• Sometimes the exotic can pop up in the most prosaic places. Princess Caraboo, Devon’s C18/19 wild child celebrity fantasist, impostor, and creator of a silent imaginary language, - which she ‘performed’ rather than wrote on page- made up of strange oriental characters, is a case in point. Baptised Mary Willcocks, and daughter of a cobbler from Stretchdown, a tiny hamlet on the southern edge of Witheridge, Caraboo, as she self-identified, after drifting away from family and Devon, became object of public notoriety. Before she left her home county to join a band of gypsies Mary Willcocks apparently worked for the Moon family, at Bradford Barton, which is I believe just north of Witheridge. History Press has a piece about Caraboo if you’ve interested, at https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-mysterious-princess-caraboo/ One day, when I was on the way to the even more isolated parish of Cheldon to take flowers for my parents’ grave, I decided to locate Stretchdown. Short of stopping at the houses/cottages that are now at the hamlet, to ask permission, it proved difficult to find a suitable spot to take photos, so instead I found a suitable spot looking back across the fields, on one of the nearby Witheridge access roads. Not ideal, but at least the picture points up the contrast between the rural and presumed isolated Devon homelands of this extraordinary girl and the spectacular exploits of her adventures as Caraboo, ‘Princess of the imaginary island of Javasu’ … Actually, Caraboo was just one of a trio of infamous C18/19 literary-linked Devon women … (along with Joanna Southcott and Elizabeth Chudleigh) … Must be something in the air… #Caraboo #PrincessCaraboo #Witheridge #Devon #lostliterarylinks #Devonwriters #Devonwomeninhistory #Stretchdown #BradfordBarton #MaryWillcocksfromWitheridge #lookingbackonDevon’spast #Javasu
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    Sometimes the exotic can pop up in the most prosaic places. Princess Caraboo, Devon’s C18/19 wild child celebrity fantasist, impostor, and creator of a silent imaginary language, - which she ‘performed’ rather than wrote on page- made up of strange oriental characters, is a case in point. Baptised Mary Willcocks, and daughter of a cobbler from Stretchdown, a tiny hamlet on the southern edge of Witheridge, Caraboo, as she self-identified, after drifting away from family and Devon, became object of public notoriety. Before she left her home county to join a band of gypsies Mary Willcocks apparently worked for the Moon family, at Bradford Barton, which is I believe just north of Witheridge. History Press has a piece about Caraboo if you’ve interested, at https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-mysterious-princess-caraboo/ One day, when I was on the way to the even more isolated parish of Cheldon to take flowers for my parents’ grave, I decided to locate Stretchdown. Short of stopping at the houses/cottages that are now at the hamlet, to ask permission, it proved difficult to find a suitable spot to take photos, so instead I found a suitable spot looking back across the fields, on one of the nearby Witheridge access roads. Not ideal, but at least the picture points up the contrast between the rural and presumed isolated Devon homelands of this extraordinary girl and the spectacular exploits of her adventures as Caraboo, ‘Princess of the imaginary island of Javasu’ … Actually, Caraboo was just one of a trio of infamous C18/19 literary-linked Devon women … (along with Joanna Southcott and Elizabeth Chudleigh) … Must be something in the air… #Caraboo #PrincessCaraboo #Witheridge #Devon #lostliterarylinks #Devonwriters #Devonwomeninhistory #Stretchdown #BradfordBarton #MaryWillcocksfromWitheridge #lookingbackonDevon’spast #Javasu
