The Great Orme

‘Dawn on the Great Orme’ … Pen & Wash – WHB – 2017

THE GREAT ORME

In the dewy dawn
Atop the Orme
Pen y Gogarth
Viking Sea Monster
Proud promontory
Welsh trees
Swept
By Irish winds
Farmer
And sheepdogs
Treading
The Trust’s territory
Toiling to
Keep faith with
Our heritage
Husbanding
The headland
Midst these
Stalwart
Tenacious
Welsh warriors
Bowed
But not defeated
Forever
Battling
Tempting
The wind’s torment
All
Inherent
Parts of
This heroic

The Great Orme (Pen y Goggarth in Wesh), named originally by the Vikings as ‘Sea Monster’, is a massive limestone headland which dominates the view from Llandudno on the North Wales coastline.  It is a wildlife paradise, now designated as a National Country Park and as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and Heritage Coast Its varied features include rich heathland, limestone grassland and woodland, sheer sea cliffs, habitats which support flora and fauna unique to this area.  Rarely seen choughs . and the very rare spiked speedwell are found here, as well as the silver-studded butterflies, which can be found only here on the Great Orme.  It is the home also to the fearsomely-horned wild Kashmir goat, as well as a large flock of sheep.

The National Trust has recently acquired Parc Farm here and its grazing rights across the headland.  A tenant farmer has now been installed here to oversee the protection of the Great Orme’s fragile landscape and the threatened rare plants, insects and wildlife for the future.

The Stable Door

Stable door at Barrington Court, Somerset, England … Pen and Wash by WHB

Red bricked  arch
Red rose adorned
Frames the entrance
Bringing enchantment
To meet history
In this secluded pile

Once-stabled steeds
Whinny in wonder
From their equine tombs
And boast of
times when
Bridle bit and brace
Had cause to adorn
These ancient crumbling
 Cobwebbed stalls

Long left to nature
And to fate
But now in trust
To a Nation which remembers
And celebrates
Its history

The painting above and the theme of the poem follow from a visit of mine to Barrington Court,  a Tudor manor house, begun around 1538 and completed in the late 1550s, with a vernacular stable court.  The house and grounds are situated in Barrington, near Ilminster, Somerset, England, and are now the property of the National Trust. 

THE GREAT ORME

‘Dawn on the Great Orme’ … Pen & Wash – WHB – 2017

In the dewy dawn
Atop the Orme
Pen y Gogarth
Viking Sea Monster
Proud promontory
Welsh trees
Swept
By Irish winds
Farmer
And sheepdogs
Treading
The Trust’s territory
Toiling to
Keep faith with
Our heritage
Husbanding
The headland
Midst these
Stalwart
Tenacious
Welsh warriors
Bowed
But not defeated
Forever
Battling
Tempting
The wind’s torment
All
Inherent
Parts of
This heroic
Habitat

NOTES:    The Great Orme (Pen y Goggarth in Welsh), named originally by the Vikings as ‘Sea Monster’, is a massive limestone headland which dominates the view from Llandudno on the North Wales coastline.  It is a wildlife paradise, now designated as a National Country Park and as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and Heritage Coast.

Its varied features include rich heathland, limestone grassland and woodland, sheer sea cliffs, all habitats which support flora and fauna unique to this area.  Rarely seen choughs . and the very rare spiked speedwell are found here, as well as the silver-studded butterflies, which can be found only here on the Great Orme.  It is the home also to the fearsomely-horned wild Kashmir goat, as well as a large flock of sheep.

The National Trust has recently acquired Parc Farm here and its grazing rights across the headland.  A tenant farmer has now been installed to oversee the protection of the Great Orme’s fragile landscape and the threatened rare plants, insects and wildlife.

 

ALL MY LOVE

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones … ‘Love Among The Ruins’  1894  …   Wightwick Manor, West Midlands, National Trust, UK.

ALL MY LOVE

I cannot promise ‘All my Love’;
It’s not that I don’t care,
But love is not a hollow word;
What love I have I share.

My love for family and friends, 
That cannot be degraded;
That still will be a part of me
When other loves have faded.

There is a love of all mankind
Which brings a certitude
That life’s not just for you and me,
But nature’s plenitude.

There is a love that touches me,
A love of all creation,
Recalls for me such longing and
Sustains my inspiration.

There is a love that teaches me
To think of others first;
To curb those venial thoughts I have
My nature at its worst.

There is a love beseeches me
To face up to my errors;
To open up my damaged heart
Confront my hidden terrors.

There is a love which reaches me
Across the mighty ocean;
That gives to me a lasting hope,
A clutching at emotion.

There is a love of life itself,
A love I hold and cherish,
And pray for strength to face its end
When at last I perish.

There is love which distresses me,
Seeks more than I can give;
Demands I offer up my soul,
Smothers the life I live.

That selfish love, demanding all,
I still cannot allow;
For love’s an abstruse concept and
Mine is prescribed now.

All these are loves I’m asked to give,
Demanding that I care,
But I have only so much and
I have no love to spare.

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones … ‘Love Song’  1868-1877  …  Metropolitan Museum Of Art, New York, USA.

In The Doghouse

Kennels & Ightham Mote

Dog houses, or kennels, have been in existence for many thousands of years.  In fact dogs, both as pets and as working animals, were widely used in ancient Egypt since before 4000 B.C.   They were also at times revered as messengers of the gods. The earliest known dog houses in historical records were constructed by Egyptian nobles from baked mud in order to provide shelter and safety for their hounds.

Dogs were also an accepted part of other ancient civilisations.  The Chinese, the Greeks and the Romans are known to have held dogs in high esteem, and they were often considered as status symbols in these cultures.

I was prompted to mention this subject when I visited the moated medieval manor house of Ightham Mote (pronounced “item moat”).  The manor and gardens are near the village of Ightham, close to Sevenoaks in Kent, England.  The building and its gardens are owned by the National Trust.

It was there that I came across this small outhouse – the only Grade 1 listed dog kennel in the UK . . .

 

 

 

 

The building, constructed in the early 14th Century, has, unusually, retained most of its original features as, through the centuries since then, few changes have been made by its various owners.

There are many features of note both in and around the buildings. One  of these which caught both my eye and my imagination, was this ancient doorway, now surrounded by wild flowers.  My pen and ink wash is below . . .