HOD HILL, THE ROMAN FORT IN DORSET. A PREVIOUS EXISTENCE?

 Hod Hill: A Previous Existence?

The teeming rain from an uncertain sky

Dampened my quest

To find the unheralded site,

Barely marked upon a map.

Just a sheep-grazed hill

Behind a silent village at a daunting height…

The persistent rain from low and lurking cloud

Interrupted its deluge

To leave the grassy knoll,

Strangely unsigned from the road,

A soaking, windy fort,

Above a solemn village church-bell’s toll…

The unexpected sun from a rare blue sky

Afforded the opportunity

To explore the Roman garrison,

Cynically strewn with droppings.

A serene, trenched promontory

Protecting a timid village of no comparison…

The inappropriate sun between such threatening clouds

Served its conspiracy

To deceive my receptive mind,

Chronically transported through time.

A longing, a sadness and tears,

Leaving a thriving village centuries behind…

Orders and dogs

Barked at me,

Hammers and screams

Deafened me;

Horses and latrines

Reeked on me,

Whilst leather and woodsmoke

Pacified me…

Battle wounds

Scared upon me,

Hobnailed boots

Crapes beneath me;

Guerilla Britons

Hid from me,

Whilst disgruntled legionaries

Feared me…

The impatient rain from that looming darkness

Scattered the dream,

To disrupt a previous life,

Certainly stamped upon my soul.

A spiritual, military existence,

Guarding a turmoiled village and love and strife…  

Pete Ray

It rained all the way from Solihull to Hod Hill, Dorset, in May 2008. 

One role I played whilst teaching at Birmingham’s Museum, was that of Petronius Fortunatus, a Roman Centurion who indeed visited this land twice. Hence my visit to the site of the fort at Hod Hill, to gather information…

When I arrived, I asked a woman who was walking her dog, where the Roman fort was situated and it proved to be right there upon the only hill near the village. 

The defensive ditches were grassy, the wind howled but the heavy rain abated and the sun shone. I was immediately affected by a feeling of having been there before, in antiquity… 

I was overcome. 

As I walked back to my car, the heavy rain began again and during my subsequent stay in Swanage it rarely stopped, throwing up severe waves, causing damage to the sea-front and piling seaweed upon the sandy beach… 

Weird…