As several readers may know, my day job is looking after Chedworth Roman Villa in the Cotswolds. Chedworth sits comfortably within a region that supported some of the most prosperous rural estates in Britannia. Yet the world that sustained and shaped the villa extended far beyond the Coln valley.
BOOK REVIEWS
Stephen Coan’s The Buried Man can only be described as magisterial. It is the culmination of decades of patient, methodical, and deeply informed scholarship. Coan has lived with, traced, and tracked H. Rider Haggard for much of his adult life, and this monumental volume represents the distillation of that long engagement. It is unlikely to be surpassed for a very long time.
BLUE PLAQUES
Previously the site of a Voortrekker homestead, the club was opened on 22nd December 1906 by the Mayor. It comprised 46 acres and offered a welcome respite from the clamour and dust of the town. Here members enjoyed extensive gardens (designed later by Joane Pim) and a lake. Sporting facilities included golf, squash, cricket, swimming, polo, boating – and fox hunting.