A POOR REFLECTION

A 1994 paper edition of the Hawkinge Gazzette reports on a document unearthed in the local library from 1632 describing a community effort to "Builde ye greatest offe mirrors." Apparently, materials were collected and assembled to construct a giant mirror along the entirety of the village's west border. It was the intention of the collective behind the construction -- a pious artisan and several high ranking members of the Dover clergy -- that such a massive mirror would "create a more ethical and goodly communitie." In fact, the record books tell us that as soon as the the project was completed, the community experienced a witch scare. Three women were hung and a vagrant man was accused of bewitching dozens of villagers. A local historian claimed that distortions in the giant mirror were plain for everyone to see. One man gouged out his own eyes and the those of his wife and three children, claiming that to see the entire village reflected at once was to "see directlie unto the paths of helle." The mirror was shattered five months after its completion and the village underwent a famine for nearly a decade.
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