Hot Walls, Star Wells and Chish and Flips

Half Term brought Philippa, Chiff, Barney and Martha to Wansdyke Cottage for the start of what turned out to be a fortnight with a decidedly nautical flavour. ( I don’t know why that should be !)  This started with a visit to Bristol and Aunty Shelagh on a wet mizzly day when we took advantage of the opportunity to visit the SS Great Britain. We’ve always had an interest in the ship as Great Uncle John was the river pilot who brought it into Bristol after its long trip from the Falklands back in 1970. Completely refurbished, the ship makes a fascinating museum; the scale and ambition of the enterprise is mind-boggling, but we all felt very sorry for the passengers for what they had to put up with on their two month voyage to Australia. The bunks of even the first class passengers were so narrow I couldn’t see how they could even fit themselves in, and the communal conditions for the people in steerage looked appalling.

The weather on the following day was much better so some of us drove down to Portsmouth to get a taste of the sea. We ended up pic-nicking on the little beach below the Hot Walls, a favoured spot of old hardies who like to plunge into the probably icy and usually turbulent waters at the entrance to the harbour. We collected driftwood and basked in the sunshine that many think is the origin of the name, Hot Walls. Actually it’s due to the fact that cannonballs were heated for the guns once placed there in order to set fire to the sails and rigging of any hostile warships unwise enough to come into range. There was some thought that they might be used during the Spithead naval mutiny of 1797, but they weren’t. But no such drama that day; some ferries came in and out, a hovercraft roared across from the Isle of Wight and a little naval patrol boat passed by. After walking around Point and visiting the South Parade Pier, we had the obligatory ice creams, avoided dozens of presumably dead star fish, threw more stones into the sea and came home via Turf Hill in the New Forest after a long and very pleasant day, revisiting favourite haunts.

Shortly afterwards I flew to the US Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island. This is a spectacular place that we've always loved going to. Gracious 17th-19th Century clapboard houses, the oldest inn in the US, George Washington's church, every kind of nautical activity, the famous over-the-top-and-then-some 'summer cottages' of the wealthy and the very grand naval facilities of the NWC itself.  The NWC is a very impressive place full of very impressive people. Many of the key figures of the US Navy have made their mark on the place and on history in fact. I was shown round their facilities, archives and a splendid naval museum.  I did some seminars there for faculty members and the students of the Advanced Strategy Group which were fun - or at least I thought so. 

Afterwards ,as a special reward, I was also taken to lunch at a quintessentially American diner where  Cherry and I loved having breakfast. The service is immaculate, the food, while perhaps not the healthiest that the US has to offer, is guiltily enjoyable. In these days of Macdonald's and KFC, it's a rare survival and deserves to be 'gazetted' by the Newport Preservation Trust.

A rather more gracious lunch was provided by Professor John Hattendorf at the Newport Reading Room, a  Club which seems hardly have changed from the 19th Century. John and his wife Berit are long-term friends of ours; we were forever bumping into them at conferences around the world. And so home, via a particularly crowded flight from Boston.

Ruth and Simon came the weekend after I got back. The weather was glorious - much better than in Newport which had been enveloped in a chilly sea-mist all the time I was there. Highlight of their visit was an excursion to a little known  'star well' in a field near Chippenham. Apparently these are wells, or springs, where the salts in the water form into minute stars. We had little idea of what to look for but found the spring in question after a certain amount of squelching in the mud and sharp-eyed Ruth quickly spotted a star. Once identified, others appeared. Quite extraordinary.

Cherry would have loved all this, particularly Newport. I knew that she had started collecting 25 cent coins ('quarters') that showed all the states of the Union. I had thought of using up some of this great bag of coins while I was out there, but found I couldn't bear to, without first checking what she'd amassed. Simon and Ruth helped me sort them out; we found Cherry had managed to get 42 of the 50 states. So, of course, completing the collection has now gone on the agenda. We need: Alabama, California, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi and Missouri. Offers gratefully accepted ! Another of Cherry's charming little foibles was keeping us on our toes by deliberately inverting the syllables in words, thus 'fast-brek' and 'ding-puds',   the use of weird phrases like 'kipper-feet' and a made-up language all of her own, thus 'weebly' (meaning weak and feeble) 'go fleepies' (fall asleep) and 'soupings' - (soup) and of course the 'chish and flips' that ended the family day in Portsmouth. Recalling all these for the benefit of posterity has become a favourite family pastime.  And, finally, I can attest to the fact that Lee's in Devizes do 'chish and flips' better that they do in Newport, although if the 4th Street Diner had a go at them (which they don't) I'm sure they would give the home team a good run for their money.