Transcription by Alex Mager
A few notes about this transcript before we begin...
Words added as quotes (like this) are all taken from the notes Rope added into the margins (probably at a later date)
List of places visited:
Pitchford (walking) – 21st June 1901
Oxfordshire – 27th May 1901
High Ercall (cycling) – Jan 1902
Keble-chapel (walking) – May 1901
Bicester (cycling) – 28th May 1901
Garsington-church (cycling) – 24th May 1901
North Hinksey and Cumnor (walking) – 18th May 1901
Stratford-upon-Avon (cycling) – 13th May 1901
The transcript starts here:
June 21, 1901
Pitchford, Shropshire Footfaring
On Friday aftermiddays my Mother, Aunt Edith Rope and I starteden awheelriding to Pitchford. We offwended rightwards at Weepingcross and again rightwards later. The byroad is allerloveliest, through dells and mounds all tree- and grass-rich adown those wild lanes which are so many in Shropshire over little dellbrooks and slopin’ leasows, a roadside hursts, and woodbine- and wildrose-bright hedgerows, unto the parktreeway that leads to the old halfNorman Pitchford-church of red sandstone prettily overlookin’ the allercomeliest & handsomest timber’d hall (of 1473), so wellbestead: so unharm’d so worldwithdrawen and uplandfrithful: foreby the pitchgrove over the little beck and so again to the ActonBurnell road. I had a puncture: so I went to Mr. Mauly’s friend the rector, Rev. Pattinson they most kindly gave me tea in the old homely countryhouse: jolly healthy childer eke and a kindly people they were. So was an old swain whom I met. Mr. Pattinson mended my punctures and the mending lasted almost 100 yards.
[Multiple pages have been removed.]
“Quick, thy tablets, memory.” / Oldtime innhouse. / Eynsham. / Oxfordshirely buildingcraft.
May 27 1901
Cassington where there is a fine church and a great one mid (with) a farseen spire: I have often seen that spire from the Thamesstream and long ago 8 of us among whom Brett was one thither uprowed in 2 fourboats: ’ this was in the summer of 1899: Bernays, now in the I.C.S., Wray & Colley now in the army, Milroy, Aston, Douglas, came too. My first year I often went on the upper Thamesstream (d.i. above Medley-weir): Bernays wont to get up the group who were goin’: we had tea at one of the oldfarand guesthouses Cassingtons: the ‘Chequers’-inn, methinketh: dear old plastered stonesfieldslaterooft inn, mid outstandin’ windownooks.
Soon thereafter we overwent the Evenlode-stream which undergoeth a stonebridge and is about of the same mickleness as the Cherwellstream and swithë pretty: soon thereafter we reacht the half-town half-thorp Eynsham, which has a good rightline-buildcraft church and a small ugly R.C. chapel and many rows of dwellings, some of them Oxfordshirely and pretty, some redbricken and out of keeping: red brick and blue slate are both latterday invaders of Oxfordshire &
Slates good and evil. / Morris-words. / Deemingswords. / Byroadsheeness. / SuttonHarcourt.
Berkshire: yet they have grown frightfully lately in these days when the gospel of cheapness (and nastiness) is at his heighth: I have never seen a redbrick blueslate building in Oxfordshire that could be more than 50 or so years old: it is as Morris says in his ‘New from Nowhere’ a “greystone country where every house not built of grey stone is a blot on the landscape.”
Eynsham has a good rightline-buildcraft church: and some deals of the thorp are pretty: but it is hardly Oxfordshireworthy.
Over the ironwaythwartroad foreby the ironwayhaltstead we fared along a lovely road mid good hedges in some deals into the little hamkin Sutton elmbeshaded and soon after into the straggled wondersheen thorp Sutton Harcourt, one of the prettiest spots in all Oxfordshire: elmbeshadowed: we had meant to have tea there and see the sightworthinesses (Sehenswürdigkeiten) während [during] the bereadying thes meals.
Sundayschoolchilderthrongs. / Guesthouse-fullness. / My rede taken. / Sighworthinessesforebygoing.
