Charles the first of England
Walked
through the snow
Wrapped
up against the chill
So
no shake would show
Parliament
chose to kill
The
rightful king of the land
An
outrageous act at Whitehall
Perpetrated
by the puritans
An
axe man on the scaffold
Executing
him matter of fact
The
cold January snow
Almost
purifying the act
A
dignified monarch
Unwavering
in his belief
His
daughter Princess Elizabeth
Broken
hearted died of grief
It was in the middle of the 7th Century when 17 year old Olwen, the youngest daughter of King Osric, was pledged in marriage to young King Ryce of West Untenena.
King Osric’s tribe was in the east bordering Cantwarena and
the marriage was designed to affect a treaty between the two tribes and
preserve the peace by forming a mutually beneficial alliance against West
Sexena.
Osric’s tribe in East Untenena were Christina converts and
because of her faith, Olwen only agreed to the union if she could be married at
St Augustine’s Church in the place of her birth.
The citizens of East Untenena were very pleased with the
union as they hoped it would lead to a lasting peace.
Olwen was very popular among her people and the wedding was
the cause of much celebration with seven days of feasting.
It was a joyous occasion and when it ended Olwen and her
new husband then travelled under heavy escort to her new home.
Soldiers of both East and West Untenena made up the escort
as an act of solidarity.
Olwen was also accompanied by her maids Esme and Elwin, and
by her priest Father Audley.
Her new home was the great hall of King Ryce which stood in
a settlement at the head of the Lake Tåre Drape on the
edge of the great forest.
Although the marriage was forced upon her she was not
disappointed with the union, Olwen liked Ryce and in time she grew to love him
very deeply.
And she also grew to love her new home very much.
But she came from a Christian realm and she had married
into a pagan one.
Though Ryce was prepared to adopt the new faith his
subjects and more importantly, his chieftains, were not.
Although most of his subjects took to the new Queen and
loved her almost as much as her own people did.
Though not all of them, in fact two of them were openly
hostile to her and a third, Holt had threatened to kill any Christians who
dared practice in his lands.
For the first year Olwen was content to have Father Audley
attend to hers and her maid’s spiritual needs in her private chambers but she
was not prepared to deny herself a place of worship forever.
So at the beginning of her 19th year she
broached the subject with Ryce when he asked her if she was happy in his
kingdom she replied rather unconvincingly
“Yes”
“You are unhappy?” Ryce asked
“No I’m not unhappy” she replied “but...”
“You still miss your home” he said
“A little yes” she admitted
“But really I miss my Church”
“I see” he responded “the one thing you miss is the one
thing I cannot give you”
“Not even a small Chapel for us?” she asked in her most
feminine voice.
“I can’t grant you that” Ryce said
“It’s doesn’t have to be grand or ornate”
She pleaded
“If I was to openly build a Church in this settlement it
would give Holt the excuse he needs to move against me” He said and Olwen was
crestfallen.
“I’m sorry” he said
“What if we built one in secret?” she asked
“Where?” he asked
“In the forest” she said
The King was very thoughtful for a few minutes and then he
said
“I will give it some further thought”
Then he took his leave.
Olwen took that to mean no, but she left it at that for now,
she didn’t want to back him into a corner.
But that didn’t mean she would give up.
After several days Ryce gave Olwen his decision as they lay
in his bed.
“You may have your secret Chapel” he said
“Thank you my King” she said excitedly
“But it must remain secret” he reiterated
“If Holt or his kinsmen find out, there will be open
revolt”
“Yes my Lord”
“No materials or craftsman from my realm can be used”
“I understand” Olwen said
There was a regular caravan that travelled between East and
West Untenena so over the following 18 months Stone was brought in secret from
Thanet Island in small quantities and an Alta stone was transported from Lindisfarne
via a circuitous route.
Firstly a large area of forest was cleared and building
began on a small timber Chapel to Olwen’s specific design.
