The Mysterious Case of the Missing Road
THE PLOUGH AND STARS, BROCKENBORINGS, North-farthing in the Shire, on this the 16th day of Foreyule:
Greetings from Lancogard North-took, Deputy-Shirriff of the North-farthing!
Word reached me here of a quandry some folk were having, talking of a “missing road” between the Rushock Bog and Brockenborings. Imagine that! Roads simply don’t go missing, it's not natural - although people and livestock have been well known to do. But the idea of a road through that district reminded me of something I had overheard a while back.
It seems that old Rory Primstone, the stable-master here in Brockenborings, mentioned in passing of how the Quick-post Service would use the “Bindbole High-road” to give mail service to Needlehole, Nobottle, and points west. So, that started my investigation, and I rode through Hobbiton and Waymeet, up the Rushock Road to Needlehole.
Oh, there was a wealth of information there! First Hending Gamgee, the stable-master, then Postman Redsmith both confirmed the existence of the Bindbole High-road, long since unused. Dear old Iris Chubb also agreed, having seen the post-riders use that road as a lass, sending letters and packages to her relative in Hobbiton that way.
(NOTE: do yourself a favor, and avoid talking to Griffo Boffin; all you’ll get out of him is complaints about his cousin’s sister’s brother, Bingo…)
Now, the directions I got from there were vague at points, but all accounts agreed on this: follow the road through the Rushock Bog until just before the Second Bridge (the second one as you’re riding east out of Needlehole); look to your left before the turning, and you’ll see the old road bed, cut back into the hill to follow the higher ground. The track goes up and down with the land until you reach Pinglade, what used to be a beautiful grove – but not any longer, as a tribe of vagabond Dwarves cut down most of the trees and built a stockade across the pass (they’ll need clearing out, the squatters…)
Passing Pinglade going east and a point north, the road cut is still visible, though heavily overgrown and populated by bears and boars until, almost at the top of the ridge, you see it: the old stone curb that marks the Bindbole High-road! All you do now is, follow the track, keeping the stone curb on your right hand as a guide, and after a short ride you pop out right on top of the Overhill Lumber Yards!
So there it is, we solved the Mysterious Case of the Missing Road. I hope Old Rory gets this to you promptly, and in the finest tradition of the Quick-Post. Best Wishes for this upcoming Yule!
