The little row of children and the tombstone where Madgewick must have laid Pip. Gloomy.
I had decided that I must go and look at Cooling Church and see the real source of Dickens story. On the way I stopped off at the RSPB reserve at Northward Hill between High Halsttow and Cooling. I had a walk around part of the Heron trail and into the woods gazing over the landscape revealed by the hill. The Thames estuary where the Hulks may have been anchored to hold prisoners in the mid 19th century. Be reminded that this was considered to be a an extreme punishment for the worst felons who were manacled, dressed in rough prison garb and under threat of deportation. A reminder of our own times is that only this year there was talk of using prison ships once again: perhaps not the rotten wooden hulks of Dickens' time but the idea is there.
Looking out over the marshes
I learned also from the local information on the boards in the reserve that along the coast there was an inn where once smugglers plied their trade. A Roman ruin is close by, as expected and along the coast is the Saxon Shore Way, a recent recognition of those intrepid ancestors of ours and of course the tranquil farmlands and birds in their seasons that need the estuary. A visit to the area and a delve into the past is a worthwhile thing to do for Dickens and the birds.
Cooling Church
Ruins of Cooling Castle - maybe the inspiration for Pip's near death.
