Thought for the day

Sir Walter Raleigh's (attributed) As you came from the holy land read by Richard Wallace

As You Came from the Holy Land (attributed)

BY SIR WALTER RALEGH

As you came from the holy land 
Of Walsingham, 
Met you not with my true love 
By the way as you came? 

“How shall I know your true love, 
That have met many one, 
I went to the holy land, 
That have come, that have gone?” 

She is neither white, nor brown, 
But as the heavens fair; 
There is none hath a form so divine 
In the earth, or the air. 

“Such a one did I meet, good sir, 
Such an angelic face, 
Who like a queen, like a nymph, did appear 
By her gait, by her grace.” 

She hath left me here all alone, 
All alone, as unknown, 
Who sometimes did me lead with herself, 
And me loved as her own. 

“What’s the cause that she leaves you alone, 
And a new way doth take, 
Who loved you once as her own, 
And her joy did you make?” 

I have lov’d her all my youth; 
But now old, as you see, 
Love likes not the falling fruit 
From the withered tree. 

Know that Love is a careless child, 
And forgets promise past; 
He is blind, he is deaf when he list, 
And in faith never fast. 

His desire is a dureless content, 
And a trustless joy: 
He is won with a world of despair, 
And is lost with a toy. 

Of womenkind such indeed is the love, 
Or the word love abus’d, 
Under which many childish desires 
And conceits are excus’d. 

But true love is a durable fire, 
In the mind ever burning, 
Never sick, never old, never dead, 
From itself never turning.

More blog posts
By matthew.buckmaster • October 12, 2026
Preached by the Revd Laura Verrall-Kelly
By matthew.buckmaster • October 12, 2026
Preached by the Revd Dr Brutus Green
By matthew.buckmaster • October 6, 2026
Preached by the Revd Dr Brutus Green
By matthew.buckmaster • October 6, 2026
Preached by Jane Shephard
By matthew.buckmaster • September 28, 2026
Preached by the Revd Laura Verrall-Kelly
By tim.popple • September 25, 2026
Wessex Archaeology has been on site this week to begin the first phase of the archaeological work on the north side of the church – in the area between the boiler room and car park - to investigate the potential for embedding ground plant associated with Air Source Heat Pumps in the churchyard.