COUNTRY WAYS
With regard to your Poet of the Past feature in Poets’ Corner (Spring 2020), this brought back pleasant memories of a rambling tour in the southern Cotswold area of Gloucestershire enjoyed in the late 1990s. Whilst our group were exploring the beautiful surroundings in the Sapperton and Daneway locality, we came across an attractive cottage which we learned was at one time occupied by John Masefield. A subsequent check with Arthur Mee’s The King’s England – “Gloucestershire”
(1938) revealed that, at the time of publication, Masefield occupied what the book described as “A grey Cotswold farmhouse in Pinbury Park, looking out on a glorious deep wooded valley.” The surroundings may have inspired the poet to write The Everlasting Mercy:
“Slow up the hill the plough team trod,
Old Callow at the task of God,
Helped by man’s wit, helped by the brute,
Turning a stubborn clay to fruit,
His eyes for ever on some sign,
To help him plough a perfect line.”
Another historic feature in the locality was the northwest portal of the long-disused Sapperton Tunnel on the former Thames and Severn Canal which was once the longest canal tunnel in Britain!
Roger Tyler, Moulton, Northamptonshire