Chapter 7. A time to reflect and a time to explore our 'Deep' in our home.
We all attended Jenny's funeral, including over half the village, and I supposed this small action on our part continued to absorb us all for several weeks more. It was Nicholas wife, my ex secretary Edith, that suggested a means to make the castle alive again. Yes the daily visits of the public continued and the measured lectures on its history given, but I only attended infrequently and locked myself into my room. The children in the main used my fathers old den, many reading or playing their computer games. Once we had a scare when young Fig went missing, but he was found later deep in the underground vaults which few of us entertained visiting as dark tales had been told by previous generations in the Victorian era, and thus the stories carried on to the current generation. Someone had told Fig some of the more gruesome and he being of independent mind set out to investigate the truth. Even my Robroy was nervous of entering the deep as we called it and it was only when one of our visitors asked about ghosts that Ruth had this idea that we should do a dig in the deep to exposes the real facts, if indeed they truly existed.
So we discussed the venture over a late dinner and all agreed to taking part in the excavation. It was to be done room by room, then Robroy, an avid TV documentary watcher suggested instead of digging flagstones and tons of dirt, perhaps we could hire the university people who had the ground radar system. This last months visitor receipts had been particularly substantial so there was adequate money available to fund the exercise, and it was decided to make Fig the project leader since his disappearance had originally prompted this adventure. My brother, his step father, agreed to overview in consultation with the lad. So all was settled and Eustace agreed to have the various wrecked furniture and general rubbish sorted and stacked neatly whilst Edith agreed to arrange for the deployment of the radar. Firstly electricity cabling was run though the passages so that all under Figs direction would help in safety. Even I limped down the stone flags leading from the kitchen, and several hours of sorting and identifying discarded items in the various boxes revealed untold treasures from my own childhood. Robroy even discovered one of my old stuffed animals and immediately claimed it as his own.
"Well you threw it away years ago Grand-papa so now I'm reclaiming it!" He said.
'But my old nanny took it away from me saying Master Heir you are too old for this woollen threadbare creature, it has to go. So I thought she had thrown it away!'
"Well I grant you it does need repairing so I will ask Mother it she could reknit the damaged parts. You must have really loved it Grand-papa as its quite damaged and in places so I expect you hugged it a lot."
Well I won't bore what else we found but there many memories provoked by the shouts of surprise, and joy as each of my brothers and Sofia our step sister who had joined us for the operation and had come down from her apartment in town. It took several weeks and many jugs of Cooks raspberry vinegar, in between opening the Castle for its daily visitors but we did cut back the opening times to allow more time bellow in the deep.
Fig and my brother Gideon and his sons Jarvis and Brigan had erected four frames which held large plastic bags, the large bin type. There were two for junk, one for charity and one for memories. So everyone helped in filling them up with lots of shouting of which goes where and disputes from mainly my brothers and step sister of what should go where and the subsequent rummaging for items but in the wrong bag. Eventually we were ready to advise Edith that the floors had been cleared and that one space only had been allocated the storage area. This would moved as the radar progressed.
Well the day came when the University van arrived and all hands helped the scientists moving their equipment which surprising was not a lot. Then we were all shooed out so that the investigation could start. Then the long wait for the results to be saved on USB and finally the storage area moved to another site, then the radar continued. In the meantime two lasses, obviously knowledgeable, surveyed the laptop images and made notes. Of course I was keen to know if anything had been found but not one word could I get out of them. When I finally asked if they had found anything, back came the answer, dirt .
Away went the van with all its equipment and the scientist gave all in the castle a review of what had been discovered. Twelve tombs, a large metal box, three spades and a pile of something not easily identifiable and that would have to be dug up.
Well a local historian from Kettleridge ventured that the tombs were likely to be the original inhabitants planted there until the Norman church had been built. I decided they should remain where they were but I spoke a little prayer invoking any hidden spirits to kindly leave us alone and to to go where they should have gone. That was in the presence of all the children and I must say I saw a lot of re leaved faces.
The box was eventually bought to the surface and two of our estate workers managed to wrest the wooden lid off. It was bounded in metal so was well after the early years. Our local historian suggested about Cromwell's, the king slayer, time. Inside was what one expect to find when scared people hid their valuables and there be quite a measure of time given to sorting out the gold and silver dining pieces.
'Well I expect that Finlay will just have to add this to his work load.' Said I.
"Alas no, this must be authenticated though the proper channels and subsequently appraised by the guilds. Museum have the right to be approached."
'These items are from my own family found in my castle, they are mine!' Said I heatedly, but eventually I lost and the whole box was wrapped with care and taken away to god knows where. Well better luck with the pile of whatnot. They were to be found to be an assortment of very old shoes and they were bagged up and followed the valuables.
Well that left the tombs, and nobody volunteered digging them up and taking them away!
Well did we get anything back you ask? Not yet but we live in hope, of course my blasted insurance will have to rise if we do and I'm not sure I would enjoy eating a meal off one of my ancestors gold plates, besides which I understood the plates were used for serving and that people used to eat off the bare table! You can still see the knife marks cut into the edge of our old table kept for posterity and really well past its due date to feed the central fire. But I expect some nosy bigwig would turn heaven and hell over to stop us turning a useless piece of furniture into a comforting fire, so let the inhabitants freeze in winter, lets save that heavily knife carved board instead! After all hundreds of kids must have carved their initials into it while awaiting their gruel, including I might add, yours faithfully.