The Thanet stones were placed around the outline of the
building in the traditional cruciform shape and some locally acquired flag
stones formed the floor and the Lindisfarne Alta stone was given pride of
place.
The Chapel walls and roof were made of Dancingdean timber
and only a small number of trusted woodsman knew what was being built in the
woods.
There was also a large baptismal bowl set into the floor of
one side of the transept where Olwen’s husband Ryce and their children were
baptized.
Its Water was drawn from a natural spring besides the Chapel
clearing which the faithful claimed only sprang forth when the church was completed.
The first service was held on Olwen’s 22nd birthday
and monthly thereafter so as not to draw attention.
This went on regularly for four years without incident until
one spring when her brother Hugh and his wife Henrietta were visiting with her for
Olwen’s confinement.
She was six months pregnant with her third child and she
was praying this one was a boy.
So she made more regular visits to the Chapel so she could
pray to God to grant her wish.
It was on a bright spring day when Father Audley led Olwen,
Ryce and their daughters, Lucetta and Annis, and her brother and his wife along
the hidden path to the Chapel.
But as the priest stepped into the sunlight Ryce was struck
on the side of the head with a sword hilt and fell to the ground.
“You will die for this Holt”
Olwen screamed as she saw the face of her husband’s
assailant.
“I think not” Holt said as he brandished his sword “You
will all die here today at your holy place”
And his kinsman Irwin drew his sword at the same moment.
Thankfully Godwin the woodsman who had been instrumental
in the Chapel’s construction was already inside when the attack began and
without thinking he took up his axe and charged out and cleaved Irwin’s head in
two.
As Irwin fell down dead it
distracted Holt long enough for Hugh to burst out of the trees and thrust his
sword through Holt’s throat, and he turned to look at Hugh with a look of
surprise and then dropped his sword.
“God has spoken” Olwen said and he
fell dead to the ground.
It was all over in a trice,
fortunately Henrietta had taken the young girls away at the first sign of
trouble, so were spared the bloodshed.
Ryce was helped to his feet as
Father Audley gave the dead men the last rites and Hugh and Godwin went in
search of the chieftain’s horses.
The bodies of Holt and Irwin
were draped across their horses and then Godwin led them into the deep wood and
the bodies were never seen again.
With the resistance to the new
faith gone the following year work began on a new Church adjacent to the great
hall.
There were mutterings from those
close to Holt about what had become of him and his kinsman but they were
silenced when rumours spread that the one true God must have smite them
down.
The Chapel fell into disuse
after the new Church was built though Olwen would visit it from time to time
but no one went there after she and Ryce had died.
And ten years into her son Hugh’s
reign a war began with West Sexena and Hugh had to abandon the Great Hall and
the Church which were then destroyed.
By the time West Sexena were defeated
and driven out 20 years later by Olwen’s grandson Edric all memory of her Chapel
had faded and was all but forgotten until early in Queen Victoria’s reign.
Salute it only if it moves
Pick
it up if it doesn't move
If
you can't salute it
Or
pick it up just paint it
The
Guns of Navarone, is a classic War movie based on the Alistair MacLean novel of
the same name and directed by J. Lee Thompson.
A
British led team of six Allied and Greek soldiers is sent to the Greek island
of Navarone, occupied by German forces, to destroy the massive German gun emplacement
that commands a key sea channel, which threatens the safe evacuation of British
troops from a neighbouring island.
As
if the mission is not perilous enough, with such a large German presence on the
island, they also have a traitor in their midst.
The
menacing naval guns are embedded in a cliff with a big rock overhang, so the
RAF are unable to destroy them from air, which is why a commando team is put together
under the command of Maj. Roy Franklin (Anthony Quayle), a renowned mountain
climber, Capt. Keith Mallory (Gregory Peck) to get them up the formidable
cliffs, a couple of native Greeks, Col. Andrea Stavros (Anthony Quinn) and
Spyros Pappadimos (James Darren), explosives man, Cpl. John Anthony Miller
(David Niven), and a tough anti-fascist veteran of the Spanish Civil War, CPO
'Butcher' Brown (Stanley Baker) and they are joined on the island by resistance
fighters Maria Pappadimos (Irene Papas) and Anna (Gia Scala).
