Before you can say . . .

We spent an hour or so this morning compiling a town trail for our grandchildren when they come up next week. We wandered round Appleby, me taking photographs of things to spot, whilst the notetaker wrote down questions we could ask. We must have looked a bit suspicious with camera and notebook, as a few people asked if they could help us!

This is one picture I took. The White House, as it is known, is a rather grand house standing at a corner of the main street. It looks a bit the worse for wear now, but would have been an imposing place when it was built in 1756. It is apparently a good example of what is known as ‘Georgian Gothic’ architecture, with distinctive ogee arches above the windows.
 
The house was built by John Robinson, a lawyer who was at one time articled to Richard Wordsworth, grandfather of William Wordsworth. In 1764 he was elected as Member of Parliament for Westmorland. It is said that his name gave rise to a popular saying. Apparently Sheridan, when attacking in Parliament the bribery of electors (sounds familiar!), in response to cries to ‘name’ the guilty party and being proscribed by parliamentary rules from doing so directly, looked straight at Robinson and said: Yes, I could name him as soon as I could say Jack Robinson. There is some doubt about the truth of this story!
 
Lovely to see Shaaamie’s wonderful elephant blip up there on the Popular page. We were at the same place on this day last year and my blip was very popular.