Roper's Miscellany

  The Isle of Wight and south Hants in June 1984, revised 2023 Patrick Roper, 20 June 1984. I took the car by ferry from Portsmouth to Fishbourne then drove round   the back of Ryde to Bembridge, stopping on the way at a curious sandy peninsula of scrub owned by the National Trust and called The Duver on the north side of Brading Haven. It Looked worthy of brief exploration in the future, but I have never managed to return. The word ‘Duver’ is interesting and I have not found any explanation for it.   I wonder if it can come from the old Brittonic word for water, ‘dufer’ or similar.   I can’t help noticing that this old Celtic word for water also occurs near a places that were important in Roman times: Dover in Kent for example. The Duver at Bembridge is quite close to the Brading Roman villa which lies near the river Yar that runs into Bembridge Harbour.   The Romans could well have adopted a local term used by the natives. In Roman times Bembridge was an i...

A tour of the Midlands in May 1984 2 May 1984 Drove from Sedlescombe to Stoke via the M25 and A5 for the Great British Holiday Exhibition.   Took a walk in Wicken Wood in Northamptonshire, now Forestry Commission but part of the old Whittlewood Forest.   Just over the county boundary to the east in Buckinghamshire there is an adjoining natural area, Leckhampstead Wood, which I also visited: mostly oak, sallow and Midland thorn and very different from The Weald.   Heavy clay with tufts of bright green grass, few brambles and only a scatter of woodland flowers - primrose, bluebell, wood anemone.   On open banks there were cowslips, but perhaps introduced.   It could be a fine place for butterflies (years later I found it was a location for the wood white).   On the way out I saws a small deer grazing in a ride, perhaps a muntjac. In the sunshine the drive through England could not have been better.   The blackthorn and cherry blossom were drifting ...