MDMD(11): Cotswold Waggon

[Dave Monroe]

"Traditionally, the cheeses to be blessed an ritually
rolled thrioce 'round the churchyard, and thence down
a Hill, ordinary-sized Double Gloucesters, were
carried to the site in wheeled liters of some
antiquity, though such clearly, for this Behemoth,
would not do.  Someone finally located a gigantic
Cotswold Waggon, painted brick red and sky blue, as
were the spokes and rims, respectively, of its
wheels." (M&D, Ch. 16, p. 168)

Why a "Cotswold" Waggon?  Well, Randwick, home of the
Randwick Wap, "the annual cheese-rolling at the parish
church in Randwick" (p. 167), is in the Stroud Valley
in the Cotswold Hills of Gloucetsershire, England ...

http://www.completely-cotswold.com/

http://www.completely-cotswold.com/randwick/info/info.htm

As is, apparently, Cirencester ...

http://www.users.waitrose.com/~waggon/index.html

http://www.pub-explorer.com/olpg/thewaggonandhorses/cirencester/

TRP research trip?  But scroll down a bit here as
well, "Cotswold Harvets Wagon, 205-B" ...

http://www.brandnew.net/wagon/engwagons.shtml

And note as well the primary colors, "brick red and
sky blue," "an equally vivid orange-yellow" (p. 168),
nigh unto a circus wag(g)on ...

"The Cheese, an equally vivid orange-yellow, had then
to be carefully rolled off a kind of dock and on into
the bed of the Waggon, where, like some dangerous
large animal, it was secured with stout Cables in an
erect position.  As the sides of the Waggon were of
spindles and not planks, the Cheese was visible to
onlookers in its full Circumference." (ibid.)

Maybe not even entirely unlike "classic Luddite saint"
and Biggest of the Bad Asses, King Kong ...

http://www.world-of-nintendo.com/pictures/enemies.shtml

http://www.circusparade.com/wagons/w_garga.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/pynchon-luddite.html

Okay ...



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