At the foreend of the thorp we met huges rows first of girls, then of boys wavin’ mugs and yellin’ like Imperialists, a merry sight of healthy happy childred: these things bespoken a Sundayschool-feastday. At the dun to the right side of the road, nearly forninst the church we founden such a throng of upland merrymakers beermerrily singin’ and such a throng of all-kind folk, wheelmen from Oxford and many more, that the inn could give us no room. At mine own rede we onwent to BablockHythe where I had bemarked (when I walkt there alate) an inn mid an outdoor grassplot tentfurnisht. My rede was good and was readily followed. So we saw only the old manorhouse in forebygoing and the treenestlin’ churchtower from afar, altho’ Miss Brett had broughten a camera! I think we should have stopt to see the church at least! Aber es macht nichts! [But it doesn’t matter!]
Bablock-Hythe. / West End. / The besteading. / “Sobald er reflektirt—”* / The teapot. / Friendshipknot. / Schooldays. *As soon as he reflects
So we onyoden through the lovely lane that leadeth to Bablockhythe: there arebloomfull ditches therealong and a swithë pretty strawyrooft housecluster ynempt ‘West end’. Under the elmboughs we went to the Inn and founden no lack of room we chose a tent in the waterside-grassplot mid an opening outlookin to the water. We had a good homely tea, of lettuces, marmalade & cake mid good bread and butter: we had an happy time: I did not at last feel that I had brookt a day of happy Oxfordlife: other lucky dogs have many such days: What stead can man find happier than an homely upland-inn, which is a waterside-inn eke? Where can man have such a merry hearty homely meal? The teapot was the mightiest teapot that I have seyn ever. Baker was besonders [especially] lively: he is I should think a good fellow. He is an old Kingswooder, as are Brett, Kernick and many of their friends. Their schoolfriendship is a deep & lastin’ thing: and haply their Wesleyanhood helpeth to togetherkeep them in this Oxford-maze: tho’ Brett has now becomen a Deist.
Tolikenings. / Lightbildtaking. / A byhappening. / Forethinkings / Evensending.
I begin to understand now that Brett never had any lack of society here when he wanted it from the very start: there are no Shrewsbury-men here that I know swithë well, but W. Butler Lloyd and F. Noel A. Poole, the latter of whom I see two or three times each term. Miss Brett photographt us after a lively merry tea, and Winnie, as I could see, did not much brooken the undergoing. I hope I shall have me a copy ygiven! A little before we started homewards: a waggon-horse was overgoin’ the stream on the huge ferryboat and slipt and there was much ado to get him up again. Brett helpt to untangle the reins from the horsefeet and the horses foot came down on his own. It was a nasty weight but B. bare it like a Stoicer: and Kernick could not get much out of him thereabout. The world will hear of G. Sidney Brett ere long, methinketh. We had a sunshiny homeride through the lovely upway to Cumnor and that trawroofy oldworld thorp. Kernick and I rode behind the rest. Thereafter Kernick & I went to see Hooton, mid whom we found his brother, a little younger and much like him: they had been on the Thamesstream: we had a good welcome from the twain, the younger brother drank to my health and we had a pleasant evensending.
They told me about wild Wales and Aberdaron where they wont to stay havin’ the stead to themselves tourist-free and unoutyfounden: of the lingering of folklore, of good guestings and allerslightest reckonings, of the Geist [spirit (essence)] of Wales, of the Welsh soulstamp, und so weiter [et cetera]: of Pwlhelli, and so forth. It is soulgladdenin’ to hear of such steads yet left.
