My collaborator, Frank, lives about 200 miles away so, for our first circular walk, we decided to meet up half-way. This turned out to be Ludlow, pocketed away in the south-west of Shropshire. The walk had a border feel to it but it wasn't views like the one above, nice though it is, that characterised this walk, it was the signs.
Consider this: The farmer has engaged, in the normal way, in marking his territory but what is the significance of "Proper Gates"? No nearby gateage to see. Frank felt it might be a reference to the fact that, at Overton, life abounds due to propagation.
This one had to be resurrected from a ditch. Begs a few questions, too. Obviously firstly, who exactly are the legends? Bill Foulkes? Bobby Charlton? Tommy Smith? Kenny Dalglaish? Somehow, you know it won't have been, don't you?
Another spot. This one at the entrance to a drive leading mysteriously away into trimmed hedgeland. What manner of nation are we that we secrete away our youngest and most fragile progeny? In Norway, education doesn't start till 6 and they're doing alright, aren't they? - despite the cold.
So, to the walk. Frank got us lost but when we did finally relocate ourselves by the improbably-named Hucks Farm, it was good to realise we hadn't been transported to the Deep South but were, in fact, only about a mile from walk's end. As we hove up the final stretch and espied Lud below us, squat and spiked by its cathedral and castle, we found the car festooned with small spiders.
The Cathedral, incidentally, is home to the "Misericords".
1 comment:
It all depends on how you define lost - now if we're talking TV Lost, then the walk clearly wasn't wierd enough, and there were no polar bears or black smoke, or if we're talking Thomas Hardy and Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Currently on BBC) then Tess was clearly lost from the moment she saw Angel Clare, but then again, I think I've lifted that line from The French Lieutenants Woman (poss spelt wrong, but a good attempt).
Post a Comment