square, stone-rimmed, open. it took water for two centuries and then, one summer between drought and drought, took none. the water-table moved or something moved with it. nobody is sure how deep it is now. the rope coiled by the rim is forty metres and has been let down all forty.
nobody draws from it. nobody fills it in. the parish council has agreed twice not to seal it and gone home each time without saying why. the rope is checked once a year and replaced every fifth.
it is said: drop a stone in and you will hear it land, eventually, but you will not be able to say what it landed on. drop a coin and you will hear nothing. the village's children, who are not sentimental, prefer coins.
field-note · the rope, drawn back up after a full descent, returns warmer than the air. nobody has yet measured this with an instrument.
the sealed · the eel · rope · deepest · coin