A Visit to the Plague Village

The churchyard at Eyam, Derbyshire, on the rainy day we visited.

It was a very rainy day, something not unheard-of in those parts. We were making our way across the midsection of England from visiting a friend in Shropshire over to our next stop, Cambridge.

But first we had to make a stop.

Some would say a morbid stop; but one I wanted to make nonetheless.  You see, I had read Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague some years earlier and wanted to see the town in which it all transpired.

The gloomy weather was a fitting backdrop for our visit to Eyam, Derbyshire, UK. (You can see better pictures of the churchyard at the link.)

We were able to see the graves in the churchyard standing in silent memory to those who perished in that awful time, but also to those who survived and were able to die of natural causes.  But we were also able to see the grave markers of the survivors’ descendants who lived out their lives in the years and generations since the Plague Year.

It was moving enter the church and see the names of the Plague victims on the walls and to know that the reverend at the time urged a quarantine for the entire town to avoid spreading the Plague to the rest of England.

Such a forward-looking act by him and a selfless act by all the townspeople.

The rain cleared as we left Eyam and continued on our way to Cambridge.

I was glad we visited.

[I was reminded of our 2002 visit to Eyam by an email I received from the “Now I Know” list. Today’s mailing was “The Plague Village.” Thank you, Dan Lewis, for the memories.]

The Income Balance: A Brave New World?

I was half-listening to the television recently when I heard someone mention something like (paraphrasing here…I did say I was half-listening) “and what will things be like when women earn more than men?”  I can’t remember if it was a rebroadcast of Inside Washington“ or an episode of MSNBC’s new Melissa Harris-Perry Show.  Whatever.

Interesting, though, that I should get notice of “The Battle of the Sexes: When Women Out-Earn Men” in my feed reader today.  NPR: Books interviews author Liza Mundy about her book.  You can see NPR’s article (and listen to the interview) here.

I love coincidences like that.