Peculiar History

The port of Rye, in East Sussex, is an interesting town with a strong medieval ambiance. I spent a few days there last month thinking it might make an interesting background for a future novel. It’s a fascinating place, and I’ll have more to say about it later, but for now here is a decidedly odd story I came across during my researches.

From early medieval times onwards Rye, as part of the Cinque Ports confederation, enjoyed various privileges in return for services to the crown. One of these was the right of the town mayor to preside over his own local courts.

In 1743 a local butcher with a grievance attempted to assassinate the then mayor. Unfortunately he made a mess of it and accidentally killed the mayor’s brother-in-law instead. The local court was able to try the murderer and sentence him to death, too – presided over by his intended victim, the mayor. There doesn’t seem to have been any suggestion of a miscarriage of justice, but I believe it remains the only instance in British legal history where a judge was able to condemn his own would-be murderer.*

Fact, as they say, is sometimes stranger than fiction, and perhaps more so in a place like Rye.

 

*I read about this curious episode in Rye – A Short History by Kenneth Clark, available from Rye Heritage Centre, Strand Quay.

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The Quirky Genre

My Aunt Bette was a decidedly eccentric lady. Well, I’ve never seen anyone else wear gold and orange sparkly stockings to a funeral, have you? She had a wicked sense of humour, some of which seems to have been passed on to me via the family genes – it’s got both of us into trouble at times. Auntie Bette would hold court at her local pub, seated beneath a portrait of the queen, gin and tonic to hand (her that is, not the queen) – and out would come the sort of stories you knew you shouldn’t laugh at, not really. But she was so funny you couldn’t help yourself.

I don’t think poor Auntie Bette had a particularly happy life, all things considered, but, like so many of us, she used humour as a prop to get her through the difficult times.

She died in 2005, and I don’t know if she had much idea about the world of computers, much less the internet. But I’ve thought of Auntie Bette often as I’ve been playing about with my tired old blog and turning it into something more resembling a website – I believe blogsite is the favoured term – and I think she would approve. She certainly had an eye for the peculiar, offbeat and quirky.

The queen was sadly not available to cut the ribbon on this re-launching, so I’m picturing Auntie Bette, resplendent in sparkly stockings, gin and tonic at the ready, stepping in on her behalf. So here you are, ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Quirky Genre. Please do wander in and have a look around at this collection of favourite quirky things.