An Untitled Poem

Noble Reader,

It is to my surprise that I find myself humbly producing here a minor piece of poetry, which I had not intended really to put onto this blog at all; but I like it, so now it’s stuck here. I think it must be a year since I posted a piece of my own poetry here, so I pray you enjoy, as always.

There’s something calm in the pace of the world,
In the light of the life that has barely unfurled
To the beat of the feet that have outlived their day
And the seaside’s slow symphony so far away.

There’s something calm in the chime of the clock,
In the tick of the trickle that breaks down the rock,
And the sun and the shadow that break out at dawn
That pamper the picnic at noon on the lawn.

There’s something calm in the ring and the rhyme
That take what we make and forget it with time,
With so much to do in the buzz and the blare
That just in an instant forget we were there.

There’s something calm in the tap and the tune
That muster the busker, the band and bassoon!
That rally the lovers of music to hand
And play all the day on the silver-sunned sand.

There’s something calm in the close of the eve,
As the sun bottles down in its saltwater sleeve
And the ruddy and rose are as red as the sky
Till the last of the drops have each sunk down to lie.

And there’s something calm in the black of the night
In the shadow and hush that remains height to height,
When the wash of the sea is a beat barely there
And that tune plays so calm on the breath of the air.

Castles & Cannons

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Aberystwyth

Conserved* Reader,

In yet another post about Aberystwyth’s history, I would like to offer a consideration upon the Parliamentarian siege of the castle from November 1645 to April 1646, and a small piece of folklore about it that I have recently been researching.

Supposedly, through winter and spring during which the siege took place, there was a Parliamentarian camp on Pen Dinas, from where an array of ordinance could fire on the castle. There is some existing documentation to suggest that Pen Dinas was used as an artillery position by Henry IV two and a half centuries earlier, from where his far more primitive weapons of war could at least intimidate the castle and the town, but could it have been made use of by Cromwell’s men as well all those years later?

Firstly, there would certainly have needed to be some significant siege camp for a lengthy siege as Aberystwyth was; and it would have to have been somewhere from which the castle could at least have been observed. There is no documentary evidence describing how much of the town outside of the castle was under Royalist control during the siege, but certainly being too close to the castle or town walls would have made the camp too open to reprisals from the besieged men. Also, if the camp was in a too open position then it could be threatened by any Royalist relief, which was a concern due to previous events in the north of Wales.

If the Parliamentarians, then, wanted a position that was easy to defend (i.e. up a hill or in a similar defensible position) within reasonable distance of the castle to both observe what the defenders were doing, and to intercept any attempt to relieve the siege, then there were only two real options. Those two hills are Constitution Hill (at that time known by its Welsh name of Craig-glais), and the previously mentioned Pen Dinas.

Both of these hills overlook the castle, and both are within reasonable distance to intercept any relief that could attempt to come to the castle’s aid. However, at the time the landscape of Aberystwyth was quite different; there was no easy run from Constitution Hill to the castle. Up until the late 18th century the area from Constitution Hill to North Parade was an impassible sand marsh, and, aside from the difficulty there would have been in getting men across to a camp at Constitution Hill, it would have been impossible to get any cannon to or from the camp, while it would have still been in range of cannon fire from the castle.

Pen Dinas, on the other hand, is a hundred meters or more closer to the castle; still not within amazingly effective range of cannon fire, but if there was a Parliamentary battery there then they would have at least been able to threaten the castle. There’s also the remains of the hill forts on top of Pen Dinas, offering ready-made defences for a siege camp. It would certainly have been a much easier position to get cannon and horses to, since the main southern road from Aberystwyth ran straight past it. However, to camp on such a spot would have put the river between the besiegers and those being besieged, meaning that control of the town itself would depend purely on whoever controlled the bridge, and if the bridge were to be destroyed then the besiegers would have to have found a different route to reach the castle. Perhaps, though, the great growth in ship building that caused the widening of the river in the 18th century, has produced for us a much larger river than what would have been encountered by soldiers in the civil war.

As for the castle itself, there is little evidence for any ordinance damage due to the extensive explosive damage and later stone robbing. The Victorians seem to have finished off the job of hiding any minor cannon damage by patching up the castle they found with their own stonework. Likewise, Lidar and ordinance survey maps don’t pick out any particular defences or gun position earthworks remaining on Pen Dinas – although a temporary siege camp may not have left much evidence.

