The Village Hall of Holmbury St Mary on a sunny Palm Sunday is attractive to many non-hashers out for a stroll, and so less than ideal for our group’s most popular event.  Parking was problematic, let us say [see letter below].  And all possible trails here are well-trodden.  Today’s hares were our Joint Masters; they began with 6 checks in the first 10 minutes, 10 checks in 20, as we corkscrewed around most intriguingly.  We came to a spot which all hares here seem to choose for a check, after which their trail changed completely, to a long trip south, always on the same broad path, to the trig point which J. Arthur predicted long before we got there.

  By then the front runners were Simple, Le Pro, and One In The Eye; I should here salute the progress towards recovery of ‘IsKnees, keeping up admirably. Naturally we had to cluster for group photos at this well-hashed spot, Dissa with camera, how good to see him back! Three other very welcome returnees: Tako Bell, Country Bumpkin, and their son, now of adult height: if he has acquired a handle I have not learned it.

  The return to our hall was as uni-directional as our progress south on that broad path; naturally those in front found that they were far from the first to be sitting in sunshine awaiting Clever Trevor’s feast and enjoying a chat. The atmosphere was very pleasant indeed. And no, I could scarcely recognise any of the teenage/young adult photos on display. Well, I recognise myself in photos at that age only because I have seen them before. “The child is father to the man”; well, maybe, but what a transformation!

  There are of course advantages in choosing this village for our AGM: it is central, the hall serves our social purposes well, the surroundings are scenic and rich in gentle hills – trails on the flat are less attractive. Time to thank the officers and committee who have served the hash for another year; many of course are still in office, we need continuity as well as fresh talent. Pity therefore that the young families we welcomed during the winter did not join us today. Where are your own offspring, dear readers? We need a continuity across generations, or these annual gatherings will become part of history.

  The most famous Jew by far, greatly surpassing Abraham or Moses, was Christ. Since Christians have been prominent in anti-semitism, this may seem puzzling. It begins with the fourth gospel, hostile to Jews though its author was Jewish; we need to remember that although the earliest Christians were all Jewish, most Jews at the time could not countenance a Messiah executed as a common criminal, and did not read the Suffering Servant of Isaiah as in any way the man they expected to redeem the Chosen People from alien rule. It did not help that the early Church quickly went bankrupt, an obvious sign of failure. St Paul soon had non-Jews round much of the Mediterranean as followers of Christ – and had to insist they did not need circumcision, as those still in Jerusalem tried to say, and the rest is history. Hitler was just tapping into centuries of European hostility to Jews, with the Church at the forefront. My own parents were openly racist about people of colour, but not hostile to Jews, at a time when Eliot and Pound assumed, doubtless correctly, that such opinions were widely held. Anti-semitic violence began in York, in 1190, and has stayed in Europe ever since.

  On On, FRB