Couple of stories

Usually I try to keep the blips brief, but I have a couple of completely different stories to tell.

Firstly, upon seeing my glass perfume bottle (blipped here) on the mantle piece, my Mother said that she had another piece of glass I could have and then proceeded to tell me how the silver topped salt shaker came to be in her possession.
In the 1970s and 1980s Mrs Thatcher used to have a weekend retreat at Scotney Castle near Lamberhurst, which is close to where I spent my formative years. She was friends with the Brewer family and although details are a little hazy, I believe that the husband Frank was some sort of special envoy to the Far East.
Anyway, he belonged to the same Theatre group as my family and when they were holding a sale to raise money to convert a disused oast house into a theatre, Mrs T was approached to donate some pieces. One of which was the pictured salt shaker, plus a glass stoppered perfume bottle which I am saving for another blip! Both of which took my Mother's fancy and she has had them squirreled away ever since.
The extra shows the Hallmarks, which after extensive research (thank heavens for Google) I believe to mean the top is Sterling Silver, produced in Chester by King and Sons in 1906! Its a lovely piece.

2nd story is of a walk my husband and I had along the canal in Ellesmere. We had just started along the busy towpath when we could see this tiny little boy, about 3yrs old chasing after a puppy, shouting for it to stop and heading in our direction. Behind us was a road and carpark so I stepped in front of the dog to stop it. It turned tail and ran back the other way, with the shoeless little boy in pursuit. They ran along the path, under a bridge and round the corner out of sight. The little boy had fallen over twice and was getting upset. We looked around for any visibly responsible adult and there were none! Bearing in mind that this was alongside the canal and there was no fence, I was a little concerned.

 As we approached the bridge the dog, then the boy appeared in some distress and very close to tears. I asked if he needed help and he grabbed my hand and asked me to help catch the dog which I eventually did. He led me back to one of the canal boats moored some way off which was apparently where his Grandad lived. 

Grandad was in the doorway and I handed him the dog and told him that his Grandson had been really distressed and got very close to the edge of the canal. He then turned to someone unseen at the back of the boat and said "isn't it about time you looked after your son"! No checking the boy was ok and no thanks!

I was dismayed that any parent could let their little boy run unsupervised so close to the very busy canal. Also that this sweet little boy was so trusting and desperate that he took the hand of a complete stranger and asked for help. I could have said or done anything and that little boy would have followed me. It really doesn't bear thinking about!
So rant over.