Beside a Norman Tower

BESIDE A NORMAN TOWER

MAZO DE LA ROCHE

FOR

CHARLES CHANT

JANE BIRD

CISSIE BULL

NURSE BOWERMAN

AND

NURSE KENNEDY

WITH HAPPY RECOLLECTIONS

The books about children which I have read are always concerned with those of five years or more, when they have been urged, moulded, dragged into some semblance of adults. I have asked myself if it is possible to write an interesting book about those mysterious beings who live in a grand tempestuous world of their own into which we can no more than enviously peer. This story of two toddlers is an attempt to answer that question.

M. de l. R.

Beside a Norman Tower

1

Above the moss-grown roof of the church the tower rises, strong, grey, embattled, against the windy sky. It is topped by a weathercock whose brazen beak points, now east toward Wootton and Beaminster, now south toward Lyme Regis and the sea, now west across the green valley of the Axe, and now north beyond dipping fields and clustering copses, to where Thorncombe hides.

The cock stares always outward, never deigning to look down at the one steep street of the village that climbs up from Wytch Green and, on the way to Lamberts’ Castle, soon loses itself in furzy common and ploughed field. Does he remember with resentment the Rector who hated him, who questioned his ability to point out the direction of the simplest breeze, and who, after a day’s shooting, always saved the last cartridge for a shot at him?

Excepting the church tower the children can see nothing of the world beyond their own garden, for it is surrounded by a high stone wall, and inside the wall a still higher laurel hedge makes an impenetrable glossy barrier. Among the laurel birds flit and talk softly in the subdued voices of autumn. Rabbits hide there. And sometimes, out of its darkness, emerges the white-and-black form of David, the Persian, his great tail gently waving, his secret deeds concealed behind an impassive front.

Gillian and Diggory have been put out on the gravel sweep, where it is dry, to enjoy the morning air. Nurse has provided them with toys for their amusement before leaving them, but they do not play, being content to stare up at the moving clouds and the rooks, blown like flying leaves across the sky.

They are dressed alike in fawn-coloured woollen suits and caps, but a glance is enough to show that the one sitting in the chair is a girl and that the one who occupies the perambulator will one day be a man.

Caw! Caw! Caw! cry the rooks, swimming along the wind, now dipping low toward the dark mass of the ancient yew tree, now rising high above the church tower and the invincible figure of the weathercock facing southward to the sea. The clock in the tower begins to strike, heavy, clanging strokes on the heavy air. The children start, as the first strong stroke assails their sensitive ears and look at each other in alarm, but they recover themselves almost at once and gaze upward at the sky, thinking that somewhere in its grey vastness these hammer strokes are engendered.

Ten of them! It is ten o’clock. . . . The window of the nursery opens and Nurse’s white figure appears far up, framed in glossy green ivy. Her low Eastern voice comes down to them.

Here are your rusks! Come Gilly. Take Baby his. There—on the grass—don’t you see? She has thrown two rusks down to them like manna from the skies.

Gillian has risen from her chair and stumped to the strip of grass under the nursery window. She sees the rusks but she is not sure that she will pick them up. From the row of windows just above her head comes a pleasant warm smell. In there is the kitchen but she does not realize that, though once she is inside it she is very much at home.

Nurse leans out of the window, her strange rather flat face with its wide grey eyes, peering down at them. Diggory leans over the side of the pram to see the rusks lying on the grass.

Pick them up at once, orders Nurse, and give one to Baby.

Gillian picks up the rusks and, trotting briskly back to the pram, presents Diggory with his. They begin to crunch them, staring at each other. She has back teeth, which he has not yet achieved, so hers disappears the faster.

His rusk fascinates her, as everything he has fascinates her. The moment he possesses anything it becomes desirable to her. An almost mystic fascination gilds it.

She takes his rusk from him and gives him what is left of hers. He is puzzled but sets about crunching what is given him. He is interested in all she does.

The possession of his rusk makes her happy. She breaks into a gay trill of laughter and hops up and down. She takes her doll out of its pram and throws it on the gravel. She has a sweet sense of power. Diggory leans forward to look at the doll face downward in a puddle.

She crams the last of the rusk into her mouth and pulls off first one of her woollen gloves, then the other. She picks up the doll and dries its face with a glove. She kisses the doll.

Deah dolly, she coos.

She holds the doll, wet and draggled, up to him.

Kiss dolly, she says.

A sweet tenderness comes over his face. He clasps the doll to him and presses his lips against its battered cheek.

She takes it from him and looks at it dubiously a moment. Then carelessly she tosses it under his pram. He leans far out, trying to see it. Only his leather harness keeps him from falling on his head.

