The best beloved and I went walk-about last Sunday, on one of our usual ten mile rambles through the countryside. The OLY OM2n tagged along for company, loaded with a roll of Jessops 100 B&W, just to be different.
We were near the village of Tewin, Hertfordshire when we came apon this little church with many old headstones in the churchyard, called St Peters. Shaded by large trees, it was quite gloomy, and we were looking at the grave of Alfred Beit, Queen Victoria's cheif surveyor and the man who mapped most of India and Southern Africa, when I noticed an old crypt imbedded in the roots of an ancient oak tree, which had lifted the stone structure off of the ground. The inscription told us that here lay the remains of the "Right Honorable Anne Grimston, daughter of the late R. Hon. Earl of Thanet, who departed this life Nov 22nd 1715 in the 60th year of her age."
She must have been a cantankerous old lady, who didn't want to be disturbed in her rest, because the side of the crypt was inscribed with an eerie skull & cross-bones, a warning to all who passed by. It was while I was peering at this, and trying to get a shot of it, that we heard what sounded like a number of horses coming toward us at full gallop - the ground shook with the thunder of hooves, and we were sure that we would be run down, but we couldn't see any horses anywhere. They thundered right by us and the sound disappeared down the hill, but we saw nothing.
Thoroughly spooked, we got out of there fast, and carried on with our walk, staying out of the shadows!
Here's the shot I was taking when the three horsemen tried to run me down!
- The headstone I was trying to look at.
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