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Next day the snow began to fall, large slow flakes drifting on a light wind. The sky was leaden and the earth crouched beneath it drained of beauty. All the light and loveliness were in the snow itself, in the movement and glimmer of the flakes large as wild white roses, in the tide of whiteness flowing slowly over the dark earth, like moonlight or the surf of a soundless sea......Mary moved through the day entranced, for this was not only her first snow at Appleshaw but her first country snow.....When Mary at last reluctantly drew the curtains she shut herself in with a silence so living that she moved about the house or sat by the fire as attentive to it as though she were listening to John talking, or cousin Mary, or to some other music still just beyond human hearing. Or for some arrival. Who’s coming? She wondered. There was expectancy in her listening but no impatience.
(Scent of Water Elizabeth Goudge 1963)

This picture was kindly donated by
Sylvia Gower. It was given to her by Andrew Harwood and shows Elizabeth Goudge
seated on Froniga's Well in her Garden
at Rose Cottage

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Editors Letter For December 20012

In August this year, I was contacted by Christopher Watts who had a wonderful connection with Elizabeth. His father had been Elizabeth’s parish priest and confessor. He told me that his father held Elizabeth in high esteem and that they spent many hours together to their mutual enrichment and satisfaction. He also had a few letters which his parents had received from Elizabeth during their friendship.

I was thrilled as always by the thought of seeing them and the new insight they would offer into Elizabeth’s private world. I was not disappointed. The letters give an insight into Elizabeth’s attitude towards the modern Christmas with its heavy emphasis on the material, and her dread of the round of trivial jollity one is forced to endure. For her it was a deeply spiritual time and season, one that filled her with hope and wonder.

The three letters he sent me range from personal insights into Elizabeth’s life to the spiritual companions that she made. (click here to read transcripts)

Elizabeth had an especially close friendship with Christopher’s mother Kay, the letters are addressed to her personally.

Although Christopher was only a boy, he remembers visiting Rose Cottage and the intriguing fact that Elizabeth was friends with the novelist and historian Cynthia Harnett, whose children’s books include The Load of Unicorns, and The Great House, both filled with her own beautiful illustrations and accurate historical detail.

My Christmas article is set around Elizabeth’s novel “City of Bells” a semi autobiographical book set in the Edwardian Wells Elizabeth experienced as a child. It is full of her friends and neighbours, Henrietta for example being her friend Dorothy and her own governess not unlike the children’s governess Miss Lavender.

Elizabeth even felt compelled in her biography, to correct her portrait of the Dean! “But the Dean made a great impression on my child’s mind, unfortunately an impression that was a little too vivid, for as the years passed the originally fine and slightly theatrical figure became in memory no longer awe inspiring but merely comic. Could he have been comic? I hardly think so for he had been headmaster of Rugby before he came to Wells and if headmasters were comic characters surely they would not last long. And so I mistrust my memory here. I only know that when I came to write City of Bells the Dean of that story arrived instantly readymade, tall and handsome with white mutton-chop whiskers, a high pitched voice and a top hat a little on one side, a wealthy man who drove his tall dog-cart in a dashing manner and had an eye for horse-flesh and a pretty woman”
(Goudge Joy of the Snow 1974)

Elizabeth’s father when he read the story was extremely upset by her portrayal. She felt he was justified as one of the Deans daughters had been a very kind godmother to her. She also writes of an incidence of the Deans kindness. He had let her drive with him in his dog cart on one of those wonderfully extravagant Edwardian picnics, that were then the fashion, on the surrounding Mendip hills. She never forgot the thrill of the ride home.

I hope that you enjoy this Christmas edition of the web site and share with us and Elizabeth the experiences and the wonder of the season, whatever you are doing to celebrate and wherever you do so, a very Merry Christmas and a Peaceful and Happy New Year to you all.

D. Gaudin

I would like to thank all those kind people who continue to support the web site, making it possible to tell others about the work of this remarkable author, who continues to speak to us and the generations that follow.

Deborah Gaudin

This site is being set up and run with the help and cooperation of some of the people who have grown to love the talented shy author of a collection of literary gems, most of which go unnoticed by the mass of society today. This she would accept with a humble gratitude, content with the success she achieved in her lifetime.

“This site has been established with the support of the Trustees of Elizabeth’s Estate. The content of the site is, however, the sole responsibility of its contributors.” Mark Dutton.

I hope that this site will to a large extent, be fan based and led. Let me have any ideas that you have about what you would like to see on this site.