Miles to Go - Day Sixteen - Here Be Dragons

 Friday 16^th June 2021

Today started off cheerfully, with a short morning walk to Oakhill and back with PDB11, passing across the recreation ground.  My friend Doom Metal Singer had mentioned seeing people holding yoga classes outside on the grass of the recreation ground, so as to maximise their fresh air, and how awkward it felt sitting near them without meaning to gate-crash the party.  This morning, we saw some, looking very relaxed.

For myself, what I found most relaxing, after days of long walks in sturdy boots, was to slip my sandals off and walk across the cool, dewy grass in bare feet.  Admittedly, the coolest parts of the recreation ground were under trees, and therefore the most likely to have knobbly bits of twig, but it was worth it – and so was looking up at the pattern of leaves above us. 

I tried to keep up the practice I had tried out yesterday, of repeating a mantra to myself with every footstep, as well.

I thought that I had left enough time for a properly long walk in the afternoon, so, after an early lunch, I set out for West Hill Gardens on the east side of Radstock.  Within an hour of walking, I had arrived at the edge of Stratton-on-the-Fosse, and could see Downside Abbey.

What I found more intriguing, though, was the little church of St Vigor, on the edge of the village, and the former rectory next to it.  As PDB11 has taught me, and this site demonstrates, one of the best places to look for dragons is in churches, as so many saints have legends connected with them. 

You’ve surely heard of St George, and probably the archangel Michael (adversary of the Devil, who is often shown as a dragon), St Margaret (said to have been swallowed by a dragon and cut her way out with a cross) and St John (exorcised poison in the form of a dragon from his cup).  Just as famous in Somerset, though, is Jocelyn, the 13^th century Bishop of Bath and Wells, who killed the Dragon of Worminster Sleight.  

His victory is celebrated with a festival every 50 years, and it is said that, if people ever forget to perform this festival, the dragon will return. 

(Though there is some leeway involved, as the 2000 festival was delayed until 2001 because of foot-and-mouth disease, without an increase in dragon attacks - or possibly the dragon just didn't want to eat diseased cattle.)

So, when I saw carvings in the entrance to St Vigor’s Church, and in the wall of the Old Rectory, of a man wearing a bishop’s mitre and accompanied by a dragon, I assumed it must be Jocelyn, in an unusually gentle reworking of the story here.  Instead of his stabbing or beheading the dragon, the carving over the church porch shows him using his stole as a leash to lead it like a pet.  Admittedly, the dragon is growling, but it’s behaving no worse than plenty of dogs round here who just want to guard their masters’ territory.

In the rectory wall carving, the dragon is crawling into the man’s lap to be petted, like a dog nuzzling its head against you.

When I did a little research about dragon legends on the internet, I read about Celtic saints like St Carantoc, who tamed the dragon of Dunster and warned him not to harm humans, and St Petroc who also persuaded a giant serpent to stop terrorising people and retreat into the sea, and, on another occasion, healed an injured dragon which had a splinter in its eye.  Then I realised there was a similarly peaceful legend about the French St Vigor, who, like the British Petroc and Carantoc, is said to come from the 6^th century.  So it makes sense that Vigor himself is the saint shown here, and I was misled by the mitre.

I was pleased at these carvings, but I’m afraid my cheerful mood didn’t last long, as I walked up to Radstock.  The mantra-while-walking technique seemed to backfire on me and turn my thoughts back to obsessing over my worries. 

Also, while I didn’t mind that walking alongside a stream

sometimes turned into walking in the stream,

I always find the disused workings just south of Haydon bleak and hard to navigate. 

I got lost there, as I had before, and blundered around until I found what was recognisably the road on the edge of Haydon, and found my way home from there.

I tried to encourage myself with the thought that, if nothing else, I was getting slightly better at navigation and basic observation, because nowadays, if I took a wrong turning and found myself walking along something I’d passed before, at least I noticed, and worked out from there where I’d gone wrong, and retraced my steps.  It didn’t help much.

Still, it was a long enough walk to feel that I’d achieved something, and I’m glad I saw the dragons.  I just need to learn to tame my worries and obsessions, the way those saints tamed their dragons.

Morning: 2 miles

Afternoon to evening: 10 miles https://www.mapmywalk.com/routes/view/4511185027

Total miles walked so far: 152