  • ‘And these are yours oh Mountains/these around your Time-Bleached summits mingle in the air’ (Sophie Dixon from ‘Castilian Hours’ 1829). #writingthewild is not a new phenomenon and in the C19 several #Devon women became well-known for their #writings #journals about their travels through the county’s landscapes. Sophie Dixon, who was from #Plymouth or #Tavistock, wrote poetry as well as fiction and kept travelogues about her travels in the county- especially on #Dartmoor and surrounding places. One fan called Dixon’s travel journals a ‘discourse of Dartmoor discovery’. One of these #journals - from which the page in the accompanying picture was taken - was published in 1830 as ‘Ten Days Excursion on the western and northern borders of Dartmoor’. Unfortunately, as yet very little information has been found about Sophie Dixon’s life or family ... #lettingwordsspeakforthemselves #Dartmoordaughters #Devonhistory #Dartmoor #Okehampton #Belstone #womenwritingtheDevonlandscape #Devonwomenwriters #C19journalists #travellinginDevon #SophieDixon
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    ‘And these are yours oh Mountains/these around your Time-Bleached summits mingle in the air’ (Sophie Dixon from ‘Castilian Hours’ 1829). #writingthewild is not a new phenomenon and in the C19 several #Devon women became well-known for their #writings #journals about their travels through the county’s landscapes. Sophie Dixon, who was from #Plymouth or #Tavistock, wrote poetry as well as fiction and kept travelogues about her travels in the county- especially on #Dartmoor and surrounding places. One fan called Dixon’s travel journals a ‘discourse of Dartmoor discovery’. One of these #journals - from which the page in the accompanying picture was taken - was published in 1830 as ‘Ten Days Excursion on the western and northern borders of Dartmoor’. Unfortunately, as yet very little information has been found about Sophie Dixon’s life or family ... #lettingwordsspeakforthemselves #Dartmoordaughters #Devonhistory #Dartmoor #Okehampton #Belstone #womenwritingtheDevonlandscape #Devonwomenwriters #C19journalists #travellinginDevon #SophieDixon
  • ‘When all alone in some beloved Retreat,/Remote from Noise, from Bus’ness, and from Strife/Those constant curst Attendants of the Great; I freely can with my own Thoughts converse,: And cloath them in ignoble Verse... (From ‘To Clorissa’ by Mary Lady Chudleigh) Place Barton at Higher Ashton in Devon, once home of the proto-feminist C17 poet and essayist Mary Lady Chudleigh, is now, I understand, the exclusive and idyllic wedding venue, called ‘The Great Barn’. The old archway, which when I visited Ashton at least a decade ago, I imagined as one of the still extant features of the site, is probably no longer there. Her writings suggest that the poet loved her pastoral retreat - ‘cool was the place, and quiet as my mind’- in the depths of rural C17 Devon. Can’t imagine what she would make of her home being focus of the hustle and bustle accoutrements of a C21 marriage ... #Devon #Devonwriters #LadyMaryChudleigh #Ashton #PlaceBarton #Womenwritersofthepast #17poets #Findingthepast #lookingforthepast #Devonhistory #writingwomenintothedevonlandscape
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    ‘When all alone in some beloved Retreat,/Remote from Noise, from Bus’ness, and from Strife/Those constant curst Attendants of the Great; I freely can with my own Thoughts converse,: And cloath them in ignoble Verse... (From ‘To Clorissa’ by Mary Lady Chudleigh) Place Barton at Higher Ashton in Devon, once home of the proto-feminist C17 poet and essayist Mary Lady Chudleigh, is now, I understand, the exclusive and idyllic wedding venue, called ‘The Great Barn’. The old archway, which when I visited Ashton at least a decade ago, I imagined as one of the still extant features of the site, is probably no longer there. Her writings suggest that the poet loved her pastoral retreat - ‘cool was the place, and quiet as my mind’- in the depths of rural C17 Devon. Can’t imagine what she would make of her home being focus of the hustle and bustle accoutrements of a C21 marriage ... #Devon #Devonwriters #LadyMaryChudleigh #Ashton #PlaceBarton #Womenwritersofthepast #17poets #Findingthepast #lookingforthepast #Devonhistory #writingwomenintothedevonlandscape