The
film is full of tension as the group keep getting into and out of one situation
after another and it crackles with excitement up to the dramatic conclusion, a
film not be missed.
The mountainous lands of Armenia
Populated since prehistoric times
Was the site of the Biblical Garden of Eden
And the Armenian highlands surround Mount Ararat
Upon which Noah’s ark came to rest
They were appropriately the first nation in the world
To adopt Christianity in AD 301
As its official state religion
The
Christian Armenians lived
Under
the ottoman empire’ oppressive yoke
For
almost four centuries
When
in august 1896
A
small band of Armenian freedom fighters
Seeking
international recognition of their plight
Raided
the headquarters of the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul
They
murdered the guards
And
took more than 140 staff hostage
However,
their plan backfired
When
it brought down upon their heads
The
wrath of their Turkish masters
And
provoked the first Armenian holocaust
When
Mobs of Muslim Turks
Massacred
more than 50,000 Armenians
This
was however spectacularly surpassed
Almost
20 years later
When
in the spring of 1915
A
concerted effort by the Kaisers allies in Istanbul
To
systematically set about the removal
Of
their Armenian problem
And
the Muslim overloads ordered
The
Butchery of one and a half million
Armenian
Christian souls
And
providing the Germans with a template for the future
The Vickers Wellesley
Was
a British light bomber
That
was all but obsolete
By
the time the war came
It
was totally unsuited
To
the European air war
Of
the Second World War
But
the Wellesley found a purpose
In
the desert theatres
Of
East Africa, Egypt
And
the Middle East
Henry Beaumont was the only son of the 10th Earl of Dancingdean.
Henry
was a strong man, straight backed and powerful with a square jaw and chestnut
brown hair, a gifted scholar, sportsman and a natural horseman.
It
was early summer and Henry had just returned from Abbottsford University to Dancingdean
Hall, the family home overlooking Teardrop Lake.
His
lifelong friend, neighbour and fellow returnee Sebastian Blackburn lived next
door at Bridge House.
The
year was 1914 and they were on top of the world with a bright future ahead of
them and only 21 years behind them.
Little
did they know as they sailed on the picturesque waters of the lake that
glorious June, that their futures would start to unravel with the death of an
obscure minor royal of the Hapsburg dynasty on the 28th of that very
Month.
Sebastian
was destined for a career in his father’s bank and marriage to Lady Theresa
Edgson in the following year.
While
Henry was to be groomed to follow in his father’s footsteps, which would
culminate in his wearing the ermine in the House of Lords as the 11th
Earl of Dancingdean.
All
through the month of July they carried on with their lives, and the usual round
of social engagement totally oblivious to the treat of impending war.
Henry
even found time to fall in love.
The
object of his affections was Christine Turner a tall auburn haired girl with a
smiling freckled face, a sweet nature and a kind heart.
She
was three years older than him and she had been employed as his mother’s
companion for a year and a half.
And
he had been attracted to her for every single day of that year and a half but
she had always resisted his advances.
And
dismissed his feelings as mere infatuation but she filled his every waking thought
on his last year at University and when he was home it was her he wanted to see
first.
Christine
though was resolute in her opposition, month after month, even though she
shared his feelings.
But
on the balmy evening of the 3rd of July, when his father was staying
at his club and his mother had taken to her bed with the vapours, he kissed her
on the terrace and she reciprocated.
“We
shouldn’t be doing this” she said
“I
know” he whispered and kissed her again.
For
the remainder of that month he fulfilled all the social engagements he was
expected to attend so as not to arouse suspicion and then they would meet in
secret and snatch intimate moments wherever and whenever they could.
But
they told no one, because they could tell no one.
