Martha

I am with darling Mama at present

The countryside is so white

With snowdrops and bluebells everywhere

Josie dragged me down with Cora

Her latest passion

She is a beautiful Greek girl and they make a handsome couple

But this short letter is not about us but a very funny review in the Indy

It concerns Thomas Hardy who as you know died in 1928

He was a great lover of cats and that one died indirectly because the great writers death

It was not like the gruesome practice of Sati but just because the cat was hungry

In short when Hardy died it was decided to remove his heart and bury it in the family burial ground (odd country ways I suppose)

The rest of him was was sent to Westminster Abbey by bus

His heart was placed in a biscuit tin to keep it safe but a cat wanted a break from Felix and ate of it

This brings the Stephen Crane poem to mind ( badly copy & pasted for you)

Sadly the cat paid for its greed as it was strangled by the village idiot

Inside the buried casket is a pissed off cat and inside the cat is Hardy’s heart

You cannot make this up

History does not mention the fate of the biscuit tin although you will probably find it at a boot fair if you look hard enough

While I am on the subject do you know that Joan of Arc’s heart was buried in Ash which is a small village in Kent not far from Sandwich

Will close now as the Bishop of Bath and Wells is due soon

I have been trusted to be on my best behaviour as he thinks the world of me

Josie sends her love

Joe

In the Desert

In the desert

I saw a creature, naked, bestial,

Who, squatting upon the ground,

Held his heart in his hands,

And ate of it.

I said, “Is it good, friend?”

“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;

“But I like it

“Because it is bitter,

“And because it is my heart.”