Wall paintings in Tarrant Crawford Church

I sometimes think about the passage of time - I imagine an invisible river, flowing through the streets I walk down - I imagine silent whirlpools of years, swirling round churches or libraries -

I can remember reading science fiction stories about time travel - I wondered what it would be like to breath the air, say, of Florence, when Machiavelli was still working for the republic - or to stare, wide eyed, at The Great Eastern -

In country churches, I feel very close to this silent river - I can sense the movement of time, eddying against the cool walls -

In April this year, I visited the church at Tarrant Crawford - I'd heard about the medieval wall paintings - Pevsner says they date from the early 14th Century -

I stared, for a long time, at the stark figures - the three Quick, and the three Dead - I could not hear their voices - but I could see them emerging from the plaster, from the deeps of the river -

I could see St Margaret of Antioch - I could see her robes - she, too, I felt, would slowly become full of colour - I could almost see the steam of her breath in the cold air -