Her father … persisted in him This description matches the background of Wilfred Meynell, whose Quaker family came from Newcastle upon Tyne; he later converted to Roman Catholicism.
old south-of-England family Re-creation of the Sussex origins of the family of Perceval Lucas.
she pulled through The local doctor was similarly unable to treat the complications that followed the injury to Sylvia Lucas; her life was also saved by hospital treatment in London.
THE HORSE-DEALER’S DAUGHTER
THE HORSE-DEALER’S DAUGHTER Originally entitled ‘The Miracle’; Lawrence changed the title when he revised the story in 1921.
Jessdale Perhaps Lawrence’s re-creation of the small town of Jacksdale in Nottinghamshire.
Moon and Stars Lawrence’s re-creation (also used in his novel Sons and Lovers) of the Three Tuns public house in Eastwood.
smoke of foundries Bennerley Iron Works (see note) would be one local source of this black smoke.
THE BLIND MAN
Isabel Pervin Based on Catherine Carswell (1879–1946), Scottish novelist, journalist and friend of Lawrence; she also reviewed books for the Glasgow Herald (199:17–18). Her first husband Herbert Jackson, a veteran of the Boer War, was admitted into a mental institution just months after their marriage where he remained for the rest of his life. She married Donald Carswell (1882–1940), an old acquaintance from the Glasgow Herald, in 1915.
blinded in Flanders The Flanders region of north-east France and Belgium was the scene of hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries during extended trench warfare in the First World War.
The Grange Based on the Carswells’ borrowed holiday home known as The Vicarage in Upper Lydbrook, Ross-on-Wye. Lawrence visited them there 26–31 August 1918, judging them ‘very nice but depressed’ (Letters, iii. 277).
Bertie Reid Partly based on the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), with whom Lawrence had planned a series of lectures on ethics and immortality in 1915. Lawrence’s enthusiasm for Russell’s thinking foundered when their metaphysical and political positions proved irreconcilable. By 1916, he put Russell among ‘that old “advanced” crowd’ who ‘are our disease, not our hope’ (Letters, iii. 49), and urged Russell to ‘have the courage to be a creature’ rather than exist merely as an ‘ego’ (Letters, ii. 547), a criticism applicable to Bertie Reid here.
ADOLF
his long walk … first daybreak When Lawrence’s family lived at 3 Walker Street in Eastwood, his father walked about a mile to his work at Brinsley Colliery across similar countryside. His return from the nightshift would be between six and seven o’clock in the morning.
pour it out into his saucer Drinking tea from the saucer rather than the cup was considered a working-class habit and, invariably, coarse behaviour.
Buddhist meditation Contemplative Asian religion or philosophy that teaches that the elimination of selfish desires is the highest goal (see also note to 315:12).
nursemaid’s flying strings Long white ties used to fasten a nursemaid’s apron behind her back.
white feather Symbol of cowardice, especially during the First World War when campaigners sought to give white feathers to men who did not respond to the voluntary army recruitment drive in autumn 1914 and later to those apparently not serving in the conscripted army.
conceit of the meek According to Matthew v.5, ‘Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth’, a reason for their apparently paradoxical ‘conceit’.
THE LAST STRAW
THE LAST STRAW [FANNY AND ANNIE] Lawrence wrote to his English publisher Martin Secker (1882–1978) on 29 December 1921 saying, ‘I should like the title “Fanny and Annie” changed to “The Last Straw”. Please note it’ (The Letters of D. H. Lawrence 1921–4, vol. iv, ed. Warren Roberts, James T. Boulton and Elizabeth Mansfield (Cambridge University Press, 1987), p. 152). There is no record of Lawrence making the same request to his American publisher, Thomas Seltzer (1875–1943), who published the story under its original title in the collection England My England and Other Stories (1922).
light of the furnace Bennerley Iron Works (otherwise known as Bennerley Furnaces) near Ilkeston, Derbyshire could be the local inspiration for the ‘furnace towers in the sky’ and the flame-lit effect described here. In a letter to the writer Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) on 5 December 1918, Lawrence recalled a similar scene on a railway station platform in Ripley, Derbyshire: ‘the train runs just above the surface of Butterley reservoir, and the iron-works on the bank were flaming, a massive roar of flame and burnt smoke in the black sky … On Butterley platform – where I got out – everything was lit up red’ (Letters, iii. 302).
