The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose of the common
But leaves the greater villian loose
Who Steals the common from the goose.
A 17th century poem that caught the time of Enclosure, when the Commons was apportioned by direction of the then government to private ownership. But obviously it is still going on. Though I did read this morning that the Russian oligarchies houses in London may be seized and used at homing the homeless. We will see.
A more joyous thought was of the gypsy ponies on the water meadows outside Chelmsford. These flood meadows stretched for many acres and were a good place to walk especially down to the Fox and Raven pub for a meal or a pint.
The Gypsy lads were often in the pub, but keeping their eye on the ponies and would leap the hedge into the field to go and visit them. Funnily enough I am listening to Phil Rickman's - The Cure of Souls, which has plenty of Gypsy lore in its storytelling. But exaggerated of course.
Prehistory also figured in these water meadows, for 'The Springfield Cursus' ran along part of its length to the late Bronze Age settlement, later a Saxon settlement though now scrubland, adjacent to the large warehouses that sat outside the town.
Getting used to the cold, but had a funny turn, which I can only attribute to the cold but luckily did not pass out, which I have done before. Yesterday, a note of congratulations to myself, got the Wordle word by the second line. My choice of word for the first line being 'adieu'. But it was luck of course!
How beautiful that foal is Thelma. Be careful after that 'funny turn'.
ReplyDeleteThink the weather turned cold too quickly Pat and I wasn't ready for it. The foals were a great source of fun, not sure though where they all ended up.
DeleteI liked it that the Queen's pony (and the corgis) were brought out to watch the funeral, although they would have had no understanding of what it was all about.
ReplyDeleteRegarding sidebar links, it looks to me that your sidebar contains a static List Gadget (i.e. a list of links) rather than a live/updating Links Gadget, and that the link to me appears in a separate list at the end because you have two of them.
You have hit the nail on the head Tasker, I don't have a live/updating links gadget. Not that I am worried about that because my links work anyway.
DeleteThelma, you gave me a bit of a jolt. I am reading a book 'Thames, a Biography'. It talked of cursus. Of course, I had to pull up my phone and look up that unfamiliar word. I spent a lot of time trying to figure it out and got confused. It talked about the Curcus around stone hedge, and so I thought that perhaps it was the stone circles, but then it talked about ditches. and so I thought perhaps it meant that these circles had ditches dug around them. But THEN, I went on to read about cursi wihich ran parallel to each other stretching from 5 meters to 5 miles long. How happy I was to see the word in your blog. Please enlighten this poor Yank!
ReplyDeleteTake care of yourself.
I have blogged the Springfield cursus for you Debby, there are a few of them in the country.
DeleteTypical gypsy ponies, the country over, but at least they had good grazing there.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear you had a funny turn. Could it be your blood pressure?
Probably yes to blood pressure, taken tablets for years. My monitor is in storage as well. I hae often wondered what becomes of all the surplus ponies. Remember as a child, going to see a gypsy horse for sale. It took off at a great gallop with me clinging to its mane, luckily I am still alive to tell the tale.
ReplyDelete