I was in the Cotswolds last week on a walking holiday with my wife.
We called at Adlestrop but couldn't find the site of the station, so I googled the map reference, saw it was a mile or two away from the village and found the way with my satnav. We met a charming lady who lives in the former station-master's house. She showed us some photographs of the station from Thomas's time.
In the nature of things in England there was nothing to mark the site and I asked her if she saw many tourists coming down her drive. She said yes, but never with a satnav before.
There's a new biography of Edward Thomas, "All Roads Lead to France" by Matthew Hollis, which got a rare five star review from Craig Brown in last week's Sunday Times. I've bought the book but haven't read it yet.
Adlestrop was one of Thomas's very first poems, when he was 36 years old. By 39 he was dead, killed by a shell in the Great War. He would probably have written no poems had he not been encouraged by his friend and admirer Robert Frost.
|