Saturday 11 April 2015

Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Near as I can figure it, through the possibly flawed perceptual filters of my own reality tunnel, the most likely answers this week, seem to me to be:


Q1. Bishop Eric Treacy


Q2. Dungeon Ghyll Force

внимание друзья! For question two, The word ghyll can also be spelled gill, but the waterfall is marked on some maps as Dungeon Ghyll Force and William Wordsworth also uses this spelling in his poem.

The initial clues seem to place us in a small dorp called Great Crosthwaite, to the north west of the town of Keswick, in Cumbria. The church there appears to be dedicated to Saint Kentigern (aka Saint Mungo) who, depending on which version of his bio you read died either in 612 AD or 614 AD, with some writers from the period claiming that he was one hundred and eighty five years old. A poet called Robert Southey (born c 1774) lies buried in the churchyard, as do the mortal remains of  'The Railway Bishop', Eric Treacy. The Bishop, like Joe Strummer, has a railway locomotive named after him.The Brazilian government appear to have renovated Southey's grave at one point during the nineteen sixties.

A prolific novelist called Sir Hugh Seymore Walpole, who wrote a work called 'Judith Paris', lies in the churchyard of St John's, in Keswick. Driving south from Keswick would take us past the (four to five acres according to the National Trust), St Herbert's island. St Herbert was a bit of a hipster who liked to get away from the noise in town, to hang out, chill, meditate and grow a bit of organic veg and sensimilla, on that peaceful insel. It is also reputed to be the model for Beatrix Potter's 'Owl Island', in her book 'The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin'.

The puzzle author then likely drives to the 'Cataract of Lodore' (name of the poem written about it by Southey, c 1820 from which the quote in the clues comes from) aka the Lodore Falls, at Borrowdale.The quote "James stopped  with no good will", is from William Wordsworth's 'The Idle Shepherd Boys' (published c 1800), which as far as I can tell , took place partly in Dungeon Ghyll,with the waterfall there being called Dungeon Ghyll Force (Think ghyll is possibly a local word, with a similar meaning to 'gulley').From reading the poem, it looks like Wordsworth had to fish the lamb out of the pool in Dungeon Ghyll, after it went over the waterfall and give the idle shepherds some feedback in regards to the below par performance of their duties.

Driving south west from the cataract of Lodore, brings us to a fine example of what is known in the trade as 'a large glacial erratic', or a very big boulder that was carried here by a glacier, all the way from Scotland. This is known locally as the Bowder Stone (around thirty feet high and standing on a point) and they seem to have placed a ladder against it so that you can climb up and inspect it.They think it weighs around two thousand tons. Nearby, there is a small eminence known as 'King's How' and there is said to be a memorial plaque there, dedicated to King Edward VII, who died c 1910. The inscription on it reads:

"In Loving Memory of King Edward VII, Grange Fell is dedicated by his sister Louise as a sanctuary of rest and peace. Here may all beings gather strength, find in scenes of beautiful nature a cause for gratitude and love to God, giving them courage and vigour to carry on his will"

Here the writer gets a bit crafty and we need to add the height of where he stands at this point in the text, at four hundred and twenty three feet above sea level, with the remaining height to reach the summit of the feature he is describing ie two thousand seven hundred and eighty six feet, to give a total of  three thousand two hundred and nine feet. Converting this to metres, gives nine hundred and seventy eight metres and looking on the OS map for a hill of this height, eight miles or so south south west of the Bowder Stone, brings us to Scafell Pike (978 m).

N.B. The Eastender has moved to moderated comments due to the number of people who normally write letters in green ink, posting on his page. Rest assured though, if you have a non abusive comment relating to solving the puzzle and possible solutions, he will publish it.


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