Cautiously, with her back turned to the nursery windows, Gillian puts her gloves into the puddle. Firmly she presses them down. The water circling about her wrists is icy cold but she does not mind. She likes the look of her pink dimpled hands under it. . . . Still she is not satisfied. She goes to Diggory and draws off his gloves. His hands appear like two flower buds from their sheath. She places his gloves beside her own and stirs all four with a stick.

Pudding! she croons. Pudding for Gilly.

Diggory looks at the toys in front of him. Six wooden bricks, a lead horse, an empty talcum tin, a blue rabbit, several toy skittles. He does not like the rabbit at the moment and throws it out of the pram. It is caught in a wheel. He licks the horse all over, then tries to stable it in the talcum tin, frowning and sticking out his lips. But the opening is too small. He throws out the horse. He tries his teeth on each of the bricks in turn, gnawing off bits of the coloured pictures which cover them, and even a splinter of wood. Then he throws out the bricks.

Gillian turns and stares.

Naughty! Naughty! she exclaims and, picking up the rabbit, hurls it back into the pram.

Impassively he throws it out.

Naughty! Naughty! She hurls it back.

With a little growl of anger he again throws it out.

Naughty! She takes the rabbit by its ears and beats him on the face with it.

He closes his eyes, surprised.

But the blows continue, so he lowers himself in his harness till he is flat on his back, his woolly legs in the air. She cannot reach him.

She looks about her, pondering. She espies her own little chair and drags it to the side of the pram. She mounts it and again proceeds to beat him with the rabbit. He bursts into tears.

She looks up at the nursery windows, her blue eyes troubled. But no face appears there. She drops the rabbit and picks up the talcum tin.

Nice drink for Diggory, she coos.

He struggles into a sitting position and leans wet-eyed towards the tin she presents. With a ministering air she presses it to his lips.

Deeply he drinks of the imaginary draught, sighing when she takes it away for her own refreshment. The tin to her lips, she throws back her head so far that her cap falls off and her fine fair hair falls about her neck. She drinks long, staring up at the trailing clouds.

From mouth to mouth the talcum tin moves till they have drunk to repletion. Then, each taking up a skittle, they beat upon it vigorously. The delight of the din makes them laugh. They laugh into each other’s faces, showing all their pearls. Their hands are purple from cold.

Gillian breaks into loud song.

The rooks fly to the tower. . . . Tower to the sky. . . . Tower flies to the sky. . . . Rooks and the tow—ah. . . . Tow—ah. . . . Tow—ah. . . . Tow—ah. . . . She shouts till the blood rushes to her cheeks, making them red as her hands.

Long spears of rain shine out against the yew tree.

2

Along the curving driveway, between the high laurel hedges, Nurse pushes the pram, Gillian trudging alongside. She is thinking of the long steep hill she must climb before she too is put into the pram. Next month she will be three years old—not a baby any more—and she must accustom herself to walking on the road.

The gate looms enormous in front of them. Nurse leaves the pram standing and goes ahead and lifts the heavy latch. Slowly, powerfully, the gate opens toward them, relentless, as though it would crush them. But it comes to rest against the stone wall and they pass safely through.

In the street three objects of interest claim their attention. Just outside the gate the butcher’s cart is drawn up and the butcher stands at the tailboard breaking bones with his hatchet. Red lumps lie about. Nurse and the butcher pass the time of day and the children see all they can as they go by.

The next thing to stare at is the pony fastened outside the whitewashed inn, above the arched door of which is the word Behold and the date 1539. In the old stage-coach yard fowls are pecking but Gillian and Diggory do not notice these things. They see only the patient drooping pony who draws an audible sigh when they are abreast of him.

Nice little gee-gee, says Gillian. Gilly would like a gee-gee, please, Nannie.

Would you, dear? Perhaps, when you’re bigger.

Diggory wants a gee-gee.

Some day, when he’s bigger.

Always the urge to grow bigger! Gillian stretches her legs and strides out beside the pram. Slow steps sound behind them and they are overtaken by the Rector carrying a great bucket of water which he has got from the village pump at the far end of the wall that encloses the grounds where the children live.

To them the Rector is an immense figure, even more impressive than the church tower. From his broad shoulders his black cassock billows about him and a biretta covers his massive head. He walks alongside the pram for a space, smiling down at them.

Good-afternoon, children, he says, in his low resonant voice.

Good-afternoon, answers Gillian clearly.

And how are you?

Quite well, thank you. She does not hesitate. Nurse looks approving.

And how are you, Diggory, my lad?

Diggory has been leaning over the side of the pram to look into the water that moves and glances in the