Highdown Hill

   Highdown Hill is a National Trust area in West Sussex near to the village of Angmering. The earthworks at the top is a place of ritual sanctuary, burial-ground for Anglo-Saxon kings such as Aella.

  Walking there, touched by its memorial energy, the 'Song from Aella'  by Thomas Chatterton came into my head:

O SING unto my roundelay,
O drop the briny tear with me;
Dance no more at holyday,
Like a running river be:
   My love is dead,
   Gone to his death-bed
All under the willow-tree.

Black his cryne as the winter night,
White his rode as the summer snow,
Red his face as the morning light,
Cold he lies in the grave below:
   My love is dead,
   Gone to his death-bed
All under the willow-tree.

('Cryne' is hair in Chatterton's pseudo-Middle English, 'rode' is complexion; 'summer snow' was actually a nickname for may-blossom, although global warming has meant that the phrase is not the paradox it once was.)