1640 - Late train to Manchester

I'm now on the return journey heading
From London to Manchester. Here's Tamworth
A fucking boring place, so so boring
Lichfield Trent Valley next, not quite my birth
Place, but the town I came to at five months
Of age. Lichfield, Dr Johnson's birthplace
St Chad's Cathedral, three spires, holy earth
To me, only because it was my space
Throughout childhood, though it cannot keep pace
With London, New York, Tokyo. I'm saying
That we are biased when we elect first
The tedious places we grew up, those wastes
Of space we at the time found frustrating
But subsequently praise beyond their worth
Wed 2 March