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Powys Society Publication List Powys titles currently in print A Visit to The National Library of Wales Supplement to Powys Checklist & Readers’ Guide 2010 TFP The Voice of God by Michael Kowalewski JCP OWEN GLENDOWER The Seen and the Unseen by P.J. Kavanagh First Powys Lecture in Ireland
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From JCP's Diary, February 1934
Saturday, February 10, 1934 [...] Took Black to Grotto before breakfast & also again at 4 o'clock and worked upstairs while the T.T. cleaned the house with the vacuum-cleaner and began all her preparations. This is the worst of it. Her agitation before - Willy being a stranger to her. Well! well! let's pray it will go off all right. I set out with Albert in the big car to meet them & Peter and Elizabeth rode in front with Albert. Elizabeth has green eyes and a battered face but she is very very nice - quiet - very shy with a stammer from nervousness which is very appealing & beguiling. I felt she was rather pathetic but the T.T. says she has plenty of spirit to cope with life. The T.T. got them a wonderful dinner of a Krick chicken and we opened a bottle of Madeira given us by Mr Theobal [sic] which the T.T. liked better than any wine she has ever tasted. As for Willy himself I am thrilled by him far more far more than I expected to be. He reminds me of my mother very often. We all sat up until 12. Will and I took Peter up to the Steitz.
Sunday, February 11 Warmer Warmer Warmer! Up at 6.55. Saw the sunrise. Did the things. Peter who is really very nice here & very good - (He is now busy with the T.T.['s] Jigsaw Puzzle) went to the Garbage with me & all the rigmaroles out there. Then I took the Old & Willy & Elizabeth to the Grotto & showed them Hemlocks and Hickories & the Platanus of Cos. Came back by the Krick meadow there the "Old" caracoled very hap[pi]ly round us. Marian met us in our field. She is in wonderful health and in very good spirits in fact in radiant spirits. After breakfast Peter fed the Starlings & Willy & Elizabeth looked at the Flower Book while Marian looked at the Bird book. Peter came past Rex this morn without qualms tho' he barked at him he says. Marian took Willy & Elizabeth to the Waggoner hill ... hoping to see the Catskills. I do really think the T.T. has got through the worst. Willy has brought me a wonderful oak stick -- I am more thrilled by this than by any present I have ever had. He climbed into an Oak at Lucy & cut it with his hook or axe. Lucy was fearful lest he should fall down. It is a club! It is very very formidable. It is a wonderful stick and it is an Oak-stick. I think it is a sort of "Sacred" Yes I think of it as a sort of "sacred" -- O I hope I shall keep it till I die! it wd. be hard to lose it - for sure. Took them all in the afternoon to the Precipice and then down to the "bent" grass field then to the Dangerous Well which scared old Will, then to the Steitz lane & home by Gibbet Tree and "lying down" fence. We had a wonderful Volentiā Tea Tangerines & Ginger & Madeira wine later. I came to bed at Twelve. Their voices were so merry, especially Marian's as I listened to them from the Attic!
Monday, February 12 Warmer Warmer Warmer a Spring day. ... Found the Parlour Fire very low & instead of leaving it with the draughts I poked it down & shook it down & lo! it went out! Just think of that! With Marian, Will, Elizabeth & Peter on the scene. Fire gone out! [...] I went for a walk to Grotto with Black & with Marian alone. Strong & happy & full of Resolution & Indepen[den]ce as she is I thought her countenance looked pinched & contorted and her nerves strained tho' her cheeks were so blooming and her spirits were radiant. We had a very happy breakfast. Then they all went off sledging in the flat lot. Both last night & the night before I went with Will to take Peter to the Steitz. As we came home Rex came near to biting Will. And Will explained that he is not very fond of dogs and distrusted them -- just as I do myself [.] I keep noticing resemblences between myself and Will. I also seem to see him as resembling Theodore especially in his humour - I've heard him say things exactly in Theodore's tone. To High Wood & Tintern Abbey with W & E. Marian & Peter went after lunch. W & E drove with them.
