Dungeness

has anyone seen rupal's drag race bimini bimini bamboo lash

brilliant well if you haven't seen series two of rupal's drag race uk you should watch it anyway they got me and that drag person and and we were like we did this thing called vivian westwood shipwrecked where we went to Dungeness, which was the first place in the UK, which is supposedly going to go underwater

because of climate change.

Yeah, Dungeness is a very unusual spot, isn't it? Yeah, and there was

like a ship there and we were wearing crazy outfits.

Wow.

The following letter, written much later in his career by Francis Austin when he was captain of the Leopard in 1804, gives a typical case of this kind.

Leopard, Dungeness, August 10th, 1804.

Sir, I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 17th instant, with the enclosure relative to Harris Walker, said to be the chief mate of the Fanny, and in reply thereto have the honor to inform you that the said Harris Walker was impressed from on board the brig Fanny off Dungeness by Lieutenant Taylor of His Majesty's ship under my command on the evening of the 7th inst.

because no documents proving him to be actually chief mate of the brig were produced, and because the account he gave of himself was unsatisfactory and contradictory.

On examining him the following day, he at first confessed to me that he had entered on board the Fanny only three days before she sailed from Tobago in consequence of the captain, a relation of his, being taken ill, and shortly afterwards he asserted that the whole of the cargo had been taken on board and stowed under his direction.

At one time this took the form of having the boats repainted.

Over this question we have the following characteristic letter.

Leopard, Dungeness, June 23rd, 1804 Sir, I have received your letter of 21st instant, relative to the paint and oil I have demanded for the preservation of the boats of His Majesty's ship under my command, and in reply to it beg leave to inform you that I did not make that demand without having previously stated to the Navy Board by letter the situation of the boats of the Leopard and the necessity of an extra proportion of paint being supplied for them.

David, would you like to share your story of twitching the Easington Siberian Ascenta?

I remember the journey out there was very brisk and I was working at Dungeness, which we'll get to later.

I hadn't twitched much that year at all.

The Shetland Bird had tickled my fancy, but that wasn't really going to slot into observatory work.

But the action wasn't confined to the Northern Isles or the northeast coast.

Even if you were an inland, southern-based patch birder, there was plenty to go at.

And for David, you mentioned earlier that you were working at Dungeness at the time.

I'm sure while there were no Siberian ascenters or pied wheaters, there were plenty of goodies to go at.

While you're at the AGM, I'm not at the AGM this year.

By chance, it's turned out to be quite a fortuitous decision because on Saturday week, Saturday the 26th of September, BBC Radio 3 is doing an all-day single programme on... on music and lighthouses and it's going to be live from around the coast all day at four different lighthouses But kicking off at 8 o'clock on Saturday morning at Dungeness Lighthouse, there's going to be two hours of music and lighthouse talk from Dungeness.

And my lovely friend who served at Dungeness, David Jones, is going to be live talking about his experience at Dungeness.

And also, my daughter Lottie is going to be giving the radio presenter a tour of Dungeness old light.

And yours truly is also talking on Saturday morning about Dungeness.

So that's really exciting.

And I can't remember which lighthouse they're going to after Dungeness, but basically they're doing two hours each at each of four or five lighthouses.

So it's either an eight or a ten hour program all day Saturday.

And I am so fat.

End of chapter 4 Chapter 5 of Faces and Places This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Recording by Ruth Golding Faces and Places by Henry W. Lucy Chapter 5 With Peggotty and Ham A careful survey of the map of Kent will disclose Lid lying within four miles of the coast, in the most southerly portion of the promontory tipped by Dungeness.

Lid has now its own branch line from Ashford, but when I first knew it the nearest point by rail on one hand was Folkestone, and on the other Appledore.

Between these several points lies a devious road, sometimes picking its way through the marshes and occasionally breaking in upon a sinking village, which it would probably be delightful to dwell in if it did not lie so low, was not so damp, and did not furnish the inhabitants with an opportunity for obtaining remarkably close acquaintance with the symptoms of the ague.

But even here the approach to regularity is a failure, owing to some of the houses along the line putting forth a porch, or blooming into a row of utterly unnecessary pillars before the parlour windows.

In short, Lyd, being entirely out of the tracks of the world, cares little for what other towns may do, and has just built its houses where and how it pleased.

Between Dungeness and Lyd there is an expanse of shingle, which makes the transit an arduous undertaking, and one not to be accomplished easily without the aid of backstays, pronounced Baxter, a simple contrivance somewhat upon the principle of snowshoes.

When the proneness to slip off the unaccustomed foot has been overcome, Baxters are not so awkward as they look.

So there's been sightings of brown booby passing south, uh, sorry, north Foreland in Kent on the, on the 6th.

That's probably the bird that ended up off Dungeness on the Saturday afternoon just gone, the 12th.

Um, and the day before that, one had flown south past Minsmere, so seemingly two brown boobies in the southeast.

And in Cornwall, not seen from land, but two separate sightings of red-billed tropicbird, uh, a, a week ago on the Sunday the 6th.

Erm...

I suppose the coast down towards Dungeness, like East Sussex, Hastings, the south coast of Kent and East Sussex, Romney Marsh.

Dramatic coast, that, isn't it? Some people love it and some people don't.

It's very bleak, but it's stark, powerful.