Mistley Dawn

This is off message but picture from Mistley Quay this morning at dawn of the drop dead gorgeous Stour Estuary (double click to bring up detail) . This weekend was R&R after the GLA election and the marathon. Two wonderful walks to Constable Country and Harwich. A little bit wet at times. Local people were genuinely concerned at the flooding in the valley from recent heavy rains (unheard of in their life times). Global warning??

I was born and raised near the Dee Estuary in North Wales so I always feel at home near tidal rivers.

What was disconcerting is that behind the Quayside cottage I was renting was the "The Thorn Inn" (now a hotel serving great food) but where in the 17th Century, Witch-finder General, Matthew Hopkins is reputed to have lived and to have interrogated some of his victims. Some 300 women were tortured and murdered by Hopkins as "witches".

How can somewhere so lovely and beautiful be the home of such evil?