![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Cock at Ringmer- where we had a very good lunch yesterday- displays a brewer's dray being drawn by carthorses as its inn sign.
Why?
"It should be a cock," I said- which led to a conversation of the Carry-on variety, ripe with innuendo.
Which led, in turn (I think you can see how it might), to a conversation about flags.
"I'd like to fly a Sussex flag in the front garden," I said.
The Sussex flag looks like this
Those funny heraldic birds are called martlets. They're an abstracted version of the house martin or swift and are supposed to spend their whole lives in the air- which is why they don't have any feet. Shakespeare (who was, ahem, a good Sussex man) works them into the Scottish play, where Duncan, observing them flitting round the battlements of Dunsinane, describes them as "temple-haunting". Little did he know. There are six of them because Sussex used to be divided into six administative areas called "rapes"- with Eastbourne belonging to the rape of Lewes. The flag was only officially recognised as a thing as recently as 2011 but the iconography is ancient and seems to derive from the coat of arms of John de Radynden who was a big noise in the County in the 12th century.
Flags are remarkably cheap. You can get a nice one for £20. Flag poles are rather more expensive. I don't suppose we'll actually get one because we're not show-offs.
Here, by the way, is the Cock. It couldn't be more traditional.
Ailz had fish and chips for lunch and I had a Sussex Smokie- which is smoked haddock with spinach in a cheese sauce. The Sussex smokie is the finest dish known to man- and was a favourite of William the Conqueror's who, having landed at Normans Bay near Pevensey and fought a decisive battle at Battle, always thought of himself as- like Shakespeare- a good Sussex man.
Some of that last sentence is actually true.....
Why?
"It should be a cock," I said- which led to a conversation of the Carry-on variety, ripe with innuendo.
Which led, in turn (I think you can see how it might), to a conversation about flags.
"I'd like to fly a Sussex flag in the front garden," I said.
The Sussex flag looks like this
Those funny heraldic birds are called martlets. They're an abstracted version of the house martin or swift and are supposed to spend their whole lives in the air- which is why they don't have any feet. Shakespeare (who was, ahem, a good Sussex man) works them into the Scottish play, where Duncan, observing them flitting round the battlements of Dunsinane, describes them as "temple-haunting". Little did he know. There are six of them because Sussex used to be divided into six administative areas called "rapes"- with Eastbourne belonging to the rape of Lewes. The flag was only officially recognised as a thing as recently as 2011 but the iconography is ancient and seems to derive from the coat of arms of John de Radynden who was a big noise in the County in the 12th century.
Flags are remarkably cheap. You can get a nice one for £20. Flag poles are rather more expensive. I don't suppose we'll actually get one because we're not show-offs.
Here, by the way, is the Cock. It couldn't be more traditional.
Ailz had fish and chips for lunch and I had a Sussex Smokie- which is smoked haddock with spinach in a cheese sauce. The Sussex smokie is the finest dish known to man- and was a favourite of William the Conqueror's who, having landed at Normans Bay near Pevensey and fought a decisive battle at Battle, always thought of himself as- like Shakespeare- a good Sussex man.
Some of that last sentence is actually true.....