Wheelfaring. High Ercall and the neighbourhood
In December 1901 soon after mine homecomth I outrode foreby Sundorncastle and childhood-dear Haughmond-hill, mid his stonedelving and stone-cots, through Roden, which seems to be a well-thrivin’ stead, there were long greenhousestretches and I saw in bygoing ‘Cooperative-society’ on a board upwritten. The new cots are mostly fairly welllooking and farantly mid red tileroofs. Over the Rodenstream I onfore to High Ercall sheen mid a good sandstonen Elizabethish hall and an handsome early English church, in whose churchyard is an old stonerood, though clearly the shaft and head have been benewed. There was a scrap or two of black and white building at Somerwood and at Roden, and also of Haughmondstonen building. High Ercall church has splendid Early-earlyenglish arches, mid various capitals, and all the windows, but the main-eastendwindow are perpendicular. The handsome strong buttressed tower is seemingly decorated. There is a very good altartomb of a knight his hands folded on his swordhilt: there is an old worn stone-figure upon the wall under the tower. Crudgington has a church that is equally ludicrous and ugly, WatersUpton has an old sandstone-quarry-bluff: and a fair modern Earlyenglish churchkin bellcoted. Great Bolas has an hideous redbricken Georgian church, mid a sandstonen-chancel that seems to have once been decorated.
“Lasciate ogni speranza | voi che entrate.”* *Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
May 1901
Keble-chapel, Oxford, Footfaring
is, in slang, a “fraud”. Throughwanderin’ the parks one day I bethought me of seeing this muchbeheried chapel and lookt to see some wonderly lovelinesses: instead I found a ghastly attempt to make brickwork look pretty by variation of violent colours whereas Oxfordshire kindly produces stone: but “economy” etc. etc. Manchester-gospel all over! If they wanted economy why did they waste such lavish sums on hideous [stricken through “and idiotic”] mis-‘decoration’ which is disgracefully silly? Those Mosaics have all the crudity of middlealdish art without its genuineness, simplicity or naturalness, and the colouring and the sacerdotalistish unlife of the whole series, bad figures, bad draughtsmanship, grotesque stupidity amountin’ almost to irreverence (hellfire is marked by wavy reedlike idiocies in all those colours of the rainbow that could not possibly be like fire – and the idea!), and the whole stampt with sacerdotalistish mummery and insincerity. Such is Keble-chapel. I did not see ‘The Light of the World’: it was in a chapel that was ylockt. (I have seen it since. ‘Tis all-splendid.)
May 28th 1901
Bicester. Twaywheelriding.
Kernick askt me to lunch there to meet Brett & his sister who is stayin’ here a few days. She is like him: the features not all so strongly ymarked. I was very glad to meet her.
Brett lent me his wheel and I took the chance of seeing Bicester which I had long ywisht. To Kidlington and his hamling Gosford I had before yfaren and as far as the offwendingsroad to Islip leadin’. Islips churchtower well outstandeth from its slight hill and is a fair landmark. The road is swithë pretty and has almost all the way to Bicester wide grassborders sometimes mid loose scrub ydecked: the upland is mostly flat and watermeadowly: There are pollardwillows along the Cherwell, which here undergoeth a pretty stonebridge, and the little brookkins thereabout. There are some woods elmy and eke oaky on the Islip-side some way from the road and one or two clumps on the other side toucheth the road ere Wendlebury is yreacht. There are often roadborderend elms and the hedges are mostly hawthornen, eke of some fluffy willowlike wort whereof I shamefastly acknowledge my unknowledge. Two or three pretty strawythatcht cotroofs are seen at the offwending to Weston-on-Green and Wendlebury is rich therein – a worthy Oxfordshirely thorpe: mid a wayside-brook of Clanfield me bemindin’: most of the cots and buildings, I think all, were pretty. Goin’ up to see the church I found a halftotorn building and a “native” boy told me in the unwillin’ uplandly wise that the church was bein’ downtaken to be edbuilt: It seemed to have been a decorated-buildcraft church mostly. For what fool’s-noreason is it bein’ downwrencht? Bicester is a lovely little oldtime cheapingtown, frithful as any thorp. The ‘approach’ and the whole end of the town are thorplike, thatch cots and a cricketfield and uplandly innhouses. The marketplace is pretty and there are oddly be-railed houses: there are many fine old buildings in all the streets of good variety, and hardly any new buildings. The church is woulderly, the chancel-arch & two others are Early Normanish, the rest Early English: the windows are mostly lordly tokenwindows of perpendicular buildcraft.
