Mining Tycoon of the Day: Francis, 7th Duke of Bedford
I have a bit of a cold, and Rosie Roo had rather too much of dogs last weekend, and so I have been taking it easy, and trying to walk Rosie in quiet spots where she will not encounter dogs who might wind her up. So we have not been to any mines for a bit.
However, I did go past this, so I thought I'd show you one of the chief beneficiaries of all the mining, the Duke of Bedford.
I'm not sure if you can read it, but at the bottom, it says 'Erected by Public Subscription'. Pp and I wondered about the mechanism by which a whole bunch of relatively poor miners and farmers came together and decided that the very best use for their hard-earned cash was to put it together to be used to erect a statue of an almost unimaginably wealthy and powerful man. The nineteenth century was a strange place.
Nowadays Francis stands disconsolate on his pillar in the centre of Bedford Square, which is now a small car park, endlessly sadly contemplating the excellent icecream available from the Willy's icecream van that always parks in front of him, but unable to ever get down off his pillar and sample it. Or so I interpret his expression.
