The Time by the Sea

by Dr Ronald Blythe

  At first I thought that to ‘look’ at the sea was a landsman’s compulsion. Britten watched it all the time. Although I cannot recall his ever mentioning it. When visitors stood on the sea wall to watch him working he had to move to where he had to take a long view of it. A pearly distance was – the sea! It possessed its own talk. Tucked into a windbreak I would listen to a commotion of shouts and barks, birdsong, and little floating pennants of distant conversation. Up by the Martello the rigging of the Yacht Club could be orchestral. Fitted naked into the accommodating shingle on an August afternoon, I should have been writing, notebook and pencil being so near. But usually I did nothing. I listened. It was why I came there.

  Selected Personalia

  J. R. ACKERLEY 1896–1967

  Writer and editor.

  (SIR) MALCOLM ARNOLD 1921–2006

  Composer, whose works included symphonies and music for brass bands.

  JOHN BENSUSAN-BUTT 1911–1997

  Artist and historian. Lived in the Minories, Colchester.

  ELIZABETH BOWEN (CBE) 1899–1973

  Irish novelist and short-story writer loosely associated with the Bloomsbury Group.

  (LORD) BENJAMIN BRITTEN (OF ALDEBURGH, OM, CH) 1913–1976

  Composer, conductor and pianist. Co-founder of the Aldeburgh Festival. Partner of Peter Pears.

  EDWARD CLODD 1840–1930

  Banker, writer and anthropologist with a large circle of scientific and literary friends.

  GEORGE CRABBE 1754–1832

  Clergyman, poet (The Borough) and surgeon.

  ERIC CROZIER 1914–1994

  Theatre director and opera librettist associated with Benjamin Britten, with whom he co-founded the Aldeburgh Festival. Married mezzo-soprano Nancy Evans OBE in 1941.

  EDWARD FITZGERALD 1809–1883

  Poet and writer. Translator of the Rubáiyát.

  E. M. (EDWARD MORGAN) FORSTER 1879–1970

  Writer and librettist.

  DAVID GASCOYNE 1916–2001

  Surrealist poet.

  (SIR) PETER HALL (CBE) 1930–

  Theatre and film director. Directed Akenfield, based on Ronald Blythe’s Portrait of an English Village.

  MAGGI HAMBLING 1945–

  Painter and sculptor.

  JAMES HAMILTON-PATERSON 1941–

  Writer. Author of Gerontius, an imagined reconstruction of Sir Edward Elgar’s journey along the Amazon in 1923.

  GUSTAV HOLST 1874–1934

  Composer.

  IMOGEN HOLST 1907–1984

  Composer, conductor, musicologist and encourager of amateur musicians. A close friend of Benjamin Britten and the daughter of Gustav Holst.

  KURT HUTTON 1893–1960.

  Pioneering German-born photographer.

  M.R. (MONTAGUE RHODES) JAMES 1862–1936

  Scholar of medieval history and writer of ghost stories.

  JOHN LEHMANN 1907–1987

  Poet and literary editor, founder of New Writing and the London Magazine.

  ARTHUR LETT-HAINES 1894–1978

  Surrealist sculptor and painter. With Cedric Morris established the East Anglian School of Painting, first at Dedham and later at Benton End, Hadleigh.

  ALUN LEWIS 1915–1944

  Welsh poet, known particularly for his war poetry.

  HEPHZIBAH MENUHIN 1920–1981

  American-Australian pianist, writer and human-rights campaigner.

  (SIR) CEDRIC MORRIS 1889–1982

  Welsh painter and plantsman. See also Arthur Lett-Haines, above.

  JOHN NASH (CBE RA) 1893–1977

  Artist and engraver. Lived with his wife Christine at Bottengoms, Wormingford.

  CONRAD NOEL 1869–1942

  Priest of the Church of England, Vicar of Thaxted.

  Founding member of the British Socialist Party and a friend of Gustav Holst.

  GLENCAIRN STUART OGILVIE

  Scottish writer, barrister and eccentric architect.

  MERVYN PEAKE 1911–1968

  Writer, artist, illustrator and poet.

  (SIR) PETER PEARS (CBE) 1910–1986

  Tenor. Partner of Benjamin Britten, with whom he co-founded the Aldeburgh Festival and established a long-standing recital partnership. Created many roles in Britten’s operas, including Peter Grimes and Captain Vere (Billy Budd).

