Evening Stroll to Moreton (Dorset)

I almost forgot to mention that upon arriving in Wool on 11th August, the day before seeing Chris Isaak in Bournemouth, we made a snap decision to stroll towards Moreton with a few cans of cider in hand, which ended up as an 8-mile round trip.

Upon the fringes of Moreton, we came upon an interesting-looking, obelisk/small cemetery:

But after a brief look round, we thought little more about it.

After this, we ventured into the centre of Moreton village:

Moreton village was quaint and seemed neatly hidden from the modern world:

In the centre of the village, we attracted the attention of a late middle-aged couple who were perhaps checking us out for being undesirables. 

But, all the same, the couple pointed out that the grave of T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935), famous for his role in the Arab Revolt and Sinai/Palestine campaign against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War (1914-1918), and immortalised in the 1962 film, Lawrence of Arabia, was in the small cemetery, we'd just visited:

Alongside T.E. Lawrence's grave:

Images of Peter O'Toole, wearing Arab headgear, came running through my head.

But sadly, I was largely ignorant of T.E. Lawrence's life, perhaps, one day, when I have time, I'll read his Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

Moreover, after spending reflective time at T.E. Lawrence's grave, we bumped into the late middle-aged couple again who stressed that the local church of St. Nicholas was well worth a visit, especially for its 13 windows engraved by the poet/artist, Sir Laurence Whistler (1912-2000):

As can be seen, we thoroughly enjoyed looking at St. Nicholas' church, with its Whistler-engraved windows:

Looking over a fence into the distance, I noticed a grey-stoned mansion house:

It reminded me of the mansion houses mentioned in many Thomas Hardy novels and short stories, it kind of brought Hardy's presence into the Moreton trip, that's the way I felt.

Amongst the many graves, a shortish, old cross nearly tripped me up:

I thought that it was good that the late middle-aged couple had pushed us towards such a rich cultural experience, rather than just treating us with defensive suspicion.

As for the cider, it provided apt refreshment at several spots on the 8-mile round trip. 

Overall, our time had been well spent, hats off to the late middle-aged couple, they made our evening trip to Moreton worthwhile.