Blanche Parry

In 1348 the Black Death reached Britain. It was no respecter of persons. Blanche of Lancaster, daughter of Henry of Grosmont, first wife of John of Gaunt, mother of King Henry IV and to whom Geoffrey Chaucer dedicated a book, was probably a victim. In Herefordshire the disease seems to have halved the population. So many clergy died in Hereford itself that special arrangements were made to minister to the parishioners. This vividly demonstrates how involved parish clergy were in the daily lives of those in their charge and that most were living and working within the local communities. Among their duties was the giving of last rites to the dying, and therefore highly infectious, people. On the 5th February 1349 Sir (an ecclesiastical title) John de Porta was appointed vicar of Bacton Church, near Dore Abbey. He was probably a victim as he soon died, his successor taking office on 22nd August 1349.

Plague did not go away. It returned again and again. London's Great Plague was 1665‐1666. Children still sing the nursery rhyme: Ring, o' Ring of Roses, which seems to describe the symptoms. Rotting vegetation and animal carcases were thought to be perhaps one source for the causal miasmas. This actually had a small embedded truth as decomposition attracts rats and other carriers of diseases. The bacillus can not only spread from person to person through the air, pneumonically, but also through the bites of infected fleas and rats. In Tudor times another illness, known as the sweating sickness, was feared. The first recorded epidemic in Britain, thought to have been brought by French mercenaries, was in 1485 and it seemed to finally die out in 1551, although some authorities think the 'Picardy sweat' occurring between 1718 and 1918 was similar. King Henry VIII was terrified of it, Anne Boleyn caught it and survived, while Thomas Cromwell's wife and two daughters died of it. It was said that, as with the plague, a person could be hale and hearty at breakfast and dead by supper.

The deadly 1918 'flu pandemic is now thought to have originated in the U.S.A. and was brought to Europe on the troop ships sent to France during the First World War. Conditions in the transit camps, such as Étaples, were ripe for contagion to spread. When war ceased the soldiers and others all went home - and took this 'flu with them. There was no vaccine. It was fatal to children under 5 years old, to the over 65s and, uniquely, to healthy people between about 20 and 40 years. Present estimates are that a third of the world's population (c.500 million people) caught it, with 50 to 100 million deaths, more than died in WWI.

The trouble with the coronavirus, or its alternative name of covid19, is that there is, as yet, no vaccine available. However, we are so lucky because only a few years ago it would have taken about twenty years to develop a vaccine ‐ but now a vaccine is expected to be ready in only eighteen months... Actually, not long to wait knowing that safety is promised after such a relatively short time. Meanwhile, as we also know more about the origin and infection rate of this virus than our ancestors did about theirs, we can take precautions which they were unable to do. We are informed about wearing regularly washed gloves, frequently changing masks and we can speak to others if we stay at the recommended safe distance. If you can visit open spaces safely please enjoy a walk and look at the verges, the flowers, the signs of new birth and the new activity that comes with appearing Spring. As the Irish prayer says:

May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face. The rains fall soft upon your fields, And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of his hand...

So, good wishes to you all and take care...