“We love the peace and quiet” is a comment we are hearing from visitors to our Brewhouse Flat in the building behind the hall. Holiday accommodation is a new business for us, and this week we are welcoming our tenth pair of guests.
When you ‘live over the shop’ it’s interesting to learn how your home is viewed by newcomers. Staunton can be pretty busy during the day but it is surprisingly quiet in the early morning and after four o’clock in the afternoon. I’m keen to keep it that way.
Out in the wider world I feel sorry that the rising generation cannot enjoy our best buildings and squares in the way that I have done. Mass tourism has diminished the experience. In Rome, a city I first visited with the Georgian Group nearly sixty years ago, the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps were troppo afollato, too crowded, to be enjoyed by the grandchildren we took to see them three years ago. Moscow I did in my twenties. She tells me the queue for entry stretches right round Red Square. And so it must be pretty well everywhere.
Our hamlet of Staunton Harold is beautiful, and always open. These comments in our Visitors Book remind us how important it is to keep it peaceful.