the raven

Trui wrote the following:
8 of us met with intention of a long walk through forest, known to the Belgic Catavalauni tribe of the district
up until Roman times. Evidences of early occupation were evident in the Bushey Museum which we visited first, because of the constant rain. an ancient track named Brides Lane used to cross the area, with the local high point called Merry Hill, where recently a puddingstone cairn has been built. At the Museum was a collection of wedding dresses and a room devoted to the work of Sir Heinrich Herkomer, a German by birth, who became rich from his work as a famous portrait painter, with philanthropic ideals working within the pre-Raphaelite & Arts and Crafts movement of the time. He painted a portrait of Ruskin who was a personal friend.

He built a mock-castle named Lululand to the memory of his then wife Lulu, who died soon after a year who he depicted in a portrait with ivy garland on her head looking very druidic.He was also a teacher, playright and early silent movie maker. One of his early films had a druidic theme. I think i have read somewhere that he fashioned robes for Druids of the time in late 19/early 20C. He certainly made a beautifull garden laid out to the 4 quarters all which begs for further enquiry.
Dodging the rain, best we could we drive to Stanmore Woods, in the very north-west corner of Greater London at it’s highest level some 500ft above sea level. Guided by splendid Oak trees we visited a small tumulus mound inside a small ditch with a distinctive feminine energy. We conducted a brief ceremony in honour of the ancestors of place, before moving onto another hidden mound of a different nature, locally called the ice-house, [once in the grounds of The Grove’ which became BAE factory and now becoming a new housing estate, beside edge of large ditch which could easily be an extention to Grims Dyke, that’s quite similar to that still evident in Pinner]. It’s actually a circular 18C shell Grotto, complete with large shells still in the roof and an altar where someone in recent years have left 2 rings and 5 stones laid out in a pentagram shape. The grotto has been fashioned out of sarsen and puddingstones with open doorway facing north. When later developing photo here – Elizabeth appears to have an enormous luminous orb centered over her. Next we found the obelisk hidden amoungst trees in the grounds of hospital. It has an inscription describing the battle here against the Roman in c43BC, erected by the gardener/groundsman-historian working for the Duke of Chandos [of Canon’s Park, where once Handel was resident organist]. As we were dissuaded from continuing our walk further owing to a heavy downpour, we dried out at a local Inn for drinks and bites.
Whilst we didn’t get chance to walk that much, i’m sure we all enjoyed what we experienced, with
some knowledge of the district, which may be a suitable locale for future ‘ritual space’ areas for consideration.
I do hope we can re-visit the area sometime in the future to continue parts of the intended walk, we were unable to undertake.
Thank you all for attending. Trui

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