These Emails
were written by Mol Smith to friends and associates during the week October
15th 1999 to October 22nd 1999.They form a 'field-record' of events which
took place near Chelsham, on the Surrey, Kent, borders - England. Not all
were received. I have indicated those emails written, and found on the
recovered lap-top, which Mol was unable to send due to exhausted power
supplies. Where
he mentions digital 'stills' or 'video', I have linked to these from the
email accounts!
Wim
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Day 2
October 16th 1999
Day 2 - Saturday, Sunday morning - October 16th
/ and just into 17th 1999
To friends.
Hi,
Only got 4 emails when I signed on this evening: one from Marls,
one from Wim,
Steve Durr, and one from my partner Mark - wondering why I suddenly
shot off
and left him to manage the business. If any more of you sent one
- I didn't get it...
or at least I've been unable to retrieve it here in the forest
on my lap top.
Another cold night. The day started well but we got lost looking
for that church.
It's quite odd - neither of the two compasses we bought along seem
to work here.
Maybe something about the area geologically weakens the magnetic
field locally. Larry says it often happens in isolated spots especially
close to Ley Lines.
I don't know - I don't go camping much.
I think we started off about mid-day. A bit late really but we drank
too much of
the beer last night and all had hangover's. Larry is one hell of
a cook though
and we had a great breakfast of baked beans, egg, and bacon. It
took us some
while to realize the compasses were giving us wrong bearings...
but we
eventually saw enough sun through the trees to get a line on where
to head.
Van had a great idea of leaving little white stones at strategic
points on route
so we could find our way back to the tent and camp later. We aren't
on a
camp-site or anything - just the three of us - probably illegally
pitched - in
our 3 man tent.
The church was really old - built around the turn of the century
and called
St. Mary's. We calculated it to be about 1.5 miles from where
we're camped.
It is completely on its own - no village nothing. There was a rough
path running
past it which we decided to take. Fortunately we found a few cottages
and a
tiny pub about another 1/2 mile on. As it was dusk and already
getting dark
when we eventually found the church - I only
got a couple of snaps with my
night-vision camera.
I suppose up to the time we got to the pub, our day was okay. The
few locals
coming into the pub early evening seemed very wary of us and were
none too
friendly. Nothing hostile or anything but we certainly got a feeling
we
weren't wanted. The only person willing to talk was this leering
chap who
kept eyeballing Van's legs (no it wasn't me)... and then he only
wanted to
talk with Van - William, I think his name was. I must say, Larry
was his
normal non-plussed self.
It's funny you should mention witches, Steve, in your email. (Can't
wait to
see that film when I get back!) It was Van's notion to come
to this area as
she had read it was one of the few areas in South England, outside
of Essex,
that had major convictions for witchcraft in 1645. There's actually
two old
oil-paintings hanging inside the pub (I can't believe it's that
old so I guess
its some local artist faking the style). One of them shows quite
a terrible scene
of a capital execution by burning. The other is quite erotic
in a sense and looks
out of place in the pub. It shows this quite attractive woman
- a bit mean and hard
looking around the eyes and mouth, and aged slightly in the
face as though
she was in her middle to late years - but she has the
body of a much younger
woman. She's stark naked - so I guess the artist had a great
time painting her.
There is a similarity between her and the much smaller figure
in the other
painting - the one of the poor woman being burnt. Both have
striking red hair
and very brilliant pendants around their necks.
Vanessa was fascinated with the oil paintings and kept whispering
to me and
Larry about us coming to the right place.
I'll be able to show you the painting when I get back... because
- you guessed
it: I took shots of them with my digital camera.
We left the pub later than we had planned. It was Van's fault. She
wanted to
know more about the woman in the paintings and spent nearly an hour
chatting
to 'leery' William about them. I had more to drink than I thought...
and I reckon
we were all a little tipsy before we left for the long walk back.
When we came past the church, Larry needed a wee. I don't want to
make a
big thing of it or anything but it was kind of creepy around there.
The church
has a small cemetery to one side and the head stones look very old.
Larry was
respectful enough to walk around to a field on the opposite side
of the church
to relieve himself. We waited until he got back but it was all I
could do to talk
Vanessa out of going for a walk around the cemetery.
Anyway, to cut a long story short and to save my batteries (I am
a slow typist),
when Larry got back and we started out through the woods. he told
us he had
discovered a grave outside of the Cemetery in the adjacent field.
When Van
asked how he found it - Larry sounded a bit embarrassed: apparently,
it was -
by misfortune - directly in his line of fire!
It took us a long time to find our way back here - hence the
late email and
probably loads of typos. I was hoping to send you the oil-painting
images I
took from the pub but when I checked them just now in the camera
- I seemed
to have cocked something up. I took another image coming back through
the woods. It was one of Vanessa. She was a short way behind
us and suddenly
shouted out. When we looked back - she was trying to brush away
what seemed
like fire-flies from her. What with drinking and all - she was a
bit over-reactive
and panicky. I took a quick aim with the camera and fired
off two clicks as
we walked back.
She said she had felt a heavy pressure in her ears. Larry told her
-
"drink less Vodka!" She was still complaining of ear-ache
and dizziness when
she went to bed!
Anyway, I just checked the camera now and both shots seem messed
up.
The first one has patterns swirling
around Van's position in the image, and
the second has come out really weird: it has like a super-imposed
image of
the woman in the oil-painting from the pub on it and Van's
hardly recognizable at all.
The two images of the oil-paintings are lost and no-longer stored
on the chip.
I must be more careful not to mess up the settings in the future
or else I will
spoil all my shots. Less beer might be a good rule for taking
photos, I think.
It's late. I had better turn in. I don't want to wake the other two
as they got their
heads down half-an-hour ago. Groan, two days in and I'm missing
my bed already :(
All for now,
Mol
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