Combe Gibbet Sabbath Walk of 5miles

Be careful how you listen, whoever listens well will hear more. Whoever doesn’t listen will even have what he seems to have heard taken away.

Luke 8:18 ( Sandy’s understanding.)

A knowledge of truth depends not so much upon strength of intellect as upon pureness of purpose, the simplicity of an earnest, dependent faith. To those who in humility of heart seek guidance , angels of God draw near. The Holy Spirit is given to open to them the rich treasures of truth.

EG Whitel

Why a gibbet?

Here is a murder story. In 1676 George Broomham and Dorothy Newman were having an affair and were seen on the downs by Martha and Robert. These were George’s wife and son. Dorothy and George responded by murdering both Martha and Robert.

They didn’t realise that there had been a witness. ‘Mad Thomas’.

George and Dorothy were hanged in Winchester and their bodies gibbetted . One on each side here they hung, high on the downs for all to see. A warning to all those passing by.

It was a sobering place to start our 4 mile walk.

With our backs toward such history we walked , about 20 of us happy in each other’s company.

The paths were sometimes steep…

and thick with moist grass. A soft under boot experience. If not a little slippery.

Paths then roads. Cottages and a small country village.

It was a wind swept Combe Gibbet walk. No rain with clouds moving swiftly. The undulating ground mostly in greens with reaped fields here and there. A summer scene. A barbed wire fence to keep sheep safe and our Bess relieving an itchy back. We will be happy to be back in the car.

Thank you for seeing our afternoon here in Berkshire.

Sandy 🙂

Here is something from an Anglo – Irish novelist, playwright , poet. Oliver Goldsmith ( 1728-1774).

The more enormous our wealth, the more extensive our fears, all our possessions are piled up with new edicts every day, and hung round with gibbets to scare every invader.

O. Goldsmith.