The Lessons Of History

The lessons of history are all around
Etched on death’s memorial
But who looks at memorials?

The war to end all wars ended
But the peace had not been won

Exchanging eyes
Has not proved a workable proposition
And yet the attempt goes on
And mankind is condemned to try again
To seek an end to conflict
By perpetuating conflict itself

Those lessons from the past
Unlearnt
At best misunderstood
Ignored
And so it continues
The errors of the past
Visited on countless future generations

Fear reigns
And stultifies hope
Because mankind remains
Because mankind will not change
Still comatose
Sleepwalking into conflict again
Again
And yet again

Original sin
Casts its sinister shadow
Over hope
And so
The cycle continues
War and peace
Unfeasible bedfellows
History hardly notices the difference

But we do
And suffer for it

The two illustrations above were scanned from my copy of Holbein’s ‘Le Triomphe De La Mort’ published in

1780 … Etchings of Holbein’s originals by Chr.De Michel

The Grass Above His Grave

 The end of World War I took effect on the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918.  The inscription on this war grave in the churchyard of St.Mary’s, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, commemorates the short life of Private F.J . Harvey of the Middlesex Regiment, who sadly died just 12 days before this.
He was 18 years of age.

The Grass Above His Grave

And the grasses sway above his grave,
Reminding me of what he gave,
Of hopes as his new life began,
No more a boy, nor yet a man.

*     *     *

The promises of a war, just ended,
Lay before him, starkly spread.
Tempting him to rejoice
In the swollen face of victory.

A life to live, a promise to keep,
Beckoned his youth to greater glory,
But time and life were not for him,
Nor was death a friend.

They conspired to rob him of
The future he had bought,
And, in victory, the fate of so many
Became his own fate too.

*     *     *

And the grasses sway above his grave
Reminding me of what he gave
Of hopes as his new life began
No more a boy, nor yet a man. 

 

Photos: WHB-2020  …  ©

Coffin of Iron

Photo:  WHB – Somerset, 2019   ©

He had died of his wrinkles
Liver spots and age lines
Gnarled and creviced skin
Dusted and singed
By his Lifetime’s fevered furnace
His lungs smoke-charred
Legacy of a thousand undoused fires

As old as the hills he trod
As the bubbling beck he bled
I see six stalwart pall bearers
Hard as ancient twisted nails
Arise from their bed of iron
Raise the dead-weight anvil
His final ferrous coffin
To shoulder height
Begin a steady passage
Through the leaden winter streets
Beneath those snow-clad Northern Hills
Their shrouded clouded sky
Seemingly forever draped
Atop the silent iron tomb

Carried through the dark gate
To its final resting place
Fitting memorial to a smith’s life
Gifted again to the ironstone earth

In memoriam: Harold Booth, Yorkshire blacksmith & farrier; 1909 – 1987

From a son to his father

The Dead Tree

Photo: WHB, 2019  … Knighthayes, Tiverton, Devon  ©

Bold and boastful,
Big and brash,
A mighty marvel still.
A splendid giant
Holding court
Bestride that verdant hill.

Imperious, noble,
Still a lord
Of field and hill and view.
Its commanding presence
Memorial to
All that once was new.

Never forlorn,
The strength of years
Still lingers in those limbs.
A memory,
A masterpiece,
Even as the vision dims.

Whitby #3

[ Photo Gallery # 77 ]

A further (last – for the time being anyway) selection of my photographs of Whitby taken on my frequent visits there  in the past . . .

Whitby – as the River Esk enters the North Sea – view from East Cliff

Harbour Entrance   1

Harbour Entrance 2

Harbour Entrance 3

The ruins of Whitby Abbey atop East Cliff

Whitby Town – view from the top of the 199 Steps

Caedmon’s Cross and Whitby Town – View from the Churchyard of St.Mary’s 

Old gravestones in the churchyard – a prominent setting for Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ story.

A Weathered Gravestone

By the entrance to the church – Memorial to John Storr, the Coxwain of the Whitby lifeboat, and eleven others who lost their lives on the lifeboat in 1861.

A modern day street puppeteer with organ grinder on the Whitby harbour-side

 

Dublin, City of a Thousand Welcomes

Dublin has many such beautiful doorways dating from the Georgian period

This one photo is from Pinterest – the others are all my own

Dublin, capital of the Republic of Ireland, is a beautiful city.  It is an absolute delight to wander around the lush green parks and open spaces, especially on a sunny afternoon.  My first visit, many years ago, was in torrential rain.  A lorry driver who generously gave a lift, southwards from the city, to two itinerant hitch-hikers, welcomed us with the comment, “Ireland is beautiful – just needs a bloody great umbrella over it”.  My second and third visits were in delightful sunshine which showed off the city’s exquisite Georgian architecture and its many monuments and statues to great advantage.  I add below a gallery of photographs taken during my last visit in 2010 …

Sea approach to Dublin Harbour

The Aviva Stadium – formerly Landsdowne Road Stadium – venue for major rugby and football matches

St. Patrick’s Cathedral – Church Of Ireland.   Founded in 1191, its 43 metres high spire makes it the tallest church in Ireland.

