Witchery holidays in Yorkshire - Fountains Abbey 

Beware: Spoilers for The Witcher Netflix Season 2 Episode 3

And here just a few more pictures because it’s such an amazingly beautiful place ❤️

Thomas Barrow is such a funny character, it’s like, man wants job security, proceeds to go about attempting to secure his job and land promotions in ways that will ensure his prompt termination. Somehow against all odds he continues to be rehired/accidentally promoted to everyone’s disbelief, including his own. Some suspect divine intervention is involved.

Fountains Abbey in Autumn Sunlight, North Yorkshire, England

SPIKED 

by Steve Messam

Recent visit to Fountains Abbey, England.

Outside the Abbey

Bath, England

after careful research the best places to get really good cheese scones seem to be cathedrals and abbeys

The Fountain of the Fairies

“There is a fountain in the forest called the Fountain of the Fairies. When a child, with most delightful wonder, I have heard tales of the elfin tribe, that on its banks hold midnight revelry. An ancient oak, the goodliest in the forest, grows beside; it even has been deem’d their favourite tree. They love to lie and rock upon its leaves, and bask them in the sunshine ... The strange and fearful pleasure that fill’d me by that solitary spring ceased not in riper years; and now it woke deeper delight, and more mysterious awe.”

— Robert Southey

* * *

Edwin Austin Abbey, Fairies

Witchery holidays - Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire, England, summer 2022 (sorry, no photoshop or filters)

this photo isn’t mine i was googling Fountains Abbey in Ripon, UK (writer things) and I’m in love 

researching Yorkshire/the surrounding area a lot in the last 6 months and I just...sigh :) next UK trip I do, it’s a priority for sure.

54. A Death at Fountains Abbey, by Antonia Hodgson

Owned: No, library Page count: 344 My summary: Fresh off his near-execution, Thomas Hawkins is whisked away to Yorkshire at the behest of the Queen. There’s a certain ledger, you see, one that can implicate the Crown in an old scandal, and the Queen has an interest in seeing it destroyed. Tom doesn’t care, but she threatened Kitty, so he has to do as she says. Turns out there’s a mystery afoot, with strange letters being sent to his host’s house and threats of murder, alongside a mysteriously returned daughter. It’s quite a tangled web - but one that Tom must unweave if he wants his love to live. My rating: 5/5 My commentary:

The last Tom Hawkins book! For me, at least - there's one more after this, but that was the first one I read. It's a direct follow-up to Tom's almost-hanging in the last book, with Tom being sent out to Yorkshire to try and find a ledger for the Queen under the guise of helping the gentleman, John Aislabie, with mysterious threatening letters that have been plaguing his home. I gotta say, after the last book included subjects that I have a morbid fascination with (namely, executions) I kind of expected to like this one less. But nope! As it turns out, I was very much into it the whole way. Looks like this is one I'm going to have to buy.

After Kitty was largely absent in the last book, it's good to see her taking a more active role in this one. I have to say, I was a little worried at the start that this was going to be another whole book with Tom mooning over and being protective over a Kitty who we never really spend time with, but she barrels into the narrative midway through and makes significant contributions to the story. Which is good to see! Poor Tom's a-traumatised from the whole 'near-execution' thing, but he's trying his best to cope and fulfil his mission to the Queen without major traumas. And gets more traumatised, because he is God's chew toy. As a certified enjoyer of Historical Men In Pain, I was very much into it. Sam Fleet is also along for the ride - his story, being caught between a father who is a career thief and a father figure who is, er, Tom, is intriguing enough. He really struggles in this one between his burgeoning morality and instincts towards the ruthless, sticking his neck out for Tom even when it could have cost him everything.

The main story itself is gripping, and full of the twists and turns I've come to expect from these narratives. Aislabie has a daughter returned from the grave to deal with as well as the strange murder threats delivered to his door. I really like how conscious Hodgson is of the period when she's crafting these narratives - this story deals with the fallout of the South Sea Bubble, and class tensions and prejudices run throughout, as a local family of 'poachers' (people who owned the land before Aislabie's family bought it) is suspected for the crimes despite it not being possible they did it. They're illiterate, see. Threatening notes are kind of beyond them. The ever-looming threat of transportation is relevant too, given that one of our antagonists has recently returned from seven years on a prison colony. Conditions there were horrific, and it seems to have stripped the man of any kind of humanity; a chilling reminder of what such harsh punishments can do to a person. It's tragic and compelling, and once again I am pleased with how often Tom and Kitty are wrong about something, or leap to a conclusion that turns out to be false. They're very human in their investigations, not the annoying type who is always right because the narrative demands it, and it's great to see!

Next up, a young woman faces ghosts in a little church in the woods.

Fountains Abbey, Ripon, England. July 2022. @prettylittleproblem

Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire.

Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire

Witchery holidays in Yorkshire - Fountains Abbey (part 2)

Beware: Spoilers for The Witcher Netflix Season2 Episode 3

Fountains Abbey Doors and Doorways 2

Fountains Abbey Doors and Doorways 2

My entry for Thursday Doors

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