While she was still mobile, Sylvia devised a very efficient system for the sending out of bequests after her death, to spare whoever undertook it unnecessary bother. She made a card index of recipients and on each card wrote what they were to have and exactly where it was to be found. She then wrote another card to be sent with the object in question. All that remained to do was the parcelling.
The new year of 1978 began badly. ‘My legs are like ancient monuments, they ache and give way, and my cats look at me deploringly, and say privately to each other that I am a shadow of my old self, a shadow even of what I was before Christmas. Belatedly, old age has clawed me in its clutch.’39 On the same day, 6 January, her diary entry read ‘Fell several times – not at my best’ and the following day Antonia proposed that Sylvia should go to bed and stay there, with a joke that they both enjoyed – that Sylvia had always been good in bed.
After a few weeks, she still found walking difficult: ‘I can only walk very slowly, and cling to whatever is near for a support.’40 She was convinced that an improvement in the weather would cure her, and held out for that. Meanwhile, she was virtually bedridden.
‘I am grown very old, dear William,’ she wrote on 17 February. ‘And I have grown so small, I scarcely know myself. And so slow. But really I should congratulate myself that my wits are still about me. When my mother was my age, she was senile. And I am not that, and I can still see to read, & hear to talk; and if the weather were not so biting and blighting I might not feel so like a dead leaf … de ça, de là, comme le vent n’emporte.’41 In the latter half of February, though, the winter really showed its teeth: heavy snow fell and a violent east wind lashed it about: ‘The garden, the fields beyond, the hills beyond the fields were all made of snow in the most extraordinary shapes – shapes the wind had blown them & frozen them into, so that nothing looked like itself. And there was Mrs Cleall’s son, snow up to the waist, helping his mamma over the fence on her way to dig me out. The lane was solid snowdrift, so they had walked here on top of a hedge.’42 Dozens of animals died in the cold and wind. The trains stopped, so did the post and the milk. Antonia, unable to drive through the snow, walked the six miles from Litton Cheney to make Sylvia hot meals.
In January, Sylvia had written to William Maxwell, ‘the worst of my sufferings is the amount of care, solicitude, visiting that I provoke among my friends. I have almost forgotten what silence sounds like.’43 To combat the lowering effects of last respects, Sylvia and Antonia played sardonic games with visitors to the deathbed, to see how far death and sociability could mix. It was a heartless pursuit, and not indulged very often. It was also strictly conspiratorial, which may indicate these games were undertaken in part to ease Antonia’s own feelings.
One person Sylvia asked to see was the friend with the black box, who emerged from Sylvia’s room after about an hour saying there was nothing she could do – Sylvia was simply old. It is interesting that Sylvia asked to see her, though. She was giving herself every possible chance to recover.
On 5 March she wrote: ‘Today I have sat in the sun without an attempt of bravery. It shone, & crocuses came into bloom all round, exploded into bloom.’44 But the spring came too late to do her any permanent good. She was sinking towards death. By the end of April a nurse was in the house almost all the time, and a sporadic night-watch in operation. The last thing Antonia recalled Sylvia saying was ‘What is the meaning of all this, Antonia? They assure me there is one.’ Her death, when it came on the morning of 1 May 1978, in the presence of an Irish nurse she disliked and Colin House, her former garden-boy – who had asked to be there – was prosaic and confused, as she had once dreamed it would be.
The funeral took place on 4 May at St Nicholas’s Church, East Chaldon. Sylvia had requested the Prayer Book service, no music and no flowers. An envelope marked ‘V.A.’ had been cremated with her body. Sylvia also requested the Thanksgiving for Rain to be read. It had been Theodore Powys’s choice on Sylvia’s first visit to Chaldon church in 1922, as she may or may not have remembered. She chose it as ‘the nearest P[rayer] B[ook] thing I can find to a Thanksgiving for Death’:45
O God our heavenly Father, who by thy gracious providence dost cause the former and the latter rain to descend upon the earth, that it may bring forth fruit for the use of man; We give thee humble thanks that it hath pleased thee, in our great necessity, to send us at the last a joyful rain upon thine inheritance, and to refresh it when it was dry, to the great comfort of us thy unworthy servants, and to the glory of thy holy Name; through thy mercies in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Illustrations
1. Sylvia, her father and his spaniel Friday in the mid-1890s.
2. ‘Tib’ in her sailor’s hat.
