Grandma's House

A Memory of Midhurst.

This is the view I remember as I went up to bed when I stayed at my grandparents' house as a child. There was a window on the turn of the stairs that overlooked South Pond. At night the street lamp outside the white house on the right, then an antiques shop, threw a silvery light over it which was reflected in the dancing waters of the pond. Quite magical! Granddad drove a train on the Midhurst branch line. He always told us to be wary of the pond's pair of swans, because "they could break a man's arm" with their wings. Each morning and afternoon we would cross the road directly opposite their house to take Snowy, their golden and white crossbred collie, into the Close Walks where, beside a less-used path off to the right, there was an ancient, headless statue of a woman. Grandma knew the names of all the wildflowers we encountered, pointing to them with her walking stick, and whenever I smell bluebells I instantly recall her and the happy times I spent with them.