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In a week's time I will be on my way North to County Durham for Christmas and New Year. I am going to see the pantomime 'Dick Whittington' in Newcastle a week on Tuesday with my brother and my nephew. I think I will be taking my nephew to 'The Grinch' followed by Macdonalds that week, unless there is some other film he fancies. I thought I would post a seasonal poem from 1990 to instigate my trip North, but this year it is going to be the rain rather than the ice and snow which will mark the trip. I am still reeling from being called a 'psychoneurotic who hasnt worked for twenty years' by a wellknown poetry critic so next year I will have to write some new poems. If anyone can tell me where the phrase 'comes a horseman' comes from I would be grateful. I pinched it from the film title. And I am upset that this government is going to ban foxhunting. I grew up nextdoor to the secretary of the local farmer's meet and think foxes get what they deserve. Alone, at Durham Comes a horseman, in Winter, To the greatest cathedral north of the Alps; It is the end of an old tale. Bespectacled, with grey hairs, In the mirror I view his face; He once sent his voice around the world. All he has now is pen, paper and the memory, The distant tide of faith fast receding; Snow, ice and the mad mists beckon. Came a horseman, in Summer, From the morning to the citadel; The days of honey licking the silver tongue. `Love is a vapour, we're soon through it.' Uncle Basil had no more success than I; I tilted my head at all the rainbows. Comes a horseman, in Winter, By Heighington village to the Raby Hunt Inn; Thru fog, ice and snow to a welcoming fire.