When writing my romance novel, I was told by a few people that to use the word 'hate' was not appropriate.  I should have used the word 'dislike'  I suppose, but the dictionary says hate means 'to feel intense dislike for' which I think is exactly the same thing!

I'm often heard to say 'I hate this or that.'  I apologise, but that's just me!  I try not to say it, but it's hard to change the habit of a lifetime.

I have just come back from a four day break in the beautiful Cotswolds.  Unfortunately the UK is having a spell of very heavy rain and storms and some places have had two months supply in just a couple of days.  It was very wet in the Cotswolds too, but the beauty and history of the place could not be dampened even by our inclement weather.  

We stayed in a Travelodge in Burford.  I had never been to Burford before and when I saw it's main street, my eyes popped out of my head!  It is a long street, starting at the top of a hill and each side of the street has buildings dating back hundreds of years.  It was like travelling back in time.  The buildings have small doors (people were shorter years ago) tiny windows and crooked roofs.  

Burford has a church which dates back to 1100 when part of it was first built.  Some churches are just buildings and have no soul, but Burford is still a thriving church with Jesus at it's heart and it was so good to know that people still worship there and are growing as Christians.  So Burford church is 900 years old and it is breath-takingly beautiful and obviously full of history.  During the Civil war, some royalist soldiers were taken prisoner by Cromwell's roundheads and kept in the church.  Several of them were then executed.  I thought the church would always be a place of sanctuary, but obviously not!  Had I been alive in those times I would not have been a follower of Cromwell, he was a most miserable man with fanatical religious beliefs!  I HATE that!  No music, no colour, nothing which God really wants us to enjoy was allowed by Cromwell.

We looked around the church and saw a large tomb where Sir Lawrence Tanfield and his wife Lady Elizabeth were buried in the 1600's.  You can tell by looking at the monument that rich people are buried within it.  It mentions on the leaflet that Sir Lawrence and his wife were so HATED by the townspeople that their effigies were burned, once a year, for 200 years!  Apparently, they were very harsh to the peasant/tenants of which Lady Elizabeth said (or words to this effect) 'These people are so worthless they are only fit to be ground to powder under my feet.'

Even so, 200 years is a very long time and I wonder who stopped the burning of the effigies?  

We have been to so many churches all over the country, but never, ever, found anything like this before!  Isn't it amazing?

So now I know what HATE really means!  I do so hope when I die I leave something a little better in remembrance behind me!  Ha, ha.  If I look down and see someone burning my effigy, I shall feel a bit worried!

June 2019

(Wet and horrible June!)

PS  The Tanfield's had a daughter called Elizabeth who - wait for it - was a writer!  She was also a catholic convert.