Sunday 4 December 2011

Scenes from a long run #3



Plenty of water around today. On my favourite nine mile route the road crosses many little streams and rivers. At this time of year they gush off the hills with musical enthusiasm.


The water is in such a hurry to get to lower ground.


How ancient is this stone bridge I wonder? This is a drovers' route and I imagine they needed this little bridge to cross this stream before the road was built.

3 comments:

  1. So beautiful - although I would struggle to walk the route, much less run it!

    Droves fascinate me - we have one near the cottage here, King John's ride it is known as - he supposedly took this route from a local castle at Odiham, through the village to sign the Magna Carta. The A30 was another drovers route that went from London to Exeter and it runs through the village too. The only remaining signs of its former use are the countless dew ponds used as watering holes along its route around here. They mow provide feral duck heaven!

    Dont think I have visited your part of the World, I think I will have to remedy that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You've got a beautiful part of the world in which to take a long run. Your words and pictures give us a lovely introduction. I could almost hear that water myself!

    Your comment about the age of the stone bridge was very interesting to me, and I also enjoyed Zoe's comment.

    I've know the word drover for ages, but wasn't quite sure I actually knew what a "drove" was, so off to my Concise Oxford Dictionary I went (always very good for UK related questions.) And I learned that amongst other things, a drove can be a large number of people, a multitude, moving together. I'd always thought that a drover drove herds of other sorts of animals along. Thank you for teaching me a new word! xo

    ReplyDelete
  3. "my favourite nine mile route"? Nope, lost me there.....

    ReplyDelete

I am sorry to have to add word verification thing again but I keep getting spammed.