The frost has come again; we are another year into our duty. Farmers have begun to accept the changes — sheep and flax and living from their gardens. Travelers are coming through from the north with tales of horror; a great wave laid low much of their people on the coast.

We have found a cozy corner or two in the old fort and live there with some of the families from the valley. This winter we will not eat our dogs or feel such despair. The winter is long enough; we make our plans for the good weather and practice crafts, such as lacing leather and simple weaving.

One of our number has built a floor loom and Emery is coaching him on the fine points. We will have new cloth by spring, rough but a pleasure to be well-covered. We also

14

are making leather caps and leggings in the old style, of thick leather laced together. The hats are comical, not fashionable, pointed and irregular in color. Some make them with fur left on the leather inside.

We sing old songs and make the long days pleasant. Basil is quite a clever fellow with the tales. His father was a teacher-preacher and was versed in Greek philosophy and the classic tales. People from the surrounding valley come to sit at eventide to hear Basil’s songs.

Basil was also versed in the intricacies of china-making and in later life helped found a china factory at Dorset Downs which, though at first a family business, became a sizable source of china for the next fifty years in that area. Basil often showed local youngsters how to use the clay from stream bottoms to make pots and toy items, baking them with a pit-fire.

We read the Bible, a compendium of books somewhat different than yours today and muse upon the instructions and hope for man’s design showed by God’s plan laid out for us. If we had not had this faith, I believe we could not have gone on as we did. Faith is a positive force in men’s lives when employed toward a purpose. Faith became either strengthened or destroyed in the preceding period and all that followed. Believer and cynic worked side by side.

15

During the period following the Death human cleanliness and pride in appearance fell to an all-time low. What sanitation that had existed no longer was maintained or constructed new.

Humans defecated and urinated where the mood struck them and bathing became a thing of the past, in the general populace. People let their hair grow long and unkempt and poor diet led to early loss of teeth and much eye disease. Love of beauty and order seemed to diminish to nearly nothing.

I suppose in your day you would credit this behavior to an all-pervading depression. It was certainly difficult to maintain one’s faith in the goodness of ones’ fellows in the face of such changes. We believe that society could be restored to its’ former competence if given some aid and our faith proved correct in our lifetime. Man has such a capacity for great elation and great despair; we hope for one day when he will be on the middle way.

(*

The thatched roofs are all but gone on cottages and privy buildings. The grass seed for thatch is no longer grown and the state of mind necessary to achieve such annual maintenance is not generally there. Few there are who care to keep up their grounds and abodes, when they do have enough to eat. We shall remedy that – in skills and in spirit – in the coming seasons. But in the meantime,

16

the countryside does not bespeak much care from its possessors.

+ + +

You are wondering at my cheerful attitude. Why should I not be cheerful when I see what my fellows have wrought in past generations, and how pleasant life has been for most men?

The human mind seizes in idleness on our follies and failures and ceases to see how good life is in most times. We have far to go to bring it to that state but not so far as it took to bring us here.

We are wondrous creatures full of ingenuity as long as spirits hold. “Subdue the earth…,” commanded God, and have we not done it many times? We shall do it again. Our earth is our mother, say some. Our womb wouldst be a better term. It is a sleeping organ from which life springs and is eternally capable of replenishing and sustaining it, if we let it.

Man is a funny creature; he thinks himself so poor and weak and a few as hail and mighty. But truth to tell he is a giant, a sleeping giant, as someone in your time has said. He knows not of his powers and the mighty duties of his spirit.

Basil sings of Greece’s mighty glory and past deeds of men. I see on the land signs of works more mighty than

17

any of which he sings and is thought naught of because one’s fellows or one’s ancestors did the deeds.

+ + +

I wish to speak to you of men of old, my ancestors and those of some others here, who were builders of stone walls and edifices. These were mighty men and said in long days past to be of the stock of the ancient Britons (your giants, the Druids).

There was a time when all life was held sacred and especially that of the tree. Trees grew quite plentifully then but were preserved for their beauty and spiritual properties instead of use in building. The men of old used stone in their stead.

The most ancient structures you can find are generally the largest and were built by the giant race. They built homes and halls in the earth, both because it was warmer and cooler, and because of the special work the earth does for those who live within its skin.

These special people traveled very far and were scholars of renown. They were sailors and traders, as well as farmers and builders; and if you would search with the proper eye, you would find their works over all the earth.

Much of the stone work you now see was once covered

18

over with earth. What you take to be structures in themselves were really the skeleton of a dirt-fill structure. The top was allowed to grow over with grass and trees and man lived in builten caves. Over much of the British Isles, the Mediterranean, north and central Africa, this was the style of dwelling.

People of that time did not live alone as one family, but in groups of families. They were sociable and found the company and shared heat much to their favor. The climate was colder at that time, too, and an earth dwelling with warm bodies made a very habitable retreat.

We did not build fires in our home. Fire was considered sacred and only used for ceremony. They also did not eat animals, only grain and plants which we prepared in dry form during the growing season. I would say the metabolism has changed considerably as they did not seem to need as much to eat as do we.

War did not exist in this part of the world. All people were of one philosophy and of one intent and had no need to dominate his fellows.

I am of that race of people, long generations back. I remember my grandmother telling stories of coming out of the barrow at the end of winter and the dance around the pole decked with garlands of flowers to celebrate the spring.

19

Then all would go on a group walking tour of the surrounding countryside to examine the watercourses and how the winter had dealt with the land.

At that time people also maintained the watercourses for their exact usage. There are not many small bodies of water that have not at one time been cleaned and cleared and re-channeled by our ancestors. They have been let go back to nature but examination will reveal ancient stone reinforcing walls and remains of locks to regulate water.

Diking and damming are ancient sciences and have been practiced all over the world. In my ancestors’ time there were many people, and to feed them and allow them free travel much land was maintained from the sea and lake-bottoms for man’s use.

Your projects of today would pale beside man’s work in past generations. You have s mall conception of the industry that has been applied to the earth’s surface in preceding generations.

+ + +