Hilaire Belloc bought King's Land (in Shipley, Sussex), 5 acres and a working windmill for £1000 in 1907 and it was his home for the rest of his life. Belloc loved Sussex as few other writers have loved her: he lived there for most of his 83 years, he tramped the length and breadth of the county, slept under her hedgerows, drank in her inns, sailed her coast and her rivers and wrote several incomparable books about her. "He does not die that can bequeath Some influence to the land he knows, Or dares, persistent, interwreath Love permanent with the wild hedgerows; He does not die, but still remains Substantiate with his darling plains."

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Saturday 10 January 2015

Epiphany poem...












When Jesus Christ was four years old,
The angels brought Him toys of gold, 
Which no man ever had bought or sold.

And yet with these He would not play. 
He made Him small fowl out of clay, 
And blessed them till they flew away. 

Tu creasti, Domine. 
Jesus Christ, Thou child so wise, 
Bless mine hands and fill mine eyes, 
And bring my soul to Paradise.


Set to music by Benjamin Britten.

From: Verses "The birds", published 1910.