I'd been intending for ages to do a map of Wiltshire. And now I have. Took ruddy ages, I must say.
Lots of historic things, like Jane Seymour at Wolf Hall, and the Flying Monk of Malmesbury, and Hannah Twynnoy being done in by a tiger. And Stonehenge and Avebury, of course.
I managed to get all the White Horses in; Broad Town, Hackpen, Cherhill, Devizes, Alton Barnes, Pewsey, Westbury. I even managed to squeeze in the Uffington horse, despite it being in Oxfordshire, because it featured on the sleeve of the album English Settlement, by Swindon's greatest band, XTC.
And I've indulged my love of aeroplanes by adding the quirky Edgley Optica (built at Old Sarum), a Spitfire (built in Trowbridge), a Chinook on manouevres on Salisbury Plain, a BE2 and a Boxkite at Upavon and an Avro York taking off from Lyneham.
And because history isn't all fancy dress and morris dancing, there's the Battle of the Bean Field, and the Handsel sisters, murdered by the locals because they were a bit foreign and blamed for a smallpox outbreak; and buried in different places around the woods to stop their spirits getting together for further mischief.
And lots more besides. I'm afraid that Corsham and its peacocks didn't
get in, because I wanted to do a nice picture of Bradford on Avon, which
went a bit far north. I hope the locals can forgive me; I'd hate to
have another Tiverton incident.
You can get a copy from Devizes Books, or from my boat if you can find me; or from my Etsy shop.
Claudite jam rivos, pueri, sat prata biberunt.
