Stones & circles
Betty & Margery
“Fire and sleet and candle-leet, and Christ receive thy soul.” Part of the North York Moors’ Lyke Wake Walk is the famous dirge you’re supposed to sing along its 40-odd miles. Part of it is the black peat covering your legs by halfway across. And part of it has to be the grim gritstones standing across the moors. Fat Betty and Margery Stone commemorate the prioresses of Rosedale and Baysdale, lost here in mist while settling a boundary. Ralph, whose two stones stand nearby, was their underqualified guide. Presumably the two stones are, in fact, witty caricatures of the two good ladies.