Llewelyn Powys’ 126th Birthday Party at East Chaldon
13th August 2010
Neil
Lee-Atkin
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The
Llewelyn Birthday Walk, incorporating the annual meeting of the
Dandelion Club, (The Friends of Llewelyn Powys) took place on
Friday August 13th when a happy throng of celebrants
from far and wide gathered at noon at the Sailor’s Return in
East Chaldon, to celebrate Llewelyn’s 126th
birthday.
Considering that this annual event, inaugerated in 1994 by John
Batten, is free of any membership requirements and is open to
all, it would be expected that attendances would fluctuate from
year to year, and indeed they do; yet it is remarkable that on
no less than ten of the previous fifteen occasions there
has been the proverbial ‘Baker’s Dozen’ of us in attendance, and
this year was no exception: `Thirteen Worthies’ once again
constituted the birthday party!
The Dandelion Club welcomed new members Byron and Eirlys Ashton
who had travelled from South Wales, and Sean and Debbie Lowe who
had driven down overnight with me from Derbyshire, and it was
good to renew old friendships with Ged Redman from Somerset and
Richard Burleigh, and John and Jayne Sanders from
Wellingborough. It was a nice surprise to find that Rosemary
Dickens was well enough to attend and we were grateful to Dennis
for driving her down from Salisbury, along with her father
Norman, who at 93 is possibly the oldest person to walk up the
hill from Chydyok to Llewelyn’s Stone high on Chaldon Down, and
who surely deserves our heartiest congratulations on his
achievement. Well done Norman! As those of us who are familiar
with the long and sometimes steep climb up the uneven, rutted
flint strewn track have discovered, the older one gets, the
steeper it seems - and the greater the sense and feeling of
triumph upon finally reaching the Stone …
Prior to the meeting several of us walked to the churchyard and
paid our respects beside the small cluster of stone tablets, one
of which bears the names of Valentine Ackland and Sylvia
Townsend Warner, whilst another alongside marks the final
resting place of Janet Pollock, with beside it the simple wooden
cross bearing the initials K.P.
Back to the Sailor’s Return and Chris Gostick opened proceedings
by welcoming everyone, and paying tribute to John Batten who
first discovered the request in Llewelyn’s Will that … the
sum of £100 be deposited at the Sailor’s Return, so that on the
occasion of my birthday my friends may drink to my memory,
and who instigated and led the first party to fulfil that
request, but who sadly couldn’t be with us on this occasion,
having been kidnapped by his grandchildren and spirited away to
the Norfolk Broads for a fortnight. Apologies were also received
from Rob and Honor Timlin who were absent owing to a last-minute
family crisis, and our sincere good wishes were expressed in
return. Chris invited us to raise our glasses to Llewelyn’s
memory, and we then drank a toast to 'absent friends’ before
setting off over the village green towards Chydyok Road and the
climb up and over Chalky Knapp to Llewelyn’s Stone high on
Chaldon Down.
Nine of us paused and moved aside on the first steep climb up to
Chalky Knapp to allow the car driven by Dennis to bump its way
slowly past…… and looked enviously at Rosemary and Norman waving
gleefully from the back seat as they disappeared up the track in
a cloud of dust.
We gathered outside the gate at Chydyok and listened as Chris
read an excerpt from The Diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner
(edited by Claire Harman, 1994) for the dates 1st
to 3rd July 1961, which record an evocative weekend
spent with Janet Machen shortly after Janet had taken over the
lease at Chydyok: she writes of the horse-drawn hay-carts
carrying the harvested barley, rattling down the lane in the
late mid-summer twilight.
Chris paid a special tribute to Janet (Machen) Pollock whose
leasing of Chydyok from the Weld Estates over a fifty year
period, and generosity in renting it out, had allowed many of us
the privilege of staying in Llewelyn and Alyse’s side of the
house and experiencing its unique atmosphere. As he spoke we
gazed up in admiration at the splendid new roof, wondered if the
recent refurbishments had changed the atmosphere inside, and
speculated about the cost of a week’s rental in what is now an
upgraded and improved `holiday cottage’. Ged Redman also
expressed concern about the whereabouts of Llewelyn’s iron ankh,
which for many years had stood resplendent above the old
fireplace in the front room and has now been removed.
The weather had been kind to us so far, but as we walked up over
Tumbledown the storm clouds began to gather. The warm August
sunshine disappeared and was replaced by a leaden sky as we
crested the hilltop and went though the final gate onto the
coastal footpath above Bat’s Head, with Portland still in clear
view to the south-west. Fifteen minutes later as we turned the
corner by the Obelisk Field and Llewelyn’s Stone came into view,
Portland had completely disappeared as the first raindrops began
to fall, and by the time everyone had gathered around the Stone
and I had opened Elwin’s The Life of Llewelyn Powys’ to
read from, the heavens opened and in seconds everything — and
everyone — was soaked. There is no shelter from the elements on
High Chaldon, so those of us who had the fortitude to bring
coats quickly donned them, whilst those who didn’t got very wet
indeed! The rather hurried reading was taken from p. 192-3 of
Malcolm Elwin’s The Life of Llewelyn Powys and consisted
of a review of The Cradle of God by Percy Hutchinson,
published in the New York Times Book Review in the late
Autumn of 1939. It concluded:
From the ranks of the many authors of the day possessing talent,
possessing great talent, and using it greatly, Llewelyn Powys
stands out as having little of talent, but as gripped by that
rare and indefinable thing we call genius.
Granting the unsafeness of prophecy, it is all but safe to say
that long after much of what is written today has passed to dust
and been forgotten, page after page of this Dorsetshire poet who
writes in prose will claim literary attention, as many writers
of the past claim attention still, for understanding and for
strange beauty of utterance.
An about-turn and swift retreat ensued as the final words were
spoken and the rain chased us away, ceasing only when Chydyok
came into view as we crested Tumbledown and started down the
track back to East Chaldon. Richard Burleigh had gallantly held
the fort in our absence and welcomed us warmly back to the
Sailor’s Return where, wet and somewhat bedraggled, we reflected
happily on the day’s events, before saying our goodbyes and
pledging to meet again one year hence, once more to raise a
glass in memory of Llewelyn Powys, and to share the pleasure of
renewed friendships.
From The Powys Society Newsletter, No 71, Nov 2010
Neil Lee-Atkin
Llewelyn
Walk -125th Anniversary, August 2009
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