3. Sylvia and her father skating in Switzerland, c. 1909.
4. George Townsend Warner in a form room at Harrow.
5. Percy Buck in 1904.
6. Nora in the 1920s, after her marriage to Ronald Eiloart.
7. Charles Prentice, Sylvia and T. F. Powys outside Beth Car in the 1920s.
8. Molly (Valentine) Ackland in December 1914.
9. Sylvia in her flat at 113 Inverness Terrace.
10. Miss Green’s cottage.
11. Valentine’s wedding to Richard Turpin, July 1925.
12. Valentine at Winterton in 1928.
13. Bea Howe and Sylvia at Frankfort Manor.
14. Valentine feeding the cats at Frankfort Manor.
15. 24, West Chaldon.
16. Valentine and Sylvia at West Chaldon with Kit and Pat Dooley, Victoria the goat, Towser and Tom.
17. Sylvia, Valentine and Asuncion in Barcelona, 1936.
18. Frome Vauchurch.
19. Sylvia in the garden at Frome Vauchurch,1948.
20. Sylvia and the cats in Valentine’s sitting-room, 1960s.
21. Joy Finzi’s drawing of Valentine dead, November 1969.
22. Sylvia at her desk overlooking the river, 1977.
Bibliography of Works by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Unless otherwise stated publication in London is by Chatto & Windus and publication in New York by The Viking Press.
The Espalier, London, 1925; New York, The Dial Press, 1925.
Lolly Willowes, London and New York, 1926.
Mr Fortune’s Maggot, London and New York, 1927.
Time Importuned, London and New York, 1928.
The True Heart, London and New York, 1929.
Some World Far From Ours, London, Woburn Books, 1929.
Elinor Barley, London, The Cresset Press, 1930.
A Moral Ending and Other Stories, London, Furnival Books, 1931.
Opus 7, London and New York, 1931.
The Salutation, London and New York, 1932.
The Rainbow, New York, Alfred Knopf, 1932.
Whether a Dove or Seagull (with Valentine Ackland), New York, 1933; London, 1934.
More Joy In Heaven, London, The Cresset Press, 1935.
Summer Will Show, London and New York, 1936.
After the Death of Don Juan, London, 1938; New York, 1939.
The Cat’s Cradle Book, New York, 1940; London, 1960.
A Garland of Straw, London and New York, 1943.
The Portrait of a Tortoise, extracted from the Journals and Letters of Gilbert White, with an Introduction and Notes by Sylvia Townsend Warner, London, 1946.
The Museum of Cheats, London, 1947.
The Corner That Held Them, London and New York, 1948.
Somerset, London, Paul Elek, 1949.
Jane Austen, London, Longmans, Green & Co., 1951.
The Flint Anchor, London and New York, 1954.
Winter in the Air, London, 1955; New York, 1956.
Boxwood, London, The Monotype Corporation, 1957; enlarged edition, London, Chatto & Windus, 1960.
By Way of Sainte-Beuve, translation of Contre Sainte-Beuve by Marcel Proust, London, 1958.
A Spirit Rises, London and New York, 1962.
A Place of Shipwreck, translation of
La Côte Sauvage by Jean-René Huguenin, London, 1963.
A Stranger With a Bag, London, 1966; New York (under the title Swans on an Autumn River), 1966.
T.H. White, London, Jonathan Cape and Chatto & Windus, 1967; New York, 1967.
King Duffus and Other Poems, Wells and London, Clare, Son & Co. Ltd., 1968.
The Innocent and the Guilty, London and New York, 1971.
Kingdoms of Elfin, London and New York, 1977.
Azrael & Other Poems, Newbury, Libanus Press, 1978.
Twelve Poems, London, 1980.
Scenes of Childhood and Other Stories, London and New York, 1981.
Letters, edited by William Maxwell, London and New York, 1982.
Collected Poems, edited by Claire Harman, Manchester, Carcanet Press, 1982; New York, 1982.
One Thing Leading To Another, edited by Susanna Pinney, London and New York, 1984.
