Welsh Country - Nov Dec 2018

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Kilvert found young girls attractive with the sort of enthusiasm which can make you uneasy and he kept falling in love with their older sisters. Daisy, Kathleen and Ettie are all significant figures in the diaries, but his romantic dreams never prospered. The end of his relationship with Ettie Brown in 1876 had a profound effect upon him. Some have speculated that the eighteen-month gap in the diaries indicates a period of severe depression. You begin to see the intrusive presence of illness and a fear of early death when his writing resumes. He once imagined skeletons in his room and his final poem, written at the end of May 1879, tells us that his ‘songs will soon be o’er.’ In August 1879 he married Elizabeth Rowland but just five weeks after their marriage he died of peritonitis. He was 38. He is buried in the peace of the Church of St Andrew in Bredwardine and there is a plaque in his memory in Saint Michael and All Angels, the parish church of Clyro. There is a feeling of sadness when you consider Francis Kilvert’s short life, which in some ways was sadly unfulfilled. He seems incomplete, frozen in time like an insect in amber. He was always disappointed that his poetry never interested a publisher, but did begin to think his diaries ‘may amuse and interest some who come after me.’ He has certainly left behind a remarkable legacy. All we can read however is a fragment of what Kilvert wrote. The diaries originally stretched from January 1870 to his death in September 1879, during which time it is believed that he filled 29 notebooks. His widow Elizabeth destroyed a number of them, removing all references to herself. The remaining diaries stayed within the family until they came to the attention of the author William Plomer, who prepared them for publication. The first volume appeared in 1938 followed by a second a year later and a third in 1940. The books were tremendously popular, re-opening a door to the pastoral simplicity of a life still just within living memory, a time of peace and order suddenly swamped by the terrors of war. But the war had not only destroyed that world but also wanted to keep it hidden. It was wartime and there was no paper available on which to print any more extracts. So there was a delay in the preparation of further volumes and in a terrible irresponsible moment Kilvert’s elderly niece, who had possession of the diaries, destroyed them because they contained private family matters. It remains a deeply regrettable act of wanton destruction. Sometimes less is indeed more, but when you read his work you always feel that it ends much too soon. He lived in Ashbrook House in Clyro which became, for a time, a respected art gallery, but which at the time of writing stands empty. On the other side of the road you can see The Baskerville Arms which he knew as The Swan and where raucous drinkers would often disturb his summer evenings. He writes of easy summer days ‘burning hot, sitting under the linden, reading or watching a solitary fern cutter at work on Vicar’s Hill, but for me it is the winter sections that are the most notable. Kilvert vividly describes a climate we no longer experience. In February 1870 there were few people in church because the weather was fearful, with a ‘violent deadly east wind.’ His whiskers were ‘so stiff with ice that I could hardly open my mouth and my beard was frozen on to my mackintosh.’ He conducted a baptism when the frozen water in the font had to be broken and the poor baby was surrounded by lumps of ice. There were pleasures too of course. People regularly went skating on iced ponds and rivers, with bonfires on the banks and bands playing, the whole scene illuminated by Chinese lanterns whilst children played on ice slides under bright star-filled skies. However, the shadow of danger was ever-present. Kilvert reported that the organist at Calne in Wiltshire fell on ice and broke his nose. The following day his fifteen year old son fell whilst sliding on the ice, hit his 8 www.welshcountry.co.uk
STORIES IN STONE head and died. Of course for many, times were hard. Men would beat the holly bushes to flush out blackbirds. His description of Christmas Day in Clyro in 1870 is particularly eye-watering. There was an intense frost on Christmas Eve and when he climbed in his bath in his room in the morning he found himself sitting on a sheet of thick ice. It broke into large pieces with ‘sharp points and jagged edges’ all around the sides of the bath tub. He writes, rather phlegmatically, that ‘it was not especially comforting to the naked thighs and loins. “ The keen ice cut like broken glass. The ice water stung and scorched like fire. I had to collect the floating pieces of ice and pile them on a chair before I could use the sponge and then I had to thaw the sponge in my hands for it was a mass of ice. ” Thankfully Francis Kilvert had his reward for such bravery. As he walked to the Sunday School ‘the road sparkled with millions of rainbows, the seven colours gleaming in every glittering point of hoar frost.’ It is a vanished world, a traditional Christmas card made real – and so this piece about Francis Kilvert is my Christmas card to you all, from myself and my family, and from Charlotte Wood who always provides such striking illustrations. A merry Christmas indeed to all our readers. Words: Geoff Brookes Illustration: Charlotte Wood Nov - Dec 2018 9
Page 1 and 2: Nov - Dec 2018 Issue 85 £2.95 COUN
Page 3 and 4: WELCOME Croeso Welcome Issue 85, No
Page 5 and 6: CONTENTS 26 67 33 Chantenay Vegetab
Page 7: STORIES IN STONE Francis Kilvert ..
Page 11 and 12: FISHING Salmon and Trout Conservati
Page 13 and 14: WELSH CONNECTIONS gifted individual
Page 15 and 16: WALKING IN WALES The Dyfi Hills ITh
Page 17 and 18: WALKING IN WALES 5 Go through the g
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Page 21 and 22: BEST OF WELSH & BORDERS Cnwcy Manal
Page 23 and 24: BEST OF WELSH & BORDERS SOUTH WEST
Page 25 and 26: BEST OF WELSH & BORDERS Delicia Tea
Page 27 and 28: WELSH KITCHEN Chantenay Vegetable C
Page 29 and 30: WELSH FOOD & DRINK Industry Analysi
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Page 33 and 34: PICTORIAL WALES Gary Short Photogra
Page 35 and 36: PICTORIAL WALES 5 Spectacular is de
Page 37 and 38: PICTORIAL WALES 9 Nov - Dec 2018 37
Page 39 and 40: PARSON & THE PUBLICAN In the words
Page 41 and 42: PAMPER Pamper Beauty products & gif
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Page 55 and 56: GARDENING a corner where they catch
Page 57 and 58: STAY A WHILE PENBONTBREN LUXURY BED
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