Welsh Journals

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KILVERT AND BRECONSHIRE1 The Revd. Robert Francis Kilvert came of a Shropshire family which moved to Bath in the early nineteenth century. Francis's father was Rector of Harden- huish, near Chippenham, when his second child and eldest son was born. The son was educated at his father's private school (where Augustus Hare had been a pupil) and at a school in Bath which belonged to his uncle. He entered Wadham College, Oxford in 1859, and in due course took a fourth-class honours degree in History and Law. Francis was ordained, served as curate to his father, now incumbent of Langley Burrell, about a mile from Hardenhuish, and in 1865 he moved to be curate of Clyro in Radnorshire, where the Vicar was the Revd. Richard Lister Venables, wealthy son of Archdeacon Venables of Brecon, and owner of Llysdinam. Mr. Venables was Chairman of the Radnorshire Quarter Sessions, and he introduced his curate to members of county society in Radnorshire and Breconshire. Francis Kilvert seems to have been very happy at Clyro, but he resigned his curacy there in 1872, in spite of the offer of an increased stipend, to return to being curate to his father at Langley Burrell. In 1876 he came back to Wales, when he accepted the benefice of St. Harmon in Radnorshire. He lived in Rhayader. After little more than a year at St. Harmon Kilvert moved to the parishes of Bredwardine and Brobury in Here- fordshire, not far from Hay and Clyro. In 1879 he married Elizabeth Rowland of Wootton-by-Woodstock, Oxfordshire. They returned to Bredwardine from their honeymoon on 13 September. On the next day Kilvert had an appendi- citis, and on 23 September he died of peritonitis. He was 38 years of age.2 Kilvert's Diary has made him the most famous clergyman of his time in Mid- Wales. The published Diary begins on 18 January 1870, although he probably began to keep a diary on 1 January of that year. He made notes in a small pocket book, and he wrote up his diary proper later, often before breakfast next day. Most entries in the diary were of considerable length. Undoubtedly the labour took him much time, but, of course, he had plenty of time, especially during his years as a curate. Most country clergymen in the 1870s were under- employed. The published edition of the Diary runs from 18 January 1870 to 13 March 1879, with two substantial gaps. One, between September 1875 and March 1876, covers the period after Kilvert's unhappy relationship with Ettie Meredith Brown the other, between June 1876 and December 1877, covers the whole of his incumbency as St. Harmon and, possibly, the period of his courtship of his future wife. One may surmise that his widow destroyed the volumes relating to these emotional months. The diary was written in many volumes, most of them covering about two months. Twenty two volumes survived in the family until the 1930S when they were transcribed and edited by that distinguished man of letters, William Plomer. It must always be re- By D. T. W. PRICE