shallow. the water-table sits high here because the yard is two metres below the lane and the lane is on a hump of clay. the bucket is wooden, replaced every nine or ten years, hung from a hemp rope the housekeeper herself splices when it frays.
it serves the scullery and the boot-room. nobody drinks from it directly anymore; the water is clean but the iron taste from the buried pipe at the foot is too strong for tea. on baking days the cook draws four buckets before dawn and lets them stand in the kitchen till the chill is off.
it is said: that any cat which falls in will come out of the apple-yard well, eventually; and that the well remembers names sung over it. the present cook does not sing.
field-note · the rope's eighth knot from the bucket is the one the hand looks for in the dark. it has been worn smooth in a particular way.
the well · apple-yard · iron-tasting · water · kitchen