As autumn arrives in historic Ludlow, Shropshire, the Norman Castle shines in the autumn sunlight. Those blue remembered hills in the distance wait beckoning us.

The Shropshire Hills

There is a romance about these hills. They seem to invite and draw us to climb them and enjoy the wonderful views from their summits.

I have climbed the Wrekin and Titterstone Clee but have always wanted to return here for more. For the visitor, Church Stretton makes a good centre for walkers. It offers climbs on the Llong Mynd, Caer Caradoc ( the hill across the valley), Stiperstones and more distant Wenlock Edge.  These are places full of the layers of history fought over successively by Britons, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Normans and the Welsh across the border.

The ancient Iron Age Celtic people, the Cornovii tribe, whose territory included Shropshire, Herefordshire Cheshire, as well as part of Wales. had one of their hill forts on the summit of Caer Caradoc. We can imagine the drama that may have taken place here in 90AD as the Roman legionaries took control over the territory establishing Viriconium at present day Uttoxeter.

A.E.Houseman

The Victorian poet Houseman was, like others, drawn to these blue remembered hills. His collection of 63 poems- A Shropshire Lad was published in 1896.It is a sad lament for a lost way of life, full of thoughts of loss, war and death. But he clings to memories of the happy Shropshire highways where he had roamed, a land of lost content:

Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?

That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again. 

40th poem in A Shropshire Lad

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

A Shropshire Lad – no 2

George Butterworth

George Butterworth is one of my favourite composers, especially his On Banks of Green Willow and his Two English Idylls. His ‘A Shropshire Lad‘, captures the wistful mood of Houseman’s pastoral and melancholic poetry so well.

The lives of so many promising young men, artists, poets, writers, composers were cut short in those desperate Flanders fields of the First World War. Butterworth’s own life too was tragically lost adding a layer of poignancy to the music.

Despite the horrors of war we are grateful for the legacy of bravery and heroism, poetry and music, left behind by those who lost their lives. In a strange way, times of tragedy and suffering can bring out noble memories of things of beauty. Such treasures need to be cherished. On Remembrance Day on November 11th we remember and pay tribute to all who lost their lives in times of war fighting to preserve freedom.

Hope

Our sad, weary and war-torn world waits in hope for the coming glorious return of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.