Weird England: Hunting the Earl

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In this series of Essays, we usher you into a secret world of hidden folklore. Five young writers explore the odder, darker corners of English tradition: this is not an England of bluetits, roses and white cliffs, nor of country lanes and thatched cottages, but an invitation into a compendium of bizarre and sometimes creepy rural rituals. Each writer lives or has lived in the area. Their impression of the event stirs childhood memories, fires new convictions, deepens an understanding of ritual and reveals the awkward transposition of ancient ceremonies in contemporary life. In the final essay, the Japanese poet Lila Matsumoto takes her visiting parents to a Staffordshire horn dance. This series attempts to hear younger witnesses writing for the times in which we live: dispatches on Englishness from the weird frontline. 2. Hunting the Earl Poet Elizabeth-Jane Burnett takes part in the ritual of the Hunting of the Earl of Rone in Combe Martin, Devon, and investigates its history. The tradition commemorates the shipwreck of the Earl of Tyrone in 1607, captured by grenadiers and executed for sedition. Elizabeth-Jane is originally from Devon. In this essay, she weaves memories of life and loss, childhood and belonging into a poignant reflection on ritual and place.