Dog Loup

Dog Loup is the peculiar name for a notably narrow ginnel found in the North Yorkshire village of Staithes. It has been measured to 17-18 inches in width; being afeared of narrow places, I ventured not through, but reports suggest that one must turn sideways to pass from one end to the other, and be divested of all one carries. One chap emerged through that gap while it was subject to my inspection; he was carrying a fishing rod, erect, to which Dog Loup offered little resistance, being open to the sky.

Clever exegetes dismiss the Lord’s teaching about rich men not entering the kingdom of heaven by saying that the ‘eye of the needle’ (through which a camel may not surely pass) refers not to literal camelidae, no, no, but to a gate of Jerusalem which was so narrow that only an unladen beast might pass through. There is no such gate- sorry, rich folk, but you are excluded from heaven, except you repent and believe. Yet the point made is still valid. Any who employed Dog Loup as a convenient escape route from a fire or villainy, might only escape with his life, not his belongings, which would be left the other side. Remembers this, you who trust in riches; mark this, you who measure your value by goods and chattels. None you may take with you, for narrow is the way to life, and it is by faith, not works, and certainly not possessions.