Lunch in Old Bosham today at the Anchor Bleu pub with George, our youngest son after picking him up in Southsea and seeing his student pad (below - no, the one below the one below). The newly-opened Hindhead Tunnel has cut journey times to Portsmouth by some margin. The swans, above, were in the sea just outside the pub.
Bosham can provide plenty of entertainment if you catch it on the right day as people often park their cars by the water-side without realising they will be caught by the tide. Ice Cream Dave, who has a regular pitch there, likes to photograph the results and has loaded a compilation on to You Tube for the enjoyment of all. He also videos dogs who like his ice cream. Amazing what you can do from an ice cream van.
The car drivers who come to grief here are, unwittingly perhaps, honouring a royal precedence for it is in Bosham (or somewhere nearby) that King Canute is said to have sat on his throne and commanded the waves to turn back in order to make a point about the limitations of his powers. Sadly there was no Saxon equivalent of Ice Cream Dave to record the event.
But a Saxon equivalent - in the form of English seamstresses - was on hand to record Bosham Church (pictured above) in the Bayeux Tapestry, an account of events surrounding the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Harold Godwinson had earlier set sail from Bosham to Normandy - a trip that enable the future King William to claim that Harold had pledged the English crown to him. Note the similarity of this church and St Mary's, West Horsley, in the previous blog.We dropped George off after spending a while on the South Downs during the afternoon plundering the blackthorn, collecting enough sloes to make a bottle of sloe gin (which usually disappears surprisingly fast). Our excuse for the visit, not that we needed one, was to take him what was left of his old bike. He has a great bunch of housemates who were all very welcoming - particularly to the dogs.
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