War brings changes
Jackie Tweedale
On the 1st October, 1914 the third edition of New Numbers was published. Rupert Brooke described the publication as “going pretty well, about 700 or 800 of each number, which pays expenses very easily and leaves a good bit for division”.1 But with the war came a lack of paper and increasing printing costs. The 4th edition was to be the last one.
Catherine Abercrombie was expecting her third child and was staying in Lincolnshire. She gave birth to a son, Ralph, on the 12th and Lascelles Abercrombie went to join her a few days later. They did not return to Ryton until February 1915.
Robert Frost and his family had moved to The Gallows at the beginning of September. They may have moved because Little Iddens was too cramped and cold. For Elinor this fulfilled a long held dream to “live under thatch”. The house was 2 cottages linked together by a wooden passage so each family had their own space. The Frosts were to stay here until their return to America. Frost wrote several poems inspired by his time here including “The Sound of Trees” and “The Road Not Taken”. The families got on well together, although the Americans were becoming homesick. Life with a poet was not easy and Elinor had to cope with Robert’s periods of depression. The war seemed far away but Frost was still treated with suspicion, with his strange accent and odd ways and there were rumours that he was a spy for the German Kaiser especially, after a visit form a Dutchman with a long black beard. Abercrombie and Thomas were also still seen as possible spies.
Edward Thomas came to stay on the 15th October for about 3 days. Amongst the places they walked were May Hill and Ketford and the local woods and paths. Thomas wrote to Eleanor Farjeon saying that,”we loaf and talk”.2 He was also busy preparing articles on what country people were saying about the war and the effects it was having. John Haines also came to visit, meeting Thomas for the first time and together they roamed the Leadon Valley.
Rupert Brooke was on his way to Antwerp to relieve the Belgian troops at Fort Seven. The German bombardment was so heavy and caused so much destruction that the British had to retreat. Brooke had to leave behind his kit including field glasses given to him by E.M Forster and draft manuscripts. Thousands of Belgians became refugees with 3 civilians being killed to every one soldier. At about this time he began to write 5 sonnets which would appear in the next issue of New Numbers and included” The Soldier”.
Moonlit Apples
At the top of the house the apples are laid in rows,
And the skylight lets the moonlight in, and those
Apples are deep-sea apples of green. There goes
A cloud on the moon in the autumn night.
A mouse in the wainscot scratches and scratches, and then
There is no sound at the top of the house of men
Or mice; and the cloud is blown, and the moon again
Dapples the apples with deep-sea light
They are lying in rows there, under the gloomy beams;
On the sagging floor; they gather the silver streams
Out of the moon, those moonlit apples of dreams,
And quiet is the steep stair under.
In the corridors under there is nothing but sleep.
And stiller than ever on orchard boughs they keep
Tryst with the moon, and deep is the silence, deep
On moon-washed apples of wonder3
John Drinkwater
1 Matthew Hollis. All Roads Lead To France. Faber and Faber. 2011
2 Eleanor Farjeon. Edward Thomas: The Last Four Years. Oxford University Press. 1979
3 Selected Poems of John Drinkwater. Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd. 1925.
