Day 7: Crime & Punishment

RANDOMOSITIES

Toast is a big deal around here. Even my banana bread was toasted this morning, a whole new taste sensation.

In every city we've been in, there are posters/advertisements up for people to book their Christmas dinner. Does no one cook their own roast goose or plum pudding at home anymore?

Wimpy burgers are just that.

Note to self: find out what the blue circles with red x's on them mean. I see them frequently on the road ways. Hopefully it doesn't mean we're going the wrong way.

The grass is spring green here, way more brilliant than it "should" be in September.

18th century graffiti is beautiful.

The streetlights say they're not on from midnight till 5 a.m. Umm...hello? Isn't that when they should be on because it's dark outside?

Sheep are everywhere you look, dotting the fields as far as your eyes can see, and even up close and personal next to the side of the road.

TIMELINE

8:30 Take off for downtown Nottingham.

All Morning - toured the Galleries of Justice . . . well worth the money and lots more interesting than the cave tour of yesterday.

1-4:00 Drive north to Sedbergh.

4-6 Shop around in Sedbergh. Try to remember that towns actually do roll up the sidewalks at 5:00, so don't accomplish much shopping. Instead, get some fish & chips and eat outside.

7:00 Discover the town of Kendal, which is way bigger than I expected.

THOUGHTS

The tour of the Gallery of Justice was brilliant! See how I did that? Worked in some English collloquialism because, yes, I am just that awesom. Anyway, we were there over 2 hours but could've stayed longer. Things I learned:

Back in the Georgian/Regency period, wardens were not paid. They made money off the prisoners, charging them for absolutely everything. If you didn't have anything to trade with them, you were thrown into the pit. And yes, it was a pit.

Convicted women often brought their children with them.

You could be sent to prison for something as simple as "stealing" a piece of wood that didn't belong to you. Wood, as in a big stick lying on the ground. If you didn't own the ground, you weren't allowed to take the stick.

Sanitation? What sanitation? Eew.

Leg irons are heavy. It wouldn't take long before you had some nasty sores on your ankles.

We left behind the big city of Nottingham for Sedbergh, billed as one of England's "Book Towns." And so it is, though not as many bookstores as I imagined. Still, it's a picturesque little place and well worth the effort. As we drove by the school, I noticed the established sign said 1525. Yeah, as in almost 500 years old. Mind. Blown.