  WILLIAM PLOMER 1903–1973

  South African and British writer and literary editor.

  In later years was to write librettos for Britten.

  MARY POTTER 1900–1981

  Artist and close friend of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. Lived at the Red House in Aldeburgh, before exchanging Aldeburgh houses with Britten and Pears.

  REX PYKE 1940–

  Film editor and producer of drama and documentary.

  VIKRAM SETH 1952–

  Indian novelist and poet.

  MARTIN SHAW (OBE FRCM) 1875–1958

  Prolific composer, conductor and producer.

  PEGGY SOMERVILLE 1918–1975

  Child prodigy and Impressionist painter.

  SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER 1893–1978

  Novelist, poet and translator.

  CHRISTINE WESTON 1905–1989

  British Indian writer, author of Indigo.

  Bibliography

  Aldeburgh Festival Programme Books, 1948–60

  Burrows, Jill, The Aldeburgh Story, The Aldeburgh Foundation, 1987

  Clodd, Edward, Memories, Watts, 1926

  Forster, E. M., Alexandria: A History and a Guide, Morris, 1938

  Furbank, P. N., E. M. Forster: A Life, Secker and Warburg, 1977

  Grogan, Christopher (ed.), Imogen Holst: A Life in Music, Boydell Press, 2007

  Hamilton-Paterson, James, Gerontius, Macmillan, 1987

  Lago, Mary, and P. N. Furbank, Selected Letters of E. M. Forster, Collins, 1985

  Liddell, Robert, Cavafy: A Critical Biography, Duckworth, 1974

  Lummis, Trevor, Occupation and Society: The East Anglian Fishermen, CUP, 1985

  Morphet, Richard, Cedric Morris, Tate Gallery, 1984

  Osman, Colin, and Peter Turner, Creative Camera International Year Book 1976

  Parkes, W. H., Thorpeness, Meare Publications, 2001

  Powell, Neil, George Crabbe: An English Life 1754–1832, Pimlico, 2004

  Weston, Christine, Indigo, Collins, 1946

  Whitehead, R. A., Garretts of Leiston, Marshall, 1964

  Winn, Arthur T., Records of the Borough of Aldeburgh: The Church, Austin, 1926

  – The Order Book 1549–1631, Austin, 1925

  Index

  Abbo of Fleury, 1

  Abingdon, 1, 2

  Ackerley, J. R., 1, 2

  Acton, 1

  Æ (George William Russell), 1

  Alde, River, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Aldeburgh, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 4 Crabbe Street (Crag House), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  36 Crag Path, 1

  Alde House, 1, 2

  Baptist Chapel, 1, 2

  Barclays Bank, 1, 2

  Brown Acres, 1

  Brudenell Hotel, 1

  Brudenell House, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Crag Path, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  High Street, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  Jubilee Hall, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Martello Tower, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Moot Hall, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Order Book for 1549–1631, 1

  Red House, 1, 2, 3

  Strafford House, 1, 2, 3

  Town Steps, 1

  Uplands Hotel, 1

  Wentworth Hotel, 1, 2, 3

  White Lion Hotel, 2035

  Aldeburgh Festival, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 Council, 1, 2

  Executive Committee, 1

  Programme Books, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Aldeburgh Marshes, 1, 2

  Aldeburgh Parish Church (St Peter and St Paul), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
9, 10 Britten memorial window, 1

  Aldeburgh Parish Register, 1

  Aldeburgh Public Library, 1

  Aldeburgh Yacht Club, 1, 2

  Alexandria, 1

  Algarve, 1

  Anderson, Skelton, 1

  Arnold, Malcolm, 1, 2

  Arnold, Matthew, 1, 2

  Artists’ Rifles, 1

  Arts and Crafts Movement, 1, 2

  Athelstan, 1

  Athenaeum, 1

  Atkinson, Anthony, 1

  Austen, Jane, 1, 2

  Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1, 2, 3, 4 Komm, Jesu, Komm, 1

