We stopped for petrol at the tiny petrol station/village shop in the tiny village of Shottermill in West Sussex and the sun came out for the first time that day. The cottage in the background stands on the bank of one of two artificial ponds that provided waterpower for the mill- Shotter's Mill- down in the valley. Wikipedia informs me that George Eliot wrote most of Middlemarch in a rented cottage in the parish. Much of the land round here- including the ponds- belongs to The National Trust.
