1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:16,830 It's a morning of questions. And my last question, which I'm asking on your behalf, is why on earth Robert Carl and stars look so lovely story for me. 2 00:00:18,660 --> 00:00:24,150 Robert and I had exactly the same education at the same school. 3 00:00:24,480 --> 00:00:31,530 We were taught by the same men. But we, as it should be fairly obvious, we are not of the same generation. 4 00:00:32,670 --> 00:00:36,410 And so we didn't meet at the school. 5 00:00:36,480 --> 00:00:43,710 But what my wife Griselda found most disconcerting when we met was she, 6 00:00:44,070 --> 00:00:55,710 although we are not physically to like Griselda felt as though she had a time warp because Robert and I, 7 00:00:55,740 --> 00:00:59,490 having been at the same place, taught by the same man and this is really quite frightening. 8 00:01:00,390 --> 00:01:12,600 Had the same mannerisms, tended to have the same cruel wit that is absolutely diagnostic of Manchester Grammar School. 9 00:01:13,980 --> 00:01:17,400 And we also prefer to wing it. 10 00:01:18,900 --> 00:01:26,130 So Robert and I go back a very long way, a very, very long way. 11 00:01:26,910 --> 00:01:33,510 And it's a friendship that has survived as the best friendships do, by not meeting very often. 12 00:01:35,310 --> 00:01:43,080 But when we meet, the first word is usually and and the conversation continues. 13 00:01:43,650 --> 00:01:51,000 And over the years, Robert has frequently been my first choice. 14 00:01:51,300 --> 00:01:58,080 And he's generously agreed to to be the first choice to be my voice. 15 00:01:58,620 --> 00:02:07,170 And he's read quite a lot of my stuff. And so I know that I if not Robert, 16 00:02:07,770 --> 00:02:19,470 I'm going to enjoy the next part of the session and the final part of the session where Robert will read the whole of the Stone book without a breath, 17 00:02:21,240 --> 00:02:26,160 please. Robert, it's it's not quite as daunting as it sounds. 18 00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:29,160 It's not a very long book, but it is a book. 19 00:02:29,790 --> 00:02:36,870 So and I know exactly how you feel because the school we went to had a theatre where they also had the wooden benches. 20 00:02:37,020 --> 00:02:40,740 So you have my sympathy. Okay, this is a stone book. 21 00:02:42,070 --> 00:02:46,020 A bottle of cold tea, bread and a half onion. 22 00:02:46,470 --> 00:02:53,640 That was Father's bag in. Mary emptied her apron of stones from the field and wrapped the bag in in a cloth. 23 00:02:54,870 --> 00:03:00,240 The hottest part of the day. Who was on Madeline bed under the rafters and the thatch. 24 00:03:00,300 --> 00:03:07,170 Where the sun could send only blue light. She had picked stones in the field until she was too tired and had to rest. 25 00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:10,800 Old William was weaving in the end room. 26 00:03:11,310 --> 00:03:18,720 He had to weave enough cuts of silk for two markets and his shuttle and loom rattled all the time in the day and the night. 27 00:03:18,750 --> 00:03:24,060 He wasn't old, but he was called old William because he was deaf and hadn't married. 28 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:28,780 He was father's brother. He carried the cuts to market on his back. 29 00:03:29,140 --> 00:03:31,420 Stockport was further, but the road was flatter. 30 00:03:31,690 --> 00:03:38,350 Macclesfield was nearer, but old William had to climb Glaze Hill behind the cottage to get to the road. 31 00:03:39,070 --> 00:03:47,170 The markets were on Tuesday and Friday and so he was weaving and walking, always weave and walk. 32 00:03:48,130 --> 00:03:54,910 Then West Time for Wedding used to say Mary opened the door of Old Williams room. 33 00:03:55,480 --> 00:04:00,790 Do you want to nip back in? She said. She didn't speak, but moved her lips to shape the words. 34 00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:05,590 I went over a bottle of tea, said old William. He didn't speak either. 35 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:12,670 The room was too loud. Mary and old William could talk when everybody else was making a noise. 36 00:04:13,810 --> 00:04:17,440 Is it sweet? He said. Yes. I made it for Father. 37 00:04:18,190 --> 00:04:24,040 Where is he? Working. Saint Philips said. Mary, haven't finished that steeple yet. 38 00:04:24,300 --> 00:04:28,120 I said. Old William is staying to finish. They want it for Sunday. 39 00:04:28,630 --> 00:04:35,560 Tell him to be careful. And then as many. Another Sunday. Old William was careful. 40 00:04:35,890 --> 00:04:39,100 Careful with weaving, careful carrying. He had to be. 41 00:04:39,670 --> 00:04:46,980 The weight could break his back if he fell on the hill. Mother Mary shouted up the stairs. 42 00:04:47,210 --> 00:04:53,680 I'm taking. Father is back in. She walked under the trees of the wood hill along the edge of a lifeless moss. 43 00:04:54,670 --> 00:04:57,850 The new steeple on the new church glowed in the sun. 44 00:04:57,850 --> 00:05:07,660 But something glinted the spire stone like a needle was cluttered with the Masons platforms that were left all the way under the Wood Hill. 45 00:05:07,690 --> 00:05:11,410 Mary watched the golden spark that had not been there before. 46 00:05:12,460 --> 00:05:15,460 She reached the brick cottage on the brink of the mass. 47 00:05:16,030 --> 00:05:23,520 Between there and the railway station where the houses that were being built, the railway had fetched a lot of people to Chorley. 48 00:05:24,010 --> 00:05:32,740 Before Father said there hadn't been enough work, but he had made gate posts and the station walls and the bridges and the Queen's Family Hotel. 49 00:05:33,550 --> 00:05:38,410 And he had even cut a road through rock with his chisel and put his mark on it. 50 00:05:39,250 --> 00:05:47,590 Every mason had his mark and father put his at the back of a stone or on its bed where it wouldn't spoil the facing. 51 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:55,600 But when he cut the road on the hill, he put his mark on the face once, just once, to prove it. 52 00:05:57,190 --> 00:06:00,910 Then surely must have a church next. 53 00:06:01,180 --> 00:06:09,330 And the school. Father had picked the site for the quarry at the bottom of the wood hill, close by the place. 54 00:06:09,570 --> 00:06:16,650 At the road there was stone to be seen, but it was a soft red gang that wouldn't last ten years of weather. 55 00:06:17,580 --> 00:06:22,260 Yet Father had looked at the way the trees grew and it felt the earth and the 56 00:06:22,260 --> 00:06:27,479 leaf mould between his fingers and had said they must dig there and there. 57 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:33,990 They had found a hard yellow white dimension stone that was the best of all signs for building. 