Uffington: Homage to a Poet Laureate Mystery Cache
Uffington: Homage to a Poet Laureate
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Tonight we feel the muffled
peal
Hang on the village like a pall;
It overwhelms the towering elms
That death-reminding dying fall;
The very sky no longer high
Comes down within the reach of all.
Imprisoned in a cage of sound
Even the trivial seems profound.
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Sir John Betjeman CBE (28 August 1906 – 19 May 1984) was a poet,
writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a
"poet and hack".
He was born to a middle class family in Edwardian London of
Germanic background. He lived here in Uffington with his first
wife, Penelope Chetwode, the daughter of a field marshal in the
British Army, Lord Chetwode. However during this period he was
British press attaché in Dublin and may have been involved with
intelligence gathering and is reported to have been selected for
assassination by the IRA until they decided that a published poet
was unlikely to be involved in such work.
Although he failed his degree at Oxford University his early
ability in writing poetry and interest in architecture would
support him throughout his life. He wrote poetry throughout his
life; starting his career as a lowly journalist he ended it as a
much loved figure on British television.
He was knighted in 1969 and became Poet Laureate in
1972.
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The above coordinates are for the recommended parking place
opposite St Mary's. Take time to visit it and gather the additional
clue if you so wish. A visit to the nearby Tom Brown's museum is
also worth the detour. but then take the secluded pathway through
the hedge and not the obvious one to find your goal. This walk will
take you past Garrards Farm with its blue plaque, one of many in
the country marking Betjeman's places of residency.
Now the hard bit:-
Betjeman wrote a poem about leaving Wantage, but what number 'have
lived, we now are whirled away'? answer
A
Complete the date over Tom Brown's Museum entrance door
1B
17
Now place these numbers in the coords to find the cache N51
35.8(B-2)2 W001
33.5(A-2)2
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Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Trg va gur qvgpu!