Dowlish Wake revisited.

Yesterday we went on a sentimental journey to our old Wednesday haunts, stopping off at Dowlish Wake where there is a memorial to John Hanning Speke, the famous Victorian explorer. We had visited the church at least twice with R.B. and I looked through the visitors' book to see if he'd written the date and  signed his name. Sure enough there was a ghostly signature, much fainter than it would have been ten years before.  It prompted me to look up my diary entry for that day: 

Wednesday 4 July 2018

Just back from a visit to Barp on this damp, warm afternoon. We took him a small record player bought in the charity shop – and he seems delighted, having put on an ancient L.P.  Crack crack crack it went.... perfect. Went into Ilminster ('I have a letter to post to Australia') and then back to Dowlish Wake to have a look in the church for the Speke memorial which was worth seeing. A very Victorian church in a very English setting. Then we visited Perry's, the cider place, where B was pleased to find sugar cubes – a few of which he popped into  his top pocket with a look of triumph. Judy Trott was on duty when we got back. She showed us where Andrew Lyle's prep school (Jordan's) had been. He told me in an e mail that they had Speke's elephant gun on the wall there, just the sort of detail to appeal to old Barpot.



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