The Narnia Page Part Two

So, Narnia. The lamp-post in Sunday's photo is right outside our front door. It's a new one, pretending to be an old one, and for that reason I've always treated it with some suspicion. But The Small One likes it and still hopes that Mr. Tumnus might appear if she hangs off it for long enough. It was her idea, really, to stage a photo. So we waited for snow and we are pleased enough with the result to plan the page which is sitting on my desk right now.

But I want to show you another lamp-post. This one really is old; and, (we fancy) might actually have had a visit from the Faun himself. It's my Mum's story, in truth; not mine, and it came to her while she was reading one of those big biographies she loves.
"Sian," she said, "do you have a copy of that photo of you and your sister in the snow in the garden of our old house?"
I have. and here it is:

There we are, around 1969 I guess. Have a look at the top of the picture and you will see a Victorian street lamp. It was on the pavement beyond our garden; and the woods you see behind were on the other side of the road. Now, what if I were to tell you that those woods followed the curve of a long drive up to a big house. You can see it here:

In that big house there once lived a loving family often visited by two young boy cousins. The boys had no mother of their own, so they came to play often from their own home only a short walk away. It's not hard to imagine them stepping out down that driveway on their way home in the evenings, through the trees, their path to the road marked by the light at the end shining from the lamp-post. And what if I were to then tell you that that little boy, Jack, grew up to write this:

She began to walk forward, crunch, crunch over the snow and through the wood towards the other light. In about ten minutes she reached it and found it was a lamp-post. C.S. Lewis. The lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

You might imagine, I like to think, that you had caught a glimpse of the original lamp-post. What do you think?

Today I'm Living...Dentists. They are very, very nice people. Thank you everyone who wished me well. It's much appreciated.