Saint Endellion

From time to time we go to hear the Endellion Quartet and this morning I get to wondering who or what endellion is. No entry remotely near this word in either the OED or Chambers index. Chambers gazetteer can manage Endelave, the name of a small island in Denmark, north of Odense. Google maps knows all about it. But google proper comes up with Saint Endellion, a place in north Cornwall dedicated to the saint of that name,  a virgin recluse who was the sister of Saint Nectan of Hartland, north Devon, and the daughter of Brychan of Brecknock, south Wales. Presumably there is some family connection with the place. And, I dare say, now that I have the saint prefix, Chambers will cough up.

All this prompted by our going to hear the Quartet last week, last heard in January (see reference 2) although there had been a sighting of the cellist since then (see reference 3).

Train from Epsom crowded, further substantiating the borough council claim that as many people come into Epsom to work as use the place as a dormitory.

Endellion on good form, as ever, with both Haydn (Op.76 No.2) and Mozart (K.464) very good. Maybe I shall buy myself some Haydn quartets, only being very thinly stocked at present. And Tchaikovsky String Quartet No.2 much better this second time around than first time around. See reference 1.

Two tiresome blondes in front, both very expensively turned out. One irritating by spending most of the first half of the concert in intent study of the programme, then leaving at the interval. The other by her strong perfume. We wondered whether they were guests of one of the sponsors, Lark Insurance, as there did seem to be a sprinkling of city boys in the audience.

Out to walk through to Oxford Street, passing the large model of a grizzly bear at the bottom of Chapel Place, once again. But on this occasion I was moved to investigate, to find a very welcoming receptionist on the ground floor entrance to the sub ground restaurant called the beast. She was all for my going to inspect the place, but we settled for a menu and a card. All very carnivorous, an impression confirmed by the website at reference 4, perhaps a bit too much so for the elderly digestion. Perhaps also quite expensive, with steaks costing of the order of £10 per 100g, a method of charging we first came across in Florence, where they charged by a mysterious thing called an ecco for their truly splendid 'bistecca alla Fiorentina'. There were also pictorial suggestions of a fancy wine list.

But I was reminded of the giant crabs coming down from the Actic, there having been some stories a few years ago about their marching down the North Sea in huge numbers, munching up pretty much everything on the way. So google turns up from the National Geographic of 2004: 'first introduced to the Barents Sea off northern Russia in the 1960s, red king crabs (Paralithodes camtschaticus) are now spilling down western Norway by the millions. Some fear these massive crabs, native to Alaskan seas and the North Pacific, could reach as far south as Spain and Portugal, devouring almost everything in their path. Some fishing communities in northern Norway say the crab, among the largest in the world, has already had a devastating impact. "The bloody things hoover everything off the bottom of the sea, and all the fish are disappearing" one resident from the town of Kirkenes told the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph'. While more recent hits talk about this Norwegian delicacy and advise on where it may best be bought. So it seems that the Norwegians are making the best of a bad thing, if indeed that is what it is.

PS: our visit to Florence generated a sprinking of posts at the beginning of October 2008, with notice of their steaks at reference 5. Plus a follow up at reference 6.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/heath-2.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/debussy.html.

Reference 3: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/goldberg.html.

Reference 4: http://www.beastrestaurant.co.uk/.

Reference 5: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Culinary+matters+reprised.

Reference 6: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Camber+culinary.