Friday, April 27. Sunny first thing in the morning, and warmer, but soon turned to rain again. To Bath to lunch with Jeff (nephew) and partner Liz, whom L hadn't met and was keen to. Though narrow, part of the road followed the Fosse Way, which is the sort of discovery that is always warming (and a village was called Street on the Fosse, unimaginatively enough). With Jeff and Liz to a new bakery they had wanted to try out - Jeff hankers for nice bread after his years in Belgium. What they were baking looked nice, though most of what we would have liked to order was sold out. Much talk. Liz involved with reporting triathlon for the Olympics - she's a triathlete herself. L keen to reacquaint herself with Bath Abbey. The memorials there have a perhaps unique coherence, because they all fall within a fairly narrow timespan - you wouldn't be far wrong if you said they were all people Jane Austen could have known. L disappointed to find that the fan vaulting was C19 - Abbey was actually a ruin until restoration began at the end of C16, and the present roof is the second since then. The church didn't count for much until Bath became fashionable.
South then across Somerset until suddenly it was all so much more beautiful and warmer and more springlike and we were in Dorset. Found a room in a fairly upmarket place in Beaminster where bed is wide enough to sleep crossways. For 5 people at a time. Walking round the town, puzzled by streams of children coming out of all the alleyways - like the Pied Piper. Concluded there must be a disco on at the High School or something, but later it seemed this is just what they do on a Friday night, milling round in groups without any particular purpose. Thought it was a bad sign. Cuffs of my trousers have been perpetually wet for the last month, walking in the non-stop downpours - hope to dry them tonight in the spacious wardrobe provided. Shall I wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled?