A Hat Full Of Sky

Author’s Note

The Doctrine of Signatures mentioned on page 90 really exists in this world, although now it’s better known by historians than doctors. For hundreds of years, perhaps thousands, people believed that God, who of course had made everything, had ‘signed’ each thing in a way that showed humanity what it could be used for. For example, goldenrod is yellow so ‘must’ be good for jaundice, which turns the skin yellow (a certain amount of guesswork was involved, but sometimes patients survived).

By an amazing coincidence, the Horse carved on the Chalk is remarkably similar to the Uffington White Horse, which in this world is carved on the downlands near the village of Uffington in southwest Oxfordshire. It’s 374 feet long, several thousand years old and carved on the hill in such a way that you can only see all of it in one go from the air. This suggests that:

a) it was carved for the gods to see; or,

b) flying was invented a lot earlier that we thought; or,

c) people used to be much, much taller.

Oh, and this world had Witch Trials, too. They were not fun.