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 If a car does not end your life then you will scatter pedestrians with your silly game I will call a policeman straight away And as for you Julie Griggs a policeman\u2019s daughter just look at your dress 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 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 With careless traffic on both sides I wonder why we are not killed on market days Mr Pears the travelling florist is sitting at an adjacent table<\/p>\n I lost some roses to a careless bus<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0And what about the July sponges spread all over the road<\/em><\/p>\n Summer chaos such I have never seen What a mess Mr Robert\u2019s sponges were reported as far away as Salisbury Murray the grocer said<\/p>\n As the left the caf\u00e9 full of dread<\/p>\n \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 said with a shallow bow<\/p>\n My wife has done her time<\/em><\/p>\n At the Gleaming Plough<\/em><\/p>\n \n What was her talk about today Mr Henderson?<\/em><\/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 It had gathered much interest although the author was not Wiltshire born<\/em><\/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 was detained by my friends In the Polar Caf\u00e9 I suppose How was your talk?<\/em><\/p>\n Well received as they always are<\/em><\/p>\n Let me take your bag for the hill is steep When I was a child I rolled green marbles down this hill You were a legend in this town Julie Griggs that is why I married you<\/em><\/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 think not as it is New Year\u2019s Eve<\/em><\/p>\n The town is always quiet when the mists arrive<\/em><\/p>\n Its peculiar slope has been blamed<\/em><\/p>\n But I know that not to be true It’s the fault of the river and the churches two<\/em><\/p>\n It’s the fault of the college and the velvet dew<\/em><\/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":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8589"}],"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=8589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8589\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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