Lunch with Penny at The Square and Compass, archaic images and balefires ...

Finding that the Worth Matravers Tea and Supper Room was shut, we went instead to The Square and Compass - 

We sat outside, myself with a ham and apple pie and a glass of Copper Ale, Penny with a coffee and a steak pasty - 

We'd walked up from Chapman's Pool, looking down upon the pale blue glassy sea - 

In the summer, small yachts anchored there - bold girls would swim to the shore, sunning themselves upon the coarse sand - 

Now the beach was deserted - an icy wind stirred the grass on the cliff top - 

I shyly greeted Charlie Newman - he gave me a quick half smile, going inside the pub, perhaps to hurl another piece of sea bleached driftwood upon the fire - he was the master of rare ciders - there was a badger guarding a window - 

There were two large pumpkins placed upon the top of a low stone wall - upon one pumpkin was carved a tree, upon the other, a man's bearded face - 

There was something unsettling, something pagan, about those images I thought - 

I pictured figures dancing around a balefire - the wood would spit pungent sparks - flames would leap up to the moon - 

13.00
5 November 2014

The Square and Compass

Worth Matravers