Selected Poems, Manchester, Carcanet Press, 1985; New York, 1985.
Selected Stories, London and New York, 1988.
References
Where the date is made clear in the context, or is of no immediate importance, I have left quotations from Sylvia’s diary unmarked by a reference. Unless otherwise stated, unpublished letters are in the possession of the recipients or their executors.
C.H.
Abbreviations
1 Unpublished Sources
ACKLAND The diaries of Valentine Ackland, 29 volumes, 1925–1969. In the Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland collection, Dorset County Museum.
DORSET The Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland collection in the Dorset County Museum, Dorchester (excluding diaries).
PUREFOY Dorothie Purefoy Machen, Memoirs. In the possession of Janet Pollock.
READING The Chatto & Windus archive in Reading University Library, Whiteknights, Reading.
TEXAS Letters from Sylvia Townsend Warner to Nancy Cunard and Alyse Gregory, in the collection of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas.
WARNER The diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner, 38 volumes, 1927–1978. In the Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland collection, Dorset County Museum.
YALE Letters from Sylvia Townsend Warner to George Plank, from Valentine Ackland to Alyse Gregory, and the journal of Alyse Gregory 1931–1949, in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
2 Published Sources
(i) Works by Sylvia Townsend Warner
ADJ After the Death of Don Juan.
Blackwood’s ‘Behind the Firing Line: Some Experiences in a Munitions Factory’, Blackwood’s Magazine, February 1916.
CCB The Cat’s Cradle Book.
CP Collected Poems.
CTHT The Corner That Held Them.
Espalier The Espalier.
FA The Flint Anchor.
IG The Innocent and the Guilty.
KE Kingdoms of Elfin.
Letters Letters.
LW Lolly Willowes.
MC The Museum of Cheats.
MFM Mr Fortune’s Maggot.
Opus 7 Opus 7.
OT One Thing Leading to Another.
Salutation The Salutation.
SC Scenes of Childhood.
Somerset Somerset.
SR A Spirit Rises.
SWS Summer Will Show.
TH The True Heart.
THW T.H. White.
TI Time Importuned.
TP Twelve Poems.
WDS Whether a Dove or Seagull (with Valentine Ackland).
(ii) Miscellaneous Works
Ackland (FS) Valentine Ackland, For Sylvia: An Honest Account, Chatto & Windus, 1985.
Ackland (NM) Valentine Ackland, The Nature of the Moment, Chatto & Windus, 1973.
Elwin Malcolm Elwin, The Life of Llewelyn Powys, John Lane at The Bodley Head, 1946.
Frost The Letters of Robert Frost to Louis Untermeyer, Jonathan Cape, 1964.
Garnett David Garnett, The Familiar Faces, Chatto & Windus, 1962.
Graves Richard Perceval Graves, The Brothers Powys, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983.
Harrovian The Harrovian, vol. XXIX (1916), pp. 92–99.
Hartley L.P. Hartley, ‘The Conformer’, in The Old School, ed. Graham Greene, Oxford University Press, 1984.
Hewett Christopher Hewett (ed.) The Living Curve: Letters to W.J. Strachan 1929–1979, Taranman/ Carcanet 1984.
Humfrey Belinda Humfrey (ed.), Recollections of the Powys Brothers, Peter Owen, 1980.
LR Left Review.
Morgan Louise Morgan, Writers at Work, Chatto & Windus, 1931.
Partridge Frances Partridge, Julia. A Portrait of Julia Strachey by Herself and Frances Partridge, Victor Gollancz, 1983.
PNR 23 ‘Sylvia Townsend Warner 1893–1978: A Celebration’, ed. by Claire Harman, PN Review 23,1981.
PRS Sylvia Townsend Warner, ‘Theodore Powys and Some Friends at East Chaldon, 1922–1927: A Narrative and Some Letters’, The Powys Review, number 5, Summer 1979.
Quiller-Couch Arthur Quiller-Couch, Memories and Opinions, Cambridge University Press, 1944.
Reynolds Aidan Reynolds and William Charlton, Arthur Machen, The Richards Press, 1963.
Spender Stephen Spender, World Within World, Faber, 1977.
