Greetings.

 I have attempted to make the blog more upmarket by concentrating on more academic  matters  discarding all silliness and flights of fancy as befits a man held high in the esteem of his fellow interlechewalls. If it's not to your liking and you would wish for more levity please let me know.

Of course if you don't want any of it then don't look at it. 

Avid readers will both recall that last posting I covered, in depth, the subjects of "Tally, Telly, Tilley, Tolly and Tully" much to everybody's enlightenment and intense interest. 
The Tully I chose was Mark Tully of BBC fame.

Disgusted of Canary Wharf writes "You've forgotten Marcus Tullius Cicero - often referred to as Tully". 
I now wish to correct that oversight and do so below. 

However I hope that does not mean I shall now receive hordes of message along the lines that Atilla the Hun was known down the "Kutya  meg  Dekkol" (Dog and Duck to you) as "Tilly" oft greeted with "Hi Hun" on entry and warrants a few paragraphs.  Or that "Telly" Savalas was secretly a peace envoy for the Klu Klux Klan but you couldn't tell under the pointy hat; or that Tolly of Tolly Cobbold fame was one of the major brewers in England.

Which it was.

The original Cobbold brewery was founded in Harwich in 1723 and in 1746 the Cobbold Cliff Brewery was founded, at Cliff Lane,Ipswich. The name Tolly Cobbold is an amalgamation of the two family-run brewers: who merged in 1957; the Tollemache Brewery owned by the  Tollemache family and the Cobbold Brewery owned by the Cobbold family. 

Cosy..

Tolly Cobbold was taken over by Ellermen Lines in 1977^[  and was later sold to Brent Walker in 1989 when production of Tolly Cobbold Beers was transferred to Camerons Brewery (no, not that one)

The brewery was then acquired by Ridleys in 2002. Three years later,they was taken over by Suffolk-based Greene King in 2005.

Tolly Original, the only Tolly Cobbold beer that Ridley's continued to brew in Chelmsford, is likely to become extinct since Greene King are unlikely to continue brewing it. Greene King was the main sponsor of Ipswich Town F.C., which was established by the Cobbold family.

Funny old world. 

Greene King are now one of, if not the,

 biggest pub-co around and have managed to oversee the 

demise of many pubs with excessive rents including the 

White Lion at Marsworth which remains empty and 

an eyesore. (Guess how many years?!) 

The site owner

has secured planning consent again (the previous one lapsed in 2017)for change of use to convert the building into two three bed dwellings. Car park application again refused but may be approved once the pub is converted. In the meantime nothing happens.

The following article from the Bucks Herald will tell you the

 year and a lot about Greene King's way of doing business.

https://www.bucksherald.co.uk/news/

rent-rumpus-as-landlady-attacks-marsworth-half-price-pub-1-2888777

But I haven't told you about Tully yet, or Cicero as we all 

know him.

"While there's life, there's hope."

A brief (not very) biography is appended but I recommend the Robert Harris Trilogy-Imperium, Lustrum and Dictator (sounds like a firm of solicitors)for a good read and account of Cicero's life

--------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hampton Caught!

So enough of all this educational stuff how about some news from the Cut?

Well two of our travellers got stuck. Both on the Northern Oxford although not travelling together or heading for the same place.

a v expensive chunk of wood.

Jim and Sue were approaching Rose Narrowboats in their boat Hampton when they collected a chunk of wood that buggered their steering gear.

Last I heard they were out of the water at Rose and the meter was running.We wish them well.

Mac and Carrie on The Griffin were north of Rose Narrowboats at the Greyhound, Hawkesbury Junction when their water pump bust so they lost two or three days whilst

 Canal and River Rescue sorted them out. I know they are very fond of The Greyhound so filled their boots including meeting up with Peter and Christine on Swallow. I prefer a quiet grassy bank with no pubs and ample opportunity for prayer and meditation but each to their own. Swallow and The Griffin are now heading for Shackerstone on the Ashby for the BH Festival.

Back home and the mink continue to frolic. Needless to say CaRT were no use as they only sort mink out where there are voles. Well, of course, we might have voles if we didn't have mink but looks like we'll have to sort it out ourselves-along with the path and anything else that needs doing. 