  • ‘I never saw enough but once, an that was on All Soul’s night, under the full moon, but I heard ‘em time an’ again, often in spring where I’d been gathering Kingslips by the stream. I’d wonder where they lay buried.’ (Castle on the Hill, by Goudge). Recently I visited Wells to find the once-home of author Elizabeth Goudge, who’d written some of her most acclaimed novels in Devon, where she’d lived for eleven years. One of them was ‘Castle on the Hill’, said to be inspired by legends of haunted Berry Pomeroy castle. It took a while to locate the two houses - Tower House where Goudge spent the first two years of her life and Rib House just across the road, where the family moved and stayed for nearly a decade. Rib House has a blue plaque for Goudge but situated on the wall outside the property with overhanging ivy, it’s easy to miss. Actually that day, more intriguing than the houses themselves were strange ‘was she a ghost’(?) moments. Wandering in and out the Cathedral’s environs, my path crossed several times with a young girl, of about eight or nine. She seemed solitary. Lost in a world of her own. Not of our time. The first time we passed on the pavement leading to Rib House. Second time she was walking back along the same road leading a dog. Third time, dog had gone; girl was sitting on the wall gazing at the famous Wells Cathedral Clock. It must have just struck midday. The last time I saw her she appeared in front of me as I walked back across the Cathedral Green, idling along and looking from side to side as though taking in everything around her. As I left the Green she was studying the Notice Board. Yes of course the girl was most likely local, and had a home and family nearby. But, afterwards , I remembered that Elizabeth Goudge is known as an author who professed fascination with the extraordinary, the other-life - call it what you will. Totally fanciful I’m sure, but maybe the girl Goudge had returned to watch over her home city (featuring ‘City of Bells’). I’ve begun a poem about the ‘encounter’. It begins ‘You never know when the ghost flips into the tourist crowd’ #Wells #womenwriters #Devon #Somerset #whowasshe? #AllSoul’sDay #thattimeofyear
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    ‘I never saw enough but once, an that was on All Soul’s night, under the full moon, but I heard ‘em time an’ again, often in spring where I’d been gathering Kingslips by the stream. I’d wonder where they lay buried.’ (Castle on the Hill, by Goudge). Recently I visited Wells to find the once-home of author Elizabeth Goudge, who’d written some of her most acclaimed novels in Devon, where she’d lived for eleven years. One of them was ‘Castle on the Hill’, said to be inspired by legends of haunted Berry Pomeroy castle. It took a while to locate the two houses - Tower House where Goudge spent the first two years of her life and Rib House just across the road, where the family moved and stayed for nearly a decade. Rib House has a blue plaque for Goudge but situated on the wall outside the property with overhanging ivy, it’s easy to miss. Actually that day, more intriguing than the houses themselves were strange ‘was she a ghost’(?) moments. Wandering in and out the Cathedral’s environs, my path crossed several times with a young girl, of about eight or nine. She seemed solitary. Lost in a world of her own. Not of our time. The first time we passed on the pavement leading to Rib House. Second time she was walking back along the same road leading a dog. Third time, dog had gone; girl was sitting on the wall gazing at the famous Wells Cathedral Clock. It must have just struck midday. The last time I saw her she appeared in front of me as I walked back across the Cathedral Green, idling along and looking from side to side as though taking in everything around her. As I left the Green she was studying the Notice Board. Yes of course the girl was most likely local, and had a home and family nearby. But, afterwards , I remembered that Elizabeth Goudge is known as an author who professed fascination with the extraordinary, the other-life - call it what you will. Totally fanciful I’m sure, but maybe the girl Goudge had returned to watch over her home city (featuring ‘City of Bells’). I’ve begun a poem about the ‘encounter’. It begins ‘You never know when the ghost flips into the tourist crowd’ #Wells #womenwriters #Devon #Somerset #whowasshe? #AllSoul’sDay #thattimeofyear
