The street unlike others slopes violently down towards a peaceful river<\/p>\n
This peculiarity goes unnoticed by many<\/p>\n
Children roll red marbles towards the far gutters and are cursed by passers by<\/p>\n
Tis a dangerous game you play young Harry <\/i><\/p>\n
If a car does not end your life then you will scatter pedestrians with your silly game <\/i><\/p>\n
I will call a policeman straight away <\/i><\/p>\n
And as for you Julie Griggs a policeman\u2019s daughter just look at your frock <\/i><\/p>\n
Mrs Morris who owns the dress shop near the church sits next to me<\/p>\n
We share tea and the occasional biscuit<\/p>\n
Our High Street is the widest in the country <\/i><\/p>\n
I do not answer as I know that Stockton-On-Tees has a wider street<\/p>\n
It was built for the Bath trade<\/p>\n
Coaches and horses by the dozen stopped in the town<\/p>\n
Until the railways came and killed them off<\/p>\n
The town had two stations now both closed<\/p>\n
And Marlborough is once more stranded in its magical valley<\/p>\n
Where children play marbles to the detriment of others<\/p>\n
And where young ladies late of the college smoke in alleys<\/p>\n
Away from their teachers and their mothers prim<\/p>\n
It is the most dangerous of markets I believe <\/i><\/p>\n
With careless traffic on both sides <\/i><\/p>\n
I wonder why we are not killed on market days <\/i><\/p>\n
Mr Pears the travelling florist is sitting at an adjacent table<\/p>\n
I lost some roses to a careless bus<\/i><\/p>\n
And what about the July sponges spread all over the road <\/i><\/p>\n
Summer chaos such I have never seen <\/i><\/p>\n
What a mess <\/i><\/p>\n
Mr Robert\u2019s sponges were reported as far away as Salisbury <\/i><\/p>\n
Murray the grocer said<\/p>\n
As he left the caf\u00e9 full of dread<\/p>\n
I looked at the skies the rich vapour light was now receding with cause<\/p>\n
Clouds were building from the west and would soon arrest the sun<\/p>\n
I must be off now <\/i><\/p>\n
I said with a shallow bow<\/p>\n
My wife has done her time<\/i><\/p>\n
\u00a0At the Gleaming Plough <\/i><\/p>\n
What was her talk about today Mr Henderson?<\/i><\/p>\n
Millie the waitress stood at my side<\/p>\n
Shy within her question<\/p>\n
She was giving a talk on the poems of a countryman <\/i><\/p>\n
It had gathered much interest although the author was not Wiltshire born<\/i><\/p>\n
I raised my hand and then I was gone through the middle wooden door<\/p>\n
There are no theatres in the town but I imagined one as I walked towards the common<\/p>\n
Plays new and old would be performed and music would drift on the breeze<\/p>\n
Towards the royal hunting grounds where the ghosts of Kings would listen with interest<\/p>\n
You are five minutes late <\/i><\/p>\n
I was detained by my friends <\/i><\/p>\n
In the Polar Caf\u00e9 I suppose <\/i><\/p>\n
How was your talk?<\/i><\/p>\n
Well received as they always are <\/i><\/p>\n
Let me take your bag for the hill is steep <\/i><\/p>\n
When I was a child I rolled green marbles down this hill <\/i><\/p>\n
You were a legend in this town Julie Griggs that is why I married you<\/i><\/p>\n
As we neared the common mists were beginning to cover the town<\/p>\n
This was not unusual and only the festive lights could be seen<\/p>\n
Even our footsteps seemed muffled as we approached our home lane<\/p>\n
The town will be quiet tonight you know <\/i><\/p>\n
I think not as it is New Year\u2019s Eve <\/i><\/p>\n
The town is always quiet when the mists arrive<\/i><\/p>\n
Its peculiar slope has been blamed <\/i><\/p>\n
But I know that not to be true <\/i><\/p>\n
It’s the fault of the river and the churches two<\/i><\/p>\n
It’s the fault of the college and the velvet dew \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The street unlike others slopes violently down towards a peaceful river This peculiarity goes unnoticed by many Children roll red marbles towards the far gutters and are cursed by passers by Tis a dangerous game you play young Harry If a car does not end your life then you will scatter pedestrians with your silly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"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=2986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}