"They left England with the probability of being nearly a twelvemonth absent."

After leaving Ireland I had a week and a half left in England, to enjoy and misadventure as I saw fit. Lunch with Foodycat was my first port of call, and then I headed South to see Mr A. We explored the delights of his little local pub, which was a good real ale pub, and where we had Smoke Beer which was an unique, strange and delicious beer in which the barely is smoked prior to being used for the beer. Poor weather kept us indoors and then poor organisation prevented us from going anywhere too far a field. However we took a reasonably optimistic weather forecast and headed to Battle for the day to see the Battle of Hastings site, which was very interesting and rather beautiful. We rambled about in the mud most of the afternoon and then went to the pub for a quick pint. Four pints later we were both starving (and getting a little drunk) so we marched back up the hill for dinner and another pint before making our way home on the train. We also headed to Ramsgate for the day, though the weather was bloody awful and the ship we went to see disappointing. I think we ended up walking about 8 miles, again in mud! I was up to my ankles in mud, and if I had of had long petticoats on (thankfully I was wearing a shorter dress and slip than dear Lizzy), oh my, 6 inches deep I'm sure they would have been. It was too cold and far to go to the main harbour, so I didn't see where dear Georgiana had almost eloped, but walking along the cliffs, I could imagine it quite well. It actually felt almost Gothic, so it wasn't altogether unliterary. The misdaventuring went really well, and so now I have to work out what to do about it, I don't want the story to stop here, and niether does Mr A, so we will see. It is now a question of if he can come over for a holiday at Christmas, and when I can get over there, perhaps for more than a holiday....But I won't bore you anymore, but will just put up some pictures. Enjoy.