Wheelriding.
Garsington-church Friday May 24th 1901.
I fared foreby the drary meannesses of New- and Quarry-Headington under the lee of lief Shotover- (d.i. greenburg-) Hill, and the woody Shotover-housegrounds and the offwendingsroad to Foresthill whose bellcoted church outstandeth well grassslopebestead: the roads were a-heap mid dustlayers and bumpy as is wont in Oxfordshire. Soon thereafter the road falls into Wheatley: many of the houses are comely and eldshapely. Over the ironwaybridge I updrew my twaywheel and thus raught the long boardland at sunset, and therealong rade into hilly Garsington, mid his puzzlin’ roadmaze: the outlook from the boardland was woulderly: Shotover-hill & Temple-Cowley on the one side, the land sweeping adown and again up to the Chiltern-hillranges on the other. Garsington is a lovely old thorp. The church mid an old lychgate is an almost perfect Tokenbuilding of the decorated buildcraft and wonderly grassslope-bestead.
May 18th 1901
North- or Ferry-Hincksey & Cumnor. Footfaring.
Heartbrennend Townhatred. / New Botley. / Offenbarung.*/ Watermeadowloveliness. / Church-comelinesses and eldlaves. / Fishes-inn summergardens. / North-Hinksey-thorpe. *revelation
I cannot bewriten uplands and landscapes. They are that unbeschreibliche [indescribable] of rest and Urschönheit [primal beauty] which are the godgiven menshen-bliss. God never wisht us to be stifled in filthy wicked burgs followend unkindly trades and crafts when he had made the land and all the menshenneeds which it gives for man. Fearfully evil is the uplandbeemptying, the burgcramming. Behind the scornworthy puny jerrybuildings of Osney and ‘New Botley’ outopen woulderly watermeadows mid their many streams* and willowy borders and Oxfordonsights: Into the woulderly old church at Ferry-Hincksey I went: an old stonerood in the churchyard, a Norman door and a Norman chancelarch mid perpendicular, lancetly and decorated windows & some old glass, old oaken underroofs are here seen: an odd ‘squat’ little stoneburg eke. The Fishes-inn has a lovely bowery garden near the Ferry, like that of ‘Ye miller of Mansfield’ inn at Goring**. A lordly broad elmy grassslope takes one atop the hill to Chilswellfarm. Cumnorchurch I have beforen in my dayleaf bewritten. Ferry-Hincksey-thorpe is almost unevenlikened for homely fairship and strawthatched loveliness. Cumnor also is fully worthy of Berskire [Berkshire], which is goodly herying.
Hengestesea, Hincksey. horseisland *markworthy for purse-throughgoring
May 13, 1901.
Stratford on Avon. Twaywheelriding.
Summertown. / Wolvercote. / Grapes-inn. / Begbroke. / Farglimpses. / Woodstock (newer).
William Lloyd and I offstarted about 9.10 and walkt to Southmoor-road where I borrowed Brett’s twaywheel. We foren along the wellknown Woodstock-road through the dull ugliness of Summertown, foreby King Edward’s school and cricketground foreby the shoddymakery, the Wolvercote brickmakery o’er the canalbridge o’er the ironwaybridge foreby the Grapes-inn, and the comely stretch of road wherein it stands, then the trees of Begbroke were behindleft mid the glimpse of Yarnton’s church and manorhouse (in the great wars of the 17th yearhundred ’twas as an hospital or sickhouse beneated): then came the glimpse yonsides thes roads of Kidlington’s farseen spire and a long smooth roadreach runnend foreby Blenheimpark into the dear old cheapingtown Woodstock; mid its eighteenhyearhundredly look: all the little cheapingtowns hereabout are alike in stamp,
The Glym-stream. / Old Woodstock. / Uplandbewriting / Gegendbeschreiben*. *description of the area
Faringdon, Bampton, Witney, Wantage, Abingdon, Henley in Arden, and many more; many thereof are, thank goodness, not on the headironways bestead. Leavend the headstreet on our lefthand we netherdipt aneath to the bridge o’er the Glym-stream whence is a wonderly backsight Woodstocks. O’er the Glym-stream we throughclimb the older Woodstock: and glide (only the roads are fiendly bumpy) foreby the outer reaches Blenheimparks along an high boardland and a mile or two further we dip adown, and hence to Stratford the way is a neverendend following of ridges – smoothheaded billowy ridges – and neathslopes, and is wearisome riding tho’ sometimes the Umgegend ist hübsch [surroundings are pretty]: stonewalls mingle mid scanty hedges, often mudbetopped: trees are few unto the Warwickshire-border, but there are fair wide outsights of downs and ridges and their smooth frithful folds ever selffollowend: into the Londonroad we come a little way
Long Compton.
