Lost Woodcuts
One of Theo Brown’s lost woodcuts, as uncovered by Devon Folklore Tapes. Theo Brown was a folklorist who died in 1993, and her archive is kept at the University of Exeter. It’s worth checking out the rest of that blog actually. Devon – and Dartmoor in particular – seems to have a lot of curious places, histories and tales, which get bypassed by much of British culture.
Doktor Schnabel von Rom
This is a plague doctor, or more specifically Doktor Schnabel von Rom, from 1656. Imagine your village had an outbreak of the plague and these people started walking around attempting to treat you? Apparently the beak-like masks were rammed with nice spelling herbs in order to get rid of the stench. So really, this doctor would be more wary of you than you were of them.
Beauvale Priory
A brief visit to the Beauvale Priory tea room today. A fascinating hidden gem, this. According to Arthur Mee’s Nottinghamshire, this place was one of the last monasteries to be built, and the first to fall foul of Henry VIII. It’s now a very nice tea room, that serves excellent cake, which is my kind of monastery.
Chatsworth Gardens & Environs
A cold day in Derbyshire. But there were hot things at the Christmas markets in the grounds of Chatsworth House – wild boar sausages and fancy coffees could be found among the many stalls of middle-class bits and pieces. The grounds were vast, too big to cover in a gallery. I was amazed the most by the kitchen gardens, which put many an allotment to shame. There was just under three acres of raised beds, victorian greenhouses and hidden orchards, so I’ll have to go back to see the place in mid-summer.
