On Friday I headed into town before work to retrieve a book at the Minster Library that I needed for my research and found that it is one of the most magical places. It’s the largest Minster library in the country (well York is the largest gothic cathedral in the country so it’s not hard to believe) and the moment you walk into the main stacks the scent of well-used books hits you like a gentle summer breeze. It’s not a big room but the shelves, filled with over 120,000 volumes tower tantalizingly over you with centuries of knowledge. Of course the book I wanted was on one of the upper most shelves prompting me to clumsily drag a ladder from three aisles over in order to get it. The book in question, In Search of England by H.V. Morton, is a 1920s guidebook to England as discovered via a motorcar trip round the island. The copy I have is the eleventh edition printed in 1930 and I cannot possibly describe to you the smell and feel that this book has. Even better, once I opened it and actually started reading I fell in love all over again and haven’t been able to put it down since. I’ll share one of my favorite bits with you because something this lovely cannot help but be shared:
“I took a vow that I would go through the lanes of England and the little thatched villages of England, and I would lean over English bridges and lie on English grass watching an English sky.”
Now how’s that for eloquence? He also gives York an excellent review also, which naturally heightens my respect for the man!
Now with the pints of pubs or was it pubs with pints? Martin and I decided Friday night would be a good time to go out and have a few pints as we’ve both been very good this week and haven’t been out. We sampled three new pubs and three different pints on Hull road: the Tam O’Shanter (with a pint of John Smith’s Cask Ale), the Waggon & Horses (York Brewery’s March Madness Blonde) and the Rook & Gaskill (a LocALE by the name of New Moon.) This was also the beginning of a new project we’ve taken upon ourselves to undertake, a York pub guide. The idea is that we’ll be trying a lot of new pubs (purely for research purposes!) and reviewing them in our handy-dandy blue moleskin notebook. We look at the location, ales on offer, prices, and atmosphere. Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll be able to make in comprehensive as York apparently boasts somewhere around 400 pubs, but gosh darn it, we’re going to give it a go!
I was prepared for gloom on Sunday as the weather report forecasted rain and wind so I was happily surprised to be awoken by the blinding sunlight at 7:45am; my curtains are so thin they might as well not be there. It ended up being a glorious day despite some strong wind. The sky was bright blue and the clouds were framed in sunlight as if angels might descend at any moment. The destination for this walk was Goathland, a small village in the North York Moors national park. It’s also the fictional location of a popular British television show called Heartbeat about a country bobby (policeman) in the 1960s and the setting for Hogsmeade station in the Harry Potter films. The surrounding countryside outshines the popular culture connections in my mind. With rolling hills alternating from stark, bare moorland covered in heather and the grazing land for sheep and cattle to the woods housing flowing rivers and cascading waterfalls, it is, in a word, stunning.
We only walked for about three hours total clamoring over muddy woodland paths, over rocky riverbanks, under viaducts carrying the north moors steam railway, and through the luscious green fields of sheep (and their droppings). Lunch was average, with all of the tourist connections that Goathland has the few pubs have decided to act posh and overprice their mediocre food. In the afternoon we fought through about 20 minutes of rain, hail and wind as we made our way to a lovely waterfall called Mallyan Spout, which I admired from almost directly underneath it’s spouting power. The last hour we were free to wander as we would and so a few of us went to the station tea shop for a cuppa. We also managed to see one of the steam trains coming into the station, but only just. It was running a few minutes late, which left us running up a large hill in order to meet up with the coach at four o’clock, but hey, we got some good photos!
The next two weeks promise to be busy but full of fun times. I have two essays in for next week that I’m hoping to have well underway by the weekend, a few end of term pub outings are planned, and my flat mate Ellen’s sister is visiting again this weekend so should be some good times. Of course then I’m in for a full spring break so really the next time I’ll be breathing properly and not planning one thing or another will be…never! What am I talking about? I’m always planning, looking for, researching something, but I love it so there you are. Until next time.
As always, check out the photos at flickr!
