Welsh Journals

FRANCIS KILVERT AND RADNORSHIRE DAVID LOCKWOOD There are, as we are all well aware, many visitors to Wales and each one comes with his, or her, own intentions. Wales has beckoned the romantic ever since the eighteenth century, the scholarly seeker of the picturesque and the sublime was drawn here. Their many successors still come. Ruth Bidgood in a poem called 'Pausing' describes the hikers coming to the valley of Abergwesyn. She paints a picture of anoraks, damp maps, muddy walking boots and a halt. There is a joy that they discover themselves to be on course: gladness to have reached a goal: Here it is; their most wishful imaginings prove true. Happily they pause by the stream. Soon to be gone, they need put nothing to the test. Stepping out, they will say, luxuriating, "If only we could stay." The poet reveals a truth, the visitors who pass through Wales retaining "wishful imaginings" and put nothing to the test. Therefore, sometimes a false picture is maintained. There are, though, certain visitors who do not fall in this category and at the head of them is the Reverend Francis Kilvert. He came, he stayed, he left, he returned and then settled in the Herefordshire borderland on the banks of the Wye at Bredwardine where he died all too young. Kilvert, born in 1840, was the son of Robert, Rector of the small parish of Hardenhuish outside Chippenham. Kilvert's first education was at his father's school in the rectory, later he attended his uncle's school at Claverton Lodge also, then, outside Bath. At this school Frank, as he was called, imbibed a wealth of culture from his highly cultivated uncle and the liberal atmosphere of the establishment where the boys were surrounded by books. His uncle, (also called Francis Kilvert, the only Kilvert to be included in the Dictionary of National Biography) was known locally as "The Antiquary". Here, almost certainly Kilvert gained an interest in Archaeology, but a still greater love was for poetry. He loved the romantic poets and especially Burns and Wordsworth. From he learnt to appreciate the countryside and the people of the countryside. Frank's time in Claverton was highly significant to his development for it was then a village and the valley fell steeply away and down to the city of Bath far below. From Claverton Frank went up to Oxford, to Wadham College with its delightful garden and trees which were mature even more than a hundred years ago. He read law and Modem History. It is difficult to equate Kilvert with the aridities of the Law and, perhaps, that is why he gained only a fourth in his finals. He returned to his father's parish at Langley Burrell on the outskirts of Chippenham. He helped his father in the parish and studied for the priesthood and was ordained first deacon and then priest in Bristol Cathedral. At this time he was introduced to the Reverend Richard