  • ‘A woman stood on her back-step, arms folded, waiting’. (Opening of Doris Lessing’s’ Summer Before the Dark). In 1964 Doris Lessing - possibly encouraged by her friend Ted Hughes, who lived only five miles away - bought a Longhouse on the edge of Belstone. In 1968 she converted a shippen, (then still used for horses) into a writing-room, from where she could write and gaze across the paddock northwards to Exmoor. Whilst in Devon Lessing may have been writing ‘Summer Before the Dark’, (pub. 1973) and other books including ‘The Black Madonna’ (1966) and ‘Winter in July’ (1966). #Belstone #Devon #DorisLessing #writers #Dartmoor #Dartmoorwriters #womenwriters #DorisLessing100th #writteninDevon
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    ‘A woman stood on her back-step, arms folded, waiting’. (Opening of Doris Lessing’s’ Summer Before the Dark). In 1964 Doris Lessing - possibly encouraged by her friend Ted Hughes, who lived only five miles away - bought a Longhouse on the edge of Belstone. In 1968 she converted a shippen, (then still used for horses) into a writing-room, from where she could write and gaze across the paddock northwards to Exmoor. Whilst in Devon Lessing may have been writing ‘Summer Before the Dark’, (pub. 1973) and other books including ‘The Black Madonna’ (1966) and ‘Winter in July’ (1966). #Belstone #Devon #DorisLessing #writers #Dartmoor #Dartmoorwriters #womenwriters #DorisLessing100th #writteninDevon
  • Am reposting this edited photo as I’ve just realised in the last post I gave C20 Devon writer Margaret Pedler’s home the wrong name! If you’re interested please see my previous Instagram post. #Devon #Devonwomenwriters #writers’homes #romancewriters #20writers #ZealMonachorum
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    Am reposting this edited photo as I’ve just realised in the last post I gave C20 Devon writer Margaret Pedler’s home the wrong name! If you’re interested please see my previous Instagram post. #Devon #Devonwomenwriters #writers’homes #romancewriters #20writers #ZealMonachorum
  • “She was frankly delighted to be home again and was experiencing that peculiar charm of the Devonshire village which lies in the fact that you may go away from it for several years and return to find it almost unchanged”. From ‘The Splendid Folly’ by Margaret Pedler (1917). During early decades of the C20 Margaret Pedler, writer of at least 25 romance fiction novels, was Devon’s ‘Queen of Romance’. Following musical training at The Royal Academy of Music and composition of several classical songs, she married William George Quick Pedler, of Baron’sWood near Zeal Monachorum in mid Devon. ‘Splendid Folly’ was her first novel and like many others, features Devon settings (see eg ‘The House of Dreams Come True’). Although Pedler’s books are very much written within the popular and predictable plot restrictions of C20 Romance, they also read as interesting takes on women’s roles in the culture the author lived and wrote in. #Devon #ZealMonachorum #Bow #womenwriters #devonlandscape #romancewriters #literaryhistory #MargaretPedler #womeninsociety #lostliterature #writers’homes #queenofromance #novels #fiction #c20fiction
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    “She was frankly delighted to be home again and was experiencing that peculiar charm of the Devonshire village which lies in the fact that you may go away from it for several years and return to find it almost unchanged”. From ‘The Splendid Folly’ by Margaret Pedler (1917). During early decades of the C20 Margaret Pedler, writer of at least 25 romance fiction novels, was Devon’s ‘Queen of Romance’. Following musical training at The Royal Academy of Music and composition of several classical songs, she married William George Quick Pedler, of Baron’sWood near Zeal Monachorum in mid Devon. ‘Splendid Folly’ was her first novel and like many others, features Devon settings (see eg ‘The House of Dreams Come True’). Although Pedler’s books are very much written within the popular and predictable plot restrictions of C20 Romance, they also read as interesting takes on women’s roles in the culture the author lived and wrote in. #Devon #ZealMonachorum #Bow #womenwriters #devonlandscape #romancewriters #literaryhistory #MargaretPedler #womeninsociety #lostliterature #writers’homes #queenofromance #novels #fiction #c20fiction