A Gay Mink Machine

It was a tad worrying when I spotted the mink sized pink tent on the mooring and thought we had a breed of Camping Pink Mink. I'm sure you get Gay Mink-they have their own machines in bookmakers . Turns out Mike G on Albion Mills was entertaining but one of his crew preferred a night under canvass.

"I'm afraid we do not control mink in this area, mainly because of the costs of using a contractor for this.  We only do mink trapping in areas where we have water voles present as they are the main predators of this protected species.  we use volunteers who have been adequately trained and this is done in partnership with the Wildlife Trusts as trapping requires all local riparian landowners to do the same otherwise just single trapping is not effective, as mink will just move into the territory from other areas."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Mike G went off for a cruise and took Bob and Jen's boat out for a spin across the Summit. She sounded lovely even at 40 mph.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pleased to report that Max is still on the mend and holidaying, en famille, in Weymouth. Good luck old mate.

For some reason I can't explain Max appears to have collared a dove....

-------------------------------------------------------------------

and here it is unpacked

As for me, well you are all deserving of sympathy living lives without excitement or fulfilment whereas I can hardly contain my enthusiasm over my most recent Dunelm  (the Cathedral of Soft Furnishings) purchase  pictured here. Not only is it "an Airer"-clothes horse to you-but you will have noted that it is a "Slimline" airer (with adjustable wings for multiple drying positions-bliss) giving it a class and style that will be much admired along the moorings as my smalls blow gently in the balmy breeze.

The portholes have had their annual clean and very nice they look too....nearly as nice as my clothes horse.

----------------------------------------------------------------------Time for a rant.
These roadworks were commence on Friday 17th Aug. When I say commenced they dug the pavement up and installed barriers and cones sufficient to give the impression that a four- lane underpass was to be constructed. Presumably because pedestrians (about three a day) would have to walk in the gutter they also installed traffic lights.  No more work has been done for the last 8 days. Somebody moved the lights when they stopped working but nothing else. Now I can hear you shouting at your screen "Why are you so annoyed about this Michael? Perhaps the team got called to a more major task; perhaps the Council realised the underpass was meant to be in Berkhamsted. Calm down dear"

Well what's got my goat is that as well as the above waste of time and money they moved the bus stop; and so they could chain the temporary bus stop sign to something solid it was moved to the other side of the petrol station and clamped to a road sign. Half way to Northchurch and a bloody long walk! Yesterday, Saturday, 25th, some worthy sat in a van parked by the proper bus stop for over an hour (akip with hazard lights on and feet on dashboard) before eventually taking the redundant lights away. He did not. of course reinstate the bus stop. That will happen........
I know not when.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Sadly the Cow Roast Inn remains closed (as does the Lamb) both examples of masterly inactivity by Heineken and the use of a bus for refreshment destinations will remain necessary for a very long time. In fact I am now firmly of the opinion that neither will ever reopen remaining (until the convenient fire/Squatter occupation/MacDonald's bangs in the final nail) monuments to corporate greed.

========================================= The great debate on visitors to this site has deepened! For the first time the figures for last week show a significant new entry. In 8th place with 3 votes there is now "Unknown Region" Entry Pageviews United Kingdom 73 United States 26 Ireland 16 Poland 16 Indonesia 7 France 5 Russia 4 Unknown Region 3 Brazil 3 Saudi Arabia 3

So have I somehow through the wonders of laptoppery discovered a previously unknown land about which nothing is known even to Google? I know that this land-shall we call it Wallonia?-has a population of at least 3 souls all of whom have access to the internet, probably a tablet left by a passing missionary along with the Wallonic Guide to the Internet, that the inhabitants are interested in canals, pubs (mostly closed) unnecessary roadworks, Mark and Cicero Tully, mink and anything else they can glean from the blog before retiring for the night to their daub and wattle three bedded just outside the Capital, Wallsberg.

Or am I getting ahead of myself? (That's the second sentence today that I've started with "Or"-standby for missive from Angry of Canary Wharf)

It could be that it is only one person who has looked three times. Perhaps it is a desert island where a shipwrecked maiden with a fully charged dongle has fetched up and is surviving on a diet of coconut until rescued. But (Oh no! Not a "But"-perhaps I've got conjunctivitis?) why not use the Internet access to summon help? Perhaps she is so at peace for the first time since leaving the Convent of the Whispering Sisters of Murphy that my humble blog is, apart from the coconuts, all the sustenance she needs. Either way it underscores the wish to upscale the intellectual content of the blog and to be more educational with less silliness. Perhaps I should take out the bit about the clothes horse.....I am very happy with it though....nah. Leave it in

------------------------------------------------------------------

No news is good news-or once more unto the breach...

