I am actually doing a bit of paid work this week, and this weekend I am going to spend a night in David Cameron's constituency, just over the road from where Country Life was first published.
Just to retain a sense of reality I am going to visit Rollright Stones - a perfect little stone circle in the heart of the Oxfordshire countryside. Their local name is 'The King's Stones' I think.
Lambourn is famous for race-horse training and stables. There is a long-barrow near there called 'Wayland's Smithy'. If you tether your horse within the stone circle, Wayland will put knew shoes on it over night. I wonder if he changes car tyres as well?
I'm surprised that circle isn't better known; it's a beauty.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it is tucked away. That's probably how it survived. It is so small it looks very vulnerable.
DeleteI am surprised to read that David Cameron still has a constituency. Pity someone hasn't put his head on a stake in the middle of the stone circle, he has a lot to answer for.
ReplyDeleteBut not as much as Bojo will have.
I was trying to avoid contention in this post, but I suppose just mentioning his name was enough.
DeletePerfect circle.
ReplyDeleteI have a pair of shoes which could do with being mended - any chance Wayland might mend them if I left them lying around - cobblers are as rare as hens' teeth these days.
Plenty of cobblers around here.
DeleteI thought Cameron was hidden away in his shepherds hut writing his memoirs, but I can't imagine who would want to buy it?
ReplyDeleteThere is a lovely walk called Shakespear's Way that goes all of the way from the Rollright Stones (the only name that I know) to Chipping Norton.
He has dinner with my friend's landlord regularly. If I meet him I will just give him a weary look and maybe start humming a tune - 'do do do de do...'
DeleteI may drive that route.
Our native peoples did not leave barrows. They did leave mounds, not so old as barrows, but quite as fascinating.
ReplyDeleteIn the days when the Ridgeway was open to all vehicles I once rode a motorcycle along to Wayland's Smithy and stopped to view. He didn't even clean the mud off it let alone change the worn rear tyre (but I must admit I didn't leave him the required silver sixpence!)
ReplyDelete