We visited the Museum of English Rural Life on Saturday as there was a special event with people doing demonstrations of old-timey crafts, music, etc. And peppered throughout the museum on various displays were stuffed toy rats, an homage to the lovely dark corners, grassy areas and rubbish bins of Reading. One supposes. There was even a game in the courtyard called Smack a Rat or some such in which darling tykes could take a bat and try to smack a toy rat dropped down a tube by a volunteer. Ah, a glimpse of the good old days!
But besides an odd preoccupation with rats, the museum was a perfectly nice example of a small museum preserving remnants of a past way of life, with old farm equipment, milk bottles, wagons, and homespun clothing. They even had the obligatory gift shop, complete with bookmarks made of sheep poo -- the perfect gift for that recycling fanatic on your Christmas list!
Ooh I will have to look for those book marks. Perhaps they'll start selling them in National Trust Shops? We have a store here that's selling writing paper made out of elephant poop. Wonderful!
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