In the summer of 1948 a fisherman found a small steel box on the beach at St Margaret\u2019s Bay<\/p>\n
The box contained a notebook<\/p>\n
He handed it to the village\u2019s most famous resident Noel Coward who made discreet enquiries as to its history as he suspected it to be connected with a spy ring which was known to have operated in the Dover area during World War One<\/p>\n
His enquiries drew no conclusions and he subsequently handed the box and the notebook to Colonel Howard who although by that time retired had previously worked in military intelligence<\/p>\n
The Colonel also drew a blank and the box and the notebook were slowly forgotten<\/p>\n
The granddaughter of Colonel Howard kindly gave me the mysterious notebook for my further investigation<\/p>\n
In no particular order I will reproduce the pages below<\/p>\n
If you have any further information you would like to share with me then the author would be glad to hear from you<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Come walk with me in these fields of wheat
\nand imagine the damp soil beneath our feet<\/i><\/p>\n
In your letters you have described the Karaja Dagh<\/i><\/p>\n
I reply to you telling you to exercise caution
\nas even older snakes can bite<\/i><\/p>\n
Your travels have dwarfed my own but as I sit here at the rest window and write this letter I feel you are quite near<\/i><\/p>\n
Probably less than a dozen countries separate us<\/i><\/p>\n
It is nearing noon breakfast is finished and the sun is now almost directly above me<\/i><\/p>\n
The light is so sharp that it almost slices ones eye in two<\/i><\/p>\n
I can understand what attracted the artists to this area<\/i><\/p>\n
Although my room is dimmed the reflected light from the sea floods it with the most serene glow which is most restful
\n<\/i><\/p>\n
Before this war I can imagine that day trippers would have explored the rock pools left by the retreating tide whilst others might have relaxed in chairs on the small promenade <\/i><\/p>\n
Children would have flitted in and out of the sea whilst the more serious swimmers would have had thoughts about crossing the channel <\/i><\/p>\n
The bay which is not far from the town of Dover in enclosed by the famous white cliffs of the area although access here is difficult it is not impossible <\/i><\/p>\n
Between us ships pass in both directions
\nI sketch them quite frequently
\nto allow time for corrections <\/i><\/p>\n
This may encourage your eyes to laze
\nbut why get lost in a sudden haze<\/i><\/p>\n
Nannies and their charges
\nStop to eat
\nWhere previously shy lovers
\nAgreed to meet <\/i><\/p>\n
When I correspond with you I urge that on receipt of my letter that you close your eyes and let each of your senses imagine me here on the edge of England<\/i><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Tom Darnell (1917)<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the summer of 1948 a fisherman found a small steel box on the beach at St Margaret\u2019s Bay The box contained a notebook He handed it to the village\u2019s most famous resident Noel Coward who made discreet enquiries as to its history as he suspected it to be connected with a spy ring which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}