58 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:41,970 The beech trees had been cleared over a space and two loads of the big branches had saved them coals at home for a year. 59 00:06:42,780 --> 00:06:49,830 It was one of the first memories of her life. The rock bed and cut by father and silverback in the fire. 60 00:06:51,290 --> 00:06:58,249 Now the quarry scene so small and the church so big, the quarry would fit inside a corner of the church. 61 00:06:58,250 --> 00:07:00,320 But the stone had come from it. 62 00:07:01,350 --> 00:07:08,060 People said it was because father cut well, but father said that the church was only a bit of stone around a lot of air. 63 00:07:09,910 --> 00:07:17,590 Mary stood at the gate and looked up. High clouds moving, made the steeple topple towards her father. 64 00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:22,300 She could hear his hammer, tic tac, as he combed the stone. 65 00:07:23,650 --> 00:07:31,240 The Golden Spark was a weather cock. It had been put up that week and under its spike was the top platform. 66 00:07:31,540 --> 00:07:36,160 Fathers had showed over the edge of the platform below. 67 00:07:36,670 --> 00:07:42,160 His voice sounded nearer than he looked. I've brought your bag in, Mary shouted. 68 00:07:42,580 --> 00:07:47,470 Fetch it then, all the way. Most I come down when I'm working. 69 00:07:48,100 --> 00:07:51,339 And what the governor said, Mary, he's gone. 70 00:07:51,340 --> 00:07:54,990 I'm the governor of this gang. There's only me state to finish. 71 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:58,600 Have you the tea? Yes. Plenty of sugar? 72 00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:02,500 Yes. I can't spit for shouting. Come up. 73 00:08:04,140 --> 00:08:09,420 Mary hitched a frock and put the lot of the bag in cloth between her teeth and climbed the first ladder. 74 00:08:10,230 --> 00:08:18,540 The ladders were spiked and roped, but the beginning of the steeple was square, a straight drop, and the ladders clattered on the side. 75 00:08:18,630 --> 00:08:26,460 She didn't like that. Kate first told of that t she heard father call, but she didn't lift her head. 76 00:08:26,790 --> 00:08:30,270 She didn't look down. Up she went. 77 00:08:30,990 --> 00:08:35,250 It felt worse than a rock because it was so straight and it had been made. 78 00:08:36,210 --> 00:08:43,320 Father had made parts of it. She knew the pattern of his combing hammer on the sandstone up. 79 00:08:43,710 --> 00:08:50,460 She went. But when he changed, the dispatcher father's voice sounded no nearer. 80 00:08:52,010 --> 00:08:57,890 At the spire. The pitch of the ladders was against the stone, and Mary had to step sideways to change. 81 00:08:58,580 --> 00:09:01,910 The ladders were firmer. But she began to feel a breeze. 82 00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:08,720 She heard an engine get up steam on the railway. The bag cloth kept her mouth wet, but it felt dry. 83 00:09:09,860 --> 00:09:13,130 The spire narrowed. There were sides to it. 84 00:09:13,700 --> 00:09:18,530 She saw the shallow corners begin up and up. 85 00:09:19,250 --> 00:09:24,860 Tick tock. Tick tock. Above her head, the spire narrowed. 86 00:09:25,490 --> 00:09:30,050 Now she couldn't stop the blue sky from showing at the sides. 87 00:09:30,740 --> 00:09:39,410 Then land. Far away. Mary felt her hands close on the rungs and her wrists go stiff. 88 00:09:40,490 --> 00:09:45,530 Tick tock. Tick tock. She climbed to the hammer. 89 00:09:46,340 --> 00:09:50,930 The spire was thin. Father was not working, but giving her a rhythm. 90 00:09:52,070 --> 00:09:58,160 The sky was now inside the ladder. The ladder was broader than the spire. 91 00:09:59,450 --> 00:10:06,080 Father's hand took the bagging cloth out of Mary's mouth and his other hand steadied her as she came up through the platform. 92 00:10:06,740 --> 00:10:12,830 The platform was made of good planks and father had lashed them, but it moved. 93 00:10:13,730 --> 00:10:19,010 Mary didn't like the gaps between. She put her arms around the spire. 94 00:10:20,210 --> 00:10:26,990 That was a bonnet climb, said Father. I do hope the next baby's a lad, said Mary. 95 00:10:28,340 --> 00:10:32,540 I have some tea, said Father. She drank from the bottle. 96 00:10:33,350 --> 00:10:38,940 The cold, sweet drink stopped her trembling. Don't look yet, said Father. 97 00:10:39,420 --> 00:10:45,360 And when you do, look away first. Not near. That was Mother resting. 98 00:10:45,950 --> 00:10:49,320 She could only do 5 hours at the picking today. It got that hot. 99 00:10:50,340 --> 00:10:57,120 That's why I've stayed, said Father. They want us to finish for Sunday, and there's one more dab of cupping to do. 100 00:10:57,150 --> 00:11:00,710 There may be a sixpence for it. Doesn't it? 101 00:11:01,190 --> 00:11:04,700 You up here, said Mary? No. Why should it? 102 00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:12,140 Said Father Glaze Hills hire. But you can't fall off Glaze Hill, said Mary. 103 00:11:12,620 --> 00:11:17,960 Not all at once. There's nothing here to hurt you. 104 00:11:18,260 --> 00:11:21,650 Said Father. There's stone and wood and rope and sky. 105 00:11:21,680 --> 00:11:27,290 Same as at home. It's the same ground. It's further, said, Mary. 106 00:11:27,920 --> 00:11:31,160 But it will never hurt. And I'll go down with you. 107 00:11:31,910 --> 00:11:37,790 Downs harder. I hope the next one's a lad, said Mary. 108 00:11:38,060 --> 00:11:44,240 I'm fed up with being a lad. Father said the view, isn't it? 109 00:11:45,450 --> 00:11:48,750 Mary stood and looked out from the spire and the church. 110 00:11:48,770 --> 00:11:56,700 She said, It's so far away. She knelt and squinted between the planks, the roofs, as far as the ground. 111 00:11:57,180 --> 00:12:00,660 We fly in. Father watched her. 112 00:12:01,080 --> 00:12:11,870 His combing hammer swung from his arm. There's not many will be able to say they've been at the top of St Philip's, but I'm not at the top, said Mary. 113 00:12:12,980 --> 00:12:17,540 The steeple cap was a swelling to take the socket for the spike of the golden cockerel. 114 00:12:18,350 --> 00:12:21,350 Mary could touch the spike above her. 115 00:12:21,650 --> 00:12:26,720 The smooth belly raised the clouds. You're not Frit. 116 00:12:27,620 --> 00:12:30,740 Not now, said Mary. It's grand. 117 00:12:31,910 --> 00:12:37,060 Father picked her up. You're really not for it. Nobody's been that I. 118 00:12:37,940 --> 00:12:42,020 It was ripped from the platform. Not if you help me. 119 00:12:42,590 --> 00:12:47,690 Said Mary. Right. Said Father. He could do a testing. 120 00:12:48,110 --> 00:12:55,740 Let's see if he runs. True. Father lifted Mary in his arms, thick with work from wrist to elbow. 