The Moles of Intriguer Park, Bassaleg Fields : A Fantasy- 'Wild Bill' Intriguer

 

The Moles of Intriguer Park, Bassaleg Fields

 A Fantasy- 'Wild Bill' Intriguer 

A TASTER TAIL BELOW

                  The first Mole to recount  is from  the 18th Century.

                      He  is Sir William “Wild Bill” Intriguer, KB.

Commemorated on Mount Rushmole -2nd left above 

Based on Sir William Morgan, KB, 1700-1732

Sir William Intriguer, KB ( i.e. Knight of the Bath), was a most impressive member  in the dirty, earthly, wormy,  history  of the Moles of  Intriguer House during the early 18th Century.

Dubbed “Wild Bill” by Sandy Boggy-Mole, his  old dirt  tutor, who patiently tried to coach and teach him the Greek and Latin Mole verse of worms, slugs and centipedes, the precocious “William” ( his Sunday name)  was only interested in playing the dice and following the cockroach racing on the Taffy Mole Hills of  Cardiff.    So fond was he of cockroaches that William had them farmed under the  Bassaleg Fields  for racing and for  the high table at lavish dinner parties and his head cook ‘Wee Shug’   gained fame with an accompanying book of recipes and exhibitions as far away as the annual Abergavenny Mole Food Festival.

When  still a teenager William  gave his patronage to a notorious,  seedy, bookmakers Club cum saloon bar in  Newport’s Mole Wetlands  where his  nickname of   “Wild Bill” guaranteed prestige and attraction  from dodgy Moles and dodgy Molls and  he got to stay out all the  hours that God sent  tunnelling in the outskirts of  Duffryn and  Intriguer Park with his gang of sycophants and low life toads (well Moles).

Into adulthood William inherited  the Intriguer Estates  and as heir was awarded  a  Star by the Round Table as an  honourable Knight of the Roman Baths of Caerleon, and thus he was entitled to have  the letters “KB” after his name.

Such an award had slipped out of fashion.  In London the Great Bobby Walpole Mole had revived  the  title and the Caerleon Round Table thought “Wild Bill”  was a suitable local beneficiary.

Conceited, arrogant  Willam  let his badge of honour go straight to his head, insisting on wearing the star as an attachment to the end of his nose.

Everyone heard of  the sparkle of 22 rays sticking out from each of his  nostrils. But of course most of the Mole tribes couldn’t see it  as they were short sighted. But they heard of the grossness  of  Sir William’s life style, with  a  exotic import of a black mole servant named Bardoletti from the West Indies,  a sure token of wealth and power – and sumptuous  banquets where insects, larvae of beetles, caddisflies, midges, dragonflies and damselflies were all served on platters, as well as fat cockroaches. 

Some said Sir William was behaving as if he was the Prince of South Wales, but this was in his DNA  as his pedigree contained a droplet of  Royal Welsh blood, albeit off a female line.

                                                              'Wild Bill' Intriguer, KB

ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY NEWPORT'S  GERARD WHYMAN

 

William Cross, FSA Scot 

The Moles of Intriguer House, Bassaleg Fields, South Wales

 Profiles based on folk in the infamous

Morgan family of Tredegar House

ENQUIRIES : PLEASE EMAIL

 

THE OLD MOLE CATCHER

 

WILLIAM CROSS

williecross@aol.com