Monthly Archives: May 2007

The Man Who Wasn’t Quite

Posted on May 15, 2007 by robhunt510

Last night in Calais I heard my first mysterious tale. The Art Museum close to the Richlieu park has a daily visitor. He is old, perhaps as much as eighty; tall with a shock of white hair and long beard, … Continue reading →

Posted in Calais | 2 Comments

Crossing with Thomas Coryat

Posted on May 14, 2007 by robhunt510

Coryat gets Going My Observations of France I was imbarked at Dover, about tenne of the clocke in the morning, the fourteenth of may, being Saturday and Whitsun-Eve, Anno 1608, and arrived in Calais (which Caesar calleth Ictius portus, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Calais | Leave a comment

Crossing Me

Posted on May 14, 2007 by robhunt510

On the waterfrontWhitstable last night for Oysters and swanky fish and chips. No sign of the many YBA artists who live here; perhaps they are all walking to Venice as well: for this summer’s Biennale. Dover saw a little sun … Continue reading →

Posted in Calais | Leave a comment

DAY ONE two

Posted on May 14, 2007 by robhunt510

Passports tell stories, don’t they? The old one I have swapped to enable this trip was a litany of new lives I’ve lived over the last decade in London, New York, Cairo, Budapest and Ljubljana. These seem to be key … Continue reading →

Posted in Calais | Leave a comment

DAY ONE

Posted on May 14, 2007 by robhunt510

Western civilization is becoming universal, the race a homogenous one. And before we die, half the variety of the picture will be gone; as if a showman had sold his swing-boats, his hoop-las, his fat women, and even his merry-go-round, … Continue reading →

Posted in Calais | 4 Comments

Dover, Sunday: girls, champers and guns

Posted on May 13, 2007 by robhunt510

“When the King’s messenger came there, they gave 3d in winter and 2d in summer for horse passage. The burgesses found a steersman and 1 other assistant. If there was more labour it was hired with his own money.” From … Continue reading →

Posted in pre-trip | Leave a comment

Dover and Writers

Posted on May 13, 2007 by robhunt510

“We must love one another or die.” The poet W.H. Auden has been a source of comfort for many years. I discovered him at school, wrote my dissertation about him at University, and have returned to his works, poetry and … Continue reading →

Posted in Auden Dover White cliffs 9/11 Archer, pre-trip | Leave a comment

“Oh reason not the need.”

Posted on May 13, 2007 by robhunt510

In 1603, another plague year in London, William Shakespeare took his players on a tour. The Chamberlain’s men visited Bath, Rochester and came here, to Dover. Was this the time that he wrote, or at least visualized, King Lear? That … Continue reading →

Posted in Auden Dover White cliffs 9/11 Archer, Blind Gloucester, King Lear, Masculinity, pre-trip, Shakespeare | 1 Comment

Where ignorant armies clash by night

Posted on May 13, 2007 by robhunt510

…really neither joy, nor love, nor lightNor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain If you are standing on the deck of a cross channel ferry headed for France and looking back to land then I reckon that Shakespeare takes … Continue reading →

Posted in pre-trip | Leave a comment

He came to spread success, and he has spread it…

Posted on May 12, 2007 by robhunt510

Above, from The Dovonian, the Dover College magazine, summer 1963. Either I mistake your shape and making quite,Or else you are that shrewd and knavish spriteCall’d Robin Goodfellow. Fairy to Puck: A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act II Sc 1. Bushy … Continue reading →

Posted in pre-trip | 2 Comments