ayont Woodstock and the road is still ungood: towards Warwickshire it is ironwaywise cut through an hillhead and anon upraised towards the bottom of a dale and upbricked: And so we reach the head of the long ridge that neathslopes to the elfsheen strawroofed thorp Long Compton (?combeton ?cwm) benempt. I well bemind me of the thrill wherewith I erst throughrode this Paradise-thorp when I erewhile throughrode Stratford & Alcester on my Worcester-faring in 1900. It is a blemishless wonderthorp: a long twayrow of wellbegardened blossomumgirded strawthatcht thorpcots mid a great wellbuilt frithful twowinged perpendicular-buildcraft worldwithdrawn fairshipchurch, and what a glorious besteading! on each side of the cwm upslopeth long ridgesides and rich grassy treey lithes: a little brookkin underwindeth the road and the whole is an ‘Earthly Paradise’: how William Morris had
Shipston on Stour. / Warwickshire-ingoing / Uplandbeothering. / Stratford on Avon. / old stonebridge. / Trinity-church.
loved this spot. Through milder ridgelands we fareden into Shipston on Stour a somewhat untidy little cheapingtown and eldlaves-unrich. The whole land is much beothered when we into Warwickshire cometh: the slopes are richer and the hedges are full: loose stonen walls are none: there is wealth of trees and aboveall of oaktrees which in Oxfordshire are wonderly few. There are huge and woulderly parks which make me feelen fierily socialistish. There is a goodly old church or two a little beyond Shipston and the land is pretty all the way; at last leavend an odd old grassbegrown roadsidetramway we mildly neathglideth to self Stratford; soon the lordly old Henry VII-ybuilded stonebridge is toraught and the old Trinity-church mid the new Globe-playhouse have long since offwrapt the eye: nothing coud be lovelier than the streambestead treeinnestlend wonderchurch: το καλον [the good, the beautiful (Plato’s ideal)] indeed is here, nor needeth shamworship Shakspeares to
Shakspeare-overthinkings. / Sorrowful thoughttracks. / Shakspeare-loremen & bookleeches.
outbringen it. Did ever any man say what he frankly thought and felt about Shakspeare? It can hardly be. I whiles wish that all his works had been loren or ybrent for man’s sorrows would be less were he befreed from Shakspeare-study socall’d as hollow mouthy gibberishy foolish wanhearty wanwitty wanaimly parroty apelike mustyheaded jobbernowlish lifeless soulless selfaware shamness and makebelief as ever the menshenunwit hath started: Shakspeare would split his sides mid belaughing his foolcommentators and I am to be one thereof, one of that learned and blessed ring, “the pity of it, the pity of it”: poor fool! One fool makes many and many maketh more, and so on to unending. O deathless Master William, if deathless indeed, would thou wert here from thy friends to rid us. They are untragbar [insufferable], I cannot thole their dustbrained mislearning, “Heyday! freedom” would be
“Civilisations”-lies. / “This dainty age”. / Birmingham-liewhirlwinds. / Hopings
our heartswelcoming. Shakspere was great ohne Zweifel [without doubt], though no more ‘infallible’ than the Pope but oh! his apebrained parrotlipped dustheaphuntend, gnatatstrainend wanwitty wanlifey commentatorkins: sed quantum sufficit [but that (much) is enough].