Princes Street In Eastwood, Princes Street adjoins Victoria Street where Lawrence was born.
Morley Chapel A name perhaps taken from the village of Morley, west of Ilkeston in Derbyshire.
“And I saw … a wite ’orse——” No hymn containing this solo part has been identified, but the words are taken from Revelation xix. 11. Lawrence may have chosen this verse for the opportunities it gives Harry to drop and add aitches.
“Hangels—hever bright an’ fair——” Part of an aria from Handel’s dramatic oratorio Theodora (premiered in 1750) about Christian martyrs in ancient Rome.
“Come, ye … storms begin——” Hymn written for harvest festivals by Henry Alford (1810–71).
Balaam’s ass Wiser than her master, the ass refused to pass the angel of the Lord standing in her way as Balaam tried to join the Princes of Moab to drive the children of Israel from Moab, Jordan and Jericho (Numbers xxii.1–41).
“They that sow … sheaves with him.” Psalm cxxvi.5–6.
Lot’s wife Lot and his family were taken out of Sodom and forbidden to look back as it and Gomorrah, cities notorious for their wickedness and corruption, were destroyed by fire and brimstone; his wife disobeyed and was turned into a pillar of salt (Genesis xix.26).
‘Fair waved … pleasant land.’ Hymn by John Hampden Gurney (1802–62).
washing his hands before the Lord Reference to Pontius Pilate’s gesture before the crowd, denying responsibility for Christ’s death: ‘When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person’ (Matthew xxvii.24).
SUN
Hudson The ship leaves New York Harbor via the Hudson river, passing the Statue of Liberty and sailing out into the Atlantic Ocean. Lawrence and Frieda made the crossing from New York to Southampton on the SS Resolute 21–30 September 1925.
serpent of chaos Possibly an image of Satan (expanding Revelation XX.1–3). However, in Egyptian mythology the serpent god Apep (otherwise Apepi or Apophis) of the celestial Nile was also known as the ‘serpent of chaos’ for attempting to swallow the sun.
Lackawanna station Waterfront terminal of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railway at Hoboken, New Jersey, one of many that lined the shores of the Hudson river in the 1920s.
Battery. Liberty flung up her torch The Battery is a park created by landfill on the southern tip of Manhattan Island at the upper end of New York Bay, in which the Statue of Liberty (1886), designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834–1904), a gift from France to the United States, is situated. From its base to the top of the upheld torch, the statue measures over 46 metres.
house above the bluest of seas … snow of the volcano Lawrence sent an early draft of ‘Sun’ to a friend Millicent Beveridge (1871–1955) on 11 September 1926 ‘to see if you recognise the garden at Fontana Vecchia, and where you used to sit and sketch, above the Lemon grove’ (The Letters of D. H. Lawrence 1924–7, vol. v, ed. James T. Boulton and Lindeth Vasey (Cambridge University Press, 1989), p. 533). The house is a re-creation of the Villa Fontana Vecchia (‘Old Fountain’) and its garden at Taormina in Sicily where the Lawrences lived from March 1920 to February 1922.
Magna Graecia Greek seaport colonies of Sicily and souther
n Italy established from the eighth to fourth century BC, prior to Roman occupation.
Greeks had said … unhealthy, and fishy In ancient Greece, athletic training for young men was an integral part of their education; such training was typically undertaken naked and so a tan also became linked with physical fitness.
black snakes … yellow ones The western whip snake found in Sicily is a shiny black colour and potentially aggressive but not poisonous; the dangerous yellow snake is probably an Asp Viper, the poison of which can be fatal. However, the subspecies of Asp Viper more common in Sicily has red-orange rather than yellow markings and so the identification is not certain.
take no thought for the morrow From Matthew vi.34: ‘Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.’
capuchin church Church founded by an order of Franciscan monks, the Capuchin Friars Minor, an organisation dating back to 1525 in Italy. There was a capuchin church close to the town gates in Taormina.