Tuesday, February 13 [...] The wind is North West Did all very liesurely [sic]with all Rigmaroles! Will wrote a letter to Lulu. Elizabeth studied Sears Roebuck and then Willy came with me and was amused as I led up the river on the virgin snow on the ice of the river by the Alders. He enjoyed the snow with such an ecstas[s]y! last night the T.T.said how she admired Willy that he was exactly like Captain Lingard & has a non-human expression in his eyes. She is simply thrilled by him and that is the truth! [...] Willy & Elizabeth walked beyond the old cemetery beyond Paul Curtis' farm where Lulu used to go and as far as the late Mr Lemon's stone house or stone hut. They did enjoy it! [...] Will & I went alone to the Lutheran Pond - home by Lesbian Tree & the Second Post Hill. Read St Agnes Eve at night and also about the Jobber & Perdita -- No Hurting Went such a cold walk with Will alone!
Wednesday, February 14, St. Valentine's Day -- Ash Wednesday 2 Below Zero on our thermometer. Cold. Up at 6.15 and the T.T.woke up very agitated about the Pump which seemed sticky to her in its sound. She dressed downstairs. I dressed upstairs. She did the stoves, as far as shaking & poking down goes, & I carried the Ashes out & did all the things hurriedly. And the little T.T. did sit over kitchen stove looking so terribly forlorn & wretched with her hair loose & such a sad expression. I hugged her & pressed little oval head and by degrees she got happier especially after a cup of tea & an oaten biscuit. Our oaten biscuits are a success but our two friends like so particularly [sic] the T.T.'s thin bread & butter. I did all & then went with Will to Prometheus Stone - & as we walked Will told me about putting lucky stones in a cleft near a very dangerous piece of Jungle and about the expression "Mungu y Showery!" Let God see to it . . Let it be as Homer wd. say - a care to "μέλέι", τοίς θέοις - a care to the Gods! - Let it be God's Look-out! Mungu must deal with thik little job! Then at Breakfast on this Valentine's Day Feb 14th 1934 we discussed seriously and most earnestly the Idea of going to live with W & E in Africa. The T.T. thought of it first! The T.T. would really like it. Yes she would really and truly like it! really & truly like it. I have always known she liked the idea of a landscape with wild animals in it. And she wd. have no housework at all and no zero weather and we would have no people with literary ideas! She likes Elizabeth very much & so do I; especially when she has that very provocative stammer which is one of her shynesses. Went with Will & the Black to visit Mr & Mrs Freehan & they liked them as much as I hoped they would and that wonderful room of theirs with a window looking out our way! Then went on with old Will & the Black up past Ficke's towards the Uzener Farm but the drifts were too heavy & we had to return as we came[.] But Will stopped and drew a sketch of the view from beyond Arthur's Spinney - with the Mountains and Curtis' wood.
Thursday, February 15th Up at 7 o'clock. The T.T. [who was unwell] had more sleep towards the latter part of the night. I did not shave & I did all in haste. Elizabeth has been wonderful in getting the meals for us without aid & washing up. The T.T. has slept a good deal. This has not been such a bad time as sometimes. Went with Will to the Platanus of Cos. Met old Paul Curtis at the burying-ground. He got out to talk to us. They set out about 12 o'clock for a long walk & made a sketch of Ray Becker's Barn or of that other Barn cottage where I once visited that old man who said he was a Cameron. They visited Mr Curtis after their dinner at the Steitz and talked about sheep and cattle. They like Mr Curtis very much. At five Will & I and the Black set out and went the Round by the Lutheran church and visited Mr Waddle's Dam. I have explained to Will that I would sooner not decide to come to Africa. Though in the end it is possible that it will be the best thing to do but yesterday the T.T. had a reaction against it largely for my sake. She would herself like it as a trip but not as permanent and of course my mind finds the idea of calling it just a temporary visit takes the heart out of it. I can only call up my real spirit when I think of it as permanent. Will told me about his relations with the ex-husband of Elizabeth. [...] We talked of their difficulties and of my difficulties and then I read all the Odes of Keats! Will has painted that picture he sketched and it is one of his very best if not his best.
