Both are correct?

Clary wrote:

McT I have just seen that Stockport is 12th in the book of Crap Towns....

Yes I was unfortunately aware of that, but just as you can't believe all you read in dictionaries these days.....

Stockport is a bit of a mixed bag, a curate's egg, but some bits are picture-postcard pretty, and it's quite a go-ahead wee place commercially too. No complains here.

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It's all right, I don't believe anything I read anywhere really, except possibly Terry Pratchett. There are several glaring exceptions in that book, as well as perfectly interesting towns too.

I am typing to you from East Molesey, just across the river from HAMPTON COURT PALACE which is quite exciting.

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Three years ago we took a river cruiser on the Thames for a week and sailed from Kingston to Henley and back. The river is delightful there, I can confirm. I moored the boat quite close to you, and while 3 went to see Hampton Court Palace, and had a great time there by all accounts, I stayed on the boat and read a book and watched the rowing eights and the scullers and the ducks & geese. I wanted to be on "anchor watch" because it was blowing half a gale and I wanted the boat to remain where it was.
The places by the river we visited, Marlow, Windsor, Henley, Eton, were all splendid and full of interest; a bit like Stockport, in fact.

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Clary wrote:

It's all right, I don't believe anything I read anywhere really, except possibly Terry Pratchett. There are several glaring exceptions in that book, as well as perfectly interesting towns too.

I am typing to you from East Molesey, just across the river from HAMPTON COURT PALACE which is quite exciting.

Yo, Clary

Just last week, we were all treated to a great picture of a new ghost -- apparently one that doesn't mind being photographed -- at Hampton Court Palace.

Any "latest word" on that photo?

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McTag wrote:

...a bit like Stockport, in fact.

http://www.lordbramhall.co.uk/img/bramhallhall1.jpg

Funny thing -- this was the image I had of Toad Hall or maybe Cold Comfort Farm.

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I will look into that ghost business as soon as it stops raining and they open the palace to visitors again.

Nice pic, Piff, but is that the palace? It looks too blacknwhite, the bit I saw as we drove past was red brick.

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Here is a link to the story:

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2003/12/19/292194-ap.html

I understand there actually is video of the...whatever!

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Oh, you're right; that was Bramhall Hall, in Stockport.

Here is Hampton Palace~~

http://tudorhistory.org/castles/hcp/front.jpg

I'm sorry it is raining... we have (dare I say it?) blue sky. I'm sure it won't last long!

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Aha!

Well done with the pictures Piff, you are indeed a woman of infinite resource and sagacity.

Bramall Hall is about a mile and a half from where we live.
However not all the buildings in Stockport are half-timbered Tudor.

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Hi McTag -- It just has a Toad Hall feel, to me! As a neighbor, that would make you... perhaps a badger? or a mole? or maybe even a water rat????

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Clary wrote:

I have worked with, been fairly intimate with, the lexicographer in charge of the Advanced Learners, for Cambridge. It's time you realised that dictionaries are written by ordinary people like ME so quoting them is not going to cut much ice with the likes of I!

Nice, Clary. I will remember immediately how Clary says whenever I want to point out "how the dictionaries explain". Razz

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Bramhall, and especially Bramhall Hall, are indead some places, 'closely connected' to some members here :wink:

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Piffka wrote:

Hi McTag -- It just has a Toad Hall feel, to me! As a neighbor, that would make you... perhaps a badger? or a mole? or maybe even a water rat????

There are some Bramhall people who drive like Mr Toad, I know, I've seen them at it.
As a neighbour, Badger? Grumpy, subterranean, nocturnal. Does that sound like me? Mrs Badger is laughing.
I like messing about in boats, though, too. So there are elements of the water vole or Ratty there.
The British water vole population is threatened by the American mink. Mink escaped from fur farms have bred, have no natural predator, and are good swimmers. So they are replacing the native water voles. Just a little nature note for you.

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Just catching up with this interesting thread. Poor old Stockport. It is something of a mixed bag but aren't most places? In all the time during my childhood, that I lived in the park in the Lodge to the hall, I never thought of Bramall Hall as Toad Hall! But you are right. The park is a perfect setting for the story.

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The parc isn't bad at all - and was certainly (knowing the chief gardener and his actual garden) a much better place before!

Just adding (completely out of the thread's topic - sorry, oristarA!) that there a couple of some more (or less) nice halls in Stockport, e.g. Handforth Hall, Hulme Hall, Leegate Hall, Mauldeth Hall, ... ... .

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FionaB wrote:

In all the time during my childhood, that I lived in the park in the Lodge to the hall....

You did? Fabulous! Oh, please tell us about that! I wouldn't have been surprised to find that Grahame lived there, too!

So... you were laughing about Mr.Badger, eh? (heeheehee) I have one here -- determined to become a full-fledged curmudgeon. I do think McTag is more likely a water rat.. water vole... type. We've heard of many boating adventures.

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McT if you are grumpy you could well be Ratty. Why McTag, I ask? Is there a Gart missing?

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Wind in the Willows is one of my favorite stories... it has been wrecked, imo, by the Disneyesque charicatures in the same way that Pooh was, but it makes the real stuff all the better. Disney ersatz, ugh.

I always considered myself like Mole... I see a lot of feminine qualities in that "sterling" character. Toad was never my favorite, being such a blowhard. Like Mole, I loved Ratty. What a gallant! What a fun-loving guy! Like all of them, I looked up to Badger, who must know EVERYTHING!

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W i t W came high on our list of Nation's Favourite Books! ABout 12th.

I was surprised that Alice in Wonderland didn't.

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Hmmm, I'd like to see that list! I suppose Pooh is on that, and Tolkien's Hobbit. I didn't like Alice nearly as well. Not such likeable characters, Alice being a little too stupid, I thought.

Another dear and favorite children's book, Charlotte's Web, is from an American, E.B. White. He also wrote Stuart Little, but I liked Charlotte better.

Clary, E.B. White was also co-author with James Thurber of the book, Is Sex Necessary? Just reading that title makes me laugh... still.

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