Wæ la wæ [woe oh woe]. “A mad world, my masters.”
O madness, madness! O the lies of “civilisation”, lies, lies, lies, lies, and d—d lies: Brodrickish conscription-plottings, Hatfield-Birminghamish warplottings, drunken ruffian-jingoism, khaki-arsenicful Toryelections, lies, lies, lies, lies, lies, lies, lies, and damned lies: Lies from South Africa ‘viâ’ St. Stephens + the Waroffice, lies viâ the Press, lies in Birmingham-townhall a tornado of reckless lying, lies in Monmouth, lies in Downingstreet, lie upon lie, heavenhigh, as the heap grows o’ertall, comes the certain fall, great is the fall of it, head, foot, and all of it, mighty the squall of it, many the bones, many the groans, thereunder buried, Heaven be heried.
Swan-inn. / Trinity-church. / Wunderschönheit [beauty].
We had lunch in the guestfriendly old guesthof the Swan inn ycalled this sides thes Avonbridges. It is a thoroughly eighteenthyearhundredly building: We smoked in its gardens our frithpipes and then onfared into the frithful dinless oldworld untowny cheapingtown: I talkt to two little eingeborener [native] lads the while Lloyd went over Shakspeares birthhouse: I had overseen it once whileere and yearned not to againoutlay 6d. on a Dryasdustly guideman. But then we onforen unto the church which I had never yseen and here must we eke 6d. outlayen: but the church is allerliefest allershapeliest allerloveliest bestead: from the town it is anighed by a treestreet from the churchyardgate to the N. churchdoor forthstretchend: and from the waterbank yonsides thes streams it is an only wonderonsight, the self ghost of frith and restfulness is in that treeinnestlend fairshipschurch. Inside it is
The frithstow. / Mindingsstone. / Gravestone. / Unbeschreiblichkeit* *indescribability
allerrichest: there are kept in glassen vats the registers inholdend Shakspeares birth- and burial-inwritings: and a copy of a Bible of James I’s days. the windows are rich mid perpendicular and decorated mullions, glass old and new: the sunshine swept woulderly over the old buildingcraft and the ‘chancel’, the frithstow was goldenfair. Therein was Shakspeare’s truly ‘Jacobean’ mindingsstone somewhat thuswise -
Therein eke behind the altarrails was Shakspeares gravestone mid the wellyknown inwrit “Good friend for Jesus’ sake forbeare” u.s.w. [etc.] I would that I had words wherein to bewrite this wonderfair church. “Quick thy tablets memory”. There were other old mindingsstones of Jacobish times in the church and a brass to Halliwell the Shaks-
Enstone. / The Bell-inn*/ swainhoodhealth-Bemarkings. / Afterthoughts. *corrected from “Merry-Bells-inn.”
-peregelerhte [-gelehrte = -learned] upyhungen: there was the Americanish window: mid the “martyrs” sogenannt [so-called] Laud, and Charles Ist ! and the behallowing thes first Colony-bishops mid the landing thes Pilgrimfathers. A good oaken underroof there was. On the homeward faring we had the welcomen evencoolness and thus gladly throughwent the rich slopes of greenthglad Warwickshire: at Enstone bestead on a steep ridgeslope we had tea an allerbest tea mid homemade plumjam at the ‘Bells’-inn: where we had befreshed ourselves mid lifewater (uisquebagh [whiskey]) thes morns. In the Warwickshirely thorpes I bemarked many stalwartlookend frimm- and healthy-seemend winterhaired uplandswains such as man all-too seldom nowadays seeeth. We rusht in even as the man was aginnend lighten the gaslamps. The further Lloyd goeth the fresher he growth. Those whose soulsyearning is sheer mechanical speed need not buy a twaywheel. Surely a crank be fully as good and reasonable!
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