Generations

My first wife had a friend called Kate Meynell, whose family lived in a place called Meynell Langley. It was a big old ancestral house, a bit like grand place in 'Four Weddings And A Funeral'. 

Not that the family was well off in terms of financial liquidity, and around that time, the early nineties, they'd just sold a painting to pay for maintenance on the house. 

Anyway, when Kate got married, my wife and I went to the wedding in the local church, and on the wall was a list of the ministers down the centuries. Many of them were named Meynell, and I guess they would have been the younger sons of the family.

I was reminded of this today when the Minx and I went for a mooch around Sedbergh, and started off at an 'eco market' in the local church. There was a similar list on the wall, except the names are a lot more varied. 

Assuming that list is complete - at least back as far as 1379 - that's quite a short list to cover six hundred and fifty years. By which I mean, we're fewer generations from that time than I would instinctively think.

But then I have to remember that my grandad was young at the start of the twentieth century and also how much has changed in my lifetime.