"I go about the world with a worried heart and a notebook."
Walking and writing were central to Edward Thomas’ artistic method. He would make long treks, filling notebooks with observations on nature, and pressing cuttings from wild flowers and trees into the pages. Edward had developed a practice, since a young age, of working up more considered prose pieces, and later in life, poetry, from these sparse notes on weather, flowering plants, birds, and topography.
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Roedd cerdded ac ysgrifennu yn ganolog i ddull artistig Edward Thomas. Byddai'n cerdded yn bell, yn llenwi llyfrau nodiadau gyda sylwadau ar fyd natur, ac yn gwasgu toriadau o flodau gwyllt a choed rhwng y tudalennau. Ers pan oedd Edward yn ifanc, roedd wedi datblygu arfer o fynd ati i greu darnau o ryddiaith ddwysach eu hystyriaeth ac, yn nes ymlaen yn ei fywyd, cerddi, o’r nodiadau prin hynny ar y tywydd, ar blanhigion yn eu blodau, ar adar ac ar dopograffi.
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Hardbound notebook enclosing press cuttings and pressed flowers, with inscription. We are grateful to the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust for funding the conservation of Edward Thomas’ notebooks, in collaboration with Glamorgan Archives.
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Llyfr nodiadau clawr caled yn amgáu toriadau o'r wasg a blodau wedi’u gwasgu, gyda arysgrif. Rydym yn ddiolchgar iawn i’r National Manuscripts Conservation Trust am noddi gwaith cadwraeth ar lyfrau nodiadau Edward Thomas, mewn cydweithrediad ag Archifau Morgannwg.
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“The first blue violet! The first primrose - a day indeed, and my birthday.
Kestrel buffeting in air with two rooks, who rivalled him in adroitness. Hares rather face the combatable danger of men and dogs than the treacherous net by gateway which they scent but do not see. Something lurks by each grassblade and larks and starlings know and find them all.” |
“Walking you will perhaps see suits me. Really I am never so well as when I am rid of the postman and all company walking 20 or 30 miles a day. I was as well as ever I hope to be in my week’s walk, and its spell has lasted over another week. I get as depressed and irritable as ever but seem to recover faster.”
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"I had found Spring [...] all along the road."
During a cycle trip from London to the Quantocks over Easter weekend, 1913, Edward Thomas took photographs of the locations he passed through, including Winchester, Salisbury and Wells. The journey was to provide inspiration for his prose work, In Pursuit of Spring – a celebration of nature, Spring and the English landscape in the months prior to the devastation of the First World War. As a result of the discovery of these images, In Pursuit of Spring was recently reprinted by publisher Little Toller, fully illustrated with the sights which had inspired its author. These are images of a lost, almost car-free England, full of empty roads and paths, speaking of travel, motion and hope.
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Yn ystod taith feicio o Lundain i Fryniau Quantock dros benwythnos y Pasg, 1913, tynnodd Edward Thomas ffotograffau o'r lleoliadau y teithiodd drwyddynt, gan gynnwys Caer-wynt, Caersallog a Wells. Rhoddodd y daith ysbrydoliaeth iddo ar gyfer ei waith rhyddiaith, In Pursuit of Spring – dathliad o natur, y gwanwyn a thirwedd Lloegr yn y misoedd cyn dinistr y Rhyfel Byd Cyntaf. O ganlyniad i ddarganfod y lluniau hyn, cafodd In Pursuit of Spring ei ailargraffu’n ddiweddar gan y cyhoeddwr, Little Toller, wedi’i ddarlunio’n llawn â’r golygfeydd a ysbrydolodd ei awdur. Mae’r rhain yn ddelweddau o Loegr goll, gydag ond ambell gar, yn llawn ffyrdd a llwybrau gwag, yn sôn am deithio, mudo a gobaith.
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