This Blessed Plot, This Earth, This Realm, This England?
The story in This Blessed Plot, This Earth, This Realm, This England? began to take shape when I was sitting in the graveyard surrounding our 1000-year-old church, looking at the River Nene and thinking about, life and the universe. In so doing, as ever, I had been researching key moments, concerning people, events and ideas that have helped shape the society in which we, in the UK and elsewhere, are currently challenged to make our respective ways.
Doing my research, I ‘travelled’ a lot in my head and via my memories (such as they now are) whilst sitting around the village; “meeting” people, listening to music and reading, masses of the latter (as ever). My journey took in Shakespeare, Dickens, and Paul Simon looking for ‘America’ via Saginaw and included the Enclosure Acts and other such things. I also came across: “They hang the man and flog the woman
Chapter Extract:
This Blessed Plot, This Earth, This Realm, This England?
Book One: who is this guy Blaise and what is he trying to say?
Blaise Le Mesurier had a secret; something he had kept since he was a boy. He could travel through time. Well, perhaps not literally …. obviously! Rather, his personal time machine was designed by literature and books and was powered by his imagination.
At a very early age, he had found that he could imagine himself wherever and at any point in history that his present inspiration had dictated. Later, and even more empowering, by some means that escaped him, he was able to experience a holistic and rounded view of the places and times at which he found himself and then go on to describe it in ways that others seemed to enjoy and respect.
To his surprise, what had been a childhood escape fantasy had not only endured but, it seemed to him, had been enhanced, with the passage of time, as expressed in his developing occupation as; ‘a writer’. The more he learned, the more convincing had become his observations at his chosen scene at the time he had selected, usually in the context of his current reading assignment.
But, given his current project, it was perhaps, even, more important, for him at least that, of late, he had begun to realise that the descriptive ability to share his experiences with others might become more important to his purpose. Perhaps even, sometimes, to carry others with him on his forays; to help some people visit ‘his places’ and ‘his times’ and to experience them in, as it were, his company. Even, perchance, to persuade them to agree with his take on things.
Interestingly, the analytical and other abilities of social media – which in his view extended way too far to be safe for humans in their present state of social (dis)harmony – were, indeed, a part of his concerns. He was particularly apprehensive as to how society, governments, ‘business and money’, and individuals would react to – or be used by – the deployment of AI and high-tech “chat groups” and the like. He had kept much in mind how, back in 2020ies the agreement had been reached involving the largest publicly known defamation settlement in US history involving a media company. All this was based upon the truth, or lack thereof, in the latest manifestation of the pursuit of so-called democracy, US style. Indeed, t’was a mark of the times as he saw them, that such goings on had been mere precursors to Twitter, Musk and ‘X’ et al.
Nonetheless, the analytical capabilities of those same technologies had served also to, truly, amaze him. Telling him all about the number, breadth, width and sheer variety of opinions held by the individuals who made up the bulk of his ‘fans’ and potential ‘fellow travellers’. He found ‘the numbers’ awesome and that analysis worried a part of him whilst flattering some of his other bits!
But this day, he was not required to travel far from his home alongside the Nene, not much distant from Fotheringhay. The castle, now in ruins, a site close to the church – which remains and is a beauteous thing to behold – the history of this ‘Sceptred Isle’ had a particular resonance. Indeed, a poignant marker of the application of power that had been crucial to English history. It was there that one Queen of one religion had, literally, lost her head on the river’s banks at the order of another Queen, of another religion (or so history has alleged).
Looking across this beloved Nene valley he could not help but distinguish the structure of the land and the communities it had fostered over a thousand years. From his vantage point, he could make out the spires and towers of 6 churches and could discern the layout of the fields. He knew that, in each village, he would find ‘the Church’, some of which retained Anglo-Saxon beginnings with their crude arches whilst others had the added features of majestic Norman-style towers and spires. There would be also ‘the Rectory’, the ‘Manor Farm’ and, somewhere strategically placed in the middle of it all, the ‘Manor House’. There would, usually, be the village green (often actually belonging to the bailiwick of the Manor) and thereafter, amongst the unintended offensiveness of the ‘new-builds’, would remain, secreted, a row of cottages; charming and lovely by today’s standards. Most likely these latter would have been built with the stone of that particular hue found only in Northamptonshire. These dwellings were created to accommodate and help secure the work, and commitment of farm labourers and to help ensure also the presence of their families at times of planting and harvest
But it was all a part of a carefully layered social structure that, constantly emergent, reflected the ever-changing nature of an agrarian society. That society had, in turn, reflected the power structures of the time and had also become the foundation for the way(s) the nation and people were governed, by whom and on what basis. Of course, where the people were at the time in terms of social order and skills, reflected also the effects of the Celts and Anglo-Saxons, the invasions of the Vikings and, ultimately, the coming of the Normans.
This day, he was pondering the present state of the nation that he loved and that his family had been a part of since 1066 – or thereabouts – (about the time of the building of his local church), albeit that he was not entirely sure whether his origins were, in actualité, Anglo-Saxon, Norman or Viking, or perhaps a bit of each.
The more he looked the more it had become apparent that ‘progress’, sometimes described more simply as ‘change’, had never been either easy or, necessarily, fair for all but had, rather and most often, improved the lot of ‘the few’ at a cost to ‘the many’ ……” .
