To make up for the fact that today has been rather grey and dull, other than tasty last-minute dinner in a nice local pub, here is an interesting pair of facts, from a Speccie review of two books about WWI.

Firstly, that a Lord objected to the introduction of Daylight Savings on the grounds that a woman giving birth to twins might generate a confusion in the succession if the second-born was older than the first.

Second, that there was a town (Bridport) whose rope-making tradition was so important, particularly for making horse-related stuff, that the women were exempted from the land army. Unfortunately, German submarines disrupted hemp supplies, so the had to switch to manila. Which the horses found delicious....

Oh, right, yes, photo:

That's our house, that is. In the drizzle.

(Actually, I took this on the way back from a lovely hack. Mike had gone all "oh, your horse is so slow and old, please let me go out on my own to experience the thundering power and vast speeds of my horse," so I did. And had a much longer ride on account of how my horse doesn't have a hissy fit and turn back after five minutes.

But then, if Mike had come with me he would also have had trouble: there was a small tree mostly down over the path I took, and I felt it scrape over my back as GB went under it. And the Baby's taller....)