I would suspect that Pen Dinas is the most obvious place for a siege camp, but the lack of documentary evidence remaining from the siege of Aberystwyth Castle makes it impossible to make any decisions for sure. It’s possible there was a short lived camp on the hill, since there don’t seem to be any ditches or gun emplacements dug, before the town was captured, followed later by the castle itself. A visitor to Aberystwyth a few years after the civil war remarked that it was ‘confused heaps of unnecessary rubbidge’, suggesting that perhaps the town itself had been significantly damaged by the siege, perhaps fired on by overlooking ordinance to demoralise the population and force a surrender.

It is at least an interesting piece of history, dear reader, that I hope now is slightly more explained, if no less solved.

Until next time.

*Yes, conserved.

Norfolk Dumplings

Good and Honest Reader,

I have just today discovered a small piece of history that I had read some time ago and thought I’d quite lost once more, but thankfully I found it again. It is just a beautiful shadow of old England only a few decades before the industrial revolution began to change the country. It’s not much more than a remark upon a personal food favourite of the author; and the story of it goes like this:

In 1759 there was a new magazine founded by several people who thought that the wealth of miscellaneous writing coming from amateur and upcoming writers needed somewhere to be publicised. Their vision was ‘Royal magazine; or, Gentleman’s monthly companion’, and between 1759 and 1771 it was printed once a month and quickly became a very popular literary magazine.

It was to that same magazine that a young man wrote a letter in June 1762; he was travelling in Norfolk and had settled one night at a small inn, a building long since demolished and tumbled out of history, at this inn he composed his letter to the Royal Magazine, and saved forever a small piece of anonymous English poetry. His letter read as such:

Sir,
Travelling very lately through Norfolk, on the window of an inn, in a frequented village there, amongst many other, I saw the following verses, which, upon enquiry, I found were wrote extempore by a young rider, from London, a few weeks before, after regaling on his subject (alone) as the landlord declared, for three succeeding meals. As I thought they did not speak the product of an ordinary scribbler, I copied them, verbatim; and judging they might not be disagreeable to many besides, I beg your indulging them with a place in your universal entertainer, which will greatly oblige,
Yours,
&c.

The verses that he recorded appeared later in the June edition of the Royal Magazine, and with a wonderful vigour so carefully applied through flourishing heroic lines, it records the wonders of a good meal:

      The Norfolk Dumpling

From themes impertinent, the thick-scrall’d pane
At length a respite craves. — The jest obscene,
Acrostick’s fulsome note, or slander’s sting,
Alike I hate — detest — Be it my wish,
In grateful lines, justly to celebrate
A Norfolk Dumpling’s praise; — Belov’d repast!
With extasy I name thee! Had thy bard
Poetic fancy equal to his appetite,
On Fame’s high pinnacle thoud’st stand rever’d
For charms unequall’d! Whilst the modern epicure,
Whose rav’nous maw threats ev’ry element
For food exotic, with depopulation,
Should linger as he read. Not in the dish
Of far-fetch’d delicacies, such as grac’d
A loyal city’s table, when presided
Britannia’s darling Princes, could be found
A Gusto half so noble, half so fine,
As this, when from the bubbling cavern’s mouth
Comes reeking, straight in dripping-pan immerg’d
From goose, or duck, or leg of pork produc’d,
The savoury show’r imbibes! Oh, could I paint thee
In different vestments clad! When at Meridian
Joan waits her faithful messmate, how thou’rt seen
Majestically rob’d! Whilst round thy throne
Molosses rolls his salutary tide
Luxuriant! — Nor in estimation less
Art held, when wallowing in the golden flood
Of pease and bacon soup!….

—Here bait, my pen!
Lest like thy poet thou grow’st faint describing
What taste alone can prove! — Be Norfolk then
For Dumplings, Nogg, and Plenty ever fam’d!

Until next time, dear reader.

What’s going on?

Expedient Reader,

I can only offer my humblest apologies for the neglect that this honest blog has seen this past month; as my dissertation has progressed my ability to socialise appears to have drastically diminished. Never fear, however, kindest reader; allow me to ramble some more gibberish into this lazy space of internet.

I have done several things lately, not least, as I’ve already mentioned, started on my dissertation (a rather peculiar Javascript game I will no doubt be inviting people to test some time soon); I’ve also added to the odd bit of writing here and there, nothing noteworthy I must add. Somewhere around the space between getting hopelessly bored of revising last month, and getting hopefully crazed about my dissertation this month, I began compiling a collection of the letters and speeches of Charles I; that might turn up as an eBook some time later.

This is also something I’m working on for an upcoming M.A.D.D. opportunity

Job hunting is also taking over… more of that to come too I suppose. And, finally, dear reader, until next time may I recommend that you check out the excellent Wonderground Underground map.

Farewell, good reader.