Section:GDN 1J PaGe:7 Edition Date:190907 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/9/2019 17:05 cYanmaGentaYellowblac
Saturday 7 September 2019 The Guardian •
7
This split rock with the wizened
rowan growing from its cleft – I
was fi rst made aware of it by the
old butcher from Dolwyddelan
who gave me a lift along the valley
one wet day when I was a young
teenager on my fi rst walking tour
through Wales. He drew his Morris
van to a halt, gestured towards it
and gave me its name: Maen yr hen
wraig sy’n melltithio – the stone of
the old cursing woman.
In some earlier time, he told
me, a woman would stand on top
of it and scream imprecations at
passers by. He showed me a kind of
cave behind it. “Some say she used
to live in there,” he added. He knew
no more than those folk memories,
which have hovered in my mind
for 60 years.
Thirty-fi ve years ago, a public
inquiry was held in the vestry of
Dolwyddelan’s Calvinist chapel
into the road-widening scheme
being forced through the valley
at that time. I was one of those
who represented the CPRW
(Campaign for the Protection
of Rural Wales) , and by evoking
the rock’s name we saved it from
certain destruction.
Passing by last week, I missed
it, drove on to Rhiw Goch, turned
round and returned to look for it.
There it was, a little obscured
by summer foliage. I felt its rippled
texture, sidled into the recess
behind. Young willow warblers
darted among the leaf cover above.
The song of one of their parents
tumbled down in a cascade of
quarter-tones to a fi nal sweet
plangency entirely appropriate
to this hidden, forgotten
place. The name of the stone is
unrecorded. I have never found
reference to it other than in that
chance encounter 60 years ago.
I’m reminded of Stone as the
Tabernacle of Memory, a fi ne
essay by the Irish poet-priest John
O’Donohue (1956-2008). This rock is
such a tabernacle. In the enchanted
space behind it, with grace notes
of the willow warblers scattered
like elegies, I became aware of how
matter has memory; aware too that
melltithio – to curse – carries a sense
of the lightning’s strike written into
this rock. As O’Donohue has it in
one of his blessings : “The ghost of
loss / gets in to you .”
Jim Perrin- Last week’s Travel section cover
showed the Monsal Head viaduct on
the Monsal Trail in Derbyshire, and
not the High Peak Trail in the same
county, as the inside credit noted
( Railway lines recycled , 31 August,
page 2, Travel). - Folly Ghyll Mill is in the North
Yorkshire village of Thornthwaite,
and not in the Cumbrian place of the
same name ( Homes with extra space
to let , 24 August, page 55).
Editorial complaints and corrections can be sent to
[email protected] or The readers’ editor,
Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU; alternatively
call 020 3353 4736 from 10am to 1pm Monday to FridayI am disappointed in Marina
Abramovi ć’s apparent insistence
on using young models for her naked
living doorway ( Royal Academy
recreates infamous artwork ,
4 September). A more challenging
work would include diff erent ages,
with less sculpted body lines. How
about facing your mortality when
you are passing between pot bellies
and man boobs and drooping breasts
and child-bearing stomachs?
Val Mainwood
Wivenhoe, Essex- Without detracting from Goscinny
and Uderzo’ s skill in devising
“cultural and linguistic gags” in the
saga of Asterix and Obelix ( G2 , 30
August), we must remember also
the sympathy and wit of his English
translators, who gave us the wizard
Getafi x, the chieftain Vitalstatistix,
and the small boy Picanmix , among
many others.
Sebastian Robinson
Glasgow - Comparing notes with our
heritage colleagues in Swanage
( Wanted: drivers to keep age of
steam alive , 3 September), the
Dean Forest Railway’s 13 drivers
range from 25 to 72, and our 12
fi remen are 20 to 74. I’ll have to ask
the 74-year-old whether and when
he is seeking promotion to driver.
Rob Harris
DFR press and fi lm offi cer - Twiggy asserts herself as the
fi rst well-known woman to wear
brogues ( G2 , 4 September).
The Queen, maybe?
Anne Douglas
Crosthwaite, Cumbria - Regarding problems that
customers experience when
ordering coff ee ( Starbucks
needs to drop its name game , G2,
3 September), why not do as I always
do and say your name is Mary?
Gwyneth Wagstaff
Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Neath Port Talbot
It’s timely of Alex Clark to pre-empt
any use of Shakespeare’s Henry V –
you can see it coming – as evidence
of how the selfh ood of England and
the English thrives on sticking it to
the French ( Shakespeare’s Henry V
was more nuanced than we think ,
2 September).
We won the Battle of Agincourt,
so there you go, Macron. But we
didn’t; our victory was at a place
called Azincourt. The now revamped
museum Clark rightly approves
of for its Anglo-myth busting is
the Centre Historique Medieval
Azincourt. Not Agincourt – that was,
presumably, a medieval trooper’s
mishearing (“What’s this place then,
eh?”) of Azincourt.
That we go on keeping up this
mistake is no doubt a good sign of
how we’ve always known better
than our old frog-eating enemy.
Prof Valentine Cunningham
Corpus Christi College, OxfordEstablished 1906Country diary
Lledr Valley,
Snowdonia
End online harm by
tackling misogyny
Age should be no bar
to naked doorways
Battle of Agincourt:
a simple mishearing
Women around the world are
27 times more likely to be harassed
online than men. In Europe,
9 million girls have experienced
some kind of online violence by the
time they are 15 years old. In the UK,
21% of women have received threats
of physical or sexual violence online.
The basis of this abuse is often –
though not exclusively – misogyny.
Misogyny online fuels misogyny
offl ine. Abusive comments online
can lead to violent behaviour in real
life. Nearly a third of respondents
to a Women’s Aid survey said where
threats had been made online from
a partner or ex-partner, they were
carried out. Along with physical
abuse, misogyny online has a
psychological impact. Half of girls
aged 11-21 feel less able to share their
views due to fear of online abuse,
according to Girlguiding UK.
The government wants to make
Britain the safest place in the world
to be online, yet in the online harms
white paper, abuse towards women
online is categorised as “harassment ”,
with no clear consequences, whereas
similar abuse on the grounds of race,
religion or sexuality would trigger
legal protections.
If we are to eradicate online
harms, far greater emphasis in
the government’s eff orts should
be directed to the protection and
empowerment of the internet’s single
largest victim group: women. That
is why we back the campaign group
Empower’s calls for the forthcoming
codes of practice to address the
issue of misogyny by name, in the
same way as they would address the
issue of racism by name. Violence
against women and girls online is not
harassment. Violence against women
and girls online is violence.
Ali Harris Chief executive, Equally
Ours, Angela Smith MP Independent,
Lorely Burt Liberal Democrat,
House of Lords, Ruth Lister Labour,
House of Lords, Barry Sheerman
MP Labour, Caroline Lucas MP
Green, Jacqui Smith Empower and
16 others. Full list at gu.com/letters [email protected]
@guardianlettersTwitter: @gdncountrydiary
ILLUSTRATION: CLIFFORD HARPERCorrections and
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