Fancy a walk .......

..... said J as we approached home (it is a car sharing day).

So we did, chatting about some of the travails of the day as we did a couple of circuits of the park. There were plenty of people around. Kids playing football, people doing circuits like us, people walking their dogs. kids on the playground equipment. And a lot of dandelions gone to seed.

The extra is Queen Victoria. Most statues show her as an old lady in heavy gowns, looking glum. This one in front of Salford's Art Gallery and Museum must be one of the earliest in the country, because it is the young queen, erected to celebrate her visit to Peel Park in 1851, 14 years into her reign. The first time a British monarch had visited the north west for over 150 years, and the first of three visits she made to Manchester and Salford. She faces a statue of Prince Albert. And she carries her crown in her right hand as if it is some sort of designer handbag. A shame the sicilian marble has suffered over the years and smoothed out the facial features.

I have always liked the fact that Victoria was the first Victoria (excluding an obscure 4th century saint). Her father no doubt did not expect, as one of the brothers of William IV, that his daughter could possibly succeed to the throne, otherwise she would have been given a more traditional name. Not something which was the 19th century equivalent of Kylie (when there were no Kylies). But it no doubt fitted the mood 4 years after the battle of Waterloo when she was born, and it seemed to fit the century. Which now seems very distant.