Southampton Water
I have a strong association between pike and Southampton Water, or rather the marshy reed-beds where the river Test meanders into the brackish estuary, as somewhere in there is (or used to be) a keeper's cottage with a dozen or so pike "masks" mounted on the exterior wall. We passed it once on a walk many years ago, and I've been meaning and forgetting to go back there ever since. As I recall, some of them were huge.
And I knew I'd find a use for that St. George wheelbarrow, sooner or later.
Booth Museum pike, Brighton
One for the language-enthusiasts: isn't it curious, that nearly all fish names are singular in the plural? I have a hunch, though nothing more than that, that this has something to do with the names of creatures that can be hunted and eaten. Despite "rabbits", and no doubt a dozen other contradictory examples. Besides, I've a feeling that to say "there's half a dozen rabbit over there" is subtly but significantly different in intention from saying "there's half a dozen rabbits over there". Run, rabbit, run... (and, yes, don't tell 'em your name, Pike!).
8 comments:
Not sure the lion on the savannah are that edible, but possibly more likely to be seen as prey for the hunt than "lions".
Don't tell 'em your names, pike!
Zouk,
Good point, maybe I should put the "and eaten" bit in brackets!
Mike
I am sorry. I am incapable of seeing the word "pike" in a British context without instantly returning to Coot Club, and thereby by proxy to the Norfolk Broads, and then I'm nowhere near Southampton at all.
Aha, an Arthur Ransome reader! Sadly, his books -- yea, even unto "Swallows and Amazons" -- are prominent on that list of classic children's books I have never read. One of these days, maybe...
As I have written before, the list of books I have not read is a long one. Steeling myself this very week to read my very first Jane Austen. May not make it. Again...
Mike
I wonder if that keeper's cottage is the one we used to steal around, as kids. His was on the River Blackwater. My pal's older brother was a great trout tickler. When we were out on an expedition, we invariably touched base with a keeper's cottage, like the one you describe. Obviously we kept clear of the man himself. Or he may well have touched base, with the end of his boot!
Martin,
It's not impossible, but I'm pretty sure this one was on the NE corner of Southampton Water somewhere (though it was 25 or more years ago...). I'd be keen to find it again, to get some shots of those pike masks, again assuming they're still there!
Mike
I enjoyed Arthur Ransome 50-plus years ago, when I read all his books, but I wouldn't say he was worth reading now, even to laugh at a character called Titty.
Martyn,
I guess that is the problem with kids' books... I tried to get mine to read "My Family and Other Animals" and was appalled to discover that it had become a dated, arch, unreadable piece of upper-class snobbery in the intervening years! How did that happen??
Mike
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