Monday, July 7

DRUG ADDICT,

 drunkard, revolutionary, romantic poet, friends of many who subsequently became enemies, composed;-

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan. A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.....

who was Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Complex man who many thought a genius. Went to Cambridge University but drank & womanised into so much debt that he fled & joined the army under a fake name. Couldn't hack it & left after 6 months. Lived in a house we visited today in the Quantock Hills (some 1:4 hills there, you know) Had friends who sponsored him and successfully published some of his work. Successful poems then was a bit like getting a hit record today, very rewarding.

The house was mouse infested, hence all the mice for the kids to find. Nice sitting room where you could chill & listen to his poems.

Visited Taunton but it was closed. Nice walk along the River Tone.







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