Sept 11th 1926 - DH Lawrence celebrates birthday in the exotic Far East (that's Mablethorpe to you and me!)

It's quite a poignant anniversary at the moment for local author DH Lawrence. It's 100 years since his final visit to his hometown of Eastwood (and also his final time in England).

A rarely seen account of that visit was written by his old friend Willie Hopkin and in today's "Tale from Watnall Hall" we will be taking a look at it with a rather critical eye...

But first the timeline of Lawrence's last trip

He'd spent the previous few weeks in Scotland exploring the Isle of Skye and the Highlands staying with a female friend in Newtonmore near Aviemore.
- On Sept 11th 1926 he celebrated his 41st birthday holidaying on the Lincolnshire coast with his sister Ada. The picture shows the two of them on the beach at Sutton-On-Sea.
- A few days later (Sept 14th or 15th) they were back home and he paid his last visit to Eastwood and Willie Hopkin (at least according to Willie Hopkin). They walked around some of his old haunts and chatted about times gone with perhaps a few regrets.

- On Sept 16th he was in London and on Sept 28th 1926 he left England for the last ever time, never to return.

The final visit to Eastwood - Willie Hopkin's first hand account stands on its own merit but something about it doesn't quite ring true to me. Lawrence seems a little out of character and very bitter. Not what his own letters and writings of the time convey but then his moods were quite changeable. It's almost like Hopkin has written his own account of an imagined perfect last visit going over old issues from Lawrence's life and his books and drawing them to a suitably Lawrence-like emotional conclusion.

It seems odd that Hopkin's last visit scenario is not mentioned by Lawrence in any of his letters of the time and he was in a particularly frantic letter writing phase. He even writes to Hopkin's daughter Enid who is living in London on Sept 20th and makes no mention of seeing her father just days before.

Lawrence did write write an article called "Return To Bestwood" about this last trip back home but Hopkin gets no mention. In it Lawrence does describe feeling a deep depression and nostalgia about his old town that Hopkin's article mentions. Could Hopkin's article be based on that I wonder?

Read Hopkin's article below and draw your own conclusions...

LAWRENCE'S LAST VISIT HOME

The following article by W E Hopkin appeared in the Eastwood and Kimberley Advertiser on 11 September 1942. It has been provided by Mrs Jean Temple, the niece of George Henry Neville.

"To-day is the anniversary of the birth of that much-discussed and, may I say it, misunderstood genius D H Lawrence. With this in mind I thought some of his readers might like a brief account of his last visit to Eastwood.

As I was his only companion on that occasion nothing will be known about it unless I record some part of it. One morning he walked into my house and said: "Come along Willie, I want you to go for a walk with me." So off we went. I guessed he wanted to go over some of his old haunts, and I was right.

As we passed the Three Tuns Inn he said: "Poor old Dad, I fear we were not too kind to him in the old days." He stood for a minute looking at the Beauvale Schools, where he received the whole of his elementary education, and I asked if he would like to go inside. "Certainly not!" was his reply, so we walked on past the Ram Inn, which plays a notable part in "The White Peacock," and I asked him why in that book he said that the landlord was a bone setter when he knew quite well that Tom Bostock of the Thorn Tree made that part of his activities. "Oh, just to put folk off the scent; and I shall give any character I use any sort of gift I please," was his answer.

As we neared a cottage where one of his school girl friends lived after her marriage [May Holbrook's cottage], I put my foot in it rather badly by asking him why he did not marry a certain girl. He swore viciously and told me to mind my own business. After walking on in silence for a few minutes he apologized for his language and answered my question. His reply will not be revealed unless I leave behind some notes I propose to write down before I leave this pleasant life.

When we reached Moorgreen corner he asked about the fields, the scene of "Love Among the Haystacks," and I told him they remained as he knew them and were not likely to be built on. He said "Good." In between we had talked of the old days, the good old days, as he called them and the change in the mentality of the miners since his boyhood.

Along New-road he went off into a fanciful picture of the district as it was some hundreds of years ago, and I surmised that he was thinking of his short story, "A Bit of Stained Glass," where Watnall Hall stables and Beauvale Priory are mentioned. Pointing to the ridge he said: "On that spot stood a forest ranger's cottage and he used to beat his wife." "Why did he beat her?" I inquired, and he said airily, "Oh, the usual reason."

Turning into the wood we went down to Robin Hood's Well, where he and his school friends had spent happy hours. Stooping down he drank some of the icy cold water and then sat down hugging his knees, and apparently lost in thought. I watched his face across which smiles and sadness chased each other like the clouds and sunlight overhead. Suddenly he arose and went off at a rapid pace, but realising he had a companion he pulled up and waited for me.

When we reached the steep fields above Felley Mill he went suddenly quiet, and near a fallen thorn tree he stopped and looked from the pool below him to the farm where he had spent so many happy hours with Miriam and her family. I have seen sadness on many a face but nothing like Lawrence's at that moment. Unable to bear it I went and sat by the mill pool until he slowly moved away. For ten minutes he spoke no word and then went off into a lot of brilliant nonsense to hid his emotion.

When we passed his old home in the Breach his only remark was: "That life seems a hundred years ago." We had much conversation during the long walk, and some of it was well-worth recording.

When he said goodbye at parting I asked: "When are you coming again Bert?"

"Never. I hate the damned place!" was his bitter reply.

Notes and Sources

Thanks to Carol Mills of the Haggs Farm Preservation Society for a copy of Willie Hopkin's article.

"Seeing the mention of Tom Bostock reminded me that it was his son who became a chemist in Eastwood, hired Harry Dax as his assistant & hence the arrival of Alice Dax. She was a suffragette, friend of Willie & Sally Hopkin & according to her own account was DHL's first sexual partner."

That in turn reminds me of another DHL article on this blog where Alice Dax features as the object of desire for DHL. So much so that he cycles 18 hilly miles from Eastwood to Shirebrook during a train strike for an illicit weekend with the delectable Mrs. Dax...

Alice Dax and daughter

"Happy birthday D.H. Lawrence. I love this picture taken with his sister Ada at Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, August 1926. With his dainty parasol I can't help but imagine what kind of Mary Poppins he would have made. I'm sure he would have enjoyed visiting dysfunctional families and employing his unique brand of lifestyle to improve the familial dynamic. But he wouldn't do it with a spoonful of sugar. A spoonful of scalding on the other hand..." - James Walker 2019

DHL and sister Ada by the sea.
Original picture from Notts Archives.

DHL and sister Ada by the sea with feet!
Original picture from Notts Archives.