it is the birthday of leroy 'horsemouth' wallace, john lee hooker, claude debussy and czech novelist ladislav klima.

 22nd august 1788

'up at 8 o'clock; a dark rainy morning... so my morning passed until 10 o'clock, when I grew restless to be abroad...'

byng is expecting a visit from his wife and son (ID seems to have headed back to london - 'ID expressed a wish to return instantly to london, I could but instantly assent.')

meanwhile byng wanders round lewes. the ancient church of st.john he disdains (disdaining its modernisation, in any event it was to be entirely rebuilt in 1839, replacing the 11th-century predecessor, only a chancel arch and a doorway survive), the old small church of st.morland he did not disdain (but horsemouth cannot find a reference for it). 

mrs. byng, byng's son henry, and byng's wife's lover william windham II arrive that afternoon and the boy is taken over to the boarding school he may be staying at. the others will all journey over to brighthelmstone the next day. 

but first an alarm in the night;

'when we had been some time in bed our room door was forced open by drunkards, which alarmed mrs. byng exceedingly.' 

the present day

it is the birthday of leroy 'horsemouth' wallace, john lee hooker, claude debussy and czech novelist ladislav klima. what an auspicious day! we miss the birthday of slide guitar king  elmore james by one day.

oh dear tragedy. something has had one of the chickens. horsemouth found its slightly mangled corpse at the top of the field. he buried it in a sack and put the water tank ontop of it (until he can find a suitable stone to stop it from being dug up and nibbled at). 

normally (it is morning) horsemouth would be letting the chickens out but they are keeping them in until his mother is up. they will presumably keep a better eye on them during the day. he thinks the chicken is one of the 'old' chickens i.e. it dates back to the last fox fuelled wipeout. 

such is the price of eggs.