The  extract from a CaRT email shows they have more than canal breaches to contend with and it is unusual to get a missive that I "was not" affected. I presume they had to send this info to the majority of customers as a few of a more delicate nature will have been concerned that although they had not been told that their details had been compromised they might wonder if they had. Shame. That money could have been spent on our path or a real breach. 

Hello, Notification of a Data Breach On Wednesday morning (22 August 2018) the Canal & River Trust discovered a data breach in relation to licensing renewals affecting a number of customers.  I am contacting you to confirm that your details were not amongst those affected by this data breach. The breach was due to a technical issue at our sub-contractor and not a breach of the Trust’s security system.

So in line with the avowed educational aspiration..

. “Once more unto the breach, dear friends"

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

(from Henry V, spoken by King Henry)

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead.

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger;

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let pry through the portage of the head

Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it

As fearfully as doth a galled rock

O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,

Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,

Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit

To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.

Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!

Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,

Have in these parts from morn till even fought

And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:

Dishonour not your mothers; now attest

That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.

Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here

The mettle of your pasture; let us swear

That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;

For there is none of you so mean and base,

That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge

Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

Volunteer please to give a reading at our next

 St George's Party on 27th April 2019?

----------------------------------------------------------------

Finally for today-the best news of all-better even than my new "Airer".....

Annie is a Nannie! 

A baby girl (6ib 10oz) born to daughter Tarryn and Will.

Congratulations all round!

================================================================================

More on Cicero-as promised.

Marcus Tullius Cicero,  Tully, (born 106 BCE, Arpinum, Latium [now Arpino, Italy]—died December 7, 43 BCE, Formiae, Latium [now Formia]), Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, and writer who vainly tried to uphold republican principles in the final civil wars that destroyed the Roman Republic. His writings include books of rhetoric, orations, philosophical and political treatises, and letters. He is remembered in modern times as the greatest Roman orator and the innovator of what became known as Ciceronian rhetoric.

Cicero was the son of a wealthy family of Arpinium. Admirably educated in Rome and in Greece, he did military service in 89 under Pompeius Strabo (the father of the statesman and general Pompey) and made his first appearance in the courts defending Publius Quinctius in 81. He started his public career as quaestor (an office of financial administration) in western Sicily in 75.

As  a judicial officer of great power at this time, in 66 he made his first important political speech, when,, he spoke in favour of conferring on Pompey command of the campaign against Mithradates VI, king of Pontus . His relationship with Pompey,  was to be the focal point of his career in politics. His election as Consul for 63 was achieved through Optimates who feared the revolutionary ideas of his rival, Catiline.

In the first of his consular speeches, he opposed the agrarian bill of Servilius Rullus, in the interest of the absent Pompey; but his chief concern was to discover and make public the seditious intentions of Catiline, who, defeated in 64, appeared again at the consular elections in 63 (over which Cicero presided, wearing armour beneath his toga). Catiline lost and planned to carry out armed uprisings in Italy and arson in Rome. Cicero had difficulty in persuading the Senate of the danger, but the “last decree” (Senatus consultum ultimum), something like a proclamation of martial law was passed on October 22. On November 8, after escaping an attempt on his life, Cicero delivered the first speech against Catiline in the Senate, and Catiline left Rome that night. Evidence incriminating the conspirators was secured and, after a senatorial debate in which Cato the Younger spoke for execution and Julius Caesar against, they were executed on Cicero’s responsibility. Cicero, announcing their death to the crowd with the single word vixerunt (“they are dead”), received a tremendous ovation from all classes, which inspired his subsequent appeal in politics to concordia ordinum, “concord between the classes.” He was hailed by Catulus as “father of his country.” This was the climax of his career.

