The ship and the stump

Hello again. It has rained, bucketed down, biblical as some might say. We had a storm, called Gladys. Quaint. It is times like these I wonder how people coped 1,500 years ago. I am warm and dry in my home, listening to the wonderful Song Thrush, out the open skylight in the pre-dawn Moon glow. I have plenty to eat and drink, no threats or, at least none of which I am aware, but there is talk of virus, wars, climate catastrophe, inflation. Who cares? Not me.

I later returned to the oak tree stump, in the middle of a copse on top of a hill. The only way to reach it was to cross several fields, one of which had cattle in it. I knew the farmer and had asked his permission, which he readily granted, especially when I told him my purpose. He said it was nice to be asked. He told me that that part of the farm, about half an acre, had never been cultivated or used for pasture. It was the same as it had been from time immemorial, ‘ancient beyond memory or record’, his words. Interesting.

The stump was somewhat hidden from general view, with the sapling in the middle. My purpose was to measure the stump’s girth, I had a tape measure for this purpose. Before I did that I noticed a burrow on one side of the stump, the Badger, I wondered to myself?

I had no way of knowing how long it had been a stump. It was not clear when it was cut down but it was not recent. Its girth measured over 40 feet. I had seen trees of a similar size in my young days, noticeably in Savernake Forest in Wiltshire, reckoned to be the oldest forest in England at the time. A haunted place. I had read officially that the oldest living oak tree in England was somewhere in Lincolnshire, with a girth of 40 feet, and estimated about 1,000 years old. With some exceptional, but not impossible circumstances, I thought, perhaps the tree, of which this stump was the remains, could have been alive at the time of Arthur.

As I stood next to the stump contemplating this, a thought came to me, not my thought. It was Morgan, but just as a thought, no visual or sound. ?I could now recognise that it was her, before there was any discourse. ‘The tree has come back to life, not that it was ever really dead. A kind of tree ‘sleep’, she said to me, ‘the ‘sapling’ that you see is not a new tree, it is the old tree. You are right about the age of the tree, but it is actually a little older than your estimate. The original tree was planted by me on this spot, which has a special significance for this area of Devon, not known to many. It was cut down in 1782 to provide timber for a warship being built in Kent. The ship was called HMS Bellerophon. I was sad to see it cut down but I knew it had the power to rejuvenate, even though it has taken over 200 years. Such is the resilience of life. Also, such wood never completely dies. This high point, known to us as Tor Meganwy in my time, half a mile west of Boreston, 600 feet, is the main source of a network of streams that flow into the Dart River. There is a small spring directly beneath the stump.’

HMS Bellerophon, off South Devon, 1815, with captured Napoleon

‘And the burrow, is that the Badger that I saw?’

‘Yes, Badgers are special animals. You can learn from Badgers, remember that. You will learn from that one.’ She was gone.

I did not know much about Badgers, so I set about rectifying that, here is what I first learned. There are several species around the world, ours is known by its scientific name Meles meles. They can run at up to 20mph in short bursts. Badgers rule the roost in the English countryside and often occupy the same sett for generations. They are described as playful, house proud and expert foragers. They have been around in Britain longer than humans, much longer. I sat down on the edge of the stump, there was little sign of rot, the wood was a solid as it would have been 200 years ago, as if it had been magically preserved.

It was a special tree, but what happened to the timbers used in building HMS Bellerephon after it was broken up at the end of its service in 1830? Known to its crew as the Billy Ruffian, because they had difficulties with the real name, the timber salvaged would have continued to be useable for generations to come, as furniture, sculptures, tools, building material. Where was it? It required around 2,000 trees to build such a ship. I set about trying to locate some of it, my tree, wondering, if I found any, how I could be sure it came from this tree. I was assured from somewhere that if I brought it here, there would be no doubt.

Merlin was back with me, ‘sorry to disturb you but I said I would be happy to aid your speculations on the current madness.’

‘Thank you, some clarity would be helpful’, I replied, without much conviction.

‘You may have noticed that the ‘big story of the day’ is continually being pushed aside by something supposedly bigger, and then forgotten about?’ He sat down on the stump next to me and, almost immediately, the Badger appeared, completely unconcerned by our presence, even though I was not sure Merlin was a ‘presence’.

My response, after a few moments’ thought. ‘Yes. Right now it is the Russia/Ukraine conflict. Previously it was COVID and before that Climate Change, Extinction Rebellion, Inflation. Some that I can recall. So I see what you mean.’

‘You are correct, there are others, of some you are not aware. Soon there will be more. All part of the correction I mentioned. Too many people. There is one amongst you who has spoken of it, still alive, James Lovelock, but most laugh at his ideas, still do. He used the term Gaia to refer to Earth. I shall do the same. The personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenogenic—of all life.’

‘Parthenogenic?’ Not a word in my vocabulary.

‘Not my word, either. I shall tell you what I can. There are constraints. Madness is exactly the right word, but, it is Gaia who is mad, at your homo fatuus. I can see why you use that word rather than sapiens.’

I wondered at the ‘constraints’. He was gone again, but left me one thought which lingered in my mind, ‘Talking of Russia/Ukraine. As somebody once said, 'as you?sow, so shall ye reap.' Epistle to the Galatians 6:7.’ As written by Paul and included in the Bible. More to ponder.

Mordred – the one on the Amulet. Why him?