{"id":1423,"date":"2008-10-17T07:40:38","date_gmt":"2008-10-17T07:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1423"},"modified":"2008-10-17T07:40:38","modified_gmt":"2008-10-17T07:40:38","slug":"gwilym-williams-considers-the-finest-view-in-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/gwilym-williams-considers-the-finest-view-in-england\/","title":{"rendered":"Gwilym Williams considers the finest view in England"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pendle Hill<\/span>

 \u2018<\/span>\u2026finest view in all of England\u2019 \u2013 Queen Mary from Downham Church<\/span>
         <\/span>
Before the Church the Queen proclaimed:<\/span>
\u2018<\/span>the finest view in all of England<\/span>\u2019 –<\/span>
meaning the royal view from there<\/span>
towards the imposing hill  <\/span>
known thereabouts as <\/span>Mistress Pendle<\/span>.<\/span>
 <\/span>
The Queen observed the track<\/span>
hard athwart the slanting summit,<\/span>
angled down the northern flank  –<\/span>
the track the <\/span>Pendle Witches<\/span> took  <\/span>
to their final day of judgement.<\/span>
 <\/span>
The Queen imagined the sorry scene –<\/span>
the party picking its way<\/span>
along that lonely hillside track<\/span>
down to the chattering duck-filled stream below<\/span>
where yokels and toffs had collected<\/span>
to see for themselves<\/span>
this latest catch.<\/span>
 <\/span>
Mistress Pendle<\/span> oft drifts in<\/span>
and out of view<\/span>
through fogs and drizzles<\/span>
but on this glorious day in local history<\/span>
bathed in royal lawn and party blue<\/span>
and straw hat sunshine  <\/span>
the prospect was much more than fine.<\/span>


* Gwilym Williams is a regular IS&T contributor. The Queen Mary referred to in this poem is the one who was married to King George V and had the ocean liner named after her \u2013 not 'Bloody' Mary Tudor who had people burned at the stake in the 16th century. Gwilym adds “There's a plaque on the wall by the entrance to the church with the quotation and date of the royal visit etc. inscribed thereon. Downham is really a nice spot. They made a famous film there once. Whistle Down the Wind with Hayley Mills. I was about 13 at the time and I think I was in love with her!”<\/span>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pendle Hill \u2018\u2026finest view in all of England\u2019 \u2013 Queen Mary from Downham Church         Before the Church the Queen proclaimed:\u2018the finest view in all of England\u2019 –meaning the royal view from theretowards the imposing hill  known thereabouts as Mistress Pendle. The Queen observed the trackhard athwart the slanting summit,angled down the northern flank  –the track the Pendle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}