121 00:12:56,130 --> 00:13:02,940 For a moment again, the steeple wasn't safe on the earth when she felt the slippery gold of the weather cock bulging over her. 122 00:13:03,150 --> 00:13:06,330 But she kicked her leg across its back and held the neck. 123 00:13:07,310 --> 00:13:11,000 You got your balance, said Father. I've got it, said Mary. 124 00:13:11,690 --> 00:13:16,070 The swelling sides were like a donkey, and behind her the tail was stiff and high. 125 00:13:16,910 --> 00:13:22,300 Father's head was at her feet and he could reach her. I'm set, she said. 126 00:13:23,390 --> 00:13:26,670 Father's face was bright and his beard danced. 127 00:13:27,140 --> 00:13:31,310 He took off his cap and swept it in a circle and gave the cry of the summer fields. 128 00:13:31,310 --> 00:13:35,030 Woo woo woo woo woo! Mary laughed. 129 00:13:35,540 --> 00:13:39,220 The wind blew on the spire and made the weather cock seem alive. 130 00:13:39,470 --> 00:13:41,570 The feathers of its tail were a marvel. 131 00:13:42,380 --> 00:13:51,650 Father twisted the spike with his hands against the wind and the spike moved in its greased socket, shaking a bit juddering but firm to Mary. 132 00:13:51,650 --> 00:13:59,300 The weather cock was waking, the world turned her bonnet fell off and hung by its ribbon and the wind filled her hair. 133 00:13:59,570 --> 00:14:02,750 Faster, faster, she shouted. I'm not frit. 134 00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:07,280 She banged her heels on the golden sides and the weather cock boomed. 135 00:14:08,310 --> 00:14:14,840 Woo woo! Grandfather! The high notes of his voice crossed parishes and townships. 136 00:14:15,290 --> 00:14:22,490 Her head and her bonnet flew and she felt no spire, but only the brilliant gold of the birds spinning the air. 137 00:14:23,420 --> 00:14:27,230 Father swung the tail as it passed him. Woo! Woo! 138 00:14:27,590 --> 00:14:35,210 There is me. Tiptop pickle of the corn. Mary could see all of Chorley, the railway and the new houses. 139 00:14:35,870 --> 00:14:40,460 She could have seen home. But the Wood Hill swelled and folded into Glaze Hill between. 140 00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:45,050 She could see the cottage at the edge of lifeless moss and the green of the moss. 141 00:14:45,560 --> 00:14:55,280 And as she sponge, she could see Lord Stanley's and Stockport and Wales and Beeston and idling and Delamere and all to the hills in Manchester. 142 00:14:56,390 --> 00:15:03,140 The golden twisting spark with the girl on top and everywhere across the plain with churches. 143 00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:10,360 Churches. I can see churches and all the weather cocks turned in the wind. 144 00:15:11,600 --> 00:15:17,090 Father let the spikes stop and lifted her dad there, he said. 145 00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:24,050 You'll remember this day, my girl, for the rest of your life. I already have, said, Mary. 146 00:15:25,590 --> 00:15:29,460 Father at his buggy. Mary walked round the platform. 147 00:15:29,730 --> 00:15:33,150 She looked at the new vicarage and the new school by the new church. 148 00:15:33,900 --> 00:15:38,280 Are you wishing? Said Father. A bit, said Mary. 149 00:15:39,620 --> 00:15:47,780 I'm wishing that went. It would be four points a week and all the time you'd have lost a good read, said Mary. 150 00:15:48,650 --> 00:15:54,010 You can read. She sat with her back against the steeple in its narrow shade. 151 00:15:54,580 --> 00:16:00,800 Glaze Hill was between her boots. Have you asked if Lord Stanley will set me on? 152 00:16:02,170 --> 00:16:05,890 Lord Stanley doesn't like his maids to read, said Father. 153 00:16:06,310 --> 00:16:12,400 But have you wait a year? I'm threatened with stone picking, said Mary. 154 00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:18,400 I want to live in a grand house and look after every kind of beautiful thing you can think of all things brass. 155 00:16:19,210 --> 00:16:22,300 By God, you'll find stone becomes easier. 156 00:16:23,750 --> 00:16:29,000 The onion dropped off Father's knife and some and floated down to the lawns of the church. 157 00:16:29,810 --> 00:16:33,320 It had so far to fall that there was time for it to wander in the air. 158 00:16:34,410 --> 00:16:38,940 We best fetch that, said, Father. The vicar won't have as untidy. 159 00:16:40,390 --> 00:16:43,660 He put Mary on the ladder and climbed outside her. 160 00:16:44,640 --> 00:16:52,980 Just as the sky and the steeple were inside the ladder, Mary was inside Father's long arms that pushed him out from the ranks. 161 00:16:53,880 --> 00:17:00,540 He didn't help her, but she felt free and safe and climbed as if there was no sky. 162 00:17:00,540 --> 00:17:05,840 No stone, no height. She ran across the lawn and picked up the onion. 163 00:17:06,350 --> 00:17:11,580 Bits of it had smashed off and she nibbled them. She stood with father and looked up. 164 00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:18,660 The spire still toppled under the clouds. She'll do, said father, and slap the stone. 165 00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:23,160 Yet she'll never do. Why? Said Mary. 166 00:17:23,700 --> 00:17:29,190 She's no church and she'll not be. You want a few deadens against the wall for it to be a church? 167 00:17:29,910 --> 00:17:40,280 They'll come. Not here, said Father. There's to be no burial ground, just grass, and without even some deadens, it's more like chapel than church. 168 00:17:40,860 --> 00:17:44,100 Empty. He ate his onion. 169 00:17:45,350 --> 00:17:50,180 Mary went back to work. She looked at some Phillips when she got to the lifeless moss. 170 00:17:51,020 --> 00:17:54,800 Father was nearly at the top again. His arms were straight. 171 00:17:55,220 --> 00:18:02,860 He climbed. Balanced out from the stone. She dipped a pension of water in a spring and took some up to mother. 172 00:18:03,490 --> 00:18:06,490 Mother was sleeping, but her hair was flat with sweat. 173 00:18:07,630 --> 00:18:11,080 Old William was sweating at his loom. It was all Clark. 174 00:18:12,090 --> 00:18:20,450 He had to watch the threads and he couldn't look to talk. Mary worked till the sun was cold and she carried her stones home and made the tea. 175 00:18:20,810 --> 00:18:25,040 She watched Little Esther and put her to bed and gave Mother her tea. 176 00:18:25,760 --> 00:18:28,910 Father came home. That's done. 177 00:18:29,910 --> 00:18:33,420 He said. He sat quietly in his chair. 178 00:18:34,140 --> 00:18:39,240 He was always quiet. And the work was over. Church or wall or garden. 179 00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:44,260 After tea. Father went to see mother. 