A wall covered with ivy and brambles

I have always loved the mystery of walls - walking by them, imagining what might be behind the bricks or cement -

I can remember walking past walls in Highgate - kicking my way through piles of fallen leaves - walking up from Archway Road, past Suicide Bridge - back from University College, with my head full of words - I looked up at ivy covered bricks, seeing the tops of bare trees, showing beyond the wall, swaying in the wind - I raced past reefs of dark green laurel by wrought iron gates, with shadowy drives beyond - tall Victorian villas, with windows yellow with light in the growing dark -

I avoided the wall of Highgate Cemetery, the wild part of the cemetery, with the avenue of broken catacombs - I would kick the dry brown leaves, move as quickly as I could to the streets full of living people - in my bag were history books - say, the English Historical Review, or Christopher Hill's The World Turned Upside Down - in my heart, a wish for excitement and knowledge -

This wall is to be found in Wareham - near the West Walls - part of the defences for the town commanded by Alfred the Great - violent battles were fought here against the Danes -

After Monmouth's Rebellion, five poor duped rebels were hanged, drawn and quartered here, during the Bloody Assizes - on the grassy bank, just across what is now a car park -

The ivy and the brambles reach down over the pale bricks and stone - I think there must be a wild garden behind the wall - I think - I must get to know more about pyschogeography