I came to o go ton. But I’d ed to come over Co go past trees open out and you can see Lohe valley below you.
It’s a queer experience to go over a bit of country you seen in ty years. You remember it in great detail, and you remember it all ances are different, and to . You keep feeling, surely to be a lot steeper—surely t turning ly accurate, but icular occasion. You’ll remember, for instance, a corner of a field, on a day in er, it’s almost blue, and a rotten gatepost covered anding in t you. And you’ll go back after ty years and be surprised because t standing in t you he same expression.
As I drove up C ture I’d in my mind entirely imaginary. But it t certain tarmac, o be macadam (I remember t under t seemed to a lot rees. In to be across t to top of tainly neo t of t of fake-picturesque -not. You kno are just a little too o stand in a roted about in a kind of colony, e roads leading up to t trance to one of te roads te board which said:
thE KENNELS
PEDIGREE SEALYhAM PUPS
DOGS BOARDED
Surely t usen’t to be there?
I t for a moment. Yes, I remembered! ood to be a little oak plantation, and trees greoo close toget tall and to be smotainly t of tohis.
I got to top of te and Lo excited? At t of seeing it again an extraordinary feeling t started in my guts crept upo my . Five seconds more and I’d be seeing it. Yes, crod on t-brake, and—Jesus!
O I didn’t. You can say I to expect it, and so I it even occurred to me.
t question was, where AS Lower Binfield?
I don’t mean t it uring to—o look like from top of Creet a quarter of a mile long, and except for a felying o t I couldn’t distinguisions and o t t looked like several acres of brigly alike. A big Council ate, by t.
But o kno mig it ory c I could see, I couldn’t even make a guess at oern end of toories of glass and concrete. t accounts for to, as I began to take it in. It occurred to me t tion of t used to be about t be a good ty-five t c muc at t distance, but you could see it on te, rees round it, and to of black bombing planes came over town.
I scarted slo. You knoinuous ro of steps, all exactly t a little before I got to topped again. On t of t e neery. I stopped opposite te to it.
It y acres, I s a neery, s ras roug look like somet t in t existed. te cemetery to belong to—Blackett, it o me only t to ty acres to dump t ting tery out o t noos its cemetery on tskirts. S a out of sig bear to be reminded of deatombstones tell you tory. t t’s al so in to every day, you sa mind looking at t , s too well sealed.
I let t imagine s, cs of rees and co t once, a kind of t used to be, actually existed s. to gro t any fields or any bulls or any mus le ra anyt a patcruggling among t mats, and snotty-nosed kids playing along t. All strangers! turned. And yet it ranger, t kno ter and ett and Uncle Ezekiel, and cared less, you bet.
It’s funny s. I suppose it es since I’d ed at top of tually a bit out of breat t of seeing Lo used to t Loies of Peru. I braced up and faced it. After all, ? too groo live someill existed, t instead of fields. In a fees I’d be seeing it again, troug-place. I got to ttom of took t-urning, and a minute later I .
I could remember not even remember too begin. All I kne in treet existed. For —a ratreet, raig and tle pub—and o. Finally I pulled up beside a y apron and no uck my of the window.
‘Beg pardon—can you tell me to t-place?’
S tell’. Ans you could cut s of tressed areas. tools coming along and tried again. time I got t o t.
‘Market-place? Market-place? Lessee, now. O?’
I supposed I did mean t.
‘Oake t ‘and turning—’
It seemed to me, t a mile. ball grounds—nely c even boto knoo I grasped presently o call t-place . t properly call it a square, because it icular soraffic-ligatue of a lion o fes. It like t. But suddenly I so a street reet!
After all my memory played tricks on me. I kne-place. treet. I’d go ter lunco put up at tuff t in ly codd’s! And a big dark so be Lilyo t’s! Still a grocer’s apparently. Noroug-place. t see.
It turned aside as into t-place. trough was gone.
traffic-duty o stand. t it t to salute.
I turned to troug to sucent t I even looked to see anding. tered too, all except t ill it looked like one of tels, and t. It altill t moment I t of it once in ty years, I suddenly found t I could remember every detail of t ure, George on a very trampling on a very fat dragon, and in t tle signature, ‘m. Sandford, Painter amp; Carpenter’. tistic-looking. You could see it ed by a real artist. St George looked a regular pansy. traps used to stand and to puke on Saturday nigo about times its size and concreted over, . I backed to one of t out.
One ticed about t it goes in jerks. tion t stays by you for any lengtime. During t quarter of an you could fairly describe as a s it almost like a sock in ts top of C Lole stab s as I stepped out of tcrilby on to my t it didn’t matter a damn. It ubs and . Besides, I of lunch.
I strolled into tel ial kind of air, s, o meet me, follocase. I felt pretty prosperous, and probably I looked it. A solid business man, you’d any rate if you seen t—blue flannel e stripe, yle. It tailor calls a ‘reducing effect’. I believe t day I could ockbroker. And say ’s a very pleasant to o a nice country el lamb and mint sauce a t it’s any treat to me to stay in els, Lord knooo muc ninety- nine times out of a ’s tels, like Rotom’s, aying at present, t, and ts are alaps never so smart I . In t el, only a pub, t o let and used to do a farmers’ lunc beef and Yorks dumpling and Stilton c days. It all seemed different except for t a glimpse of as I past, and carpet, and ing prints and copper o be, t flags underfoot, and ter mixed up -looking young ook my name at the office.
‘You wisainly, sir. name s down, sir?’
I paused. After all, t. Sty sure to kno isn’t common, and t of us in t’s painful to be recognized, I’d been rato it.
‘Boinctly. ‘Mr George Bowling.’
‘Bowling, sir. B-O-A—oh! B-O-? Yes, sir. And you are coming from London, sir?’
No response. Notered. S! in turday for over ty years.