Untermeyer Jean Starr Untermeyer, Private Collection, Alfred A. Knopf, 1965.
Warner George Townsend Warner, On the Writing of English, Blackie & Son, n.d. [1915].
Warner, O Oliver Warner, Chatto & Windus. A Brief Account of the Firm’s Origin, History and Development, Chatto & Windus, 1973.
3 Names
AG Alyse Gregory.
BH Bea Howe.
CP Charles Prentice.
GP George Plank.
GTW George Townsend Warner (1865–1916).
GTW1 Rev. George Townsend Warner (1815–1869).
GTW2 Rev. George Townsend Warner (1841–1902).
JF Joy Finzi.
NC Nancy Cunard.
NS Norah Smallwood.
PN Paul Nordoff.
SC Steven Clark.
STW Sylvia Townsend Warner.
TFP T.F. Powys.
VA Valentine Ackland.
WM William Maxwell.
Chapter 1: 1893–1917
1 PUREFOY, p. 6.
2 Harrovian, p. 97.
3 The quotations in this paragraph are from three letters of GTW1 to GTW2 – 23 March 1861; n.d. [1863] and 18 May 1862 – all of which were copied by STW into her 1962 diary.
4 Quiller-Couch, p. 46.
5 ibid., p. 48.
6 DORSET: GTW to Nora Hudleston, January 1889.
7 WARNER, 17 August 1929.
8 YALE: STW to Leonard Bacon, 23 June 1952.
9 Copied into WARNER, 17 August 1929.
10 PUREFOY, p. 35.
11 STW, ‘The Way By Which I Have Come’, The Countryman, July 1939, p. 472.
12 WARNER, 2 February 1952.
13 ‘Sylvia Townsend Warner in Conversation’, PNR 23, p. 35.
14 SC, p. 39.
15 ibid., p. 40. This story is also referred to in notes on her childhood by STW, taken down in dictation by VA, 1965 (DORSET).
16 ibid., p. 37.
17 ibid., p. 60.
18 YALE: STW to GP, 24 May 1960.
19 Letters, p. 263.
20 ibid., p. 180.
21 Thomas Carlyle’s journal for 12 March 1828, quoted in WARNER, 20 February 1954.
22 DORSET: GTW1 to GTW2, 11 March 1863.
23 quoted in YALE: STW to GP, 5 January 1960.
24 WARNER, 20 January 1954.
25 DORSET: ‘The Sylvie Book’, a collection of verses written for STW by GTW, with contributions from Nora Warner and Frank Hudleston.
26 DORSET: Notes on STW’s childhood, taken down in dictation by VA, 1965.
27 YALE: STW to GP, 7 July 1958.
28 ibid.
29 Letters, p. 251.
30 ibid., p. 192.
31 Times Literary Supplement, 12 September 1936.
&nbs
p; 32 Harrovian, p. 96.
33 Hartley, p. 81.
34 The Times, 25 September 1916.
35 Harrow School Song Book (1974 edition), p. 103.
36 Harrovian, p. 96.
37 ibid., p. 94.
38 ibid., p. 99.
39 SR, pp. 153–4.
40 Letters, p. 263.
41 STW to BH, 3 June 1924.
42 Harrovian, p. 95.
43 An unnamed colleague of GTW, quoted in T.P.’s and Cassell’s Weekly, 15 January 1927.
44 Warner, pp. 156–7.
45 DORSET: ‘Pianos and Pianolas’, unfinished article by STW.
46 Letter to The Harrovian, 15 October 1947.
47 LW, p. 26.
48 YALE: STW to GP, 22 December 1961.
49 WARNER, 24 May 1950.
50 ibid., 25 April 1951.
51 ibid., 20 December 1952.
52 ibid.
53 GTW, ‘The Spirit of the War at Harrow’, reprinted in The Living Age, 18 September 1915, pp. 731–5.
54 GTW, ‘Improvised Armies’, Blackwood’s Magazine, October 1914, pp. 547–62.
55 DORSET: GTW diary, 1 January 1916.
56 DORSET: Eric Milner-White to GTW, February 1915.
57 DORSET: GTW diary, 22 April 1915.
58 ibid., 25/26 August 1915.
59 Blackwood’s, p. 198.
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