At the end of 60, Cicero declined Caesar’s invitation to join the political alliance of Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey, the so-called First Triumvirate, which he considered unconstitutional, and also Caesar’s offer in 59 of a place on his staff in Gaul. When Publius Clodius, whom Cicero had antagonized by speaking and giving evidence against him when he was tried for profanity early in 61, became tribune in 58, Cicero was in danger, and in March, disappointed by Pompey’s refusal to help him, fled Rome. On the following day Clodius carried a bill forbidding the execution of a Roman citizen without trial. Clodius then carried through a second law, of doubtful legality, declaring Cicero an exile. Cicero went first to Thessalonica, in Macedonia, and then to Illyricum. In 57, thanks to the activity of Pompey and particularly the tribune Titus Annius Milo, he was recalled on August 4. Cicero landed at Brundisium (Brindisi) on that day and was acclaimed all along his route to Rome, where he arrived a month later.

In winter 57–56 Cicero attempted unsuccessfully to estrange Pompey from Caesar. Pompey disregarded Cicero’s advice and renewed his compact with Caesar and Crassus at Luca in April 56. Cicero then agreed, under pressure from Pompey, to align himself with the three in politics, and he committed himself in writing to this effect (the “palinode”). The speech De provinciis consularibus (On the Consular Provinces) marked his new alliance. He was obliged to accept a number of distasteful defenses, and he abandoned public life. In the next few years he completed the De oratore (55; On the Orator) and De republica (52; On the Republic) and began the De legibus (52; On Laws). In 52 he was delighted when Milo killed Clodius but failed disastrously in his defense of Milo (later written for publication, the Pro Milone, or For Milo).

In 51 he was persuaded to leave Rome to govern the province of Cilicia, in southern Anatolia, for a year. The province had been expecting a Parthian invasion, but it never materialized, although Cicero did suppress some brigands on Mt. Amanus. The Senate granted a supplicatio (a period of public thanksgiving), although Cicero had hoped for a triumph, a processional return through the city, on his return to Rome. All admitted that he governed Cilicia with integrity.

By the time Cicero returned to Rome, Pompey and Caesar were struggling for complete power. He was on the outskirts of Rome when Caesar crossed the Rubicon and invaded Italy in January 49. Cicero met Pompey outside Rome on January 17 and accepted a commission to supervise recruiting in Campania. He did not leave Italy with Pompey on March 17, however. His indecision was not discreditable, though his criticism of Pompey’s strategy was inexpert. In an interview with Caesar on March 28, Cicero showed great courage in stating his own terms—his intention of proposing in the Senate that Caesar should not pursue the war against Pompey any further—though they were terms that Caesar could not possibly accept. He disapproved of Caesar’s dictatorship; yet he realized that in the succession of battles (which continued until 45) he would have been one of the first victims of Caesar’s enemies, had they triumphed. This was his second period of intensive literary production, works of this period including the Brutus, Paradoxa Stoicorum (Paradoxes of the Stoics), and Orator (The Orator) in 46; De finibus (On the Supreme Good) in 45; and Tusculanae disputationes(Tusculan Disputations), De natura deorum (On the Nature of the Gods), and De officiis (On Duties), finished after Caesar’s murder, in 44.

Last Months

Cicero was not involved in the conspiracy to kill Caesar on March 15, 44, and was not present in the Senate when he was murdered. On March 17 he spoke in the Senate in favour of a general amnesty, but then he returned to his philosophical writing and contemplated visiting his son, who was studying in Athens. But instead he returned to Rome at the end of August, and his 14 Philippic orations (so called in imitation of Demosthenes’ speeches against Philip II of Macedonia), the first delivered on Sept. 2, 44, the last on April 21, 43, mark his vigorous reentry into politics. His policy was to make every possible use of Caesar’s adopted son Octavian (the future emperor Augustus), whose mature intelligence he seriously underestimated, and to drive the Senate, against its own powerful inclination toward compromise, to declare war on Mark Antony, who had controlled events immediately following Caesar’s death and who now was pursuing one of the assassins in Cisalpine Gaul. No letters survive to show how Octavian deceived Cicero in the interval between the defeat of Antony in Cisalpine Gaul on April 14 and Octavian’s march on Rome to secure the consulship in August. It was in May that Octavian learned of Cicero’s unfortunate remark that “the young man should be given praise, distinctions—and then be disposed of.” The Second Triumvirate of Octavian, Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was formed at the end of October, and Cicero was soon being sought for execution. He was captured and killed near Caieta on December 7. His head and hands were displayed on the rostra, the speakers’ platform at the Forum, in Rome.