  Baggott (newsagent), 1

  Bailey, Rosie, 1

  Bali, 1

  Ball, Hugo, 1

  Ballingdon, 1

  Balliol College, Oxford, 1

  Barnett, Canon John, 1

  Barrie, J. M., 1 Peter Pan, 1

  Barton, Bernard, 1

  Barton, Lucy, 1, 2

  Bawden, Edward, 1

  Bax, Arnold, 1

  BBC, 1, 2

  Beatles, 1

  Beaumont, Winifred, 1 The Key, 1

  Becker, Georgina, 1

  Becker, Harry, 1

  Beech, Mrs (Aldeburgh), 1

  Beeny Cliff, 1

  Behan, Brendan, 1

  Bell, Adrian, 1 The Cherry Tree, 1

  Corduroy, 1

  Men and the Fields (with John Nash), 1

  Silver Ley, 1

  Belsen concentration camp, 1, 2

  Benham’s (printer), 1

  Benson, E. F., 1, 2

  Bensusan, S. L. 1

  Bensusan-Butt, John, 1, 2, 3

  Benton End, see Hadleigh

  Berenson, Bernard, 1

  Berlin, 1, 2

  Betjeman, John, 1

  Beveridge Report, 1

  Blake, William, 1

  Bloomfield, Robert: The Farmer’s Boy, 1

  Bloomsbury Group, 1

  Blow, John: Venus and Adonis, 1

  Blyth, River, 1, 2

  Blyth Hundred, 1

  Blythburgh, 1, 2

  Blythburgh Church (Holy Trinity), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Blythe, Ronald, 1, 2 Akenfield, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  Aldeburgh Anthology, 1, 2

  Guide to Aldeburgh Parish Church, 1, 2

  A Painter in the Country, 1

  A Treasonable Growth, 1, 2

  Bonnard, Pierre, 1

  Borley, 1 Rectory, 1

  Borneo, 1

  Borrow, George, 1

  Botolph, St, 1

  Botteghe oscure, 1

  Bottengoms, see Wormingford

  Boulge, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Boulge Church, 1

  Bowen, Elizabeth, 1, 2, 3 A World of Love, 1

  Boxted, 1

  Brandon, Charles, Duke of Suffolk, 1

  Braybrooke, Mr (Rector of Boulge), 1

  Bream, Julian, 1

  Bresson, Robert, 1

  Breton, André, 1

  Brett, River, 1, 2

  Bridge, Frank, 1

  British Museum, 1

  Britten, Benjamin, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 Albert Herring, 1, 2

  Billy Budd, 1, 2

  Curlew River, 1

  Death in Venice, 1

  Gloriana, 1, 2

  Let’s Make an Opera, 1, 2

  A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1

  Noye’s Fludde, 1, 2

  Peter Grimes, 1, 2, 3

  The Rape of Lucretia, 1

  Saint Nicolas, 1, 2, 3

  Songs from the Chinese, 1

  The Turn of the Screw, 1

  Winter Words, 1

  Brooklands motor-racing circuit, 1

  Browne, William, 1

  Brown’s Hotel, 1

  Brücke, Die, 1

  Bulmer, 1

  Bures, 1, 2, 3

  Burke, Edmund, 1, 2

  Burma, 1

  Bury St Edmunds St Edmundsbury Abbey, 1

  St Mary’s Church, 1

  Butley, 1, 2

  California, 1

  Cambridge, 1, 2

  Cambridge University, 1, 2

  Camus, Albert, 1

  Canterbury Cathedral, 1

  Canvey Island, 1, 2

  Carlisle, 1

  Carlisle Cathedral, 1

  Carlyle, Thomas, 1

  Cartier-Bresson, Henri, 1

  Catchment Board, 1

  Cavafy, C. P., 1 ‘The God Abandons Antony’, 1

  ‘Ithaca’, 1, 2

  Chamber’s Journal, 1

  Chaucer, Geoffrey, 1 Troilus and Criseyde, 1

  Chapman and Hall (publishers), 1

  Charsfield, 1, 2

  Chartres Cathedral, 1

  Chelsea School of Art, 1

  Chesil Bank, 1

  Chillesford, 1

  Chilterns, 1, 2, 3

  Churchill, Winston, 1

  Clare, John, 1, 2

  Clark, Sir Kenneth, 1

  Claudius, Emperor, 1

  Clemens non Papa, Jacobus: Sanctus, 1

  Clodd, Edward, 1, 2 The Childhood of the World, 1

  Memories, 1

  Clodd, Phyllis, 1, 2

  Colchester, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Minories, 1, 2, 3

  Colchester Art School, 1

  Colchester Castle, 1

  Colchester Pageant (1909), 1

  Collins, Wilkie: No Name, 1

  Constable, John, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Constantine Bay, 1

