|
Would
you like to see the doctor's daughter's horse?, she asked. And
with that, the two were off to Bassingham. Jenny had told him
marvelous stories about the village. She told him about the
doctor's daughter who refused to go to university without her
horse. She told him about the dangers of the town's one bus
stop. In a village of four hundred, with one shop, in Lincolnshire,
these were the scandals of the day. Kate took him back to her
parents' house in Bassingham. The entire trip there, she refuted
all of Jenny's stories. Jenny is making a bigger deal of it
than it is, Kate said. It really is just a boring village, she
said. And Kate would know since she had lived in Bassingham
nearly all of her life. Until, that is, she gave up the village
life for a world of books and university in Cambridge. He was
visiting Kate and Jenny there before moving down to London for
the fall. He took in the sights; he forgot to use his camera.
The village had published a map for a historical walking tour
through Bassingham. Kate's house was on the map for passersby
to stand outside and admire. But, tourists rarely came through
Bassingham. Except him, and he had come with native Kate. They
had planned to walk on the village tour in the morning. Time
being as it is, passing too quickly, it was the afternoon before
they set off. He passed the morning sitting at the kitchen table
looking out at the garden. Kate passed the morning in bed, asleep.
The sky had turned grey by the time the two had set off. He
and Kate first went to the church, left behind from centuries
before. Later he could not recall whether it were gothic, norman,
or romanesque; it was old and older than he would ever be, he
knew that much. Kate led him behind the apse to the brambles
that had grown between the forgotten headstones. From there
she showed him the river. Once she had been in a boat on the
river and was attacked by a swan. That day they were safe because
they did not see any swans. He took his camera out to take a
photograph to help him remember it all, but rain began to fall.
He and Kate stood under the porch of the church; the church
can provide shelter in a variety of ways. And the rain stopped,
though the sky continued on as grey.
She took him down the lane, to the one bus stop. That is where
the youth of Bassingham gather at night, carving graffiti in
the wood of the seat, swearing at passersby who know their mothers.
Tough village thugs, inept as they were crooked. They were bored,
with the village and small town life. Kate showed him some of
the carvings. Months later he would hear in a song the line
"on a bus stop in the town, we rule the school, written
for anyone to read and to see". He is certain that had
also been carved at Bassingham; that line continues to remind
him of the village. This was months before he heard Tigermilk.
That afternoon Kate asked him if he had heard Belle and Sebastian.
He told her he had their second album and singles back at her
house in Cambridge. Upon their return from Bassingham, they
planned to listen, but they forgot. The night before he moved
to London, Kate mentioned her Field Mice, Blueboy, and Pastels
records. Odd they had been friends for nearly a year and never
before realized they listened to the same bands. They had only
talked of books and common friends. Upon their return to the
house that evening, again they planned to listen, but again
they forgot.
Past a housing development built over Roman ruins, between a
fence and a grey barn, Kate took him to see the doctor's daughter's
horse. She told him to look over the hedge, but even on his
tiptoes he could not see the horse. Kate looked herself, and
on her tiptoes she too could not see the doctor's daughter's
horse. Perhaps she is out riding him in the fields, I offered.
It isn't really very interesting anyway, she said, but for some
reason Jenny finds the horse hilarious. Kate continued, Jenny
is amused because she has never had to live here. He told her
that he would not mind living there himself, but he did not
think he would stay for a horse. No, I wouldn't either, Kate
said. In the evening they returned on the train back to Cambridge.
The Doctor's Daughter's Horse revisited in 2001.
| Matthew
Patrick, October 1998 |
|