[Graham King]

Originally Posted by John Whitworth

Thank you, Graham. Actually, though I have come across many people with childhood memores of the phrase, I came across it quite lately, in a novel I think. Lovely evocative phrase that makes Bedfordshire like Timbuctoo. Whereas in reality (huh!) it is nothing of the sort. It's like pleasantly finding that Whitstable is redolent of romance to somebody living in New York.

John, I can quite imagine that Whit+stable would evoke romance for a New Yorker (or any American) - by suggesting Walt Whitman; homely horsiness (with all that the horse has meant to American history and culture; and also 'stable' as in serene, placid, equable, dependable - someone to lean on in a crisis and draw comfort from...

Thank you too for your commendations of my adopted home county, Fife.