I am about to go way off topic, but:
Two sides of my family left England (Ilkeston and Stratford-upon-Avon) and settled in Massachusetts/Connecticut (Bridgeport/Stratford area) fairly early on so my tribe have roots in MA/CT. One of my great-great-grand uncles donated land that ended up being known as Beardsley Park/Zoo. But my side of the family left CT in the early 1800’s.
I only recently found out that Frederick Law Olmsted designed the park, the same guy that designed New York’s Central Park. So a much smaller park, but a nice pedigree. Never been, would like to see it some day.
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He based Central Park on the park at Birkenhead - the town on the opposite side of the River Mersey from Liverpool.
By the by, I’m always impressed by how far back Americans seem to be able to get with their family history. I am stuck, with a definite ID at 1819, when Samuel Hartley’s son was born. That probably means Samuel was born about 1790/95 but I can’t find any birth records.
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I had no idea. So I went off to Wiki to get a synopsis and found this comment by Olmsted:
" after five minutes of admiration, and a few more spent studying the manner in which art had been employed to obtain from nature so much beauty, and I was ready to admit that in democratic America there was nothing to be thought of as comparable with this People’s Garden."
Olmsted also commented on the “perfection” of Birkenhead Park’s gardening:
" I cannot undertake to describe the effect of so much taste and skill as had evidently been employed; I will only tell you, that we passed by winding paths, over acres and acres, with a constant varying surface, where on all sides were growing every variety of shrubs and flowers, with more than natural grace, all set in borders of greenest, closest turf, and all kept with consummate neatness."
Thank you for the heads up, Harters!
I am not the one who did all the long hours and work to track back my family. Two of my cousins did it, with a huge amount of help from the Mormon Church who collate a huge amount of genealogical info. Between the two cousins, we have a couple books tracking the Beardsley and (our branch of the) Squires families back to when we left the UK in 1600’s. I am not actually related to the Bnd family. It is an on-line alter ego. 
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He also created (along with his son and two others) the park system called The Emerald Necklace in Boston, which has recently had a major refurbishing and upgrade. It’s a 7-mile-long chain of parks, parkways and waterways includes the Back Bay Fens (and Charlesgate Park), the Riverway, Olmsted Park, Jamaica Pond, Arnold Arboretum and Franklin Park. With 7 parks and 4 parkways, the system spans over 1,000 acres and accounts for half of the City of Boston’s park acreage.
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nice photos!
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With some regret, I left London via the Elizabeth Line (way modern compared to the Northern Line! And roomy!) to Paddington, where I got a last minute ticket to Exeter. Standing room only on the train, but I got to stand next to three of the best behaved dogs in the UK. I finally arrived in Exeter St. David Railway Station and was standing in line to get another ticket for the second leg to Barnstaple when a Great Western agent walked up to me in back of the line and asked where I was off to. He said I had 4 minutes to get the ticket from him and then run to platform 3b so I was off to the races. Made it with a minute to spare. Then it was an hour trip through tree tunnels and open vistas to Barnstaple. There is something oddly comforting to hear the tree branches whacking into the power car on the front of your train. It feels like I am traveling back in time to a simpler age. Now if I could just take a trip in the traincar I rode in on my first trip to the UK where each compartment seated 4 people in its own area, like the train to Hogwarts, but each compartment had two doors, one that accessed the hall of the car and one that exited directly onto the the station platform.
As the train rolled along, one old grey stone home on the hill near High Bickington just spoke to me, think Downton Abbey, writ small. Love Devon. Immediately walked to The Block for a combo Kimchi and Arancini, they call it a Kimchini. We may be seeing fusion foods taken a step too far, at least name-wise. Very nicely done, though, the kimchi really made the arancini pop.
The Vietnamese special noodle dish was good but I forgot to get a picture and it is not on the menu. Neuang Goong, maybe?
The next morning I had the first of two breakfasts, one rather good and one merely ok, at the Park Hotel. This morning I had smoked haddock with poached eggs and the haddock was perfect. Lightly smoked, firm but tender, and entirely delicious. The poached eggs were a step past jammy so I liked them but not as much. Poached should be jammier.
The next day I had a full English breakfast and it was good, not great. The english bacon was very nice but the sausage was almost too mild and the beans were Heinz mild, not great. No black pudding. Sad.
But after the first breakfast I was off on a little walk to the place I came to this part of Devon to see. I had always wanted to see where my old ship, the Golden Hinde, had been “born” even though I knew the boatyard closed long ago. The showers came and went, but the Fremington Pill (river) passing by Muddlebridge Cottages won the day if only for name alone.
Then the rain set in a bit so I sheltered with some cyclists until the rain slowed. Walked along Home Farm Marsh, simply beautiful. England is kind of like Montana in that the weather can go from blue skies to rain and back to blue skies in an hour.
Arrived in Instow …
And hopped the volunteer operated ferry to Appledore, the home of the Hinde. Everyone was chatting and, me being the stranger, they asked why I came to Appledore. When I mentioned the HInde a young man said he knew right where it was built and where it had been fitted out because his uncle worked on it. So he got me pointed in the right direction even though he was confused as to why I would travel to visit an abandoned and wrecked boatyard. So I walked around the headland and over to the Hinks Boatyard which was nearly completely gone. Sad, but cathartic somehow. The Hinde and the people I crewed with were a big part of my first RTW trip.
Took a photo of a stone spiral someone has built under the tide line. Interesting.
Then it was back to Appledore proper for a Devon Crab Baguette and a quarter pound of Red Leicester Cheese. The crab baguette was pre-made and totally meh, but the Red Leicester Cheese was really good.
