SPOTTED DICK

I spent the weekend in Leicester and thus had to undertake the Richard III tour.  Signs of Richard's influence on the city were everywhere.

This is the castle park.

 Where his statue now stands.

And this is the local book shop.

A pub.

 

This is the lounge in the hotel I stayed in in Market Bosworth.

 

Even the street names in the town bear King Richard's emblem.

 This is where Richard was earlier thought to have died.

And this is the bridge from which his body was once thought to have been thrown.

But we now know that he was buried in Greyfriars, where his skeleton was recently discovered.  Unfortunately, the site is currently closed:

But here is the cathedral where he will finally be laid to rest.

BATTLE OF BOSWORTH

I'm off tomorrow for a long weekend in Bosworth.  This time the battle is going to be over the dinner table.  It's the annual meeting of the Kobe St Georges Society. which this year takes place in the venerable Bosworth Hall.  Tomorrow night will be spent on the battlefield and I expect tomorrow we'll go off to see a council car park in Leicester.  Then comes the big night with barons of beef, etc.  It will be especially poignant this year, since, those of you who know me will remember, I was barely out of hospital for last year's dinner and certainly didn't do it justice.  This year I will attempt my Henry VIII impression over dinner.  Let battle commence!

See you next week.