As I came round by Kirton Braille
The sun shone on the trees;
The shadows down by Boughton Breck
Were lengthening on the leas.
Level and clear and kindly yet
The sinking light still shone
As I turned hard by Bennett's Plough
And into Ollerton.
The bats were shrill and beetles buzzed
But still a last gleam showed,
A smouldering spark deep in the wood,
As I passed by Cockglode.
The jolly sun, the kindly sun,
Had lit the fields all day;
His lingering light trailed out of sight
As loathe to go away.
The dusk was homely when it fell,
Cosy and soft and deep,
As if the weary little fields
Night-gowned themselves for sleep.
Cheerily through the wood I went,
Cheerly by Budby, yet
Before I got to Hazel Gap
I found the night beset:
An eerie change was on the dusk,
And fear woke everywhere:
My heart went beating pit-a-pat,
And crisp was all my hair.
And when to High Hatfield I won
I knew the reason why:
For just above the trees there peered
A Death's Head in the sky-
A silver Death's Head, pale and wan,
That terrified the night;
Keeping the shrinking little fields
Awake in breathless fright.
NOTES: All the locations are in Nottinghamshire, to the North East of Mansfield - Ashley was born in Mansfield Woodhouse. Boughton Break is a forest just outside Kirton. Cockglode House - demolished in 1956 - was near Edwinstowe on the Ollerton Road. Ollerton itself is an ancient town, the location of a coal mine until 1994. Bennett, presumably, was the landlord of the Plough Inn, New Ollerton. Budby is famous for it's pink houses. Hazel Gap is on the Welbeck Estate. High Hatfield probably refers to the High Hatfield farm and cottages near Cuckney.