LOUD NOISES MAKE THE WORLD A SAFER PLACE

摘要

The village of Gilsland doesn't quite know where it is. One half of it is in Northumberland, the other half in Cumbria. Sir Walter Scott, the author, once visited the area, fell in love and, after a whirlwind romance, proposed marriage. She accepted. Since then, except for a local hotel burning down in the mid-19th century and, more recently, the roof blowing off the village bus shelter, nothing much has happened in Gilsland. Estate agents wax eloquent about its beauty. It lies at the edge of the Kielder forest on the line of Hadrian's Wall. Built by the Romans to keep out the marauding Scots, the wall crops up in local gardens. Visitors to the village can sometimes be surprised by distant explosions.