From the banks of the Rother (almost) via Stroud, Ramsdean, the source of the Meon (just about), Frogmore, East Meon, Old Winchester Hill, Droxford and Upper Swanmore to the source of the Hamble (very nearly). Featuring an erudite parrot, Edward Thomas and John Owen Smith, William Cobbett and Gilbert White, Charles II and Winston Churchill, Eric Ravilious and a 1791 chic doggerel tombstone, and two extinct railways.
Speculation in French revolutionary fiduciary currency, the murder of the great British ballad-singer, & a revised date (1802) for the start of the supposedly post-Napoleonic emigration of Italian puppeteers & organ-grinders
A double reflection makes up the man who was born on the thirteenth day of the moon, lost his throne on the thirteenth day of the moon, and fought the battle of Waterloo on the thirteenth day of the moon: I wonder if Josephine’s astrological babblings didn’t cause Napoleon’s natural military interest in the moon…
