YvonneIt really isn’t a surprise that my little on-line bookshop isn’t making me a fortune and is never likely to, whilst, instead of listing the mountain of books I have stored all over the house, I spend so much of my time browsing through them first, just to see what useful snippets of information I can glean from them.
I have just unearthed a lovely little book titled: A Ross Anthology: Quotations Spanning 1, 000 Years, written by Jon Hurley, with some lovely little illustrations by Ken Hutchinson.
This is a fantastic book for anyone with an interest in the social history of one of our best-loved English towns, Ross-On-Wye. The anthology is made up of a series of quotations and poems, spanning some 1,000 years, back to the Anglo-Saxon chronicles, where an entry is made in the year 918 recording that:
“A large army sailed from Amorica and advanced towards Archenfield, but being met by the inhabitants and neighbour-hood, was signally defeated.”
“The quotations create a picture of the town over the years – the passing of wars; the poverty of some and wealth of others; the range of the benefactors and the praise and occasional opprobrium in which they were held; of life, of drink, of death; in the activities of the Church; of riots on the Prospect; in the construction of modern amenities; the coming of railways and supermarkets; even the town’s appearance in fiction”
After further research, I discovered that Jon’s wife Heather, also has a keen interest in the area thay now call home and is the author of a book that would compliment this collection of quotations and poems well:
Ross-on-Wye : A Photographic History of Your Town
—–
“Nor distant far, Ross, with her wood-clad hills,
O’er meads and corn-fields thick, complacent smiles;
A landscape painting to the mind and eye,
Such only found where flows the matchless Wye.
Now quits the Muse her pleasing task to guide,
But bids the thoughtful rambler turn aside.
—–
From: ‘Herefordia’ by James Henry James, 1861
What a relaxing way to spend a cold and dreary Sunday afternoon!!!
I had better actually list the book now.
