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| At Hawkslee |
The Peak District National Park - where I have walked so many miles - straddles four counties. Derbyshire boasts the biggest share of the land but the park's territory includes segments of Yorkshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire too.
Yesterday, with a summery weather forecast, I thought I would treat myself to ramble in an unfamiliar part of The Peak District. This involved driving Clint beyond Buxton and into Cheshire - almost exactly an hour on the road.
I parked in the straggly village of Wincle and being a God-fearing kind of guy - headed straight for St Michael's Church where I spotted this grave:-
It is the grave of an eleven year old girl called Jane Wheeldon. She died on July 11th 1830. The stonemason also carved these two lines: ""No room for mirth or trifling here/If life is so soon gone;". The semi-colon at the end suggests that the verse carving is incomplete. Very likely, it should have gone like this - in the original cheery words of Charles Wesley:-
No room for mirth or trifling here,
For worldly hope, or worldly fear,
If life so soon is gone:
If now the Judge is at the door,
And all mankind must stand before
The inexorable throne!
Standing before "the inexorable throne" sounds rather scary to me. If God Almighty is able to see all my past sins and present failings then I am afraid I am doomed and the fires of hell will punish me through all eternity. Gulp! I hope that Jane Wheeldon wasn't judged so harshly.
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| The Cheshire Plain with Bosley Reservoir in the foreground |
At one point on my lovely Cheshire walk, I reached a viewpoint where I could look west from the uplands across The Cheshire Plain all the way to the hills of North Wales. But there were many other visual delights too. Such as cattle grazing peacefully - often looking up to watch their blogging hero passing by.
Four hours after setting off my circle was complete. I was back in Wincle, sitting on a bench by the church wall munching an apple. Happily fatigued with the ghost of Jane Wheeldon invisibly perusing me and almost ready to drive home to make Sunday dinner.
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| On The Gritstone Way |
An ornate gravestone for a child and, as you say, I hope that at that tender age she was judge less harshly. Before I came up to Lewis, I lived in Lymm at the top (actually the highest point) of the village. We looked out over the Cheshire plain. The odd thing is that when driving around Cheshire doesn't seem as flat as it looks from the high bits. It really is a beautiful county.
ReplyDeleteCheshire is a county I do not know well. I should try to do some walking out on that plain to confirm your perception of it.
DeleteHell? Better than stuck in limbo. Actually, no, I'll take limbo. I like uncertainty. Makes for great blood pressure readings. The sky appears to have no limit.
ReplyDeleteU
Good name for a new blog - "Limbo Dancing".
DeleteNah, YP. Dancing involves feet. And, judging by my experience so far, there are a lot of people out there in blogland whose toes I may tread on despite my being nimble. Not that I blame oafs for being oafs.
DeleteU
That's a cracking view. I'm amazed that you publish so few photo's on your rambling reports. I struggle to narrow mine down to half a dozen, and usually end up with ten or more.
ReplyDeleteI do not want to overwhelm visitors MQ.
DeleteFour hours? Goodness, I was done for after only two yesterday.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to avoid burning in hell become an atheist. No God, Devil, heaven or hell. Simple.
Who should I worship if there is no God?...I'm thinking it will have to be Bob Dylan. "Dylan is God".
DeleteAh, the twenty arches of North Rode Viaduct, but you should have waited for a train heading to see Hameld in Glasgow.
ReplyDeleteMy desire to meet Mr Haggerty in person is not as strong as that McTasker.
DeleteHaw Lads,
DeleteEven my mates won't recognise me in The Rogano, I growed me a Sean Connery beard during lockdown. Do you know the story about the comedian Don Rickles? He had a new girlfriend he wanted to impress. And he asked Sinatra if he would drop by at his table in a restaurant in Vegas. So Sinatra came into the restaurant that night, walked over to the table Rickles had booked with his date: *Good evening, Don, nice to see you, who's the beautiful young lady?*
To which Rickles responded, *Beat it Frank, can't you see I'm busy?*
That is a wonderful view, thank you for sharing it. And isn't it exciting to walk in unfamiliar territory? I also like familiar grounds, when I anticipate certain way marks, buildings, trees, crossings and views I have come across before, and now see them on a different day, maybe at a different time of year or day.
ReplyDeleteAt Jane Wheeldon's time of life (and death), sadly it was rather common for families to lose one or more of their children long before adulthood. All the more remarkable is Jane's tombstone. Her parents must have been not only relatively wealthy to be able to afford it, they must also have loved and appreciated their little girl greatly.
But they may not have appreciated the stonemason's apparent error. I saw a nice farm ruin along the way and nearly shared it - just for you.
DeleteYou brought back many memories of us driving along the Cat and Fiddle road to Buxton when we lived in Cheshire YP. I have never understood why it's called the Peak District. I can't think of any mountains.
ReplyDeleteTheories as to the derivation of the Peak name include that it came from the Pecsaetan or peaklanders, an Anglo-Saxon tribe who inhabited the central and northern parts of the area from the 6th century AD when it was part of the Anglian kingdom of Mercia.
DeleteMy Lancashire ancestors were the Brigantes. A Celtic tribe that settled on the banks of the river Irwell. They opened chip shops and had Dandelion and Burdock wells.
DeleteThe Parisi inhabited East Yorkshire but later The Vikings came. That's why I wear a pudding bowl with horns attached when it is raining.
