, idiom, argot, patois, dialect; regional language, local tongue, regionalism, localism, provincialism;
informallingo, local lingo, patter, geekspeak; rareidiolect
"he wrote in the vernacular and adopted a non-academic style accessible to the public"
2. architecture concerned with domestic and functional rather than public or monumental buildings.
"buildings in which Gothic merged into farmhouse vernacular"
3. what Ben Aaronovitch writes the Rivers of London books in...
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6 comments:
So, what is an expensive imported vw Rabbit doing there?
Everything I know so far about Herfordshire, I learned from reading Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins books. And I started reading those due to YOUR recommendation. So belated thanks!
So reading Foxglove Summer will be like going back to a favorite vacation spot with a different friend!
Just started the book and am loving it from the first sentence. I really do enjoy your writing and wanted to thank you for sharing it with the world. The Also People remains one of my favorite Doctor Who books and one of the best sci fi stories I've ever read!
Thinking of rural counties, try some of the flat fenlands of Lincolnshire. I doubt anything is more rural than the fens. I'm told Bateman's Beer brewed at Wainfleet is worth the trip. Personally I prefer pavements, street lighting and transport systems :)
A note on "I claim my ten pounds" would be useful.
Picture of a traction engine?
"I claim my Ten Pounds" doesn't seem to have been explained.
In the period 1938-1967 or so the English went on holiday (one week's paid holiday became the law in 1938) to the English seaside. There isn't much to do there, so newspaper magnates came up with a cunning plan to increase their circulations. You bought a copy of the Daily Express (then and now a "bloody awful newspaper" - said Prince Philip) and went up to someone else holding the same paper and said "You are Lobby Lud of the Daily Express and I claim my five pounds". And if he was, you got the money. Graham Greene's "Brighton Rock" features one such casual newspaper employee, I forget his soubriquet.
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