Monday 14 January 2013

life flows tranquilly

Mother and I had a delightful day in Bath during the holidays. I'll post about it later but first of all this to put us in the mood

'Deltenham, the country town to which colonels and admirals retire on their pensions, stands in a bowl whose sides are green hills. When a visitor gets out of the train at Deltenham he notices at once the difference in the air: it is fresh and cold, and so it should be, blowing down as it does from those flat summits padded with ancient turf.
The town cannot be said to have fallen asleep in 1760, when most of it was built, because, even then, it was not fully awake. To-day , its life flows tranquilly through wide streets, past pale square Anne and Georgian houses, and pastry-cooks' shops, where the ageing daughters of very old generals sit eating eclairs from silver forks, quietly dying into the background of England's history.' Stella Gibbons Golden Vanity in Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm
silver forks

We didn't see any ageing daughters of very old generals but did have a lovely tea and cake to revive us.

4 comments:

  1. I think Deltenham is Cheltenham rather than Bath, especially as the racecourse is so prominently mentioned.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michelle Ann - Thst's just what I thought but the chances of a quote on Bath were very slim. How do you think Stella Gibbons would describe Bath as Dath maybe?

      Delete
  2. I feel sad for those ageing daughters - but the eclairs sound delicious!

    ReplyDelete

Ooh how lovely more stripes on the page...
Thank you for taking the time.