 |
| Barnaby visits Jerome K Jerome's grave at Ewelme |
Our main reason for visiting the delightful little village of Ewelme, South Oxfordshire, was to see the watercress beds which flourish there, but Barnaby also wanted to pay homage to one of his favourite writers Jerome K Jerome who is buried in St Mary's Church yard next to his wife Ettie. Barnaby particularly admires the way that Mr Jerome has included the spunky little dog Monterency to his famous story Three Men in a Boat, which takes place on his favourite river - The Thames.
 |
Yes, he saw the watercress beds too and was fascinated by the way the water wove its way through the cress. He doesn't like watercress very much, but admires the way it grows here - and in abundance. The stream in which he watercress grows flows the entire length of the village and is fed by streams. This wonderful crop of cress flourished during the 20th century such that it was sold all over the country, including Covent Garden, but unfortunately regulations finally prevented the cress from this site being sold. Obviously this led to the bed's demise. Thanks to the Chilton Society the beds thrive now, as the they have invested in a programme of conservative revival.
Of course we had to visit the local pub, The Shepherd's Hut, which is a comfortable little hostilary you would expect to find in a village deep in the countryside ( Eweleme is south of the B4009 two miles east of Benson). It's just a pub standing on the edge of the village and close to the watercress beds.. It has a little garden and a reasonably sized bar area where dogs are allowed.
Indeed it has a really cosy atmosphere. Dogs such as Barnaby are very welcome as long as they behave themselves - Barnaby behaved himself! He particularly enjoyed his nice cup of tea which was served for him in a plastic dish, with several ice cubes floating around to cool it down. Uncle John and I ordered whitebait served with chips and a salad. Simply delicious a perfectly match for our beer. We chose Tribute which matched the whitebait perfectly. As we drank we raised our glasses to this gorious little red brick village with its charming pub, friendly village shop, historic church, watercress and the many friendly residents who helped make our day out so perfect. Thank you Ewelme we had a simply lovely day.
 |
| The Shepherd's Hut |
 |
| Our delicious whitebait |
No comments:
Post a Comment