Between fen and mountains

By Tickytocky

The elephant gargoyle

This is the famous church elephant that is the only thing of note in the village mentioned in guidebooks. The elephant is a gargoyle , a sculptured stone spout used in the Middle Ages to throw rain water away from the building, and its trunk is made of lead that needs to be renewed. Whoever carved the elephant, probably a jobbing mason who would follow the work from site to site, was very unlikely to have seen an elephant so the accuracy of the representation is remarkable.  Medieval representations of elephants are often bizarre so perhaps the Gosberton sculptor had encountered a real elephant in his journeyman life.
I had intended to mow the lawn this morning but found that a neighbour to the rear of the property, mistakenly thinking that a particular tree belonged to me, had cut off some overhanging branches and thrown them over my fence.  It took me most of the morning to cut it all up and now I have the problem of disposal. Although he had a right to trim the branches, he did not have the right to throw them back over the fence even if the tree had belonged to me. I don't particularly want to start a neighbour dispute but it is rather annoying!

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