Fates In Greek mythology, the three Fates controlled human destinies: Clotho spins the thread of life, Lachesis determines its length and Atropos cuts it off.
East Forty-Seventh Fashionable address in Manhattan.
Perseus … cut the bonds Son of Zeus in Greek mythology; Zeus appeared to Perseus’ imprisoned mother Danaë in the form of a sun-like stream of gold. Perseus later rescued Andromeda, the daughter of the king and queen of Ethiopia, who was bound to a rock by the sea as a sacrifice to Poseidon, god of the sea.
THE ROCKING-HORSE WINNER
There was a woman … no luck Hester and her family are partly a re-creation of Lady Cynthia (1887–1960) and Herbert Asquith (1881–1947), whose eldest son John was autistic. Herbert, a barrister (see 269:26), was the son of the Liberal politician H. H. Asquith (1852–1928), who served as British Prime Minister 1908–16. Lady Cynthia was a novelist, diarist and editor of several volumes of ghost stories (one of which included this story); Herbert Asquith was also a part-time novelist and poet. Their financial difficulties were well known to Lawrence.
Sansovino … Won the Ascot The racehorse Sansovino, owned by the 17th Earl of Derby, was a strong colt with staying power. He was foaled in 1921 and won six races in his career, including, as Oscar correctly notes, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in 1924.
Lincoln Lincolnshire Handicap, an important early meeting in the flat racing season, now run at Doncaster, Yorkshire.
Daffodil … Mirza Oscar is right to doubt the tip. The real Daffodil, foaled in 1922, ran six races in the season 1924–5 and was unplaced in all; Mirza, foaled in 1915, won three races in 1919. However, a race with both horses in the field is fictional.
betting three hundred An extraordinary amount of money for a boy to bet in 1926 when this story was written. Today’s equivalent would be over £11,000. When Paul wins ‘ten thousand’ (277:32) on Lively Spark, the modern equivalent would be £375,700; his final total winnings of ‘over eighty thousand’ (284:23–4) would be worth approximately £3 million today.
Nat Gould Sports reporter (1857–1919) for newspapers and magazines in Australia, where he had emigrated in 1884. Returning to England in 1895, he became a prolific popular novelist, producing more than 150 titles, mostly about horse racing.
Lancelot A fictional racehorse; nor have any contemporary registration records been found for ‘Blush of Dawn’, ‘Singhalese’ or ‘Lively Spark’.
Richmond Park Royal park in Surrey, on the outskirts of south-west London, with an area of almost 2,500 acres.
Joe Glee … Turf Commission deposit The ‘Turf Commission’ is a regulatory body for betting, while ‘Joe Glee’ is an apt business name for a ‘turf commission agent’ or bookmaker. Gamblers could deposit some of their winnings as a reserve to be used for future bets.
Leger The St Leger takes place annually at Town Moor, Doncaster.
Grand National … Derby The first is the premier event over fences in the calendar of British horse racing, now run annually at Aintree racecourse near Liverpool. The Derby Stakes is a prestigious race over the flat held each year at Epsom Downs Racecourse, Surrey.
Malabar Bay gelding racehorse, foaled in 1920, who enjoyed some success but was never a Derby winner. In the racing seasons 1924–6, just prior to and when Lawrence was writing this story, Malabar ran twenty-six races, winning three times and gaining six second places.
