Thing is, I read three words, or perhaps a paragraph and I have to pick up my laptop. Just now I settled into a big chair with footstool and cup of tea and read
"The court always spent the long Christmas feast at Whitehall, so John..."
So I googled Whitehall and found that the Palace of Whitehall was, in its time, the largest palace in the world. Larger than Versailles. I then read that it burnt down in a fire in 1669 or some such and that only the Banqueting House still survives.
Of course I checked out its position on Google Maps and its entry in Wikipedia. In Wikipedia there was a very enticing old map of the area so I clicked on that an noticed that one of the yards inside the palace was Scotland Yard.
Intriguing.
Did you know that Scotland Yard was the street on which the main entrance to the Metropolitan Police station was situated. Hence the name.
Scotland Yard, of course, is no longer there. It has outgrown various premises many times and as early as 1890 was renamed New Scotland Yard. But I digress.
Oh, and look at that ... Inigo Jones who designed parts of the Palace of Whitehall also designed the Covent Garden buildings. Where is Covent Garden again in relation to London? Oh, yes over there. Ooh and look at the painting of Inigo Jones. What is it with men in the 1600s and beards? Couldn't find any razors?
Well while I have Google Maps up I wonder if I can locate Princes Gate Mews in Kensington? Stayed there once with the relies back over 20 years ago. Look there it is. I wonder if it has street view? Yes! And look there is the mews flat I stayed in. Fabulous.
So, where was I? Oh yes, back to the Kindle to finish the sentence.
"...was able to leave the royal gardens at Oatlands dormant under a thick frost, and go home to Lambeth..."
I wonder how far Oatlands was from Lambeth...
4 comments:
I love this post - that's exactly why my reading rate has reduced dramatically in recent times...I get distracted onto so many other related bits and pieces. It was a great discipline to read by the pool recently, as I was (just) outside wifi reach and I couldn't be a*sed getting up to move each time I wanted to check something!
EXACTLY! Easy access to my ADD questions while reading is so very distracting. I STILL haven't finished Bringing Up the Bodies.
I've been doing this a lot lately too. Whilst reading the Swallows and Amazons books to the boys we have checked out Google Maps of the locale and researched nautical terms. We're definitely broadening our horizons!
This.is.perfect.
And so me! I am tangent city, but I do love it, I feel I learn so much more these days, via tangent, than I ever would in the olden days, when I had to head two doors down to my boring, snoring neighbours to borrow their set of Encyclopaedias .. or wait until i could get to the library. By then, the trail is cold, and not half as interesting!
x
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