River cruise

My dear Friends

Did you know that the river Oose (hope that is the correct spelling) was about 169 miles long? That makes it the third longest river in England. The river runs through St Ives and Ely in East Anglia, amongst other places. I had an unexpected boat trip along the Oose yesterday for about an hour and a half, with an expert boatman called Chris and two couples in their sixties and seventies. One couple lives in St Ives and the other in Somerset, although the lady is originally from Yorkshire.

It was a fascinating tour-I already knew that we were in Cromwell country but our guide gave us an insight into the history before the Reformation, when there were monasteries on the site and a famous Catholic called The Abbott of Ramsey, whose personal history I intend to look up. More of him in a moment. Staying with Cromwell, we passed the famous 17th century bridge where Cromwell drew up the drawbridge to prevent the Royalists getting in. Cromwell was the Puritan in the English civil war who was fighting against those who were on the side of the King.

Going along with this history was the beauty of the landscape, serene and full of wispy trees, with pointed churches in the distance. As we drew closer, we saw one that was not so pointed, Hemingford Abbotts, which lost its top ages ago and which had never been replaced, so now it was flat. On the other side was Hemingford Grey church, which was the church of one of our travellers.

We learned that in the time of the Abbott a skeleton was found, which was declared by the Abbott to be that of an ancient saint from Persia I believe, called St Ives and the town was renamed after him. In the Middle Ages, many miracles occurred in St Ives and many folk made pilgrimages to the town. Later the skeleton was declared to be that of a Roman soldier and the town thought to be of Roman origin, but our guide preferred the first interpretation!.

St Ives also has about 150 swans, who converge on the little quayside and some keep guard on their nesting mates, whom, if we were lucky, we saw by the river on their nests. I reflected that swans are very faithful and mate for life, anyhow it was wonderful to see these patches of white dotted on the landscape.

A good lunch in a pub and I came home deeply contented and determined to pay a return visit.

Shalom from
Sister Gila