THE MAN WHO LOVED ISLANDS
man who loved islands Six years before composing this story, Lawrence had teased the novelist Compton Mackenzie (1883–1972) about his successful application for a sixty-year lease on the Channel Islands of Herm and Jethou (at £900 and £100 per annum). Mackenzie was ‘Lord of the Isles’, Lawrence declared; furthermore, ‘I shall write a skit on you one day’ (Letters, iii. 594). When this story was published in a periodical in 1927, Lawrence assured Martin Secker that Mackenzie ‘only suggests the idea – it’s no portrait’ (Letters, vi. 69). Mackenzie, however, did object strongly to ‘the lunatic story’, for ‘if Lawrence used my background of a Channel Island and an island in the Hebrides [the likely location of Cathcart’s third island] for one of his preposterous Lawrentian figures the public would suppose that it was a portrait’ (My Life and Times: Octave Six 1923–1930 (Chatto and Windus, 1967), p. 131). Should the story be reissued in book form, he informed Lawrence and his publisher that he ‘would certainly take proceedings for libel’ (Letters, vii. 391). Mackenzie was also published by Secker and had investments in the company; Secker subsequently refused to include the story in The Woman Who Rode Away and Other Stories, although Lawrence ensured that the story did appear in the American edition published by Alfred A. Knopf (1892–1984) in May 1928. Far from admitting a libel on Mackenzie’s character, Lawrence came to esteem his fictional creation much more highly than his initial model: ‘The Man Who Loved Islands is a much purer and finer character than the vain, shallow, theatrical, and somewhat ridiculous Mackenzie. If people identify him with my story, they will inevitably have a deeper respect for him … What was his whole island scheme but showing off? The Man who loved islands has a philosophy behind him, and a real significance’ (Letters, vi. 218).
Abraham … sands of the sea-shore Abraham is told that he ‘shalt be a father of many nations’ and ‘exceeding fruitful’ (Genesis xvii.4–6), but it is his grandson Jacob to whom these particular words are addressed: ‘I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude’ (Genesis xxxii.12).
bigger island lying beyond Herm is three miles off the east coast of Guernsey, the closest of the larger Channel Islands. The ‘tiny’ 44-acre island Jethou (287:14) is immediately south of Herm.
Gaul Ancient region of western Europe that included modern France, northern Italy, Belgium and parts of Germany and the Netherlands.
priests, with golden knives … priests with a crucifix From the evidence of its stone circles and Neolithic chamber tombs, Herm was inhabited in prehistoric times. From the sixth century BC, its isolation attracted monks, from the Celtic monk Tugal to the Benedictine monks of Mont-Saint-Michel in the eleventh century. Herm has been a place of both pagan and Christian rituals.
pirates By repute, Herm and Sark were the lair of pirates in the early sixteenth century; pirates were also known to have used Jethou as a temporary base until it was inhabited in 1717.
isle of the Hesperides In Greek mythology, the Hesperides were nymphs who tended an orchard where golden apples grew that could bestow immortality when eaten. The name can also refer to a set of islands, alternatively known as the Fortunate Islands or Isles of the Blest, where mortals were received into a state of paradise.
Hermes In Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Maia who delivered messages from the gods and conducted souls to Hades; he was also god of travellers, eloquence, commerce, cunning, invention, good luck and young men, as well as a patron of cheats and thieves.
wonderful with chi
ldren … Our Saviour Himself Displeased at the way his disciples prevented people bringing their children to him, Jesus ‘said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not … And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them’ (Mark X.14–16).
economise A gibe likely to anger Compton Mackenzie further. His financial difficulties in running the farm on Herm were a source of amusement to Lawrence who wrote in 1921 that Mackenzie ‘is in Herm, in kilts, finding his island full of atmosphere and ghosts, and very expensive’ (Letters, iii. 664–5).
lean kine of Egypt … back out of it As Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream, seven fat cows foretell seven years of plenty in Egypt but the ‘seven thin and ill favoured’ cows seven years of famine; just as the fat cows disappeared, in the period of famine ‘all the plenty shall be forgotten’ (Genesis xli.25–31).
honeymoon-and-golf island Mackenzie experienced just such difficulties in selling the lease for Herm after the financial losses of its farm. Sir Percival Perry, a chairman of the Ford Motor Company, took over the lease in 1923 and did indeed build a golf course to attract tourists.
Orion Constellation of stars located on the celestial equator, but bright and conspicuous in the winter sky in the northern hemisphere. Orion is named after a favoured hunting companion of Artemis (Diana, the goddess of hunting in Roman mythology), who, after being tricked into slaying him by Apollo, immortalised him in the heavens as a constellation.
Selected Stories Page 40