Wednesday, July 29, 2009

More about the curses

After posting last night, I was lying in bed reading Jan Morris's "Oxford" (which I highly recommend even though it was last updated in 1987, thanks, Annie!) when I came upon this mention of Gill's Ironmongers:

Gills the ironmongers, who live in one of those alleys off the High, substantiate their claim to be the oldest ironmongers in Great Britain (established 1530) with a thoughtful little historical pamphlet, containing a family genealogy and a list of important events that have occurred in the lifetime of the firm -- like the Gunpowder Plot, Votes for Women and the Invention of Green's First Chain Drive Mower.


Quite a change from my local ironmongers, a.k.a. Earl's Hardware, which is housed in a former supermarket that was probably built about 430 years after Gills was founded.

Plumbing is the subject of the other observation. Our rooms are on stairs like rooms in the traditional Oxford colleges. On the half-landing is a most mysterious little room.
 
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My question is, why does the Rewley House female staff need to take showers during the working day? I have actually noticed little wifts of steam curling out the door as if it had been recently used. I really cannot for the life of me figure it out.

2 comments:

Judy said...

These rants about the inefficiency of the English sound JUST LIKE DAD. Do you remember that he came home after their month there in an absolute froth about things??

I read all your posts to Mom and we enjoyed them very much.

Caroline said...

All I can say is, Dad was right!