Downstream

during two hours or so of low
tide, the only time of the year
the public is allowed access.
On the last weekend in
July, I come back to the
Tower of London where at
ten o’clock on a Saturday
morning there is already a
queue of about thirty people.
Some are mudlarks, I’m told,
wearing sturdy boots,
camouflage trousers and
kneepads, carrying rucksacks
and trowels. The original