Article for Dore Abbey Newsletter, Spring 2020:
Plagues & Us
socially - with enormous sympathy to those suffering economically
by Ruth E. Richardson
Aren't we lucky? We have TV, radio, telephones, music, the internet, apps., DVDs, post, books, freezers, and cars if we really need to go out. So, if any of us need to self-isolate for the good of ourselves, and of the community, we can talk to others or find enjoyment in interesting things. As I write I am listening to beautiful music. Many of you probably have gardens to work in, or to just enjoy. I am able to safely walk the lanes and fields around my home, speaking at a safe distance to the very few people I encounter. The flowers are lovely: violets, daffodils, primroses, and the hedges are budding. Today, I surprised a mallard on the River Dore. Yesterday, I saw a worm heading for the middle of the road where it would have been squashed by a car. I watched it for a bit wondering what to do and then I found a short stick and was able to 'flip' it back on the verge. It landed on a grass tump and slithered away.
The day before, I was walking back home along the road and I saw something blackish moving. I stopped, wondering what it was. I didn't want to frighten it but it didn't seem to know I was there. It was snuffling away at the side of the road where a tractor wheel had gouged out a sheer edge ‐ what must have seemed like a cliff to this tiny creature. I walked slowly towards it expecting it to run into the verge but of course it couldn't because of the mud 'cliff&pos;. I then saw its nose, sharp claws and velvety coat and realised it was a mole ‐ and they have very poor sight. I walked right up to it but all it did was to keep nosing around. I realised it had fallen over the 'cliff' from the grass above. I tried to head it along to the left, where grass grew down to the road, with my boot. That didn't work. I tried to get it to climb onto my boot so I could 'flip' it on the grass. It only climbed halfway onto my boot and then slipped back and I had to stop it heading for the centre of the road with both boots. So I tried using a stick to roll it over to head in the right direction. That worked! So I did it twice more and managed to get it into the grass. It picked itself up and ran under the hedge. Job done!
It is likely that, in the past, few people would have taken a walk, as I did, in the middle of an epidemic. They usually had no idea how illness was spread - how could they? Miasmas, 'bad' or noxious air, often termed 'night air', were blamed for diseases including cholera and the Black Death of the mid-1300s in Asia and Europe. The dreadful thing is that people knew this 'Great Pestilence' (bubonic and pneumonic plague) was coming but did not know how to stop it. It spread along trade routes to China, India, Persia (Iran), Syria and Egypt before heading for Europe. In October 1347 twelve ships docking in Messina, Sicily, were found to be filled with crew who were mostly dead, or dying covered with black boils oozing blood and pus. Ordered back to sea it was too late. Over the next five years it is now (2020) estimated that 60% of Europe's population died, that is c.50 million of c.80 million people...
