Stardate: 6 May 2019 - And in news from your Buxton corrrespondent...

Congratulations to Meghan and Harry on the birth of little Coyote Rocket.   I did laugh when I saw  the UK's The Telegraph reporting that Prince William was by Meghan's side as she was in labour.  What, Harry not up to the job?  Anyway, top work all round and best wishes to them.

As mentioned yesterday, there is a protuberance hanging over the lower set of stairs in our house - it's the bottom of the top set of stairs.  We have managed to avoid clunking our heads on it thus far.

Having said that, this is by far the best accommodation we've had since beginning our trip.  Fresh bread (proper stuff!), free-range eggs, milk, home-made biscuits and fresh flowers greeted us on arrival.  The beds are comfortable and we have an easily-operated, spacious shower that does not have a succession of levers, knobs, buttons and strings to be negotiated before the hot water kicks in.  It's excellent!  All the other fittings in the house seem to be of good quality too. While we liked our place in Killin, we're pretty sure the miniscule shower recess was designed for a caravan or campervan. God, it was horrible.

The ironic thing is that rent-wise, this place is by far the cheapest we're staying in. I can only assume that's because the English Midlands is still shaking off its less desirable, Industrial Revolution past. It's certainly worth a visit.  And such pastoral beauty!

We were delighted to see that we have a Mr Ed-type back door.  I'm sure everyone over 50 will remember Mr Ed hanging over the bottom half of his stable door talking to Wilbur.

Mind you, this door has four locks on it that take about 10 minutes to open so I'm not sure Geoff will continue to do Mr Ed impersonations during our week here.

We had a lovely wander around Buxton CBD today taking in the sights.  Here's some random old trout standing beside St Ann's Well - a spring that has been providing water for several thousand years.  Buxton is a spa town.  The original well was located elsewhere (but nearby) until one of the many dukes of Devonshire decided it had to go so he could build a fancy Georgian 'Crescent' like the one in Bath. 

I fear a succession of dukes of Devonshire spent much of their time vandalising 'old' Buxton and building new monuments to themselves.  Because of its thermal springs, the area has been settled since Neolithic times.  The Romans established a city here and sadly, bugger-all remains of it.  There is the odd bit of masonry in the basements of some private homes but nothing is publicly accessible.  The town still conforms to the street layout of the Roman city and the Methodist church just around the corner from us is believed to have been built on the site of what was a Roman temple, even using the same dimensions as the temple.  There are some locally-found Roman artifacts in the Buxton Museum but that is all.  Thank Dog the Dukes did not get their hands on Colchester!

Had a bit of a wander round the Buxton Spring Fair today - much like any other street fair really but without the extensive range of street food you get in Australian ones.  The food stalls were mainly for variations on the common sausage - sausage sambos, sausage kebabs, curried sausages and the odd baked potato with a baked bean topping.  But it was lovely to see everyone out and about with their dogs.  Dogs are welcome everywhere and this is excellent.  When I am prime minister, this will also be the case in Australia.

And now over to everyone's favourite talking horse...

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Our favourite aspect of the Buxton Spring Fair was the abundance of dogs out and about with their persons.  We saw well over 100 today, and no exaggeration.

This is the Buxton Opera House.  You might wonder why such a relatively small town has an opera house.  So did we, but it seems it's all to do with those dukes of Devonshire that Anne refers to.  Apparently they were so motivated by building monuments to themselves that they managed to knock up an entire town of disproportionate ostentation over several centuries.  Anyway, we're the beneficiaries.

Another example: the 16th century Old Hall Hotel.  Reputedly the oldest hotel in Britain.  I did say in yesterday's report that Buxton boasted the oldest pub in Britain.  I'm afraid I misspoke - it's not exactly a pub, but more a hotel where you stay.  But you can have a drink in there, so I'm only giving myself a light slap on the wrist instead of a full blown uppercut.

We weren't there at a respectable drinking time, but it WAS morno tea time, so an enjoyable tea and elevenses was had.  It was alright, but the real attraction was the surrounds.  It's said that this was the favourite English hostelry of Mary Queen of Scots when she visited.  Yeah, her again.  Can't get away from her.

Look, I could go on and on about the magnificent architecture, so unexpected in such a modest town, but I'll give it away now.  This is the Palace Hotel.  Not the oldest in town but probably the grandest.  

OK, I lied; one more.  The Buxton Bath House is a bath house no more, but a shopping centre instead.  Mercifully they've tried their best to preserve the original features despite the lowbrow change in function.  This was taken from the inside and shows the interior of the ornate roof.

Hard as it may be to believe, there are numerous more local attractions, but we'll leave it there for now.  Time permitting, we'll have another meander around town later in the week.  But tomorrow we're thinking of a train trip (about an hour) to mighty Manchester for a day out around town.   More to follow!