Friday, February 16th [...] Will & Elizabeth got up early and she got him his breakfast for Carl was to take him to Hudson. This they did and he brought back as presents to the T.T. [a] beautiful bunch of fragrant pink Stocks and a Cineraria in a Pot. [...] Elizabeth actually walked to the Ridge that is the boundary of our Horizon - what a girl she is! I am astonished at her. What spirit! What courage! What an aristocratic accent - and what a pretty mouth with the upper teeth beyond the lower always the nicest sign and one which I share me wone self! Will & I & the "Old" had a lovely late walk by the thin moon wh. was lying on her back [drawing] and we entered Mr Ray Becker's house and I looked with amazement at his valuable chairs and looked at that romantic cedar thro' the Tiny panes. He got a lantern and took us past the most beautiful and romantic Barn I have seen in the whole of my life, very tall & untried by paint or mending yes untried by any tricks & as high as a house [at?] the base -- then up & up & up towards the sky a great black wall with a little window with panes like the house had. And then Ray Becker pushed himself thro' a crack like a little postern into a castle & old Will went after he but the Black & I were outside - My coat was too thick . . I could not squeeze in so Ray Becker made an entrance for me & I went in - there in a dark straw-floored place were a dozen great wooly sheep & a ram & Will caught a sheep by hind leg & Mr Becker caught the ram & Will felt their wool holding the lantern to them and he talked knowingly to Mr Becker then we said goodbye [.] When we got there Mr Becker was getting water in a pail from a black hole by the roadside - wh. was his water-supply. It was lovely coming back by that lonely lane. After tea I played chess with Will - a fine game of Chess and after that I did read to them my Dorchester chapter in Autobiography. Was late to bed 12.30. Felt very tired but I did so enjoy playing chess with Will!
Saturday, February 17th [...] old Will was working so hard at his painting that he took no account of time at all and an hour and a half seemed to me [sic] like ten minutes! "How quick you''ve been!" he said to me when I have never been slower, when I was an hour over garbage & over the old papers & the ashes not to speak of shaving. But so absorbed was Will in the Study painting that it all seemed like ten minutes ... he was rapt. He was absolutely lost to the world. He was working at a picture taken from Arthur's spinney of Curtis' wood & the Mountains. Then I begged this kind & good Elizabeth - this simple-minded brave aristocrat - to go for eggs & butter which she did willingly. Then I went with Will & the "Old" to the Grotto. On the way he told me about the Kikuyu natives and his best "boys" -- Their names are hard to recall one sounds like "jow" & one like "mengara" and one like Carew. "Jow" is the one who can count 20 000 sheep by means of sticks & marks on the dust of his legs! At breakfast old Will held us simply entranced while he told of his first adventures in Africa & of being put out at Sunset in a plain and of an animal like a leopard coming out of the bushes and of the maduran Seymour who said he wd. buy all cows in world & larn 'em to whistle & of how the natives used to click at him & he would chase them on his pony into the thorn bushes and they always escaped. He told me how the natives were afraid of the snow-topped mountain because the ghosts Marsi kept there the ghosts of cattle & how he told them he would go up & raid those ghost-cattle and how on a dangerous path they always put stones on the branches for luck as we used to do on the Yeovil road but they never took them away and by & bye they fell down in heaps under the trees Mungo y showery! Mungu y showery! Let it be a care to Mungu! "Let it be Mungu's little affair!" Will & I & the Old went to the Lutheran Church via the Grotto & back the same way under the Moon & stars. Noted Orion in the East & I think Cygnus in the West. In the evening Will beat me at chess. He imitated the roar of a Lion & ma[d]e Sintram arch his back. A letter came to Elizabeth from her little girl. Will is always in the study painting. They suit is so well that the T.T. cried out I wish they were staying here for a month! Never has she said this of any other living people!