180 00:18:44,860 --> 00:18:48,370 They talked and he played his offic lied to her. 181 00:18:49,310 --> 00:18:52,970 He played gentle tunes, not the ones for Sunday. 182 00:18:54,660 --> 00:18:59,400 Mary cleared the table and wash the dishes. And when she'd finished, she cleaned the stones from the field. 183 00:18:59,700 --> 00:19:03,480 Old William smoked half a pipe of tobacco before going back to the loom. 184 00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:08,160 Is he plain, said old William. Yes, said Mary. 185 00:19:08,730 --> 00:19:11,790 But not Chappell. Why are we chapel? 186 00:19:12,660 --> 00:19:17,040 You better ask him, said old William. I'm Chapel because it's near. 187 00:19:17,610 --> 00:19:23,260 I'll do enough walking without sun. Father came down from playing his music. 188 00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:28,300 He sat at the table with Mary and salted the stone she had picked that day with little Esther. 189 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:32,440 Most pickers left their stones on the dump at the field end. 190 00:19:32,650 --> 00:19:36,940 But Mary brought the best of hers home and cleaned the dirt off. 191 00:19:37,630 --> 00:19:44,230 And Father looked at them in the field. They were dull and heavy and could break her size. 192 00:19:44,890 --> 00:19:52,690 But on the table each one was something different. They were different colours and different shapes, different in size and feel and weight. 193 00:19:53,620 --> 00:19:57,910 They were all smooth cobbles. Why are we chapel? 194 00:19:58,510 --> 00:20:02,920 Said Mary. We're buried, Church, said Father. 195 00:20:03,430 --> 00:20:08,890 But why? There's more call on music in chapel, said Father. 196 00:20:09,250 --> 00:20:15,370 Why? Because people aren't content with wronging themselves to death from Monday to Saturday, 197 00:20:15,370 --> 00:20:19,060 but they must go bowling and praying and fasting on Sundays too. 198 00:20:20,350 --> 00:20:23,470 What's the difference between church and chapel? Said Mary. 199 00:20:24,100 --> 00:20:27,610 Church is Lord Stanley. He's that's all. 200 00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:34,420 That's enough, said Father. When you cut stone, you see more than the person does. 201 00:20:34,630 --> 00:20:43,110 Church or chapel. Same as what? Same as this father took a stone and broke it. 202 00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:47,920 He broke it cleanly. The inside was green and grey. 203 00:20:48,520 --> 00:20:53,440 They took he took one half and turned so that Mary couldn't see how he rubbed it. 204 00:20:54,250 --> 00:20:58,630 Mary had tried to polish stone, but a whole day of rubbing did no good. 205 00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:03,160 It was a stone cut. A secret. One of the last taught. 206 00:21:04,130 --> 00:21:11,540 Father held the pebble inside his waistcoat, and whatever it was that he did was simple a way of holding or twisting. 207 00:21:12,260 --> 00:21:17,810 And the pebble came out with its broken face. Green and white flakes shining like wet. 208 00:21:18,750 --> 00:21:27,100 You gave the pebble to Mary. Don't see how those flakes were put together and what they are, he said. 209 00:21:28,180 --> 00:21:32,030 And who made them into pebbles on a hill and where? 210 00:21:32,050 --> 00:21:38,200 That was a rock and when. He rummaged in the pile on the table, found a round. 211 00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:41,829 Greystone broke it, turned away. Held twisted. 212 00:21:41,830 --> 00:21:46,180 Rubbed their. Mary cried out. 213 00:21:47,050 --> 00:21:50,720 It was wonderful. Father had polished the stone. 214 00:21:51,170 --> 00:21:57,680 It was black and full of light. And its heart was a golden bursting sun. 215 00:21:58,660 --> 00:22:03,580 What is it? Said Mary? Asked the parson, said Father. 216 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:08,170 No. But what is it really? I can't tell you, said Father. 217 00:22:09,340 --> 00:22:14,620 Once, when I was apprenticed, we had a holiday and I walked to the sea. 218 00:22:14,860 --> 00:22:16,780 I left home at two in the morning. 219 00:22:16,900 --> 00:22:25,479 I had nothing but half an hour there, and I stood and watched all that water and all the weeds and shells and creatures. 220 00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:32,920 And then I walked back home again. And I've seen the like of what's in that pebble only in the sea. 221 00:22:33,830 --> 00:22:43,160 They call them urchins. Now you tell me how that urchin got in that flint and how that flint got on the hill. 222 00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:49,610 Was it Noah's flood? Said Mary. I'm not saying that Parsons will tell you. 223 00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:58,910 If you ask them, the heaven and earth, centre and circumference were created all together in the same instant 4004 years before Christ, 224 00:22:58,910 --> 00:23:01,910 on October the 23rd at 9:00 in the morning. 225 00:23:03,110 --> 00:23:07,830 They've got it written. And I'm asking Parsons if it was Noah's Flood. 226 00:23:07,850 --> 00:23:16,320 Where was the urchin before? How long does Stones take to grow and how do urchins get in stones? 227 00:23:17,220 --> 00:23:22,560 It's time and arithmetic. I want to know. Time and arithmetic and sense. 228 00:23:25,050 --> 00:23:31,740 That's what comes a read reading, said old William. You know, poverty nests and discontent. 229 00:23:31,740 --> 00:23:37,190 And you'll wait, Mother. But. And what are you? 230 00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:42,810 But the little master said, Father, we've until all hours and nothing to show for what you've spent. 231 00:23:43,410 --> 00:23:48,300 I'm still a man with a watch in his pocket, said old William. I don't keep my britches up with string. 232 00:23:49,540 --> 00:23:53,530 Mary slid under the table and held onto the flint. 233 00:23:54,310 --> 00:23:59,530 That was going to be a roar. Father thought shouting would make old William here, 234 00:23:59,770 --> 00:24:05,829 and old William didn't have father's words that old William's clogs began to move as if he was working. 235 00:24:05,830 --> 00:24:10,720 The loom and father's boots became still as if there was a great stone in his lap. 236 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:18,610 Although he shouted, anger made him calm. When he was so still, he frightened Mary. 237 00:24:19,620 --> 00:24:24,960 It was worse when the stillness came from himself and his thoughts without a roar. 238 00:24:25,710 --> 00:24:27,570 Sometimes it lasted for days. 239 00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:37,650 Then he would go out and play his awfully cloud around the farms and sing and ring his hand bells and use all his music for beer. 240 00:24:37,950 --> 00:24:40,140 And only mother could fetch him home. 241 00:24:41,580 --> 00:24:51,840 That was what Mary feared the most, because beer took Father beyond himself and left someone looking through his eyes. 242 00:24:53,290 --> 00:24:56,829 And what about, of course, the candles, said old William Books. 