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Mind your language

Dot Wordsworth: What is an astel?

And what has it to do with the Alfred Jewel?

26 April 2014

9:00 AM

26 April 2014

9:00 AM

Dear old Ian Hislop was pottering around North Petherton, Somerset, on television, to talk about the Alfred Jewel, found nearby (where the king burnt the cakes) in 1693 by a labourer digging for peat. Since then, learned men have made foolish pronouncements on the jewel — as in a game of charades when the guesser says ‘pot’ and ‘a toe’, but can’t get potato.

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