Bus was not due for an hour so I backtracked to The Beaver Pub, where the owner was very gracious and the terrace perfectly sunwashed on an otherwise cool day.
Hopped the 21A bus back from Appledore to Barnstaple, the walk was long enough that doing it once was sufficient. Hit Tiffin, which apparently means lunch in India. I thought it was a tin can that lunch was delivered in, but I learn new stuff every day. They had a “Home Style Chicken Thigh Curry, Like We Make at Home” so I had to try it and it was very nicely done. Well spiced with layered flavors without rolling the Scovilles for the sake of heat alone. Very nice!
Then I walked back to the Park and took a shot of an old wrecked fishing boat on the shore of the Taw River. Rock Park and the photo at the bottom are behind the lightpost in this shot.
Oh, if you ever stay at the Park, ask for room 214. It is a corner room that overlooks Rock Park, just a beautiful view.
There is something about a nice hotel room that recharges the battery of life. Clean crisp sheets, a comfortably firm bed and a view of parks, rivers or oceans that you have never seen before. That is the life.
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Such a gorgeous part of the world!! My mind is always blown by the palm trees.
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Indeed! 
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I’m am adding your full English Breakfast to this thread.
Big British and Irish Breakfasts
…
While you’re in Devon, make sure you try the scones. In Devon, the clotted cream goes on before the jam.
In Cornwall, the jam is applied before the clotted cream.
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Barbarians
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I have sat down for Afternoon Tea at the Angel in Babbacombe Bay.
The pressure is immense.
When she asked what tea i wanted i clutched. Could not remember a one.
So i ordered Builders Tea.
They have it.
Whew.
Now to figure out which 1 of 20 sandwich choices and which 1 of 15 scone choices.
Is it clotted cream first or jam first?
I told my waitress i was a newby and she is very sweet.
Cherry and almond scone and a cucumber and tuna sandwich. Both rather good but i just ingested a weeks worth of sugar. I need to walk it off but the rain clouds are back.
If my karma is good i will walk between the drops.
But a great experience and a very good meal!
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I’ve not been for some years but Hanbury’s at Babbacombe used to do excellent fish & chips. Just the sort of place for lunch at the seaside. So good they could be Northern.
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Hanbury’s and the Cary Arms were on my short list but I ended up giving up and returning to the hotel until the rain stops. And I am still pretty full from that afternoon tea. 1 scone, 1 sandwich and a small pot of tea but it was a ton of sugar.
Took the funicular down to the beach and walked over to the Cary Arms for a pint of Sammy’s cask ale. The ale was good not great but the rain had slacked off while I drank it, so there is that.
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if you want a simpler tea option another time, many tea rooms and coffee shops offer a cream tea, where it’s simply a scone with jam and cream, and a pot of tea. No tea sandwiches or fancy petit fours. That’s the right caloric load for me around 4 pm. lol.
A nice scone and a pot of tea used to run around 7 GPB on my last visit. I’m guessing some still can be found at some places for around 10 GBP.
I like visiting the Tea Rooms in smaller towns. Great place to people watch discreetly and absorb the local culture.
While you’re in Cornwall, in addition to the pasties, keep at eye out for saffron buns at local bakeries.
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gorgeous view.
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the clotted cream grips the scone so easier to get off spoon/knife, then delicately drop jam on top.
to be fair, i am yet to do a side by side comparison, but the arguement is relatively moot to me, as i will put salted butter or butter then salt, before further adding cream and jam.
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Phoenikia, I had the Cherubs Tea for £16 and it was more than I needed, but I am glad I got to try the sandwich too. I saw all the choices for the scones when I started and was not sure what type to get, I probably would have been better off with a plain scone because the cherry and almond plus the clotted cream AND the jam was a bit over the top for me. Very good, but sweeter than I am used to. I have to say that I would be happy to try it again, especially if I could try just half the sandwich and muster up the nerve to leave half the scone behind. For what I got I think £16 is a fair price. The Mini Devonshire Cream Tea is just what you talked about and it is £7.60, which is a pretty decent price.
MrBlonde, I do not want to take sides in a regional dispute, but I too found the clotted went on the scone pretty easily and I am not sure how it would work if I jammed the scone first. Not that there is anything wrong with jam first, mind you!!!
All in all, I am really glad I tried an afternoon tea and will be happy to try it again next trip. I really feel like I missed out on a lot of things that I wanted to see and do this trip due to the rain kind of channeling me indoors more than half the time. I think that I will bring better rain gear next trip, and budget more time. I generally travel light with just a 42L travel pack and that leaves little room for good rain gear, but I will see if I can delete some other stuff next trip to the UK.
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I posted this on the biryani thread but will post it here too, since it is still on my UK trip.
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I forgot to mention my short stay in Exeter. The only good food i had was a pasty at the Cornish Bakehouse. And it was good not great.
Walked past some nice wall art…
On my way to the Double Locks Pub, a place i visited and enjoyed years ago. Great canal side location…
But their fish and chips were over breaded and over cooked.
Lemon tart was rather nice though!
Then a walk past the Exe River to my hotel.
Found a nice smaller used book store in an old tudor building. If the walls could talk…
Again, rain was on and off but the walks are beautiful if a bit damp.
I was on my way to Plymouth so i did not stay long.
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In the last 10 years, Paris has actually become really friendly. I saw a blind guy fall over and everyone came over to help. My wife and i also got lost and we had several people come over and ask if the could help—all locals. Times are changing. Rome is the cold rude city now.
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