A Quiet day out

A long sleep in this morning as we are both a bit weary from all the travelling. Early afternoon we drove over to the village of Hovingham. In the centre of the village is Hovingham Hall which was the childhood home of the Duchess of Kent. We took a guided tour and were lucky enough to be the only ones on the tour. The lady guide was very informative and seemed to enjoy being able to chat with us.
Out the back of the hall is the oldest privately owned cricket ground in the UK, and there was a local cricket match on. Quintessential England!
On walking into town we found the local bakery where Lou found a good coffee and we grabbed some pasties and cakes for tea.
We then drove to Helmsley (a pleasant market town with a ridiculous number of tea shops) and the ruins of an ancient castle overlooking the village) On a second visit we went to the church and discovered a framed letter on the wall from David Livingston (I presume) thanking the local bishops wife for sending him a handmade mosquito net to Africa. Quite poignantly, he referred to the fact that he was returning to the lakes (I guess Lake Victoria of source of the Nile fame) the next day. Knowing that he ultimately died out there was sad. His writing was awful so suspect he was already very unwell. He had a sense of humour though and made a mosquito joke in the letter. The import of such a simple thing being available on the back wall of an obscure rural church was impressive on us and testimony to the English brilliance in record keeping from the obscure to the grandest of details.
P.s. The pasties were yummy.Read more