Preamble to Ed and Tom’s Corners
Being the year of the 30th anniversary of the Wild Trout Association, I felt that it was right and fitting to acknowledge the immense contribution both of these fly-fishing gentlemen have made to the Wild Trout Association, the Eastern Cape Highlands and indeed, Walkerbouts Inn. Albeit token gestures, I have accordingly allocated two adjacent corners in the Function Room at Walkerbouts for the purpose.
Unseemly debauchery: By Ed Herbst
As part of my commitment to truth, transparency and accountability for which I am justifiably esteemed, I feel compelled to tell the disturbing background story to his sketch by Tom Sutcliffe.
In 1996 Tom and I had suggested to two elderly friends, both keen fly anglers, that they needed to visit the mountain village of Rhodes. We suggested that they stay at the Walkerbouts Country Inn, a hostelry of high repute which is noted for its fine cuisine and as a home from home for ‘brothers of the angle’ as Izaak Walton described us.
Both friends, now deceased, were pillars of society, gentlemen of conservative mien, significant accomplishment and great piety.
To say that I was shocked, horrified and aghast when Tom and I walked into the Walkerbouts pub shortly before their arrival is an understatement.
What was immediately clear to me was that, since my last visit, the pub had played host to a bacchanalian revel that would have made Caligula blush.
What became obvious was that the debauched revelers, male and female, had coated their naughty bits with paint and pressed them not only against the wall but the ceiling in what they hoped would be an indelible and enduring monument to their carousing.
Dave’s terse response was ‘See if you can do better’ whereupon Sutcliffe drew this mural on the only unblemished piece of wall that was left.
Dave hastily repainted the pub before the arrival of our friends leaving only this sketch untouched.
Tom exercised his artistic talents once more in 2014 on a then-outside wall. The second mural was subsequently framed and became the anchor point of “Tom’s Corner”. The frame and the wall-mounted tabletop were made of the timber from one of the trees felled to enable an extension to be built housing Tom’s Corner. It is used during the annual fly-fishing festivals to display the various items donated for a charity auction during the event.
So now you know.
Toms’ Corner featuring the framed mural drawn in 2012 and various other fly-fishing memorabilia. The shelf was made of timber from one of the trees felled to make way for the Sunroom extension at Walkerbouts Inn.