The Hunting of the Earl of Rone
May. 26th, 2016 02:40 pmI have to admit to scepticism about this. I grew up in North Devon from 1982, and lived two parishes away from Combe Martin. North Devon is not a place where a lot happens. We visited Combe Martin regularly. We read the local paper, in fact we read both of them, even when the main story was about a goose or something.
The Hunting of the Earl of Rone strikes me as exactly the sort of event that would have been made up as an elaborate leg-pull for grokels, along the lines of the ancient rural practice of signpost-twirling, and the sign that fell down and was replaced by a neat not-quite-replica that read 'Wheretheellarewe', and hence went unnoticed by the local council for a couple of years.
But maybe it's real, and I just didn't notice it. Or maybe it began as a joke, and somehow took on reality.
The Hunting of the Earl of Rone strikes me as exactly the sort of event that would have been made up as an elaborate leg-pull for grokels, along the lines of the ancient rural practice of signpost-twirling, and the sign that fell down and was replaced by a neat not-quite-replica that read 'Wheretheellarewe', and hence went unnoticed by the local council for a couple of years.
But maybe it's real, and I just didn't notice it. Or maybe it began as a joke, and somehow took on reality.