Geraldine Brooks comes upon the true tale of Eyam (pronounced "eem") while working as a Middle East correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, based in London. She had a story to tell. The reader is removed to seventeenth century Derbyshire, central England, one hundred and thirty miles, as the crow flies north of London. A frontispiece map of the area is shown. Brooks gleaned the from God’s words to Moses, "Thou shalt do my wonders," which included calling down upon the Egyptians the first plague in recorded history. Told in the words of widow Anna Frith, the account overwhelms the senses. The limestone cottages of lead miners, weavers and cobblers, host the Black Death. Anna is the mother of two sons, one of whom she is nursing. Her life with Sam, "who had his own good lead seam to work," came to an abrupt end in a mine accident, as sudden as the first spring thaw. "Now there is "silence, always, silence." Anna found the strength to withstand the physical and mental anguish in the midst of desolation, in the employ of Rector Michael and Mrs. Elinor Mompellion, the life force of Plague Village.
By sheer accident, this one site for devastation was chosen. In the summer of 1665, Anna took in a journeyman tailor as a boarder. Bales of cloth from his London supplier arrived carrying infected fleas. The tailor was dead within one week. His clients insisted they must have their orders even though he warned all his belongings must be burned. As a result, the fleas were taken into their crofts. By the end of September, five more villagers had died. Twenty-three died in October.
Ring a ring of roses
A pocket full of posies
Atishoo, Atishoo
We all fall down.
A ring of roses—a rash on the chest was the first sign of plague, the posies relate to fragrant flowers used to cover the smell of infection and sneezing was the final stage of the illness before death.
Her mistress, the perfect Elinor, whose life wasn’t always so, taught Anna to read. They began to study the use of herbal remedies, leading them to a conflict between science and religion. Anna’s world mirrors the world of her time. The vicar had a notion to emulate our Blessed Lord. His voice thundered in the church of St. Laurence, in the centre of the village, built on Saxon foundations during the fourteenth century.
Mompillion persuaded those ordinary people to cut themselves off from the outside world, as he feared the further spread of the pandemic.
“Here we are and here we must stay. Let no one enter and no one leave while the plague lasts. We will be one for another.”
The church members must vow to God to stay, whatever might come. A wide green prison of their own making, a voluntary isolation, a sacrifice worthy of the passengers of United Flight 93, who fought back in order to save others.
“The human heart is always the human heart.”
We can only guess at the private feeling of those chosen few. The effectively agreed to the quarantine and sealed their doom, except for the Bradford’s, of the manor house. They dismissed their servants with no compensation, put out unto the roads and fled.
Wits disperse. The instinct to turn and blame others manifested itself when a mid-wife healer was accused of witchery, the cause of the scourge. To avoid close contact with other members, church services were moved into an open field. Before the plague struck, the village had a population of three hundred fifty. Two hundred and sixty died, entire families perished.
The village was not left to starve, however. Food was donated by those who lived outside. Those who brought supplies left them at the parish stones marking the start of the town. The villagers left coins in a water trough filled with vinegar to sterilize them. A decision was made among the residents to burn all belongings, therefore prevent further spread of the sickness among them. Anna's drunken father and stepmother's greedy, mindless reaction to other members of the church brought about their own downfall.
Anna envied the devoted Mompellion's. She, who is alone, must watch them in loving contact and conversation. All may not be, as it seems. Anna learned how a strong will can defy reason.
A walnut tree sprouted and thrived in the main street, a welcome sign of life to the doomed. A cow wandered into Anna's doorway looking to be milked. She added it to her small flock of sheep. How would a rooster know the plague has ended? The plague had truly gone from them, marked by no new death for one full week. One full year plus, they struggled by themselves without the assurance of family, friends, or government.
Anna, indeed, survived the terror, as did the vicar, who spurns God. Feeling guilt for his part in persuading the stunned inhabitants to risk all, he fell from grace, fraught with demons, defeated in winning a war on pestilence. Anna, strengthened by the ordeal, rode free of memories that hounded her on Mompellion's forgotten steed, a fierce creature. Her urgent departure from home, not related to the sickness led to her true calling. She carried along Elinor's compilation of natural remedies and her own learning. This knowledge became Anna 's deliverance. She accepted the challenge to change and grow. Anna made her way to Oran, Algeria to spend her days in study and healing, assistant to Amed Bey, the most famous doctor in Barbary. She left behind sadness and constant bitterness, to live, fulfilled except for a yearning for the color green. This is an exceptional work by Brooks, the saga of Plague Village, now known as Hope Valley.
By Joan Myers, Beanery Writers Group member |
