Diana’s Walk

This romantic tale took place way back when men wore stockings and buckles on their shoes and women wore god knows what, but there was a lot of it. Diana lived in a homestead at what is now Judd’s Folly and she had a beau who lived on the other side of Bysing Wood at Oare. No mention is made of his name but I like to think it was Gordon.

The two would meet for secret assignations in the woods. Late at night, while the two households slept, Gordon would tryst through the forest to Diana’s home. He probably threw pebbles at her window to attract her attention. She would hastily sneak down stairs and out of the house where the two young lovers could steel away into the woods for some much anticipated privacy. 

Once settled in a suitable location, Gordon would excitedly unwrap his small package and right there in the moonlight he’d goad Diana into touching his precious cargo. I like to think it was his collection of ancient arrow heads, or perhaps he proudly showed her his display of birds eggs he’d found amongst the surrounding marshland.

Anyway what they did there is incidental to the story. One night their moonlit trist, was violently interrupted by a gang of murderous bandits. In buckled-shoe days Faversham, a port town, would have been full of undesirables, transients, pirates and prostitutes. Not that I have anything against prostitutes. In fact I quite like them. Especially Judy from number 45. She’s real nice. No, it’s their clientele that rub me up the wrong way. But that’s another story.

Imagine Gordon and Diana’s terror as they’re surrounded by these cut throats. I dread to think what they put Diana through before eventually killing her in a most brutal manner. And it was brutal, for true to their non de plume, these fiends actually did cut her throat. In fact she was decapitated to death.

Poor Diana and poor Gordon. He was left to live, which suggests the transient nature of the murderers. They knew Gordon had not seen them before and that they wouldn’t be in Faversham long enough to be identified. Wracked with the horrors of what he’d seen, guilt and shame that he couldn’t protect Diana and I bet his egg collection was cruelly smashed Gordon could no longer live with himself. Tragically, he took a rope and returned to Bysing woods where he hung himself from a sturdy tree, his lifeless body gently swaying in the wind. 

No doubt he was looking forward to meeting his lady love behind the pearly gates but alas, the sin of suicide prevents such a happy outcome and he was refused entrance. Without Gordon, Diana refused to stay. Instead she wonders the woods eternally looking for her lost love and his buckled shoes.