AND FINALLY We don’t have it so bad after all

LAST Sunday, I went to our village church for the monthly ‘Family Cafe’ event, which is very informal, child-friendly, welcoming and light-hearted, with breakfast thrown in.

It wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea but I attend once in a while, and when I witness the trouble taken and the enjoyment and listen to the music, I reflect that in a world of stress and trouble, Family Cafe church is all about goodness in action. Believe me, there’s lots of that about — everywhere.

Sitting at a small table at the rear of the church, I glanced down to see I was sitting right on top of the worn grave slab of a married woman (name illegible), who died on May 17, 1721, 301 years ago. It was strange to realise that her skeleton was down there beneath me.

What was she like? The onceornate carved slab indicated a prosperous family ...

Hers was a troublesome time — but aren’t they all? George I was king. Ridiculed as an uncouth German, he had German mistresses and became estranged from his wife, who took her own lover.

Even though Scotland and England had been united by the Treaty of Union, by 1721 the Scots, Welsh and Irish were all causing problems, while conspiracies undermined stability and wars raged in Europe. So what’s new? Parliament became more liberal (or ‘Whiggish’), yet it was more or less a one-party state, with elections easily rigged. Few privileged men could vote and hustings were raucous and violent.

A third of children died before 15 and poverty rates were high, with families struggling to pay for bread, and living in abject conditions or in workhouses.

The other day my son, gloomy at the headlines, opined, ‘We’re all finished’ (only his language was more direct). I said that when you grow older you’ve lived though many cycles of problems — and it just takes history and the communing with the long-dead to suggest we don’t have it so bad after all.