Once again Handel’s oratorio The Messiah came to mind when I reached the top of one steep hill climb.
The initial words to the particularly delightful section are: “All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned everyone to his own way. …” When sung, the voices start with ‘all we like sheep’ and do not continue immediately to the subsequent words. Therefore, there is a tendency that if the words are not sung clearly, listeners think that we all like sheep, when the meaning is that we are similar to sheep and may go astray. As for me, I like sheep and I have never been trusted not to go astray (after all, walking the Derwent isn’t what normal people do). Nevertheless I am always happy to break out singing this marvellous song. Have a listen to a choir (Choir of King’s College, Cambridge) which performs it well; at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixmNZQH0NjU The photos of sheep in all sorts of situations are shown while the voices sing the song. Incredibly entertaining.
Back to my walk. Next to Tinderbox Road, I came across a couple of paddocks of resting sheep and ‘everyone had turned to his own way’.
On my return journey they were up and about grazing independently, but ‘everyone had turned to his own way’. How could not we all like sheep?
Walking the Derwent River 