  Cook, Sir Francis, 1

  Copinger, Walter, 1

  Cornwall, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

  Corsica, 1

  Cotman, John Sell, 1

  Courtenay, Ashley: Let’s Halt Awhile in Britain, 1

  Cowell, Edward, 1

  Crabbe, George, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 The Borough, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  The Village, 1

  Crabbe, George (son), 1, 2, 3, 4

  Cragg Sisters (restaurant), 1, 2

  Craig, Edward Gordon, 1

  Cranbrook, Fidelity, Countess of, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

  Cranbrook, Jock, Earl of, 1, 2

  Craxton, John, 1

  Crompton, Richmal: Just William, 1

  Crossman, Richard, 1

  Crozier, Eric, 1, 2, 3

  Cullum, Mr (bank manager), 1, 2, 3

  Cullum, Jeremy, 1

  Currey, R. N. (Ralph), 1, 2

  Cuthbert, St, 1

  Cuyp, Aelbert, 1

  Dallinghoo Wield, 1, 2, 3

  Darend, Sir Mortimer, 1

  Dartington, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Daumier, Honoré, 1

  David (Wormingford farmworker), 1

  David, Elizabeth, 1

  Davy (Debach), 1

  Day-Lewis, Cecil, 1

  Dearmer, Percy, 1

  Death, Mr (postman), 1

  Debach, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Airfield, 1, 2, 3

  French’s Folly, 1, 2

  Debach Enterprises, 1

  Deben, River, 1, 2

  Dedham, 1

  Delafield, E. M.: Diary of a Provincial Lady, 1

  Dennington, 1

  Dephot, 1

  Derbyshire, 1

  Dickens, Charles, 1

  Doncaster, Mary, 1

  Dorchester, 1

  Duffy, Eamon, 1

  Dugdale, Florence, see Hardy, Florence

  Dukes, Ashley: The Dumb Wife of Cheapside, 1

  Dunstan, 1

  Dunwich, 1

  Duparc, Henri, 1

  Durham Cathedral, 1

  East Anglian School of Drawing and Painting, 1, 2

  East Coast flood (1953), 1, 2, 3

  Eastbourne, 1

  Eden, Sir Anthony, 1

  Edmund, St, 1

  Eleanor of Aquitaine, 1

  Elgar, Edward, 1 Symphony No. 1, 2

  Elliott, Clarence, 1

  English Folk Dance and Song Society, 1

  Eric (Wormingford neighbour), 1

  Essex, University of, 1 />
  Eustace-Smith family, 1

  Evans, Nancy, 1, 2, 3

  Faber Music, 1

  Fanthorpe, U. A., 1 ‘Very Quiet Here’, 1

  Farmer, Hugh, 1 A Cottage in the Forest, 1

  Fawcett, Millicent, 1

  Fens, the, 1

  FitzGerald, Edward, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, 1, 2, 3

  Fitzgerald, F. Scott: Tender is the Night, 1

  Flaherty, Robert J., 1

  Flatford, 1

  Flatford Mill Field Studies Centre, 1, 2, 3

  Fletcher, Posh, 1, 2

  Florida, 1

  Foljambe family, 1, 2, 3

  Ford, Ford Madox, 1

  Ford, Captain William, 1

  Forster, E. M., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Alexandria: A History and Guide, 1

  The Hill of Devi, 1

  Marianne Thornton, 1, 2

  Fowler, Robert, 1

  Fox, George, 1

  Framlingham, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Crown and Castle, 1

  French, Harold, 1, 2, 3

  Friends House, Euston Road, 1

  Friends Meeting House, Bury St Edmunds, 1

  Friesz, Othon, 1

  Fry, Roger, 1, 2

  Furbank, P. N., 1

  Gainsborough, Thomas, 1

  Gallipoli, 1

  Garcia Three, 1

  Garrett, Denis, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

  Garrett, Frank, 1

  Garrett, Jane, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

  Garrett, Newson, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Garrett Anderson, Elizabeth, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Garrett family, 1, 2

  Gascoyne, David, 1, 2 Paris Journals, 1

  ‘Sentimental Colloquy’, 1

  Gathorne-Hardy family, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  George VI, 1

  Gestingthorpe Hall, 1

  Girtin, Thomas, 1

  Gissing, George, 1, 2

  Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 1

  Godfrey, Rupert, 1, 2, 3, 4