Open Features: Newport Carnival
...As I was going to Newport Carnival I met Dick the gravedigger...
Don Hickman tells another choice tale from the rural Isle of Wight.
Last summer I was on my way to Newport to spend an hour or two at the Carnival. When I arrived at the Hare and Hounds public house I see a feller in a long black smock frock by the side of the road.
“Hello Archie,” I say, “Are you going into Newport?”
“My names not Archie and why should I go into Newport?” says he.
Well you could have knocked me down. He was an exact likeness of Archibald Hunnybun, enough to have been his twin. I still think he was having me on.
He said he was Dick the gravedigger and went on to talk about how hard times was. Apparently, he hadn’t buried a soul for weeks.
I took him into the Hare and Hounds to cheer him up and told him of my destination. I knew that if I did not make a move soon I should miss the procession through the town centre. I asked Dick if he would like to accompany me.
“No I went last year and didn’t fancy it,” he says, but I tell him how this year they have a woman dressed up like Lady Godiva, clothed only in her long hair, riding on a white charger through the streets.
He says, “Perhaps I’ll change my mind and come with you. It's ages since I saw a white horse.”
