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Oct. 11th, 2003 02:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liadnanI'm really not very good at being ill.
I had intended to do what every self-respecting single man does when life becomes too hard, even at the age of 31, and go and deposit myself on my parents for the weekend, but it turned out they've buggered off to Cherbourg for a tour of the supermarkets (a more significant benefit to being a P&O shareholder than the derisory dividends is the occasional almost free ferry ticket). So I'm stuck here, and thought I'd better wander into work and ensure no one had landed me with anything horrifying for next week. Which, I'm glad to say, they haven't.
Nevertheless, I was reminded of something I notice at the train station almost every time I'm down, and promptly forget. As one comes out of the station, there is a Victorian fountain, in the middle of nowhere, for the village is a good ten minutes walk away through the fields. Hidden in the corner by the fountain is a far older memorial stone, which I suspect very few people notice. Last time I was there, I happened to have my notebook to hand, and jotted down what it said...
This stone is erec
ted to Perpetuate a
Most Cruel Murder
Committed on the
Body of Thomas Wells
a Poor Inhabitant of
Swanmore on the 11th
of February 1800 By
John Diggins a Pri
vate Soldier in the
Talbot Fencibles
Whose remains are
Gibbetted on the
adjoining Common
Swanmore, incidentally, is some way away. If I ever have the time I want to know more about this story. No one seems to know anything about it. But why did he get a stone? I'd be surprised if that was common.
***
The post this morning contained a letter from a small charity, for whose work I have a great deal of sympathy: they help victims of torture, medically and psychologically, on their arrival in this country. Nevertheless, I think the message on the front of the envelope pulls the guilt strings just a little too hard...
"If you think people who have been tortured deserve help, please open this letter."
After that I hardly feel I can just bin it.
I had intended to do what every self-respecting single man does when life becomes too hard, even at the age of 31, and go and deposit myself on my parents for the weekend, but it turned out they've buggered off to Cherbourg for a tour of the supermarkets (a more significant benefit to being a P&O shareholder than the derisory dividends is the occasional almost free ferry ticket). So I'm stuck here, and thought I'd better wander into work and ensure no one had landed me with anything horrifying for next week. Which, I'm glad to say, they haven't.
Nevertheless, I was reminded of something I notice at the train station almost every time I'm down, and promptly forget. As one comes out of the station, there is a Victorian fountain, in the middle of nowhere, for the village is a good ten minutes walk away through the fields. Hidden in the corner by the fountain is a far older memorial stone, which I suspect very few people notice. Last time I was there, I happened to have my notebook to hand, and jotted down what it said...
This stone is erec
ted to Perpetuate a
Most Cruel Murder
Committed on the
Body of Thomas Wells
a Poor Inhabitant of
Swanmore on the 11th
of February 1800 By
John Diggins a Pri
vate Soldier in the
Talbot Fencibles
Whose remains are
Gibbetted on the
adjoining Common
Swanmore, incidentally, is some way away. If I ever have the time I want to know more about this story. No one seems to know anything about it. But why did he get a stone? I'd be surprised if that was common.
***
The post this morning contained a letter from a small charity, for whose work I have a great deal of sympathy: they help victims of torture, medically and psychologically, on their arrival in this country. Nevertheless, I think the message on the front of the envelope pulls the guilt strings just a little too hard...
"If you think people who have been tortured deserve help, please open this letter."
After that I hardly feel I can just bin it.
