I’ll sing you this October song,
Oh, there is no song before it.
The words and tune are none of my own,
for my joys and sorrows bore it.
Beside the sea
The brambly briars, in the still of evening,
Birds fly out behind the sun,
and with them I’ll be leaving.
It seems appropriate to commence a blog, with lyricism, especially as October saw Bob Dylan given the Nobel Prize for Literature , however , the above lines are taken from a song by The Incredible String Band.
The previous week end, we enjoyed a walk with Sutton Ramblers around the environs of Lichfield; there must have been about a dozen stiles to surmount, all in various stages of either disrepair , or … design – I am not fond of them, but managed them all without tearing my trousers! Hope to join them for another 9 mile Circular, commencing in Willey, Leicestershire. No more rambling on about that.
We spent a few days in and around Whitstable, Kent. An area new to me and easily found ,after an un eventful drive down. The principal reason for the visit was the occasion of a 70 th birthday – a longtime friend , or almost lifetime friend, I should say. She made excellent arrangements for a good number of friends to join her celebrations, over three days, including accommodation, cocktails, dinner party, restaurant visits and walks for the strong hearted…. Memorable evenings. As mentioned, there was time to walk and to make excursions. Whitstable , itself, is a great, little town with its working harbour, a range of welcoming pubs and quirky shops – all blessed with sunny weather – I am sure it must benefit from some kind of micro climate.
We walked seven miles or so to Herne Bay, the sea on our left, along walkways and paths, enjoying a coffee in a sea front bistro, before returning on the bus , for lunch on the beach at the Neptune Inn, pictured above. Herne Bay is an unremarkable enough place, with a pier and usual seafront gaming booths and tat, but it has a well kept air about it and is a decent terminus for a walk.
Thursday ‘s activity was an excursion, again by a very good,local bus service, to Canterbury. In all the many times, over 45 years or more, driving to & from Dover,Cantrrbury had never been visited; something to put right.
“The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”
The Archbishop Thomas Becket speaks fatal words before he is martyred. A quotation from T S Eliot’s play, “Murder in the Cathedral”, which he wrote in 1935, for the Canterbury Festival and which I studied for English Literature “O” Level. I was curious to visit both the spot where he was murdered and to see the revered place where a candle burns – Henry VIII having ordered Becket’s tomb to be removed. Furthermore, of course, there was my wish, as a Pelegrino, to visit the Cathedral, England’s most famous pilgrimage site….” the right deed, for the right reason”.
The tomb of the Black Prince is also nearby: apparently the ” black” was a reference to the colour of his armour, not his pigmentation. He was called “Edward of Woodstock” in his early life, after his birthplace, and since the 16th century has been popularly known as the Black Prince. He was an exceptional military leader, and his victories over the French at the Battles of Crécy and Poitiers made him very popular during his lifetime. In 1348 he was made a Founding Knight of the Garter. As a boy, I was a,ways fascinated by his appellation, which probably explains why he was so popular, but not with ” proper ” historians.
The cathedral is a most impressive place and could easily have taken up the entire day. The grounds alone are wide ranging, spreading out from the cloisters, where we met two fully armed police officers, inspecting the heraldry. They were quite approachable and explained that all famous sites in the U.K. were regarded as possible terrorist targets and that they were part of the deterrence. I didn’t ask them for a ” selfie”….❌.
So, now, I know a little more about the ” Garden of England”and a lot more about Canterbury , including its impressive,remaing walls, which we walked along and its famous “Kings’ Mile”, shopping lane, which did not quite live upto its reputation for creativity and artisanship. My other Canterbury link, Chaucer’s Tales”,which I studied for “A” Level, were in evidence, non more so than in the Canterbury Tales Museum, in St Margaret’s St – a light hearted walk through the Tales, imaginatively presented, with just the right amount of bawdiness !
“What is better than wisdom? Woman. And what is better than a good woman? Nothing.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
Our friends also recommended trips to Broadstairs, Chatham and Faversham, Höme of the well regarded Shepherd Neame Brewery; the beer was well represented in nearly every pub I saw – not visited, I hasten to add ! Although I will finish with one of the pubs we visited – The Peter Cushing – a Wetherspoon’s pub, a conversion of a former Bingo Hall , with its Art Deco theme. Apparently, Cushing retired to Whitstable, having earlier bought a house there. He was a popular figure in the community and after he died a vantage point over the beach has been named after him. Given his association with the Horror genre, a reference to Halloween”, might have been expected, not from me.
However, I loathe the way this has been Americanised and defiled, so I shall finish with a quotation, from an American poet, whose work is rightly loved everywhere.
Robert Frost
” O hushed October morning mild, Thy leaves have ripened to the fall; Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild, Should waste them all. The crows above the forest call; Tomorrow they may form and go. O hushed October morning mild, Begin the hours of this day slow. Make the day seem to us less brief. Hearts not averse to being beguiled, Beguile us in the way you know. ”
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