In my old 1920s Blue Guide to Scotland (which is actually a third
edition and so dates to 1949, but let's not nit-pick) Ceres is
described as 'a tiny decayed town.' A rather sad description, I think
you will agree, but the thing I like about the Blue Guides is their
accuracy. Not for them some flowery language which said in a long
meandering sort of way not very much at all. No, they gave it just as it
was, straight and to the point, which is a philosophy that I like to
think I myself follow. As such I have no reason to believe that Ceres at
that time was anything other than somewhat decayed, and perhaps not
worthy of much of a visit, unless one's interest in life was centred
around things that were falling apart.
Since then, Ceres has managed to arrest that decay, and is a nice little
place. There's not a great deal to it, but what there is is very old and
charming. It is a lazy and exceedingly attractive village full of
character. The tiny area around the ancient humpback bridge known as
'Bishop's Bridge' oozes
history, with its worn cobbles and crumbling stone and a brook that
babbles and bubbles contentedly. They still have the town jougs in situ,
fixed to the wall of the old Baron's Court, complete with their iron collar and chain and
padlock.
And just around the corner is a most peculiar
seventeenth century stone
statue of a past provost. It looks every bit
like
the figure from a giant
Toby-jug, and one can only hope that it was not
meant to be an exact
likeness of the person it is meant to represent.