Swarthmoor Hall Revisited

This Elizebethan Manor House in Ulverston, Cumbria was the home of Judge and Margaret Fell. Here George Fox found a place to rest and be among friends in the years around 1650 when the Quaker founder was often the subject of persecution

We often visit, and look round the old house - just half a mile from the house of my parent's in law. Swarthmoor Hall has been furnished with artifacts from George Fox's time. But it is more than a living musuem. The long barn alongside has been rebuilt as a place of study and retreat where people can come, like George Fox, to find peace among friends.

In Cambridge not Oxford for a change

After a family event in Bury St Edmunds we booked in to St Johns College (for B&B during the student vacation) in  Cambridge.

This was one of the views of our B & B - the Bridge of Sighs.

In the zoological museum we saw what could have been an extra-terrestrial in a preserving solution.

I enjoyed the quiet of the botanical gardens and walking round on the grass - barefoot - looking at the flowers in the systematic beds.

Also very much enjoyed Kettles Yard, a house crammed with modern art from about thirty or fourty years ago. Very relaxed as you can sit in easy chairs or browse books from the shelves as long as you like.

Saw the iconic view of Kings College from the Backs.

But did not punt - the venders were just too pushy everywhere we went. I have never noticed them being that pushy in Oxford.