Country Matters

Matthew and his crew were here yesterday morning chopping up our broken trees. They did me the honour of asking me to light the first of their bonfires- and I was anxious I wouldn't be able to get it to catch and so be shown up as the clumsy townie I am.

One of the trees was a pine. It burned splendidly.

Matthew consults me about what he's doing. He explained he was lopping a bifurcated trunk at a point just above a healthy bough because that would aid healing and- hopefully- prevent rot spreading down into the main body of the tree. It makes me feel like I'm Lord of the Manor.

Or Kipling listening to his aged Hobden. "Have it jest as you've a mind to, but..."

One of the broken trees has its roots in a neighbour's garden. Really he ought to pay for the work we've had done but it's not in my nature to hassle for money- or indeed talk about money in any circumstances whatsoever. Now that Matthew has cleared the tree away our neighbour- Herbie (He's German and in his 70s)- can get at the fence it squashed. When I went down to check on the smouldering bonfire I came upon him- stripped to his sleeveless vest-  trying to resurrect it. "We need it to keep our dog out of your field." He said, "And your rabbits out of our garden." Did I detect a touch of sarcasm there?

"Silly man," said Ailz when I told her later. "Does he not know that rabbits dig?"

Indeed they do. The other day I found a newly excavated burrow in a flower bed within twenty paces of the back door. 

Sheppey

We were on Sheppey yesterday. Sheppey is an island set about by marshes off the north coast of Kent. Eight years ago we nearly bought a house in  Sheerness- and the place still tugs at my heart. We looked in the windows of estate agents and, yes, we could still afford to live here because Sheerness is a very poor town in spite of the wonderful, arcing bridge they've recently built to connect it to the mainland.

We made a first visit to Minster in Sheppey- where there's a monastic church and a monastic gate house. The church contains a noble collection of badly battered tombs- including the very splendid tomb of Robert de Shurland, who was Lord of Sheppey in the 14th century. Next to his elegantly twisted, recumbent figure a horse's head breaks through the stone, dispersing stony ripples. Legend has it that Sir Robert did something to upset his king- who I think was Edward I- and, hearing that the king's barge was sailing past the island, rode his horse into the water and had it swim out so he could ask for royal forgiveness.  R.H. Barham embroiders the story in the Ingoldsby Legends and gives the horse a name- Grey Dolphin.

The Minster is on a hill. The view- out across the marshes-the landscape of Great Expectations- is something else.

Sheerness was developed in the 17th century as a military and naval base after the Dutch had humiliated us by sailing their warships up the Medway. Until 1960 it was home to the Royal Arsenal. It has a seasidey feel to it- only you can't see the sea because the sea wall is so high.  I love the clock tower.