Tag: superstitions

  • George Bowring: murdered by Welsh magic

    George Bowring: murdered by Welsh magic

    The Victorian writer R.D. Blackmore, if he’s remembered at all today, is known for his three-volume novel Lorna Doone.  It’s an adventure story, set on Exmoor in the seventeenth century, about the feuding and violent Doone clan and the love between the narrator, John Ridd, and the eponymous Lorna.  The book sold badly on its…

  • On magpies

    On magpies

    We’d both noticed that there seemed to be more of them, now that the cold weather has arrived and the last of the leaves have fallen.  Always in pairs, they perch like snipers on the higher branches of the large, ailing cherry tree at the bottom of the garden.  Often they land on the kitchen…