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Local Walks

Our Manor

a walk around The Borough with John Constable, Tuesday 12 June 2007

(or Not The Canterbury Tales)

With apologies to Geoffrey Chaucer (and Nevill Coghill), whose opening to 'The General Prologue' to The Canterbury Tales is rather more skilful than what follows. There were thirty walkers assembled in Trinity Church Square rather than the nine and twenty pilgrims who gathered at the Tabard Inn to go to the shrine of Thomas ˆ Becket in Canterbury. And our host was John Constable, not Harry Bailly. We were not required to tell stories of our own!

When in June the sweet showers for once don't fall
And drench to the root our neighbours one and all,
And sunshine beckons forth the hale and hearty
(And the not-so-hale - those that like a party),
When thoughts of summer evenings tempt the mind
And dreams of gentle pleasures we may find,
Then people long to go on TNRA walks
And gather in the squares for sun and talks.

It happened in that season that one day
In Trinity Church Square, there, as I lay
Ready to join John Constable, my guide,
There burst forth onto the Square's pavement wide,
By the church, a company of sundry folk
Keen to explore 'our manor' with the bloke.

We sauntered forth, paused at the Marshalsea,
And then crossed Borough High Street in full glee
Heading for Redcross Cottages and Garden,
Now restored. Octavia Hill put her card on
The table once and said 'Enough's enough:
The poor need good conditions. Call them rough
And trash, but they're human like you and me.'
From there to Cross Bones Graveyard (look - you'll see
It close-by, pictured on John's little book);
Then to The George and Tabard for a look.

We'd talked of the poor, of whores (Southwark Geese
They were called), of writers whose words never cease
To amuse and beguile. We'd been through streets
Where the heart of our manor firmly beats
And history is ingrained - we'd had some treats.
Last, through Guy's and then an end-of-walk drink.
Did we have a good time? What do you think!