Interesting things to tell your visitors

HASN'T the weather been absolutely wonderful lately? I just bet that it's going to carry on being dry and sunny like this for simply weeks and weeks to come!!

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(I write the above at the request of Mrs Latimer, who is superstitious about these things, on the assumption that by thus tempting fate I am now calling down months of rain which will save the crops and rivers and which will prevent the lush acres on our estates at Latimer Hall from turning to desert.)

The lovely spring weather did put me in mind of outings and prompted some thinky-ness in my brain about visitors.

See, you get friends and relatives come to visit, and you take them out and about in Bristol and show them the sights. Now this is all very nice, but you need to do the proper tour-guide schtick and tell them things about the sights in question. You need a bit of history, a bit of quirk, hopefully some sex and/or violence, plus some things of manly interest for the chaps such as engineering or wars, and some more feminine themes for the ladies such as flowers and hats or something.

For no particular reason, I alighted upon the Sea Walls as the subject for the first experimental piece. So consider this the first in what'll become an occasional series provided it doesn't generate too much hate-mail.

So BT proudly presents:

TEN THINGS TO TELL VISITORS ABOUT THE SEA WALLS

1. The Sea Walls are on the edge of Durdham Down and have long been a favourite with Bristolians because of the spectacular views of the Avon Gorge.

In the olden days, this was a useful spot for watching ships coming in to the port of Bristol.

This was handy for merchants, who needed to know whether or not to hire casual labourers to unload their cargoes. Though generally more warning was better, which is why they paid good money to men from further up at Pill to run or ride into town. It was also packed the day the SS Great Britain came back in 1970.