Sunday, February 18 Up at 6.20 down at 6.35 Showed Will & Elizabeth the Sun rising. It rose at 7.5 and took exactly 3 minutes ere the full circle of it appeared. So at 7.8 it had completely appeared over the ridge. I kissed their countenances all illuminated by the Sun. [...] We had a lovely breakfast but a hurried one waiting for Carl to come on foot & take them on foot to see the sheep of Mr Curtis in the barn with the golden weather-cock in Harlemville. Mr Curtis (not Paul) but the son of that blind old man who is said to have had Indian blood - the Squire of Harlemville! Carl came in very friendly & the "Old" did greet him. The T.T. suggested when they were gone that I should give Will my Hickory Stick but I do not think I can endure to part with it -- besides it is very short! At breakfast they spoke of looking about in Wales where she has relatives & in Abbotsbury too for lodgings for us when we come. The T.T. has always leaned to Wales & in Wales we would be further away from all relations! And I could go & stay with Lulu and yet remain "independent" So perhaps after all after all, we shall go to Wales which is so dear to the heart of the T.T. and was her first idea -- & there when I have collected a lot of "the Authors" as Mr Evans would say I shall really be able to write my great work on Welsh soil. & maybe Elizabeth could make all smooth for us there, even as Mr & Missy. Think if it should work out that Will was the one really - he & his lady - to decide & make smooth our Destiny! The T.T. has finished Lulu's waistcoat & has got from her mother the most lovely of all quilts, a patchwork quilt, to give W.E., for their bed in Africa. What a genius for presents the T.T. has! Went with Will & the Old to Tintern Abbey and back by the Stone of Fal. In the evening I read the Shirley chapter of my Autobiography.
Monday, February 19, 1934 [...] Down dressed at 6.35. Did all pretty liesurely. Called the little T.T. She got up soon. Called old Will. He got [up] at once. Made tea with Will for Elizabeth. She got up. Will went into his Studio and finished a fine picture for Mrs Krick. One of his best! His hot-sand pictures are, I think, better than his green grass pictures or I suppose I should say green- trees- pictures after Rain. Albert & Dora came bringing the good news that Conrad Uzener has given them a Candle-Mould & Hattie has got it. So they need not after all go to Clum's - whose light I showed Will from Tintern Abbey last night. He will only make a sketch of Kricks & of Phudd Bottom from the Quarry Hill. Took Will & Black nearly to Platanus of Cos & so home. [...] We had a lovely breakfast Will telling of the 25 Rams from New Zealand at 20 pounds each they have bought and of Australia having the best Rams of all. He said that Lulu could not bear to talk of buying selling Rams or sheep remembering how he was bullied at Cole's.* I talked of my difficulties with the Publishers .. . & asked old Will's advice. He said not to sign up for Autobiography till I had got what I wanted. Last night I read to them about the return of Odysseus & the dog Argos & the swineherd. The wind is South today. It is warmer. Really warmer. Old Paul Curtis that Man of Iron very kindly came with a drawing he had made for them of how they might build a particular kind of cattle-stall. Will talked to him about sheep & cattle & astonished him by telling how they could get all their food for themselves - at the rate of three acres to a sheep! Then they went to the Quarry Hill to sketch the house & the Krick's house from there.[...]They all came back from the Steitz with that Mould for Candles and it is the very one that old Mrs Steitz used to use when that was how they were made [.] Will got Elizabeth to sing the Welsh National Anthem which was certainly the first national air that has made us cry. Both of us cried when they were driven off by Albert. Thank the Lord they came! [...] This has been of all visits the one by far enjoyed the most by the T.T. *Galbraith Cole: Llewelyn's first employer in Africa From The Powys Society Newsletter, No 71, Nov 2010
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