243 00:24:56,830 --> 00:25:06,230 A dear read didn't when you've bought them. Mary held the flint and tried to imagine such a golden apple that was once a star beneath the sea. 244 00:25:07,610 --> 00:25:11,960 We even said, Father Maurice, you be the poverty knocker. 245 00:25:13,890 --> 00:25:20,580 The old Williams clogs went out. Father sat at the table, not even moving the stones. 246 00:25:21,670 --> 00:25:25,090 Then he stood up and walked into the garden. Mary waited. 247 00:25:25,900 --> 00:25:33,430 She heard him rattling the hoe and rake. And old William started up his loom, but she could tell he was upset because of the slow beat. 248 00:25:33,940 --> 00:25:40,200 Plenty of time. Plenty of time. She crawled from under the table and went out to the garden. 249 00:25:40,210 --> 00:25:48,470 Father was hoeing next to the rhubarb. If I can't learn to read when you give me something instead, said Mary. 250 00:25:49,590 --> 00:25:57,990 If it's not too much, said Father. The trouble with him is he said it is Clay Pipe at Old Williams Weaving Room. 251 00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:02,640 He's as good as me, but he can't ever see the end of his work. 252 00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:07,560 And I make it worse by building houses for the big masters who've taken his living. 253 00:26:08,430 --> 00:26:15,090 That's what it is. But we never say. If I can't read, can I have a book? 254 00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:21,690 Father opened his mouth and the clay pipe fell to the ground and didn't break. 255 00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:30,640 He looked at the pipe. I've not seen a Macclesfield Dandy that has fallen to the ground and not broken, he said. 256 00:26:31,300 --> 00:26:38,270 And they don't last more than three week. He turned the soil gently with his hoe and buried the pipe. 257 00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:42,320 What did you do that for? Said Mary. They cost a farthing. 258 00:26:43,250 --> 00:26:49,580 Well said, Father. I reckon with all the stone. If I don't give a bit back, it's a boadu y a book. 259 00:26:50,810 --> 00:26:56,120 I want a prayer book to carry the chapel, said Mary. Lizzie Allman and Annie Lee have them. 260 00:26:56,990 --> 00:27:00,980 Can they read? No. They use him to press flowers. 261 00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:04,730 Well, then, said Father. But they can laugh. 262 00:27:05,330 --> 00:27:08,360 Said Mary. I said Father. 263 00:27:09,530 --> 00:27:17,180 He lent on the hoe and looked at Glace Hill. Go and fetch a bobbin about ends, two boxes of Lucifer matches and a bundle of candles. 264 00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:23,910 A whole fresh bundle. We're going for a walk and tell nobody. 265 00:27:25,620 --> 00:27:29,790 Mary went into the house, two old Williams room in a corner by the door. 266 00:27:29,820 --> 00:27:37,890 He kept the bad ends wound on bobbins. There were lengths of thread that came to him knotted or too thick, or that broke on the loom. 267 00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:41,700 He tied them together and wove them for mother to make clothes from. 268 00:27:42,360 --> 00:27:47,040 Mary lifted a bobbin and took it out. She found the candles and the Lucifer matches. 269 00:27:47,820 --> 00:27:54,540 Father had put his tools away. They went up the field at the back of the house and onto Glaze Hill. 270 00:27:55,170 --> 00:27:58,710 When they reached the top, the sun was ready for setting the weather. 271 00:27:59,310 --> 00:28:02,820 Philips was losing light and the woods stretched out. 272 00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:08,010 I can't see the churches, said Mary when we were up there this afternoon. 273 00:28:08,010 --> 00:28:12,150 I could. That's because they're all of a height, said Father. 274 00:28:12,420 --> 00:28:19,780 I told you Clay's Hill was higher. Glaze Hill was the middle of three spurs of land. 275 00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:26,860 The Wood Hill came in from the right and Daniel Hill from the left, and they met at the engine vane. 276 00:28:28,060 --> 00:28:39,250 The engine vane was a deep crevice in the rocks, and along it went the tram road for the miners who dug Galena, cobalt and malachite. 277 00:28:40,500 --> 00:28:44,969 The thump of the engine that pumped water out of the vein could often be heard through 278 00:28:44,970 --> 00:28:49,700 the ground on different parts of the hill when the workings ran close to the surface. 279 00:28:50,740 --> 00:28:54,160 Now. It was dusk and the engine was quiet. 280 00:28:55,310 --> 00:29:02,290 The tram road led down to the head of the first stope and there was a ladder for men to climb into the cave. 281 00:29:03,290 --> 00:29:09,490 Mary was not allowed at the very. It killed at least once every year, 282 00:29:10,090 --> 00:29:18,640 and even to go close was dangerous because the dead sand around the edge was hard and filled with little stones that slipped over the crack. 283 00:29:19,950 --> 00:29:24,030 Father walked on. The sleepers of the tram rode down into the engine v. 284 00:29:25,500 --> 00:29:31,410 It's nearly night, said Mary. It'll be dark with candles, said Father. 285 00:29:32,670 --> 00:29:39,330 There was a cool smell and drafts of sweet air. The roof of the vein began and they were under the ground. 286 00:29:39,900 --> 00:29:44,430 Water dripped from the roof onto the sandstone, splashing echoes. 287 00:29:45,530 --> 00:29:51,320 The drops fell into homes. They had fallen for so many years in the same place that they had worn the rock. 288 00:29:52,010 --> 00:29:56,600 Mary could get her fingers into some of the holes, but they were deeper than her hands. 289 00:29:58,180 --> 00:30:02,110 Above and behind her. Mary saw the last of the day. 290 00:30:03,100 --> 00:30:08,110 In front and beneath was the stoop. Well, it was always night. 291 00:30:09,620 --> 00:30:13,850 Father took the whole bundle of candles and set them on the rocks and let them. 292 00:30:14,810 --> 00:30:21,590 They showed how dark it was in the stope. Wait while you get used to it, said Father. 293 00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:26,930 You soon see better now. What about that roof? 294 00:30:28,550 --> 00:30:34,400 Mary looked up into the shadows. It's not Dimension Stone, she said. 295 00:30:35,150 --> 00:30:38,780 There's a grain to it, and it's all ridge and furrow. 