TILE 22

'My name is Charles Ramsey and I live at 12 Church Lane, Wormley, Hertfordshire, England.

This journal contains all my notes and sketches about the work I'm doing. It is a very important record of my ideas so if you should find it please return it to me at the above address.

I include ten shillings worth of stamps that should be more than enough to pay for the postage wherever you live.

Thankyou in advance."


"I have no idea from whence this came" said Mr Hodson the wizard to Tim who had noticed the heavy leather bound book amongst his friend and tutor's library.

"It is a very strange record of some apprentice, perhaps a magician, for it is difficult to decipher. Using many words that I cannot understand which obviously refer to alchemical learning, I have spent years in translating what I can.

Perhaps you might like to see what you can make of it?" he said as he passed it over to the young man.

Almost a year had passed since then and Tim had managed to glean a lot of priceless information from carefuk study of the numerous illustrations.

He had worked out what the components were of some devices and had painstakingly duplicated the tools shown in use. Of particular value was the tool described as a 'channel lock' which was an advanced form of pincer whose jaws were instantly adjustable.

After his unintended flight from the Citadel he had become apprenticed to a toymaker who was delighted to be able to find such a talented and inventive helper.

Badger Hill was a remote small rural community that welcomed Tim with their generous help and friendship when they realised what a find he was. For this small village was an unusually talented collection of various artificers and craftsmen.

It was an unusual concentration of men and women who preferred to remain off the beaten track relying on the carter to act as their factor by taking their goods to be sold at the annual Citadel Fair where these goods fetched the best prices and were often favoured by exporters.

When the carter returned it was always with goods taken in barter which often included the odd item of value that nobody wanted and on one occasion he came back with a book for Tim.

"Met a printer, good man, said he knew you and thought that you might accept this in lieu of coinage for the work you had done for him."

It was a heavy, substantial volume entitled 'A Compendium for the Traveller' which seemed to be a most comprehensive collection of maps, pictures, geographical information and not least of all a collection of strange words in columns with a description of their meaning and the Equivalent in the three main languages a traveller needed whilst in Europa.

Brythans spoke a hybrid pidgin of these which meant that Tim could find out what some of the terms meant in Charles' journal. That was contngent upon the accompanying description making any kind of sense to Tim and many did not at first glance.

"Context is everything my boy" said Mr Hodson as the two of them pored over this addition to Tims own book collection which was as yet too sparse to be called his library. "You need to keep an open mind and be on the look out for further clues in the compendium that may cast further light upon the terms and their use. Remember how we were surprised to discover that a ton weight was derived from the amount held by the large barrel called a tun?"

For his own benefit Tim had already begun to collect his own notes and diagrams to support his newly acquired knowledge thus gained by studying the two books he possessed. These he transcribed with great care into a journal of his own