A beautiful walk with beautiful friends. Pt.2 🌿

A beautiful walk with beautiful friends. Pt.1 🌿

The Glory was written in early May 1915 while Edward Thomas was labouring on his biography of the Duke of Marlborough. It was a commission he loathed but he needed the money.

The poem describes a brief moment of respite from this drudgery, while on an early morning walk, almost certainly in the Ashford Hangers, between his home and study. ET used to go different ways up the hangers including the Shoulder of Mutton, his favourite hill, and the old and new coach roads up Stoner Hill. None seem to fit his description of the view that morning which included a forest.

The only forest in the vicinity is Woolmer Forest, to the east of the hangers, a sandy heathland with ridges and clumps of fir. ET thought it resembled Dartmoor. He often noted it when he was on top of Wheatham Hill.

Wheatham is the eastern promontory of the Ashford Hangers above Steep. In those days its top was clearer of trees than now and would have given even more magnificent and panoramic views to the east towards Woolmer. It was another favourite hill which he visited often - walking, tobogganing or just observing and idling. It had some of the features of the Wiltshire Downs with its flat grass top, clear unobstructed wide views and huge sky which ET also loved and which Richard Jefferies, the country writer, wrote so passionately about. His style had been a strong early influence on ET, which he drew on in The Glory.

Wheatham was also the scene of a moment of revelation for William Cobbett, 100 years before Edward Thomas came across the hill. On one of his rural rides Cobbett was stunned by “the matchless beauties of the scene”. It’s still one of the finest views in the South Country “of sky and meadow and forest” and a match to those from Shoulder of Mutton Hill 1/2 a mile west.

More on ET’s notes on Wheatham and Woolmer and the origins of The Glory can be found on the Edward Thomas Poetry Places website, a link to which can be found in the profile. There are also descriptions of two good walks up Wheatham Hill, returning by the Shoulder of Mutton.
#edwardthomas #edwardthomaspoetryplaces #edwardthomastheglory #edwardthomasfellowship #wheathamhill #woolmerforest #ashfordhangers

Cockshott, 1908 by W F Unsworth, with its first floor loggia, originally unglazed. Not listed, and info from Pevsner
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#cockshott #1908 #edwardian #wfunsworth #ashfordhangersnaturereserve #ashfordhangers #steep #froxfield #hampshire

Edward Thomas wrote The Cherry Trees on return to military camp after a weekend leave at his home in Steep in early May 1916. He described the poem at the time as “half Baba’s”, his nickname for his younger daughter Myfanwy. She explained in her memoirs that it came about on a walk with her father when she saw cherry blossom falling and remarked “Someone’s been married.”

So ET had probably walked with her that weekend, almost certainly close to his home and possibly on the way up to his study at the top of Ashford Hangers. The mention of an “old road” would suggest that they were walking up Old Stoner, the old way up the hangers before the new road had been built in the 1820s. It was round the corner from their home at Yew Tree Cottage in Steep and was a track he often walked up to enjoy the panoramic views of the Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire hills through the trees,

The wild cherry was one of his favourite trees and he noted each season when it was in bloom, in fruit or when the leaves were falling. Along the hangers the wild cherry was the first out in April, living up to its folk name, the merry tree (mentioned by ET in his poem Lob), in contrast to the beeches and ashes, still not in in leaf, and the dark yews.

ET had a less easy relationship with Myfanwy than with his elder daughter Bronwen (see post on Celandine). Yet in his notebook he jotted down her sayings and doings with great affection and he regarded her as cleverer than his two other children. She also inspired at least six of his poems, more than anyone else.

More on background and context to The Cherry Trees can be found in the latest post on the Edward Thomas Poetry Places website, a link to which appears in the profile. It also describes a walk on Old Stoner. There are only a few cherry trees on the old road nowadays and not much of the “confetti” Myfanwy saw. Otherwise it’s little changed, with the track straight, steep, and stony, and still offering glimpses through the trees of the panoramic views that Edward Thomas walked up with his family to enjoy. #edwardthomas #edwardthomaspoetryplaces #edwardthomasfellowship #edwardthomasthecherrytrees #stonerhill #ashfordhangers #myfanwythomas

Liss, Hawkley and Steep Circular (4/5/23)

A 12 mile walk along the South Downs Way starting in Liss straight onto a footpath behind the church alongside fields and into Hawkley. Bluebells and wild garlic are prolific along the woodland footpaths before climbing up into Ashford Hangers National Nature Reserve culminating in fantastic panoramic views from the Shoulder of Mutton across the countryside. Some pretty muddy tracks along the way before getting back to Steep at which point thou legs doth protest! But a stunning walk where we met three other walkers in 4.5 hours.

#walking
#hiking
#leisure
#outdoors
#ashfordhangers
#liss
#england
#dayoff
#exercise
#dogwalk
#alltrails
#hampshire
#areaofoutstandingbeauty
#dogsofinstagram
#willow__walks
#circulartrail
#snapseed
#iphone
#shotoniphone
#endurance
#countryside
#southdowns
#southdownsway
#loveforhampshire
#visitengland
#forestryengland

Liss, Hawkley and Steep Circular (4/5/23)

A 12 mile walk along the South Downs Way starting in Liss straight onto a footpath behind the church alongside fields and into Hawkley. Bluebells and wild garlic are prolific along the woodland footpaths before climbing up into Ashford Hangers National Nature Reserve culminating in fantastic panoramic views from the Shoulder of Mutton across the countryside. Some pretty muddy tracks along the way before getting back to Steep at which point thou legs doth protest! But a stunning walk where we met three other walkers in 4.5 hours.

#walking
#hiking
#leisure
#outdoors
#ashfordhangers
#liss
#england
#dayoff
#exercise
#dogwalk
#alltrails
#hampshire
#areaofoutstandingbeauty
#dogsofinstagram
#willow__walks
#circulartrail
#snapseed
#iphone
#shotoniphone
#endurance
#countryside
#southdowns
#southdownsway