296 00:30:40,490 --> 00:30:50,000 But if you'd been with me that day, said Father, when I was apprenticed and walked to the sea, you'd have stood on sand just the same as that. 297 00:30:50,990 --> 00:30:56,870 The waves do it going back and fro and it makes the ridges proper hard. 298 00:30:56,990 --> 00:31:00,650 And if you left it, I reckon it could set into stone. 299 00:31:01,460 --> 00:31:04,850 But the tide goes back and to back and to and wets it. 300 00:31:04,850 --> 00:31:12,680 And your boots sink in and leave a mark. If that's the sea, why is it on the ground? 301 00:31:12,980 --> 00:31:18,780 Said Mary. And those are those boots, said Father. 302 00:31:20,500 --> 00:31:27,010 There were footprints in the roof, flattening the ripples as though a big bird had walked there. 303 00:31:27,820 --> 00:31:32,590 Was that Noah's flood, too? Said Mary. I can't tell you, said Father. 304 00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:42,760 If it was that Bantam never got into dark, it must have been as big as Phillips, Cockerel, said Mary. 305 00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:47,350 Bigger, said Father. And upside down. 306 00:31:48,980 --> 00:31:56,060 It doesn't make sense, said Mary. It would if we could plunder it deep enough, said Father. 307 00:31:56,150 --> 00:32:03,110 I reckon that if you are going to put the sea in the hill and turn the world over and let it dry, 308 00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:07,460 then you've got to be doing before 9:00 in the morning. 309 00:32:08,580 --> 00:32:12,570 But preachers aren't partial to coming down here. So it doesn't matter, does it? 310 00:32:14,410 --> 00:32:19,750 He blew out all the candles except two. He gave one to Mary and stepped onto the ladder. 311 00:32:20,410 --> 00:32:25,180 Mary went with him and climbed between his arms down into the stoop. 312 00:32:26,610 --> 00:32:31,380 It did take some plucking, she said. If it had feathers. 313 00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:36,970 The stone was the shape of a straw beehive and tunnels led everywhere. 314 00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:43,250 Mary couldn't see the top of the ladder. If he had fallen, you'd have been killed. 315 00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:48,500 Dead. As at St Philip's, said father. It's different, said Mary. 316 00:32:49,190 --> 00:32:54,980 There's no height. There's depth. And that's no different from height, said Father. 317 00:32:55,760 --> 00:33:05,140 No, it doesn't call you, said Mary. Father held Mary's hand sailor's grip and went into a tunnel under a ledge at the bottom of the stoop. 318 00:33:05,890 --> 00:33:10,900 They didn't go far. There was a shaft in the rock, not a straight one. 319 00:33:11,620 --> 00:33:15,730 But when father bridged it with his feet, the pebbles rattled down for a long time. 320 00:33:16,570 --> 00:33:17,799 It was easy climbing, 321 00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:26,650 even with a candle to be held because the rock kept changing and each change made a shelf that was putting Stone Marl and Fox bench. 322 00:33:27,250 --> 00:33:32,130 And only the mound was slippery. That's it, said Father. 323 00:33:32,970 --> 00:33:36,960 They were at a kink in the shaft. What about further down? 324 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:40,280 Said Mary. It's only rubbish, gang. 325 00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:43,190 From here to the bottom. Neither used nor ornament. 326 00:33:43,580 --> 00:33:49,700 Although there was a man, it was sunk the shaft and he could read a book and put a letter together. 327 00:33:49,700 --> 00:33:57,360 But he lost his money for all his reading. Now, if he'd read rocks instead of books, it might have been a different story. 328 00:33:57,380 --> 00:34:02,180 You see, Father held his candle out to the side. 329 00:34:03,110 --> 00:34:07,670 There was a crack, not a tunnel. The rock itself had made it. 330 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:12,950 Hold fast to a light, said Father, and keep the matches out of the wet. 331 00:34:14,290 --> 00:34:20,620 Father had to crawl. Mary could stand, but even she had to squeeze because of the narrowness. 332 00:34:21,580 --> 00:34:24,850 The crack went up and down, wavering through the hill. 333 00:34:25,510 --> 00:34:30,490 Then Father stopped. He couldn't turn his head to speak, but he could crouch on his heel. 334 00:34:30,700 --> 00:34:35,560 Climb over. He said. Mary pulled herself across his back. 335 00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:40,600 A side of wall had split off and jammed in the passage, almost closing it. 336 00:34:41,870 --> 00:34:46,370 Can you get through there? Said Father. Easy, said Mary. 337 00:34:46,910 --> 00:34:50,360 Get through and then listen. Said Father. 338 00:34:51,710 --> 00:34:56,990 Mary wriggled past the flake and stood up. The passage went on beyond her light. 339 00:34:58,030 --> 00:35:03,640 Father's candle made a dark hole of where she had come. And she could see his boots and one hand. 340 00:35:04,630 --> 00:35:09,220 He pushed the bobbin of bad ends, threw to her and six candles. 341 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:13,660 He kept hold of the loose end of silk. What's up? 342 00:35:14,050 --> 00:35:20,820 Said Mary. What are we doing? You still want to book for Sundays, said Father. 343 00:35:21,240 --> 00:35:24,330 Even if you can't read? Yes, said Mary. 344 00:35:24,990 --> 00:35:28,890 Then this is what we're doing, said Father. So you listen. 345 00:35:30,120 --> 00:35:33,240 You're to keep the leucippus dry and use only one candle. 346 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:36,990 Should be plenty. Let the silk out. But don't pull on it. 347 00:35:36,990 --> 00:35:40,979 Or else it'll snap. It's to fetch it back if you have no light. 348 00:35:40,980 --> 00:35:46,890 And that's all it's for. Now then you'll find you go down a bit too steep. 349 00:35:47,070 --> 00:35:52,190 And then the rock divides. Follow the malachite. Always follow the malachite. 350 00:35:52,200 --> 00:36:00,450 You understand me? Yes, Father. After the Malachite, the same old Fox bench, then a band white dimension and a lot of wet. 351 00:36:00,660 --> 00:36:03,930 When you come to the tough time, can you remember it all? 352 00:36:04,650 --> 00:36:09,270 Malachite fox benge dimension to Tom, said Mary. 353 00:36:09,810 --> 00:36:18,100 Always follow the malachite, said Father. And if there's been another rockfall, don't just loose stuff and sink on. 354 00:36:18,750 --> 00:36:25,280 There isn't. Anybody can reach you. You're alone. What must I do when I get to the top? 355 00:36:25,310 --> 00:36:33,380 Tom said Mary. You come back and tell me if you want that book, said Father. 