The deep dark woodland; the haunt of foxes
The landscape of my present
It took a low gear to keep me cycling up the hill out of Cottesbrooke towards Creaton. At the summit the view up ahead to my left drew me to a lane-side pause.
What caught my eye first was the curving, swooping edge to a defined swathe of woodland at the opposite side of the shallow valley formed, over centuries, by a narrow tributary of the River Nene. Creaton Covert, the name of the wood tells of the reason for its planting about one hundred and fifty years ago, possibly more, which was to nurture the population of foxes hereabouts. For the countryside I surveyed before me has long been hunting territory, and has been shaped by the sport.
The hill I had climbed gave me sweeping views to the horizon where, beyond the bounded wood, I could make out the spire of the great Saxon church of Brixworth, in its day the greatest building north of the Alps, dignifying the hilltop stronghold of the Mercian kings.
Almost monochrome, the colours laid out before me were predominantly deep green, apart from the wood, which was a green so deep it fell into near-black. I had ridden through fields of ancient ridge and furrow, but now the predominant impression was one of criss-crossing enclosure hedges.
Dark earthy leaf-mould, green pasture, deep dark woodland, the haunt of foxes, these were the textures and colours of that moment. But there was depth beyond immediate sensory experience. I was mindful of the generations who had passed this way before. These people and their necessary tasks, building, ditching, draining, hedge-laying, these people and the search for transcendence through the thrill of the chase, they were all preparing the landscape of my present.
© John Dunn.
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From the archive:
Gnomic wanting
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Just a thought:
Usury through the central banking system is a far more efficient way of appropriating the labour of others than money-lending at interest by individuals. The multiplier effect of central banking meant that Usura, the new empire of money, could sweep aside all those who stood in its way and destroy all those who challenged it. John Dunn (Renaissance: Counter-Renaissance)
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