Tenterden, Kent, 13.5.06: Cornish Pasties and Fifty Springs

Jan Morris says that the Welsh word “cwm,” for a deep dell, is pronounced “coom,” just as “combe” is pronounced in Somerset. Welsh influence in the West Country dialect? Or perhaps Cornish. Isn’t it from the same Brythonic roots as Welsh?

Thinking last night of those Cornish pasties we enjoyed with Chuck in Canterbury, in a lane leading towards the cathedral from the High Street. That moment—the sitting, the cool air when it was torrid inside, the savory lunch—is imprinted, jewel-like, on my memory. Steve’s mint and lamb pasty was good, but I must say, I enjoyed my traditional one.

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Housman, “Shropshire Lad”: “To look at things in bloom fifty springs are little room.” Indeed. The eye does not tire of looking, the ear of hearing, or the hand of touching.