356 00:36:33,590 --> 00:36:38,110 And if you do, you should love it. Right, said Mary. 357 00:36:39,730 --> 00:36:44,110 The crack in the hill ran straight for a while and was easier than the first part. 358 00:36:44,350 --> 00:36:51,550 She held her candle in one hand and the bobbin in the other. She had tucked the other candles and the Lucifer matches into her petticoat. 359 00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:55,990 She went slowly down the rock and the silk unwound behind her. 360 00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:05,020 The steep was not enough to make her climb and water trickled from above over the rock and left a green stain of malachite. 361 00:37:06,090 --> 00:37:10,020 She stopped when the passage divided, but there was nothing to worry her. 362 00:37:10,620 --> 00:37:15,810 She went to the left with the malachite. The other passage had none. 363 00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:26,570 She took the silk through the hill. The green malachite faded and she passed by a thin level of fox bench sand, hard and speckled. 364 00:37:27,750 --> 00:37:31,140 Then the walls were white. She was at the dimension. 365 00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:36,150 The crack sloped easily downward and was opening. 366 00:37:37,080 --> 00:37:43,560 Do you no longer have to move sideways? Her feet scuffed in the sand, but in front of her she could see brown water. 367 00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:49,000 Mary held her candle low at the bottom of the wall. 368 00:37:49,020 --> 00:37:56,370 She saw the beginning of a band of clay, the tough tom red marl that never let water through. 369 00:37:57,330 --> 00:38:06,530 She went forward slowly into the wet. The floor was stiff and tacky under her boots and behind her, the silk floated in curves. 370 00:38:07,010 --> 00:38:16,540 But the crack went no deeper. The ground was level and her light showed a hump of tough tom above the water glistening. 371 00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:24,420 Mary stopped again. There was nothing else over behind below. 372 00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:34,590 Only the tough tom humping out of the water and the white dimension stone and the crack finished at the end of a candlelight. 373 00:38:35,850 --> 00:38:38,880 Father. There was no reply. 374 00:38:40,130 --> 00:38:45,220 She hadn't counted how much silk had unwound. Father. 375 00:38:46,580 --> 00:38:51,850 There is plenty of candle left, but it showed her nothing to explain why she was there. 376 00:38:53,260 --> 00:38:56,690 Father. Not even an echo. 377 00:38:57,650 --> 00:39:00,830 There wasn't a room for one. But she turned. 378 00:39:02,170 --> 00:39:07,570 There hadn't been an echo, but her voice had sounded louder beyond the tough Tom. 379 00:39:09,140 --> 00:39:14,360 Mary scrambled up the hump, slithering in the wet. Then she looked around her and saw. 380 00:39:15,740 --> 00:39:20,460 The end of the crack was as broad as two stalls and as high as a barn. 381 00:39:21,410 --> 00:39:25,490 The red tough Tom was a curved island above its own water. 382 00:39:26,270 --> 00:39:30,660 The walls were white and pale yellow. There was no sound. 383 00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:39,580 The water did not drip. It sank to the stone unheard and seeped along them all. 384 00:39:42,090 --> 00:39:46,800 Mary saw her father's mason mark drawn on the wall. 385 00:39:47,580 --> 00:39:53,010 It was faint and black, as if drawn with soot. Next to it was an animal. 386 00:39:54,010 --> 00:39:59,000 Falling. They didn't really warn itself away, but it looked like a bull. 387 00:39:59,120 --> 00:40:04,809 A great shaggy bull. It was bigger than it seemed at first. 388 00:40:04,810 --> 00:40:10,590 And Father's Mark was on it. Making the mark a spear or an arrow. 389 00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:16,730 The bull was all colours, but some of the stone had shed itself in the damn bear. 390 00:40:17,300 --> 00:40:24,020 The more Mary looked, the bigger the bull grew. It had turned around every wall as if it was moving and dying. 391 00:40:26,180 --> 00:40:31,790 Mary had come through the Hill to see Father's Mark on a daubed ball. 392 00:40:33,040 --> 00:40:36,490 And near the bull and the mark. There was a hand. 393 00:40:37,210 --> 00:40:46,290 The outline of a hand. Someone had splayed a hand on the wall and painted round it with a tough tongue. 394 00:40:47,200 --> 00:40:50,759 Fingers and some. Mary. 395 00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:55,390 Put the candle close. The white dimension happened. 396 00:40:56,660 --> 00:40:59,690 She lifted her own and laid it over the hand on the wall. 397 00:41:00,050 --> 00:41:03,660 Not touching. Both hands were the same size. 398 00:41:04,860 --> 00:41:09,120 She reached nearer. They were the same size. 399 00:41:10,030 --> 00:41:16,410 She touched. The rock was cold, but for a moment it felt almost warm. 400 00:41:17,900 --> 00:41:23,990 The hands fit it. Fingers and thumb and palm and a bull. 401 00:41:24,740 --> 00:41:28,160 And fathers mark in the darkness under the ground. 402 00:41:29,830 --> 00:41:35,740 Mary stood back. In the middle of the tough time and listen to the silence. 403 00:41:36,830 --> 00:41:40,040 It was the most secret place she had ever seen. 404 00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:50,860 A ball drawn for secrets. A mark and a hand alone with the ball in the dark that nobody knew. 405 00:41:52,430 --> 00:41:57,140 She looked down, and when she looked down, she shouted. 406 00:41:58,330 --> 00:42:02,290 She wasn't alone. The tough Tom was crowded. 407 00:42:02,950 --> 00:42:07,900 All about her in that small place under the hill that led nowhere with footprints. 408 00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:13,090 They were footprints of people. Bare and shod. 409 00:42:13,570 --> 00:42:23,410 There were boots and shoes and clogs, heels, toes, shallow ones and deep ones, near clear and sharp, as if made altogether trampling each other. 410 00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:27,610 Hundreds pressed in the clay where only a dozen could stand. 411 00:42:28,690 --> 00:42:35,650 Mary was in a crowd that could never have been thronging as real as she was. 412 00:42:36,710 --> 00:42:40,020 Her feet made prints. No. Fresher than theirs. 413 00:42:41,370 --> 00:42:47,640 And the ball was still dying under the mark and the one hand still held. 414 00:42:49,630 --> 00:42:55,710 There was nowhere to run. No one to hear. Mary stood on the tough Tom. 415 00:42:56,990 --> 00:43:02,050 And waited. She then jerked the thread to feel her father's presence. 