Sh...

They were outsiders, spending long periods in the wild, far away from human settlement.

The tools they use became symbols of authority, wielded by pharaoahs and Christian bishops.

The Psalmist said The Lord was his.

They were the first to arrive at the stable.

The Greeks imagined that they spent their long periods of enforced idleness dallying with nymphs and other supernatural beings.

The Goddess Diana fell for one.

The Dresden porcelain makers sculpted them.

Poussin painted some Arcadian ones- and the image went viral.

Little Boy Blue and Little Bo Peep fell down on the job.

The Copper family of Rottingdean have several songs about them in their repertoire.

By National Media Museum from UK - Ninely and Nine
Uploaded by mrjohncummings, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26198400

And While We're On The Subject

Collected in Dorset from the singing of Queen Caroline Hughes by Ewan McColl

Berwick, East Sussex

I've got shepherds on the mind because we were out among the South Downs yesterday and that's sheep country. To quote another verse of the Kipling poem I glanced at a week ago (with reference to Romney Marsh).

I've given my soul to the Southdown grass,
And sheep-bells tinkled where you pass,
Oh, Firle and Ditchling an' ships at sea,
I reckon you keep my soul for me.

Anyway, more pictures,

Here's the little church at Berwick. Notice the snowdrops. It sits alongside a big barrow and the interior has been muralised by several artists of the Bloomsbury group- most notably Duncan Grant. Grant wasn't a wonderful painter and his murals aren't wonderful either- but they have a certain charm and they bring colour and liveliness to what would otherwise be a very plain interior. The second picture shows the pulpit- with delightful flower paintings by Grant after designs by Vanessa Bell who was Grant's lover and Virginia Woolf's sister. Grant and Bell lived just down the road at Charleston farmhouse- and all the Bloomsberries foregathered there and did art and swapped partners and made babies. Grant was a beautiful young man. Remember the photographer I memorialised a few days ago, Alvin Langdon Coburn? Well, scan down his Google page and sooner or later you'll come across images of the most beautiful, girlish young man you've ever seen- and that's Grant. The murals were executed during the war- when Grant no longer looked like that- at the instigation of George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, the most inspirational Anglican churchman of the 20th century- who- we now learn- may also have been a child abuser. The diocese of Chichester has got a lot of stick for outing and shaming Bell without providing any of the evidence for his crimes- and I think it has deserved it; Bell was a saint and hero to many- including myself- and we, his admirers, feel we should be given the facts.





This last picture shows the view from the churchyard gate.

Alfriston

The river Cuckmere was in flood yesterday, but Alfriston hugs the valley wall for safety and the church sits on a flint-walled mound because our ancestors weren't fools and didn't chase a quick profit by building on flood plains. Driving through the village- where the street is so narrow that it only admits one stream of traffic at a time- we got stuck behind a bin lorry that was going slowly about its business and claustrophobia set in. If that hadn't happened we might have stopped there for lunch. Instead we went on to Firle.