march-2012

PHOTOS © 4CORNERS
FEATURES | ANDALUSIA
62 | TRAVELLER
UNDER THE
IN 1962, PENELOPE CHETWODE, WIFE OF THE POET JOHN BETJEMAN, RODE INTO
THE WILDS OF ANDALUSIA AND PENNED A BOOK ABOUT HER ADVENTURE. FIFTY
YEARS ON, HER DAUGHTER, CANDIDA LYCETT GREEN, RECALLS THE TRIP
MY MOTHER WAS 51 when she took off for
Spain. And looking back now, she was miles
ahead of her time. She thought nothing of
setting off alone on a horse she hardly knew,
into the unfamiliar wilds of a foreign country she had
never been to. The mule tracks she rode along were
unmarked on any maps and she navigated by the
Sierra mountains, the dry riverbeds and ravines, or by
asking for directions from a shepherd if she was lucky
enough to meet one. She travelled around 160km,
from Illora to Cazorla, and wandered back a different
way. Her book Two Middle-aged Ladies in Andalusia
(the middle-aged ladies being the horse and herself) is
a moving testament to that indomitable spirit, and her
open-heartedness, trusting nature and disarmingly
straightforward approach are everywhere in her
account of this odyssey through a remote, inexorably
beautiful and often unforgiving landscape.
Her love of travelling by horse had always been
with her (much of my childhood was spent riding
in her wake across the Berkshire Downs), but it was
only when my brother and I had fi nally fl own the nest
that she felt justifi ed in leaving home for any length of
time. My father, the poet John Betjeman, was already
famous but, independent to the last, my mum never
lived in his shadow nor basked in his refl ected glory.
If she decided to learn Spanish in her fi fties, she had
the determination to carry it through. She chose to
be without a car or telephone for the last 20 years of
her life, and used her horse and cart to drive down
into town to do her shopping. Under her address, her
writing paper read, “No telephone, thank God”.
She attended regular lectures on nuclear physics
and philosophy, read Sanskrit, wrote articles on Indian
temples, was a legendary cook, and gave the author
H G Wells such a fascinating account of the history
and techniques of Caesarean birth that he was
prompted to say, “‘If I were married to that girl,
I would throw away my encyclopaedia”.
Having been brought up in a grand house with
butlers, cooks and grooms doing everything for her
(her father was Commander-in-Chief of the British
Army in India), she spent the rest of her life trying to
get back to a simple way of life: the Spain of 50 years
ago provided everything she craved.
The author George Borrow’s account of his travels
through Spain was certainly one of her inspirations
and she had visions of fi nding a beautiful Arabian
stallion like his on which to reach the remote places