Today it is 12 months since Sam arrived in England!
We decided to go to Rugby today, to see where William Webb Ellis revolutionised the game of football (Soccer) and turned it into Rugby - well, in a manner of speaking! For those of you who aren't aware, in the 1800s Webb, a student at Rugby College suffering from concussion during a game of soccer, picked up the ball and ran with it, thus more or less inventing the game of rugby.
Rugby is not as attractive a town as some, but it has its own charm. Rugby School is large and there is a statue of W Webb Ellis outside, opposite a large Webb Ellis Trophy, made of flowers.
We looked around the Rugby Museum - very interesting, with items from all the different rugby teams, some surprising ones such as Oregon and other US cities. Not an awful lot of artefacts from Australia, unfortunately.
We also saw the statue of Rupert Brooke (see photos under Rugby), one of Rugby's most famous sons and my favourite poet - he died in 1915 just before he was due to take part in the Gallipoli campaign and is buried on the isle of Skyros. He wrote some beautiful poems - Hauntings and Granchester being my favourites and most people know the one that begins "If I should die, think only this of me, there is some corner of a foreign field that is forever England..." He also wrote a lovely humorous one entitled "The Little Dog had his Day" as well as many other patriotic war poems. We drove past the house were he was born - Brooke House, 5 Hillmorton Road. Ron and I called our first cat Rupert!
The drive between Leamington Spa and Rugby is particularly picturesque, along typical English country lanes and, although it rained (how unusual!!)it didn't detract from the countryside.
For some reason, the Rugby photos have ensconced themselves between two separate lots of Warwick photos.
Sam, Stacey and Nicole have gone out for the evening and Ron and I are watching the First Night of the Proms (we've previously seen only the Last Night!!).
Off to Allan and Dot's tomorrow for Allan's 60th, so we may not have internet access until next Thursday, when we go to Yorkshire.
