Farnham Parish Church Fête
A surreal atmosphere, stalls scattered amidst the graves and tombstones and teddy bears parachuting off the church tower.
The stalls were as I expected, junk.
I had a couple of sausages off the barbecue, though why call them hot dogs, these were quality sausages off the local butcher in Downing Street.
A pint of real ale off the beer stall, though half would have been ok.
I then wandered into the church where cream teas were on offer.
But first, I had a look at a very old Bible I had never seen before.
Known as the Vinegar Bible, due to a misprint. The Parable of the Vineyard in the Gospel of Luke has become The Parable of the Vinegar.
An extremely rude woman wanted to know why I was taking photos.
I could have told her to mind her own business, but instead told her I was not using flash (thus not damaging the extremely rare Bible).
The point seemed to be lost on her.
I then asked why she was asking and who was she?
She said she did not like being interrogated and stormed off. In truth I think, when it became apparent I knew how to handle old documents.
I asked the lady who was guardian of the Bible, who was the rude woman? She said she did not know, and had been rude to this lady too. She said she was nothing to do with the church.
At first I assumed, maybe the Bible was on loan from the local museum, possibly a curator, but apparently not.
The Bible had at some point in the past, been split into two volumes.
One volume was in quite poor condition.
Sadly, it is stored in a damp old box. By no means ideal.
I wandered back to the cream teas, to find it was four o’clock, and everything packed away.
It is crazy, a lovely warm sunny afternoon, plenty of folk around, and yet on the dot of four o’clock, everything gets packed away. Many were packing up not long gone three o’clock.
I had a chat with the Music Director. He liked the idea of Jewelia giving an informal concert.
I then realised, I had to go to Downing Street to the local butcher. I feared I would find closed, but luckily not.
As it was a lovely afternoon, I then went for a long walk around the 23-acre Bishop’s Meadow.
