No that's not me venting my spleen at something that has happened in the village. It is a quote from John Morrant who was Rector of Hethersett from 1724 to 1736 and it was quite obvious that he didn't take to the place.
I was given this quote from Lewis Buckingham in an article on the history of Hethersett for the coming edition of Hethersett Herald. There was plenty more angst from a rector who obviously didn't want to be here.
Reminds me of a biker we met a few years ago in Southwold. We got chatting to him in the queue at one of the harbour cafes. I thought at first that he was a fisherman but evidently he was on a biking tour of East Anglia with some mates and had got detached on the way to Bury St Edmunds and decided to stop off at Southwold for something to eat before finding them.
He was from Leeds which he obviously considered to be the centre of the universe. He answered pretty much every question with the words "It's not as good as Leeds."
"How do you like Southwold?"
"It's not as good as Leeds."
"What do you think of Norfolk and Suffolk?"
"It's not as good as Leeds."
"Have you tried Adnams beer."
"It's not as good as John Smiths."
You get the drift of the conversation. Incidentally I think John Smith's beer tastes like gnat's ---- but that of course is my personal opinion.
Like that 18th century Hethersett Rector this man didn't want to be where he was.
* * *
Spent most of yesterday with friend John Head updating our Le Paradis Massacre website which I may have mentioned a few thousand times. I reckon now it may run to a few thousand pages.
Now John is a friend of mine, he gets me my drinks for free (sorry that's a random quote that came into my head from the Billy Joel song Piano Man).
John reads my blogs and often comments on them and was especially taken by the one on Norfolk humour. So he tried out Norfolk humour on me by insulting me all day. So he expects a rough ride in this blog which I'm not going to give him as that would be resorting to Norfolk Humour.
But John was keen to have a picture of us printed which was taken during the Princess Royal's visit to our new memorial in Norwich Cathedral Close. So that's here along with one of his very fine depictions taken across the fields of the village early morning.