Loss

 Dear reader,

Sarah Knapton, the Science editor of the Daily Telegraph, wrote a piece about the bones of the fallen Waterloo soldiers, which I thought was interesting.  These bones may have been ground down to be used as fertiliser and spread on Britain's crop fields, research suggests.  Almost 50,000 people are believed to have died in the battle - which took place on June 18th, 1815 and marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars - yet virtually no remains have been found.  There were detailed descriptions of mass graves containing up to 13,000 bodies, but the graves were never found because the pits were raided by fertiliser salesmen and the bones removed. One of the main markets for this raw material was the British Isles.   Accounts from the time said Waterloo was besieged with grave robbers and opportunists after the battle.

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Gosh you never know what you are walking on, do you?

                                                                             

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From Dorothy Wordsworth, June 20th, 1802, in Westmorland

'We lay upon the sloping turf.  Earth and sky were so lovely that they melted our very hearts.  The sky to the north was of a chastened yet rich yellow, fading into pale blue, and streaked and scattered over with steady islands of purple, melting away into shades of pink.  It made my heart almost feel like a vision to me'.

From William Cowper, June 21st, 1784, in Buckinghamshire

'We have now frosty mornings, and so cold a wind, that even at high noon we have been obliged to break off our walk in the southern side of the garden and seek shelter, I in the greenhouse, and Mrs. Unwin by the fireside.  Haymaking begins here tomorrow'.

 

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Loss

The old woman
totters slowly down the path.
Holding her hand we
go into the field
pick daffodils and buttercups.
Spring is on its way.

Later in her kitchen
she tries to say something, to find words
which seem to flutter away,
escape her, but she manages:
"I don't live
in this house, I live elsewhere."

She lies down on the sofa.
"I like looking at the sky" she murmurs,
and closing her eyes she falls asleep.
I kiss her on her pale, cold cheeks,
and weep........

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My memoir:  'Half a Pair of People' is now out on Amazon.  Look for it in books:    Patricia Huth  and click here and they will send you a copy if you would like one.  Sorry to boast here but I do have thirteen 5 star reviews and most people seem to find it amusing.  Hilarious in fact. As I told you last week I have to do this publicity against my will because I have no publicity agent. 

 

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Very best wishes, Patricia

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