To-night's Docket — Five Matters Before the Court
Welcome, neighbor. The hayfield is quiet, the candle is lit, and the bench is dressed in oak. Each evening at golden hour the Court convenes here to hear small things, gently. Stay as long as you like.
Watch To-Night's SessionThe orchard lies just beyond the side door. In the half-hour before each session begins, the parties wait there among the bees and the slow shadows. Counsel for the lost dog is reading a letter from a child. The clerk is filling the inkwell. The candle has been trimmed.
This page is the orchard's analog: a small grove of pastoral inventory, drawn in single strokes of gilt over vellum-black, that you may walk through at the pace of a person. Hover over any vignette to bring it nearer; rest your gaze, and it ripens.
Presiding Justice of the Hayfield Bench
Appointed in the autumn of 2009, Justice Aldermast is the courthouse's third presiding officer since its founding. She keeps a small jar of pear-drops on the bench and is known to recite a stanza of Wendell Berry before adjourning.
Clerk of the Court · Stenographer in Long Hand
Mr. Wren keeps the marbled ledger. He has stenographed every public hearing for nineteen years, and he can take dictation at the speed of a slow conversation. His pen is a Pelikan M400, a gift from the previous justice.
Bailiff & Keeper of the Candle
Miss Pell trims the beeswax candle each evening at six and rings the hand-bell at seven. She has been known to bring fresh apricots from her sister's orchard when the docket is especially long.
Court Musicians · Two Violins & a Viola
A trio drawn from the local agricultural college plays softly throughout proceedings — never louder than a held breath. They favour the Bach chaconnes and one slow waltz of their own composition.
— Stenographic Live —
An application to plant a Bartlett upon the southerly verge of the common, in memory of Mrs. Edith Bramble, late of Hawthorn Lane.
A gentle dispute between Mr. Hollings and Miss Petrie concerning a hawthorn hedge that has been understood to mark the edge of a footpath since at least 1898.
An adjudication concerning the rightful keeping of a small brown spaniel who has, since Lammas, divided his affections between two adjacent households.
A renewal of the standing right of Mrs. Lourdes Faye to keep four hives upon the eastern lawn of the courthouse, undisturbed by mowing between primrose and Michaelmas.
The reading of the Court's order in № 142, the affixing of the Court's seal in Sealing-Wax, and the assignment of a sapling from the orchard.
Should you wish to bring a small matter before the bench — a quiet question, an application for a memorial, a kindness to be entered into the ledger — write us here. The Clerk replies in long hand, in his own time, by post.
Court is adjourned. Sleep well, neighbor.