Garden pursuits
Jeremy Clarke on his Low Life
The woman hired by the National Trust to see that nothing is pilfered from the upper floor at Clouds Hill, and to answer the visitors’ questions, knew almost nothing, she told me, about Colonel T.E. Lawrence, whose house it was from 1923 until he died as a result of a motorbike accident in May 1935. She was new to the job, she said. It was only her second shift. But she’d recognised already that for many visitors Clouds Hill was a shrine, and for their sakes she was determined to become as knowledgeable about Lawrence as possible.
She and I were alone in the simply furnished room. It was more or less as Lawrence left it on the day he kick-started his Brough Superior and rode off to send a telegram to Henry Williamson inviting him to Clouds Hill to discuss Williamson’s suggestion that Lawrence become actively involved in the British Union of Fascists. There was a brown leather sofa, a writing table, a battered Royal typewriter, a wind-up gramophone with an enormous horn, and an Art Deco fender — all original.
I had a question about Lawrence, I said. She looked terrified. I wanted to find the exact spot where he came off his bike, I said. Did she know where it was? ‘Yes! I do!’ she said, her face alight with pleasure. ‘It’s a straight road, but there was a hump. After the accident my father was given the job of removing the hump to level the road. You turn right out of the gate and it’s about a mile along the road. I’d better double-check that, though.’
She went downstairs. Then she came back up looking crestfallen, followed by the man whose job it was to keep an eye on the ground floor. Obviously under strict instructions not to leave his post for a second, this man looked both anxious and knowledgeable at the same time. To find the place in the road where Lawrence had come off, he said, I had to turn left out of the gate, not right. And it was only about half a mile along the road, not a mile. The spot is marked with a small memorial stone, he said.
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Jeremy Wilson
April 12th, 2008 4:31pmT.E. Lawrence did not invite Henry Williamson to Clouds Hill "to discuss Williamson's suggestion that Lawrence become actively involved in the British Union of Fascists."
The letter of 10 May 1935 from Williamson to Lawrence that prompted Lawrence's telegram inviting HW to Clouds Hill has been published. In it, Williamson asked if he could call at Clouds Hill to drop off an unpublished typescript by V.M. Yeates, hoping that Lawrence would read it and give an opinion on some editorial changes.
Williamson did not become a Fascist supporter until after Lawrence's death. He joined the British Union of Fascists in the autumn of 1937. That year - presumably hoping to harness Lawrence's name to the Fascist cause - Williamson invented the story that he had asked to call at Clouds Hill in order to discuss a possible meeting between Lawrence and Hitler.
The letter, telegram, and a discussion by Anne Williamson (HW's daughter-in-law and major biographer) are published in T.E. Lawrence, 'Correspondence with Henry Williamson' (Fordingbridge, Castle Hill Press, 2000)
Liz Bird
April 18th, 2008 7:30pmMr Clarke would know that the house is manned by volunteers and that there are no loos there if he were a member of the Trust.With his people skills and knowledge perhaps he should volunteer.
Peter Preen
April 20th, 2008 9:08pmWhat was the point of this article? Was it just an excuse for Mr Clarke to have a go at an innocent charitable volunteer, someone who will probably never see this article and therefore cannot retaliate. If so it remains a pointless childish exercise in bullying of a charitable person. Mr Clarke should be aware that he who throws the first stone shall recieve back 3,000fold, or so it says in the good book, I believe. Maybe his fellow reporters would like to start by making fun of Mr Clarke's many goofs. Now that would be a joy to read. By the way T E lawrence was a book reviewer for the Spectator, something I feel certain that Mr Clarke knows nothing about.
Colin Glover
April 22nd, 2008 10:05amI really must take issue with this poor piece of journalism which would be better suited to the gutter press than what I previously beleived to be a reputable publication.
I am a volunteer at Clouds Hill and am not hired by the Trust. I go there in my own time and at my own expense as I have a genuine interest in all things to do with Lawrence and enjoy imparting my knowledge with members of the public and indeed learning from them sometimes. It can be very stimulating. It is also true that volunteers cannot be expected to know everything on day one and as in life we learn as we go.
The inaccuracies in the article have been well covered by Jeremy Wilson and could have been avoided with proper research. Obviously research is not a priority of the writer but maybe if he were to check out the Spectator's archives for 1927 and look at the book reviews by a certain CD or Colin Dale he would find that this person was TE Lawrence, a fellow employee!
I genuinely believe that a further article should be written by Mr Clarke correcting his inaccuracies and withdrawing his derogatory comments about volunteers. I am sure that the warden of Clouds Hill or any volunteer would welcome a further visit from Mr Clarke to discuss Lawrence in greater detail and help him construct a true and meaningful article to further enhance Lawrence's reputation and garner more visitors to Clouds Hill. But I suspect objective journalism was not the purpose of the article in the first place but merely sensationalism!