Dancing Dust
	Poems by Mollie Caird (1922-2000)
	Washing day at Mansfield
Home Alphabetic index of poems Thematic index of poems Biography Gallery Contact and links	I hang my washing on King Charles's bank, And yet I often wonder what he'd think To see a non-conformist of low rank On such an errand from her kitchen sink. For Cromwell's face adorns our SCR, And Hampden glorifies the Chapel glass, And sneaking royalist thoughts I push afar For fear of Pym's long shadow in the grass; But Mansfield parsons don't appear in Crockford, And Mansfield College doesn't have much money, And trying to be a puritan in Oxford Is always hard and seldom funny. Oh, Cromwell was a good true man for sure, And not as warty as his portrait paints, And Charles was good, a pious man and pure, Compelled to be a Martyr by the Saints. Prince of the Royal Stuarts, yes, and you, Prince of the Parliament, you've me to thank On Mondays if we heal a breach or two - I hang my washing on King Charles's bank. Undated: before 1970.  King Charles's bank is a civil war earthwork forming the southern boundary of Mansfield College.