A day it's good to be alive on. warm enough for a t-shirt but not hot. The air clear and bright. From my drive I can look across the Bristol Channel and see Wales.
We went to the Kings Sedgemoor Drain. A lot of fishermen about today.
The fields we look over were the fields on which the last battle on English soil took place in the reign of King James the second. One of King Charles the seconds illegitimate children, the Duke of Monmouth who was a protestant, gathered a peasant army with which to over-throw the Catholic King.
Of course the Dukes army were soundly beaten by the better equiped and trained Kings Army. As an aside, one of the Kings officers was a man called John Churchill who went on to command the British army in battle on the continent at Blenheim. He was later made the Duke of Marlborough and a later Queen, Anne, had a magnificent Palace built for him. Blenheim Palace still stands. Winston Churchill, a direct descendent, was born there.
Back to the battle. The Duke of Monmouth was Executed at the Tower of London. So were many of his supporters until it was pointed out to the King that there was a tidy sum to be made by sending them as slaves to work on the Caribbean sugar plantations.
This mornings walk was fun. Pluto was behaved, not bothering the fishermen too much. He let himself down a little by straining on his lead when other dogs were around but he is only fifteen month old.
We took some pictures.
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