The Watercress of my People

[steepholm]

A river, she had said, and now, while her maid’s fingers rippled across the lyre, Sulis found her mind drifting, flowing with the river on its journey. Fifty miles inland she rose, a slip of light amidst the chalk and flint. Gargled by rock, she bobbed under the blown grass, hummed fat bees across her banks, ricocheted the dragonflies downstream and followed thirstily to the plain. At length she became a divider of fields, made way through rich harvests of oats and wheat. Sheep’s teeth nipped her shallows and cattle curved their tongues to reap crystal sheaves, while in her silted depths the slick trout threaded pennants of luminous weed. Then, tiring, she slowed and muddled through ill-assorted islets, reserving solid clufts of land to the use of coots and ducks, to the remote ghosts of swans. Sulis shifted comfortably on her pillow. This was Lychfont, her own country. The rushes towered there. No fisher waited, but sieving birds prospected the mud or snatched at elvers. There the flats were loose and salty, lifted and re-laid four times a day by the restless Solent tides.

That was my attempt to evoke a Hampshire chalk stream in Death of a Ghost - as seen by a river goddess in sentimental mood. I'm not sure how I could have included watercress beds in her journey, but I regret their omission, for watercress is a vital part of the Hampshire riverscape, just as it is a vital part of my daily lunchtime sandwich. And I was shocked - shocked - to learn from the television tonight that sales have halved in the last 20 years, in favour of such niminy-piminy greens as rocket and lamb's lettuce. Indeed, many of the watercress beds have been ploughed up, making the Hampshire chalkland look no more interesting than - well, Berkshire!

It was bad enough losing most of the Hampshire Avon to Dorset in 1974 - a measure that still rankles - but this is serious. Are people really not eating watercress any more? And why ever not? Have they all gone mad?

Comments

[diceytillerman.livejournal.com]

Watercress reminds me of The Trumpet of the Swan. Louis eats it out of ritzy sandwiches (at the Ritz) when he's in Boston for the swan boats.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that makes it sound rather dated, though, doesn't it? It needs its image updating!

[sovay]

Are people really not eating watercress any more? And why ever not? Have they all gone mad?

I've always had it in salads.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Your salads shine like a good deed in a naughty world.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Well, this people certainly is!

Love it. :o)

You remind me of Henry Williamson's 'A Clear Water Stream' (I know he's persona non grata with the 'liberal' lit crowd, but I still think he was a literary genius).

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I've not read A Clear Water Stream, but I shall check it out. I used to do external examining in Barnstaple, and was often felt the lure of the Tarka Trail...

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

A old friend of mine lived, at the time we first got to know each other, near Braunton Burrows not far from Westward Ho where Williamson had his little shack.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the exclamation mark in Westward Ho!! (I long to see a production of Oliver! there, or Oh! Calcutta!.)

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

:o)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I like watercress. But it's a strong flavour; a little goes a long way.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

It makes a beautiful soup, of course.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I like it, my husband doesn't. As you say, a little goes a long way so I found I ended up wasting half a packet every time. :(

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

oh dear - not buying and wasting it are equally tragic!

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Leftovers can always be frozen then used in a soup or casserole. Freezing doesn't seem to damage that wonderful flavour.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Watercress soup is lovely...