Transcript
Aye, well fed and rested now, I thank them for it. The brothers here keep a plain house but they don’t stint on the fodder, and the ale’s marvelous. Better than some I’ve stopped at.
I’m for Pomfret. Set off back from Skipton three days back, took my dinner yesterday at Kirkstall. You know the abbey there? Great stone church, cloisters – impresses. This place — Newsam, they call it — it’s not like that. Smaller. More working for than celebrating the Lord.
Sheep everywhere, a great barn you can see from the road, mills on the beck. The brothers wear the white mantle with the cross, but there’s only two of them here, most of the work done by hired men and folk from the villages hereabouts.
Still, they keep the guest house open and don’t ask questions. That’s welcome when you’ve been walking since first light. I’ve used Templar houses before — there’s one at Faxfleet, another over Hirst way. Same the world over – like the monks: a bed, a meal, your horse seen to if you’ve got one. They’re reliable that way.
The road from Kirkstall runs straight through here to Pomfret — ten miles, maybe less. I’ll be there for late dinner if the weather holds. Some travel farther. I met a man last month who’d been all the way to Hull and back. Took him near a fortnight. Me, I keep to this stretch — Skipton, Otley, Leeds when there’s need. The new borough’s growing fast — lot of coin there now.
Sun’s high enough. Time I was moving.
Language
- Mervelous (mehr-veh-luss) = marvelous
- Pomfret = Pontefract today
- Hirst = Temple Hirst – near Selby
Jon Eland 