A VISIT TO RYE
Ad in 'Country Life' for The Mermaid
"Rye and The Mermaid - inseparable today in thought and allusion. Comfort and cuisine 'par excellence'. All bedrooms have hot and cold water, two-programme Radio, intercom and electric fires. For tariff and brochure apply to RYE 3065."
S A T U R D A Y, 4 F E B
At 11 we set off for Rye - Mummy's marvellous idea! The weather was absolutely glorious, and the drive down was wonderful. It wasn’t just the landscape but the houses, the old ones white-washed with wooden beams across them, all crooked and lovely. We also saw lots of oast houses; they have funny little things sticking out of the top. Chumpy and I sang French songs the whole way.
We went via Tunbridge, which was full of traffic, so Daddy blamed it on Mummy, I could have sloshed him. Rye is lovely - all the narrow streets and beautiful houses. The only thing that spoils it is the cars, they're allowed to be parked anywhere. We found the Mermaid Inn (advertised in Country Life) very easily, and had lunch there.
Our waiter was a fab snazz and I think French. When you asked for something he didn’t just say ‘yes’ but ‘yes of course’ which sounded perfectly lovely. We had grapefruit, roast pork, and lemon merangue pie. All jolly good but Pa was rude about the potatoes. We all laughed a lot, it was super.
Then as Ma was putting on her coat in the hall this terribly nice old man started talking to us, and took us all over the inn. He showed us the most fascinating brass water-clock, then the main sitting room, which has a beautiful fireplace, absolutely huge, with a hiding space up it used by smugglers!
Got back in time to see Juke Box Jury. They played Mellow Yellow - I shall go mad if it gets popular here.
“I’ve just about had enough of it, it’s been played on the French radio since November!”
I was thinking about today and all the beautiful houses we saw – why has there been such an intense lack of design from 1800 onwards? Daddy says we still can't design good buildings by a long shot. It's rather pathetic to be living in a declining civilisation, but even more pathetic not to realise it, of course.
Washed my hair - urgh, it turned out VILE. Put it in bunches but even they didn't work.
David Jacobs at the peak of his powers on Juke Box Jury in 1967. This BBC panel show ran from 1959 to 1967.