Ivy covered Georgian Terrace houses

Georgian-style Bay Windows

Front façade of St.Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre

Memorial Stone in St.Stephen’s Green Park, to Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa,  (1831-1915) a former Fenian Leader.

Statue in St. Stephen’s Green Park, to Wolfe Tone a leading figure of the Irish Independence Movement

The Papal Cross in Phoenix Park commemorates the Pope’s visit to Dublin in 1979  

The Wellington Testimonial Obelisk in Phoenix Park.  Arthur Wellesley, ‘The Iron Duke’, general and politician, was born in Ireland.

Glenfinnan

The Glenfinnan Monument, looking South West towards Loch Shiel, Scotland

GLENFINNAN

Glenfinnan is a village in Lochaber, an area of the Highlands of Scotland.   In 1745 the Jacobite Rising began here when Prince Charles Edward Stuart (“Bonnie Prince Charlie”) raised his standard on the shores of Loch Shiel. Seventy years later, the 18 m (60 ft) Glenfinnan Monument, at the head of the loch, was erected to commemorate the historic event.  (Wikipedia).

 

Glenfinnan is one of the most beautiful spots I have ever visited.  In whichever direction one looks the views are stunning.  Even on a rather cloudy day, as it was on my last visit, the scene which confronted me had colour, beauty and drama, and displayed in all its magnificence the manifold beauties of nature – the natural splendour of mountains, water, trees, sky, wild-flowers, all visible from the one spot at the head of Loch Shiel on Scotland’s west coast.   But the scene also resounds with historical drama – signified by the impressive Monument situated at the head of the loch, which marks the spot where Bonnie Prince Charlie’s standard was raised, and where the clans flocked to join his , albeit ill-fated, cause.   As well as the natural beauty of the location there is so much history associated with this particular spot, which marks the commencement of a momentous period in British history.

Although they cannot do true justice to the beauty of the scenery, I reproduce below some of my photographs, all taken in 2007 from the spot at the head of Loch Shiel where the Glenfinnan Monument now stands, most of them taken from the top of the actual Monument itself. 

Loch Shiel from the Glenfinnan Memorial

The Glenfinnan Railway Viaduct

Looking North from the Glenfinnan Memorial

Looking North from the Glenfinnan Memorial – close-up

The Glenfinnan Memorial

Plaque . . .  ‘On This Spot’ . . .

Charles Edward, Bonnie Prince Charlie

In the Shadow of the Glenfinnan Tower

Foxgloves by the Glenfinnan Tower

Bonnie Prince Charlie himself – atop the Memorial

NOTES:

Prince Charles initially landed from France on Eriskay in the Western Isles.  He then travelled to the mainland in a small rowing boat, coming ashore at Loch nan Uamh just west of Glenfinnan.  On arrival on the Scottish mainland, he was met by a small number of MacDonalds.  Stuart waited at Glenfinnan for a number of days as more MacDonalds, Camerons, MacFies and MacDonells arrived.

On 19 August 1745, after Prince Charles judged he had enough military support, he climbed the hill near Glenfinnan as MacMaster of Glenaladale raised his royal standard.  The Young Pretender then announced to all the mustered clans that he claimed the Scottish and the English thrones in the name of his father James Stuart (‘the Old Pretender’).

Eight months later, Charles Stuart’s claim to the thrones of Scotland and England ended in failure at the Battle of Culloden, on the 16 April 1746.

Hogwarts Express on the Glenfinnan Railway Viaduct

 

The filming of the second and third Harry Potter books, ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ took place in this area with the Hogwarts Express crossing the railway viaduct and calling at Glenfinnan Station. 

 

UNCONSIDERED TRIFLE #2

DEATH  BY  ICICLE

Death comes in many shapes and forms. One of the rarest and saddest must surely be that commemorated , in a rather insensitive way – we are not even given the poor lad’s name – on a stone inset into the outer wall of the ancient parish church of St. Michael and All Angels in the village of Bampton, on the south eastern edge of Exmoor, in Devon.

I give my own, rather indistinct, photograph of the memorial, together with a clarified copy of the short verse (doggerel?) inscribed on the stone.

No prizes for deciphering the coded message!

---