416 00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:08,640 He was so far away that the thread would have broken. Then it was over. 417 00:43:10,370 --> 00:43:14,780 She knew the great bull on the rock in closing her and she knew the mark and the hand. 418 00:43:15,560 --> 00:43:22,730 The invisible crowd was not there. And the footprints in the tough Tom turned motionless. 419 00:43:24,070 --> 00:43:28,130 She had seen. Now there was the time to go. 420 00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:38,830 Mary lifted the thread and made skeins of it as she went past the white dimension Fox bench and Malachite to the candle under the four. 421 00:43:41,400 --> 00:43:47,090 Father had moved to make room for her. Well, I've seen so many. 422 00:43:47,760 --> 00:43:51,820 All of it. You've touched the hand? Yes. 423 00:43:52,540 --> 00:44:01,040 I thought you would. They went back to the shaft and up and out the sky seemed a different place. 424 00:44:01,050 --> 00:44:05,030 All things led to the bull and the mark and the hand in the cave. 425 00:44:05,720 --> 00:44:11,930 Trees were trying to find it with their roots. The rain in the clouds must fall to the ground and onto the rock. 426 00:44:11,930 --> 00:44:16,249 To the tough tom. That's put a quiet this on. 427 00:44:16,250 --> 00:44:21,650 You said Father. I. They came over Glaze Hill. 428 00:44:22,920 --> 00:44:27,590 Why did you set your mark on? Said Mary. I didn't. 429 00:44:28,600 --> 00:44:32,420 It was there when I went. When did you go? 430 00:44:33,480 --> 00:44:36,540 And I was about your size. My father took me. 431 00:44:36,540 --> 00:44:41,360 Sam is today. We have to go before we are too big to get past the fall. 432 00:44:41,370 --> 00:44:45,270 Though I reckon years back the road was open if you knew it was there. 433 00:44:46,670 --> 00:44:52,470 When did you go last? Said Mary. We go just once said, Father. 434 00:44:53,220 --> 00:44:57,360 So that we'll know. Who else? Only us. 435 00:44:57,870 --> 00:45:02,569 Neither Lees nor Allman's us. But then what? 436 00:45:02,570 --> 00:45:06,560 Ever so many feet, said Mary. The place was teeming. 437 00:45:07,820 --> 00:45:11,150 We've been going for a while. Said, Father. 438 00:45:12,080 --> 00:45:16,870 And that bull said Mary. That's a poser. 439 00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:21,240 There's been nothing like it in my time. And my father. 440 00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:25,720 He hasn't seen any. What is it all said Mary. 441 00:45:26,930 --> 00:45:32,410 The Hill. We pass it on. And once you've seen it, it changed for the rest of your days. 442 00:45:33,640 --> 00:45:38,170 Who else of us said, Mary? Nobody said Father except me. 443 00:45:38,500 --> 00:45:45,930 And now you. It's always been for the eldest, and from what I heard my father say, it was only ever for lads. 444 00:45:45,940 --> 00:45:50,229 But if they keep on stooping after that Malachi, where they're going up the engine vein, 445 00:45:50,230 --> 00:45:53,950 it'll be shovelled up in a year or two without anybody noticing. 446 00:45:53,950 --> 00:46:00,260 Even the one time of day before the engine vane and that chap who could read books. 447 00:46:00,280 --> 00:46:03,460 We must have been able to come at it from the top. But that's all gone. 448 00:46:04,300 --> 00:46:09,970 And if the old bull goes, you'll have to tell your lad, even if you can't show him. 449 00:46:11,500 --> 00:46:16,620 Shall said, Mary. I recollect it puts a quiet place on you. 450 00:46:16,620 --> 00:46:20,160 Does that bow on the hand and the mark? 451 00:46:22,330 --> 00:46:26,290 Mary went to wash the tough Tom from her boots in the spring when they reached home. 452 00:46:26,770 --> 00:46:29,950 The spring came out of the hill and soaked into lifeless moss. 453 00:46:29,950 --> 00:46:35,940 And lifeless moss spilled by Brooks to the sea. Father sat with mother for a while. 454 00:46:36,140 --> 00:46:42,240 The old William had picked up his usual rhythm and the loom rattle the nicotine nicotine Monday come Saturday. 455 00:46:43,110 --> 00:46:47,820 Then Father collected his work tools and sat down at the table and sorted through the pebbles. 456 00:46:48,930 --> 00:46:54,090 He weighed them in his hand, tested them on his thumbnail until he found the one he wanted. 457 00:46:55,050 --> 00:47:02,130 He pushed the others aside and he took the one pebble and worked quickly with candle and firelight, turning, 458 00:47:02,160 --> 00:47:09,600 tapping, knapping shaping, twisting, rubbing and making quickly as though the stone would sit hard if he stopped. 459 00:47:10,680 --> 00:47:14,310 He had to take the picture from his eye to his hand before it left him. 460 00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:28,760 That said, father, she'll do. He gave Mary a prayer book bound in blue, black calfskin tooled, stitched and decorated. 461 00:47:29,820 --> 00:47:34,830 It was only by the weight that she could tell it was stone and not leather. 462 00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:40,420 There's better than a boot you can open, said Father. A book. 463 00:47:40,720 --> 00:47:47,590 There's only one story. And tomorrow I'll cut your brother's cross and let it in the front with some double lead. 464 00:47:48,100 --> 00:47:51,730 And then I'll guarantee you'd think it was Lord Stanley's if it's held right. 465 00:47:52,690 --> 00:48:00,670 It's grand, said Mary. And I'll guarantee you, Lizzie Oldman and Danny Lee haven't got them flowers pressed in their books. 466 00:48:02,080 --> 00:48:10,120 Mary, turn the stone over. Father had split it so that the back showed two fronds of a plant. 467 00:48:10,780 --> 00:48:15,610 Silk in skins. Silk on the water under the hill. 468 00:48:17,060 --> 00:48:25,310 And Father went out of the room and left Mary by the fire. He went to old William and took his office, Clyde, as he always did after shouting. 469 00:48:25,730 --> 00:48:30,080 And he played the hymn that old William liked best because it was close to the beat of his. 470 00:48:30,080 --> 00:48:33,979 Lou Williams sang for the rhythm. Nicotine. 471 00:48:33,980 --> 00:48:37,840 Nicotine. Monday. Come Saturday. And Father tried to match him on the offer. 472 00:48:37,850 --> 00:48:41,989 Clyde. William. Bold. All the years of Man of the Looms. 473 00:48:41,990 --> 00:48:49,370 A God let down from the place of the sun wherein we are weaving always till the mystic work is done. 474 00:48:51,630 --> 00:48:58,260 And so they ended. Until the next time. The last cry went up from the summer fields. 475 00:48:58,800 --> 00:49:12,830 Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Mary sat by the fire and read the stone book that had in it all the stories of the world and the flowers of the flood. 476 00:49:27,510 --> 00:49:27,960 Thank you.