At Marshal’s Elm

Having spent the morning putting a coat of damp sealant paint on the dining room wall, this afternoon we talk a walk on Street Hill with Chris, who has been put on flexi-furlough and finished work at lunchtime.

The blip is of Marshal’s Elm farmhouse which stand on the crossroads at the top of Street Hill which is part of The Polden Hills.

In the 19th Century, this farm was an inn and features in Thomas Hardy’s poem The Trampwoman’s Tragedy. Based on a true story, it tells the tale (tragic of course!) of a travelling woman who flirts with another man in the inn to make her partner jealous.

Thus Poldon top at last we won,
At last we won,
And gained the inn at sink of sun
Far-famed as 'Marshal's Elm'.
Beneath us figured tor and lea,6
From Mendip to the western sea — 
I doubt if any finer sight there be
Within this royal realm.
                                 VII
Inside the settle7 all a-row — 
All four a-row 
We sat, I next to John, to show
That he had wooed and won.
And then he took me on his knee,
And swore it was his turn to be
My favoured mate, and Mother Lee
Passed to my former one.
                                 VIII
Then in a voice I had never heard,
I had never heard,
My only love to me: 'One word,
My lady, if you please!
Whose is the child you are like8 to bear? — 
His? After all my months o' care?'
Gods knows 'twas not! But, O despair!
I nodded — still to tease.
                                 IX
Then he sprung, and with his knife — 
And with his knife,
He let out jeering Johnny's life,
Yes; there at set of sun.
The slant ray through the window nigh
Gilded John's blood and glazing eye,
Ere scarcely Mother Lee and I
Knew that the deed was done.

Apparently he wrote the poem after discovering the tale during a bike ride to Glastonbury from his home at Max Gate near Dorchester, which is a fair old distance on a bike in those days!

If you’re interested, the full poem is here:
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/hardy/pva238.html