DeleteIt pains me a little to be the serious religious person but I'm gonna say it anyway: When Jesus went to the cross, He took the punishment for our faults and failings.
ReplyDeleteCrazy story, unverified.
A long ramble in the sunshine sounds fabulous
Phew! That's a relief Kylie. Thank you Jesus! Now I can sin happily with a clear conscience.
DeleteThat photo of the Cheshire Plain is beautiful. It feels like you can see forever, well, at least to Wales.
ReplyDeleteThat's a long walk, four hours. Good on you.
Yes - long - and I only stopped to snap photographs.
DeleteTo answer your question, yes, I took the photo. It's Heidi our new dog in the photo. They were tough people, those people who survived on the prairies.
DeleteBeautiful. Your photos get better and better, Mr. P.
ReplyDeleteWe humans sure do come up with some strange ideas about what happens when we die. Which is fine until they turn into religions which are used to control and bilk the masses.
Charles Wesley's verse seems to point towards penance and punishment, not to joy, delight in living and laughter.
DeleteWhen Wesley is serious it is only the way we are serious when a man stands with his bride and promises to be faithful, or when he holds his newborn child and swears he will always give love and protection. As for punishment YP, the Stalins, Hitlers and Pol Pots did what they did because they did not believe they would have to answer for their crimes. The same with gangsters.
DeleteListen on YouTube to *O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing (Hymn with words and music) Charles Wesley.* The Hymn Club.
You have excelled yourself, YP. Though in the Cheshire plain, I felt I was walking through one of Meike's journeys in the Black Forest. We can only be quiet before the grave of this little girl, Jane Wheeldon, *No room for mirth here,* though remember she is now with the Children's King.
ReplyDeleteAs for judgment, remember the words of G.K. Chesterton:
*Do not presume, one of the thieves was damned. Do not despair, one of the thieves was saved.*
Are you referring to the lads who joined the carpenter's son on Calvary?
DeleteThe Unlikely Lads, to misquote the title of my favourite ever sitcom.
DeleteOh what happened to you, whatever happened to me?
DeleteWhat became of the people we used to be?
It cheers me up, watching any episode of The Likely Lads boxset. Great song too.
DeleteI just found the autobiography of Ian Le Frenais and Dick Clement, interesting to read them on the stellar casting of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Porridge.
Rodney Bewes said he could have got the finance for a second and third film but James Bolan would not cooperate. Bolan told the mayor of Newcastle that he would get the first train back as soon as the shoot was over.
I still marvel at Brigit Forsyth as Thelma, what acting, and I always had a yearning for Terry Collier's sister Audrey, played by Sheila Fearn.
And remember the late Mary Tamm as Terry's girlfriend in the movie?
I have watched The Likely Lads movie six or seven times which is as often as I have watched Pinter's The Caretaker or Losey's The Servant or Finney's Charlie Bubbles.
Well, Jane couldn't have gotten up to too much sinful mischief if she died at 11, poor thing. Love the foxglove growing by her gravestone! That's an amazing view over the countryside. It must be nice to have a car so you can go rambling! We're stuck at home unless we brave public transportation.
ReplyDeleteYou could always treat yourselves by hiring a car Steve. Along with a peaceful country cottage you and Dave could have a lovely week away - tootling around. You might even discover a dog friendly rental. By the way, the best county in England is Yorkshire but somewhere like Shropshire or Herefordshire might also bee good for you. For a "small" fee I will arrange it all for you.
DeleteCheshire plains is a beautiful area. You've made me look at the atlas again to see the position of Wales.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are looking up Wales and not whales Red! Compared with Canada, Britain is a very small country. You can drive across it in a single afternoon.
DeleteA fantastic view of the Cheshire Plain, the viaduct breaks the background up perfectly.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sue. That is kind of you to say so.
DeleteHow beautiful. Your photos are always top notch! I wonder who carved the owl in the first picture? Hoo? Hoo?
ReplyDeleteWhoever it was had a ramshackle workshop across the lane where there were a dozen different owls for sale - all looking at me.
DeleteI presume you have a very, very, expensive camera; your pictures are superb!
ReplyDeleteAs "compliments" go, Cro, yours falls a little flat. Still, I shall forward your remark to one of my father's friends, godfather to my brother. In his heyday the man was a renowned and highly prized photographer. I am sure he'd take it with a twinkle that the merit of his photography was in his equipment rather than his eye.
DeleteU
At the risk of interrupting a blogging tiff, I shall say two things:-
Delete1) My camera is a Sony Cybershot bridge camera - currently for sale at John Lewis for a modest £349 > Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX400V Smart Bridge Camera, HD 1080p, 20.4MP, 50x Optical Zoom, 200x Digital Zoom, Wi-Fi, NFC, GPS, 3” LCD Screen,
2) The best asset for effective photography is certainly having an eye for imagery. Sometimes I get breathless when I come across a scene I need to capture as I unzip my camera and point it.
I still use my old faithful Fujifilm AX280 (£70 from Boots), but I think it's about time I re-invested. £350 is probably a bit beyond me; I'm a scrooge.
DeleteTake no notice of U. She confuses the quality of composition with the quality of kit.
I believe there is a supermarket chain in France called Super U!
DeleteI see the famed French charm has rubbed up on you well. By all means, Cro, recommend to anyone not to take any notice of me. However, WHO is it who appears to confuse "composition" with "kit"? Still, in your and YP's favour, maybe it's a man thing. I mean the kit.
DeleteU