Coffee contemplation by the river

A big waterman style mug holds a revitalising frothy coffee at King's Staithe beside Jacobean Wroxham Bridge.

Hoveton and Wroxham is fortunate in having a splendid assemblage of dining places, serving amongst many offerings a good range of coffees.

Coffee houses, particularly situated in the old square mile of the City of London during the heady late Stuart and early Hanoverian period were hot beds of political intrigue where met 'radicals'. Indeed the business story of coffee houses is no less fascinating, with many twists and turns, infused with dark politics.

With brand lines and media imagery being given ever more emphasis; its funny to consider the original pair of political parties (Whigs and Tories) emerging at the Restoration of Sovereignity and Parliamentary democracy in the year 1660. Both parties used the regal colour blue for their identities. The Whigs also added buff ~ a pale yellow~brown, after the natural colour of buffed leather. Curiously, both names of these parties are said to stem from derogatory Gaelic words. 'Tory' (Tóraidhe) is an Irish word meaning "robber or outlaw" and 'Whig' (Whiggamor), thought to derive from Scots slang for "cattle or mare driver". Thankfully in the first half of the 21st century, a dissimilarity between parties rarely occurs...

The right honorable gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan 

Whig writer and statesman 

1751 ~ 1816

I have not yet lost a feeling of wonder, and of delight, that the delicate motion should reside in all the things around us, revealing itself only to him who looks for it.

Edmund Burke

Tory philosopher and statesman 

1729 ~ 1797

Chris