On
the first of August, the day on which Germany declared war on Russia, was also
the day that Henry made a declaration of his own.
It
was Christine’s day off and they had arranged a secret rendezvous up at Lovers
Leap, a rocky shelf that jutted out above the cliffs,
which were an extension of those that formed part of the northern side of
Teardrop Lake and formed the natural border between the Teardrop estate and the
Dancingdean Forest proper.
Lovers Leap was so called because it was where desperate and
broken hearted lovers would leap to their deaths although there was no evidence
that anyone actually had.
It was just a promontory that offered a stunning view, but it was a very rainy day so they met at
Dancingdean Folly instead.
The Folly was built by the 8th Earl of Dancingdean who
had it erected for himself, in the style of a Castle Keep.
He was always prone to delusions of Grandeur.
He had it erected on top of a hill and then had the surrounding
Forest cleared so everyone for miles around could see his standard flying high
from the turret.
The
scene was very different almost a hundred years later as the forest had begun
encroaching on the cleared land.
Henry
got there first and immediately took shelter and then waited anxiously in the
doorway for Christine to arrive.
He
had been up there for almost an hour and he was just beginning to think she
wasn’t coming when she appeared, running through the trees and straight into
his arms.
“I
thought you weren’t coming” he said
“Sorry
darling, your mother was being difficult” Christine explained and then she
kissed him.
She
and Henry ate their picnic sat on a tartan rug in the old Folly looking out at
the rain.
When
they had finished Henry refilled their glasses with champagne and as he raised his
glass in a toast he said
“Christine
Turner, will you marry me?”
Henry
waited expectantly for her answer but she looked down at the ground and said
nothing.
“I’m
not joking” he said “I love you and I want to marry you”
“I
love you too” she said “but I can’t marry you”
“Why
not?” he asked
“Because
you’re the next in line to the title and I’m a Lady’s companion” she explained
“But
I don’t care about that” Henry said taking her hand
“But
your father will, and your mother will, and so will all your friends” she said
“I
don’t want the title” he said “I only want you”
“But
what will we live on and where will we live?” Christine asked
“I
have some money left to me by grandfather and a small house in Abbottsford”
He
explained but she was still unmoved
“Its
madness” she said “you will be throwing away your future”
“I
have no future if it doesn’t include you” he said earnestly
She
thought for a moment then held his hand to her lips and said “Yes”
They
couldn’t tell anyone, Henry couldn’t even tell his best friend Sebastian, they
just continued to meet in secret and bide their time.
But
time was not a commodity they had in abundance.
A
point that was heavily underlined when Germany invaded Belgium and Britain
declared war.
Henry
was not a soldier either by nature or profession, he was a pacifist by ideology
and content to be so.
However
he and Sebastian enlisted at the earliest opportunity and joined the Downshire
Light Infantry.
They
were both commissioned as Lieutenants and reported immediately to the camp at
Nettlefield.
Henry
and Christine saw little of each other over the coming weeks and had to conduct
their love affair via the mail.
Their
engagement remained a secret and she had to wear her engagement ring on a chain
about her neck.
Which
she would kiss each night before she slept.
The
training at Nettlefield was intense and rigorous and was completed in under six
weeks and when the boys returned home on their pre-embarkation leave they were
resplendent in their uniforms.
When
they presented themselves to their respective fiancée’s they were viewed with a
mixture of pride and sadness.
Christine
broke down and cried when he told her he only had 4 days leave before he left
for France.
Henry’s
father, George’s reaction was slightly different.
“For
God’s sake boy you don’t have to go” he yelled “you are my heir”
“I
have to go” Henry replied
“No
you don not” his father argued
“I
have to go” Henry repeated
“Then
let me pull some strings and get you a staff post”
“No
father I don’t want any special treatment” he said
In
retrospect he should have said “ok pull your strings on condition that I can
marry Christine Turner”
But
he didn’t.
Sebastian
Blackburn allowed his father to pull strings on his behalf however, but not to
get out of the firing line, Seb wanted to marry Theresa before he left for
France.
