Beside the bridge in the centre of Taunton.On a bench by the entrance to Calverley Ground an old lady sits. She wears a leather coat and a white cap. On her lap sits a black and white cat. The cat has made itself comfortable. " I think it lives somewhere over there, she says, looking into the distance". There are no houses nearby. "It just came and sat here," she says, and adds plaintively, "I've got to prepare lunch."
There is stall which sells small bags of cob nuts (a special variety of hazel nut, local to Kent and Sussex) covered in chocolate. There is plain (or as they call it nowadays, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate. "Which are the most popular?" I ask the stall owner. "In Tunbridge Wells, " he says," dark". "And elsewhere? "Milk," he says, and adds, "Maybe it's a class thing."
