The Globe

A walk through Wardle on my way up to Watergrove Reservoir. Unusually for this lockdown period, there were one or two aircraft vapour trails in the sky. In normal times there are dozens.

I read about an Irish "post-punk" band from Dublin called Fontaines DC in one of those "what I am doing during isolation" features in a newspaper. Poet, Simon Armitage recommended this band. I enjoyed the energy of their first album Dogrel, from which my favourite track was Hurricane Laughter.

There are many sixteenth century accounts of plagues and weird ailments, such as calves with five legs, fishes with human faces and fire in the heavens, all sent as a sign from God to warn people to lead better lives. Illness was taken as a sign of God's displeasure or the Devil's malice.  There was little distinction between religion and science.If you fell ill, this was thought to be due to the four humours - black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood - being out of balance. Patients trusted in God rather than medicine to seek a cure.

In such a scientific vacuum, one approach was to seek simple, natural remedies, such as mineral spas, of which there were many in Europe at the time. One of these is depicted in Lucas Cranach the Elder's "The Fountain of Youth."  It seems that taking the waters was not only designed to cure ailments and keep bathers young, it was also a means for men and women to meet and enjoy themselves.