Mrs Fytton's Country Life by Mavis Cheek

Author:Mavis Cheek
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: newbook
Published: 2010-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

'You've got Faith, Hope, Charity and Time, the Virgin and Child, and the Five Wise Virgins down the left hand side -'

'And this one? On the right?'

'Well, I think that's very local. The Blessing of the Ale. Although it might just be a harvest procession, but it looks like winter to me - cloaks and caps and things. I haven't done enough research on it yet. The woman with the flagon might be a saint or mythical woman, or she could be the ale-wife, and if it is then she lived where you do now. Fancy doing a spot of brewing? Church ale was very special. It was sold off to the locals to raise money for the church and its charity’

Angela laughed. 'I've got enough to do, thanks’

'I know what you mean’ said Daphne, looking at the half-cleaned wall. 'You can't get a machine to do restoration. Thank God.'

'Amen’ said Angela automatically.

She went over to the ladder and peered at the emergent wall-paintings. They were crudely drawn, in black and red outline, a jumble of disproportionate cartoon shapes - men in flowing, striated robes; weird creatures that were half devil or half snake or half dragon or peculiarly imagined lion or bird; decorative patterning; wild, leaping flames ... Heaven above, saved souls in the middle and hell below. 'Are they very old?'

'Late fifteenth, I think. Difficult to tell. Whitewashed over in the name of the Puritans’ said Daphne. 'And I think -' she pointed around the tops of the arched walls of the nave - 'that on either side, below the clerestories, there were more paintings, of the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy and the Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy. It was fairly common to remind the congregation of the charitable and worthy things that got you into heaven. You can just see the shadow of one there, where I gave it a brushing.'

Angela peered. She could see, faintly, a series of shapes. 'Only just’ she said.

'Oh, they'd have been bright as a cartoon when they were first done. That's "To Clothe the Naked", I think. And then over there -' Daphne pointed - 'is "To Bear Wrongs Patiently". It's all an instruction manual for the way to do things properly.' She returned her Afghan profile to the work. ‘I think they might be in for a shock when I get round to that lot. Clothing the naked usually meant that you gave the clothes off your own back. We might yet see a Devereux patronness in the buff’ She laughed. 'And bearing wrongs patiently was not above showing a saintly wife being beaten and looking as if she was positively enjoying it.'

Angela felt a shiver down her spine, though whether it was the chill in the church or the thought of such brutality she was not sure. 'What happened if they fought back?' she asked.

'Best not ask,' said Daphne Blunt. 'Anyway, those won't get uncovered for a month or two. These are taking the time. Dorothea Tichborne's paying. She just might get a little bit more than she thought she was getting, that's all.

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