  • In 1807, a poetry collection by Mary Ward included a poem about Okehampton Castle (from which the above lines are taken). Ward titled the poem ‘Oakhampton Castle’. Although from our C21 perspective the poem is written in old-fashioned language, its laboured iambic lines project an appropriate mood of gothic splendour. As yet I’ve not established much information about the poem’s author - except that she may have come from Brixham and dedicated her book to the Countess of Loudon. If anyone out there knows anymore about Mary Ward do get in touch ... #writtenindevon #Okehampton #OkehamptonCastle #Devon #poets #C19poetry #lostwomenwriters #Brixham #Devonhistory #Dartmoor #Dartmoor365
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    In 1807, a poetry collection by Mary Ward included a poem about Okehampton Castle (from which the above lines are taken). Ward titled the poem ‘Oakhampton Castle’. Although from our C21 perspective the poem is written in old-fashioned language, its laboured iambic lines project an appropriate mood of gothic splendour. As yet I’ve not established much information about the poem’s author - except that she may have come from Brixham and dedicated her book to the Countess of Loudon. If anyone out there knows anymore about Mary Ward do get in touch ... #writtenindevon #Okehampton #OkehamptonCastle #Devon #poets #C19poetry #lostwomenwriters #Brixham #Devonhistory #Dartmoor #Dartmoor365
  • ‘Went through a little beech-wood where the foliage was breaking like a green mist among the grey stems; onto Yannadon Common...Many skylarks singing aloft in spite of the wind. Saw a Hawk poised over the eastern side of the down. Gathered some Whinberry blossom. A few shaggy little Dartmoor ponies were cropping the gorse on the down; one with a wee brown foal by its’ side.’ (From ‘April’, in ‘The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady’, by Edith Holden). If you want to wallow in the nostalgia of England’s/Devon’s once nature-filled landscapes, try a re-read of artist/author Edith Holden’s now iconic texts. Between 1902-1910 Holden often stayed at Dousland and from there walked, wandered and avidly watched the flora & fauna about her on Dartmoor. Yennadon Down (she called Yennadon) was one of her most frequently mentioned places. Dartmoor ponies also often popped into her notes and illustrations. They may seem disarmingly twee, but Holden’s texts are so relevant today - full of a keen naturalist’s close attention to detail - and reminding us of a world we have all but lost. #edithholden #dartmoor365 (Q6) #Devon #Yennadon #Dousland #Dartmoor #authors #flora&fauna #Burrator #Dartmoorponies #womenwriters #womenartists #writtenindevon
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    ‘Went through a little beech-wood where the foliage was breaking like a green mist among the grey stems; onto Yannadon Common...Many skylarks singing aloft in spite of the wind. Saw a Hawk poised over the eastern side of the down. Gathered some Whinberry blossom. A few shaggy little Dartmoor ponies were cropping the gorse on the down; one with a wee brown foal by its’ side.’ (From ‘April’, in ‘The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady’, by Edith Holden). If you want to wallow in the nostalgia of England’s/Devon’s once nature-filled landscapes, try a re-read of artist/author Edith Holden’s now iconic texts. Between 1902-1910 Holden often stayed at Dousland and from there walked, wandered and avidly watched the flora & fauna about her on Dartmoor. Yennadon Down (she called Yennadon) was one of her most frequently mentioned places. Dartmoor ponies also often popped into her notes and illustrations. They may seem disarmingly twee, but Holden’s texts are so relevant today - full of a keen naturalist’s close attention to detail - and reminding us of a world we have all but lost. #edithholden #dartmoor365 (Q6) #Devon #Yennadon #Dousland #Dartmoor #authors #flora&fauna #Burrator #Dartmoorponies #womenwriters #womenartists #writtenindevon