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1
349
The Journal of a Disappointed Man
·
W. N. P. Barbellion
211
May
27.
The
Pool:
A
Retrospect
From
above,
the
pool
looked
like
any
little
innocent
sheet
of
water.
But
down
in
the
hollow
itself
it
grew
sinister.
The
villagers
used
to
say
and
to
believe
that
it
had
no
bottom
and
certainly
a
very
great
depth
in
it
could
be
felt
if
not
accurately
gauged
as
one
stood
at
the
water's
edge.
A
long
time
ago,
it
was
a
great
limestone
quarry,
but
to-day
the
large
mounds
of
rubble
on
one
side
of
it
are
covered
with
grass
and
planted
with
mazzard
trees,
grown
to
quite
a
large
girth.
On
the
other
side
one
is
confronted
by
a
tall
sheet
of
black,
carboniferous
rock,
rising
sheer
out
of
the
inky
water--a
bare
sombre
surface
on
which
no
mosses
even--"tender
creatures
of
pity,"
Ruskin
calls
them--have
taken
compassion
by
softening
the
jagged
edges
of
the
strata
or
nestling
in
the
scars.
It
is
an
excellent
example
of
"Contortion"
as
Geologists
say,
for
the
beds
are
bent
into
a
quite
regular
geometrical
pattern
--syncline
and
anticline
in
waves--by
deep-seated
plutonic
force
that
makes
the
mind
quake
in
the
effort
to
imagine
it.
On
the
top
of
this
rock
and
overhanging
the
water--a
gaunt,
haggard-looking
Fir
tree
impends,
as
it
seems
in
a
perilous
balance,
while
down
below,
the
pool,
sleek
and
shiny,
quietly
waits
with
a
catlike
patience.
In
summer
time,
successive
rows
of
Foxgloves
one
behind
the
other
in
barbaric
splendour
are
ranged
around
the
grassy
rubble
slopes
like
spectators
in
an
amphitheatre
awaiting
the
spectacle.
Fire-bellied
Efts
slip
here
and
there
lazily
thro'
the
water.
Occasionally
a
Grass-snake
would
swim
across
the
pool
and
once
I
caught
one
and
on
opening
his
stomach
found
a
large
fire-bellied
Eft
inside.
The
sun
beats
fiercely
into
this
deep
hollow
and
makes
the
water
tepid.
On
the
surface
grows
a
glairy
Alga,
which
was
once
all
green
but
now
festers
in
yellow
patches
and
causes
a
horrible
stench.
Everything
is
absolutely
still,
air
and
water
are
stagnant.
A
large
Dytiscus
beetle
rises
to
the
surface
to
breathe
and
every
now
and
then
large
bubbles
of
marsh
gas
come
sailing
majestically
up
from
the
depth
and
explode
quietly
into
the
fetid
air.
The
horrificness
of
this
place
impressed
me
even
when
I
was
intent
only
on
fishing
there
for
bugs
and
efts.
Now,
seen
in
retrospect,
it
haunts
me.
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