My aged companion, Crisp, had a thing for old things. I think it was the reason she decided I was a worthy companion for her. Together we made a reasonable human being.
On one of our walks, we came across a pile of thatch leaning against an old wall. Come to think of it most of what we saw on our walks was old, apart from the two of us.
Seeing the thatch there Crisp had to photograph it. But it was the sign attached to it that intrigued her.
“This thatch is the property of Thaddeus Monk, Esquire, and any pilfering will result in one’s sorry bottom being dragged before the Lord High Baron, whereupon it will be thrown into his dungeon. Hands OFF!”
The sign was dated June 6, 1897.
Crisp sighed and commented: “It’s a good thing there isn’t much call for thatch these days.”
Written for: https://crimsonprose.wordpress.com/2019/06/26/crimsons-creative-challenge-33/
Morpethroad 
I like the idea of a caning if you touch the thatch. But I have to tell that Crisp is wrong. Since new houses are built without real-fire chimneys, thatch has made a comeback, at least in my part of the world. Yep, newly built, and thatched. Though that is mostly in areas of ‘outstanding beauty’, where a buyer might be expected to pay more just for the pleasure of it.
Crisp wrong? I can’t wait to tell her.
I can imagine a thatched house would be a great deal expensive. I’ll stick with good old corrugated iron 🤪
Yea, like I said, people will pay to live, say, in the Norfolk Broads, with private access to the broads and rivers, and all the wildlife that goes with it. Not to mention the quiet and the privacy.
The notion of private parks in London intrigued me when I was there. I don’t know of any here.
Ah, the private parks are leftovers from the Georgian country house phenomenon, which itself is an evolved form of the Domesday manor. There aren’t so many left these days. I see a fair number being sold off to property developers to become despressing estates of mock tudor boxes they sell as houses. We often pass the bounds of extant parks; identified by the rhodedrendons that proliferate.
Thatch life, in 1897, I guess…..
Ha yes!