Snippets of Downshire Life – Guy Fawkes Night

 

Mornington-By-Mere is a small country village lying in the Finchbottom Vale nestled between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest and the rolling Pepperstock Hills.

It is a quaint picturesque village, a proper chocolate box picturesque idyll, with a Manor House, 12^th Century Church, a Coaching Inn, Windmills, an Old Forge, a Schoolhouse, a River and a Mere.

It also had Mornington Field, which had been a military airfield for a hundred years but after that the Mornington Estate exercised its option to purchase it back from the MOD and it also acquired all the buildings and infrastructure on the airfield, which then became a busy commercial industrial estate.

In addition, the old airfield was also used for the Mornington Fireworks display on Guy Fawkes Night, and it was to Mornington Bonfire Night where Nick Armstrong and Sarah Smith were going on their first date.

They were both farmers from farming families, the Armstrong’s worked West Side Farm and the Smiths quite understandably made their living at Smithfield’s Farm.

 

It was dark in the lane as they exited the West Gate from Mornington Field and just ahead of them they could see there was a dog walker smoking a cigarette as some kind of Terrier snuffled around in the grass.

The man took one last drag on it and the flicked it into the darkness and it span through the air like a Catherine wheel.

Which Nick thought was quite appropriate as they had just spent the evening watching the fireworks display, and there was still the smell of gun powder in the damp night air.  

But despite the cold and damp, neither Nick nor Sarah were in any particular hurry to reach their respective homes.

It was their very first date, in fact not only was it their first date together it was the first date of any kind for Nick and the first for more than a year for her.

Nick was seventeen and Sarah was two years older and quite naturally they wanted their date to last forever and they both walked as slowly as it was possible to go without actually standing still.

However they eventually arrived at the gates of Smithfield’s Farm and an awkward silence ensued as Nick shuffled his feet and tried to think what to do next and Sarah waited patiently for Nick’s next move, but when she realized he didn’t have one she took decisive action and reached up and kissed him and then the fireworks truly began, when their first magical kiss, a kiss that neither of them wanted to end, sent their heart soaring into the heavens.