So
a hastily arrange ceremony was performed at Olwen’s Chapel.
Olwen was an Anglo Saxon Lady who was one of the early converts to
Christianity but her pagan husband’s tribe would not accept the new faith and
she was forced to worship secretly in the forest.
Her chapel actually appeared to me little more than an assortment
of stones on the forest floor arranged around a granite altar stone in a
woodland clearing, the wooden structure long since rotted away.
It had been rediscovered early in Queen Victoria reign and had
been lovingly maintained ever since by a local society.
So
on September 13th 1914, Sebastian Blackburn the tall, blonde, classically
handsome lieutenant with the dazzling blue eyes, wed the petite, dark haired Theresa,
she dressed in ivory silk, he in his dress uniform.
With
best man Henry by his side.
After the reception Henry crept to Christine’s room and knocked lightly on her door.
She
opened the door in her night things
“What
are you doing here?” she whispered through the crack in the door
“I
just wanted to say that on my next leave you will be the bride” he said and
kissed her goodnight.
Three
days later they checked into the Railway Hotel in Abbeyvale as Mr and Mrs
Beauchamp on the eve of his regiment’s embarkation, when their love was made
manifest.
On
the platform of Abbeyvale station the next morning he saw her onto the
Shallowfield train and as he held her hand through the open window he said
“I
love you Christine and I promise we will be married when I return”
“Just
come home safe darling” she said as train pulled slowly out of the station.
He
stood on the platform looking on and waving until she was out of sight.
They
wrote to each other every few days over the weeks he was away, each letter more
heavily laden with romantic sentiment than its predecessor.
Even
when the First Battle of Ypres began on the 19th of October his
romantic fervour was not abated nor did it, by its end on the 22nd
of November and all through that winter it was his love for Christine that kept
him warm.
In
his letters to her he didn’t mention all the harshest realities of life in the
trenches and in return Christine didn’t burden him with the knowledge that she
was pregnant with his child.
As
winter faded into spring the conditions in Belgium had not improved and the
Second Battle of Ypres commenced in April and Christine was fast reaching the
point that it was going to be difficult to conceal a pregnancy in her Edwardian
outfits.
Then
on the 2nd of April her worst fears were realised when the telegraph
boy arrived at Dancingdean Hall.
The
telegram read
“We
regret to inform you that on the 29th of May Lt H G M Beaumont was
killed while trying to rescue a mortally wounded comrade from no man’s land”
Christine
hadn’t seen the boy arrive but was alerted to its contents when Lady
Dancingdean went hysterical and started throwing things around her room.
The
Earl was unable to calm her so he left her to Christine and dealt with the news
of his only son’s death by going out to the woods to shoot things.
Christine
wanted to scream out in grief at her loss but felt compelled to placate her
mistress instead.
That
afternoon however she was taken to the asylum in Pepperstock which she would
never leave.
George,
10th Earl of Dancingdean never returned from the woods either
because after he tired of shooting the wild life he turned the gun on himself.
That
evening as darkness fell so did Christine Turner’s mood.
She
sat in a leather chesterfield in George Beaumont’s study, a large glass of
brandy in one hand and the telegram in the other and tears streaming down her
cheeks.
Dancingdean
Hall was not the only recipient of the Telegram boy’s grim correspondence.
The
inhabitants of Bridge House were informed of Sebastian Blackburn’s death.
How
typical of the man she loved to risk his live to save his wounded friend.
Christine
fell into a black despair and could see no way out.
She
would soon be unemployed and as soon as the baby showed she would be
unemployable and she had lost the man she loved and the father of her child.
The
burden was too great to bear and so she drained her glass.
Her
heart was broken and there was no future for her and her lover’s child, weighed
down by grief in her heart and rocks in her pockets Christine walked onto the
terrace where she had first kissed Henry and then crossed the lawn from
Dancingdean Hall and jumped off the east cliff into the black lake below.
