Listen to the track:
The Weight of Stone
After winning his bitter court case over a strip of land in Wembury, Lieutenant Nathaniel Barwell returned home in triumph. Within days his wife Susan died suddenly after leaving church, leaving him hollow and alone in the grand house he had fought to defend. Grief hardened into anger. He commissioned a slate plaque condemning dishonest lawyers, its words carved in stone for all to see. The song follows his shift from victory to loss, from pride to bitterness, as he tries to leave meaning carved into the world when love and justice have both slipped away.
The courtroom cheers have faded down the hill
The paper calls it justice, but the house is still
Stone and ivy, sea beyond the trees
A wall rebuilt, a heart brought to its knees
She left the church with sunlight on her hair
A quiet road, a breath of summer air
A tremor took her halfway to the gate
No cry, no time, no hand to argue fate
He won the land, he lost the day
The price of pride too much to pay
The village talks, the world moves on
He counts the cost of being strong
He wrote of lawyers, blessing and curse
Their silver tongues, their studied verse
He set his words in slate and stone
A sermon carved for all to own
Did justice serve or simply wound
A life reduced to solid ground
The echo lingers where she fell
And in the house the silence swells
He won the land, he lost the day
The price of pride too much to pay
He let the chisel make his plea
And left his grief for all to see
Years will weather what men defend
But the words remain until they end