Orton Beacon

I spent the morning finishing off some work and then spent the afternoon gardening before heading over to my friend’s for supper. Their son was over from Newcastle and we all headed up on to Orton scar for the Beacon lighting. It was rather moving to see other Beacons across the vast empty spaces up there. We could see the distant lights connecting other groups on the far off fells - from the Nine Standards to Heughscar, Winfell and others. It poured with rain but it didn’t matter and we picked our way back down the Fell in the dark.

A Shropshire Lad: From Clee to heaven the Beacon burns - A.E.Housman

From Clee to heaven the beacon burns,
The shires have seen it plain,
From north and south the sign returns
And beacons burn again.

Look left, look right, the hills are bright,
The dales are light between,
Because 'tis fifty years to-night
That God has saved the Queen.

Now, when the flame they watch not towers
About the soil they trod,
Lads, we'll remember friends of ours
Who shared the work with God.

To skies that knit their heartstrings right,
To fields that bred them brave,
The saviours come not home to-night:
Themselves they could not save.

It dawns in Asia, tombstones show
And Shropshire names are read;
And the Nile spills his overflow
Beside the Severn's dead.

We pledge in peace by farm and town
The Queen they served in war,
And fire the beacons up and down
The land they perished for.

"God save the Queen" we living sing,
From height to height 'tis heard;
And with the rest your voices ring,
Lads of the Fifty-third.

Oh, God will save her, fear you not:
Be you the men you've been,
Get you the sons your fathers got,
And God will save the Queen.