|
THE
MENTAL TRAVELLER
There
is said to be, in the County of Hampshire, in he parish of Up Marden, a
sinkhole which leads down into caves inhabited by the shades of ancient
Celtic heroes and goddesses, revered before the Jutes and Saxons harried
and fired the Britons from English soil.
A Christian church was built over the hole and in 1831 the vicar
Peter Cullford wrote that he had heard noises under the flagstones which
he took to emanate from the unpeaceful souls of those once cruelly
persecuted. The locals
still speak of The Marden Hole.
Humphrey Palmer: Records of S.England
from the Codex Porcorum (Hauer) 1902.
If
you are set on travelling
beyond the Marden Hole
Take
your coat for on that road
the wind bites to the soul.
Open
the Hut of Disquiet
where the rain shivers on the wall.
Pick
up the spear and the skillet,
the needle and fingerstall.
...
(For full text see
the Kindle ebook The
Nature of Things (Collected Poems) by Alan Marshfield)
top
of page |
