Ep 10: October. Now 1913, Edith and Ernest are looking after Kenneth's child Esmond after his divorce and nervous breakdown. She is also a success after having a novel, Animals Around Us, published, but while at the book launching party a careless comment by one guest leaves her pondering her own regrets of not having children of her own and feeling isolated in London away from the family home. But she also remembers how their marriage very nearly didn't take place in the first place due to her own father's misgivings. But it is a decision her father later takes that ends up leaving her distraught.
00:30Gowan Bank, Olten Watch, Nature Notes for 1906, by Edith B. Holden.
00:43To sit on rocks, to muse or flood and fell, to slowly trace the forest's shady scene where things that own not man's dominion dwell, and mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been,
01:10to climb the trackless mountain all unseen, with the wild flock that never need a fold, alone or steeps and foaming falls to lean.
01:21This is not solitude, it is but to hold converse with nature's charms and view her stores unrolled.
01:40The End
01:41The End
01:42Oh, my God.
02:12Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, close bosom friend of the maturing sun, conspiring
02:25with him how to load and bless with fruit the vines that round the thatch eves run, to
02:35bend with apples the mossed cottage trees, and fill all fruit with ripeness to the core.
02:45October, the eighth month of the old Roman year.
02:50By the Slavs, this is called yellow month, from the fading of the leaf.
02:57Buckingham Palace, Esmond.
02:59Here's your notebook, I can't read it.
03:22Thank you for sending it to me.
03:24Did you copy the drawings you wanted?
03:26Yes.
03:29You must show me tomorrow.
03:31Oh, and this is for you.
03:32It's the book I've just done the drawings for.
03:39Thank you, Aunty.
03:41Now, you must get to sleep as quickly as you can.
04:06October the first.
04:09Warm, bright day.
04:11There are not many wild flowers left in bloom here now.
04:16I gathered some scabious and red dead nettle, and saw some white convolvulus on the top of a hedge.
04:23Blackberries are plentiful, and there is a rich harvest of berries of all kinds.
04:42I really think you must tell, Father.
04:44I know.
04:46Any other course would be dishonest.
04:50But I'm frightened.
04:52I never heard such nonsense.
04:54He won't approve.
04:55I don't suppose he will.
04:57He worries and worries about everything these days, even good news.
05:01It's not just that.
05:03It's more sort of...
05:06superstition.
05:09I'm afraid if I talk about it, it won't happen.
05:12Dear me.
05:15Come along, and we shall never have enough.
05:18Good news, how slow I am.
05:21Westman, don't eat them all.
05:29I brought in some boughs laden with chestnuts, and some long necklaces of the bright scarlet berries of the black bryany to paint.
05:37My dear Edith, of course I understand.
05:54A woman should marry.
05:56But my dear, you have seen how badly a marriage can go wrong.
06:03And there is Esmond to be looked after until Kenneth returns.
06:07I shall be here to help, Father.
06:10What will happen then, I don't know.
06:13I wasn't talking about marriage yet.
06:17Ernest simply wants me to exchange a promise.
06:22An engagement, then?
06:25No.
06:27No, nothing so formal.
06:29He is too aware of his own difficult situation.
06:32But if he cannot afford an engagement ring, what are you expecting to live on?
06:37It isn't as if I could provide for you in the way that I would wish.
06:41He knows that.
06:42Well then, and in times like these, how can a young apprentice such as you say he is possibly provide for a wife?
07:03October the 10th.
07:07Walking through the fields today to Elmden Park, I saw numbers of the little blue blossoms of the field speedwell.
07:15These and mayweed, pink campion and a few belated blackberry blossoms were the only wildflowers I saw.
07:31The hedges are gay with berries of all kinds.
07:36Hips and haws, elderberries, bittersweet, briony, gelder rose and blackberries.
07:53And the birds were busy, feasting among them.
07:59The wild service trees in Elmden Park are a gorgeous colour now.
08:03The upper part of the foliage, crimson and scarlet, and the lower, deep orange.
08:12A few of the other trees are beginning to turn colour, but green is the predominating tone of the foliage as yet.
08:18I brought home some acorns and some of the fruit of the wild service tree to paint.
08:24But fruits, not blossoms, form the woodland wreath that circles autumn's brow.
08:27The ruddy haws now clothe the hearth-leaved flowers.
08:30But fruits, not blossoms, form the woodland wreath that circles autumn's brow.
08:35The ruddy haws now clothe the hearth-leaved thorn.
08:45The bramble bends beneath its jetty load.
08:48The hazel hangs with auburn branches, dipping in the stream, that sweeps along and thunders.
08:51The red fruit, not blossoms, form the woodland wreath that circles autumn's brow.
08:55The ruddy haws now clothe the hearth-leaved thorn.
08:58The bramble bends beneath its jetty load.
09:03The hazel hangs with auburn branches, dipping in the stream, that sweeps along and threatens
09:18to o'erflow the leaf-strewn banks.
09:21Oft statue-like I gaze, in vacancy of thought, upon that stream,
09:29and chase with dreaming eye the eddying foam,
09:33or Rowan's clustered branch,
09:36or harvest sheaf, borne rapidly down the dizzying flood.
09:46Goodbye, my darling.
09:48Take great care of you.
09:52I'm sure, I'm sure.
09:55Goodbye, my dear.
09:56Take great care of you.
09:58You're precious too.
10:00Enjoy yourself.
10:02We are.
10:18Oh, my God.
10:57Edith, what are you working on next?
11:04I should be illustrating some of Effie's poems for children.
11:07Very slowly.
11:08How lovely.
11:10Where's Ernest?
11:12Oh, he hasn't arrived yet.
11:14I imagine he's been held up at work.
11:16How are your family?
11:17Is your father still well?
11:19Yes, as well as can be expected, Winnie says.
11:22Do you see them often?
11:23No, not as often as I'd wish.
11:25I've been so busy, they have to come to visit me.
11:28Is that Kenneth's eldest?
11:30Yes.
11:31There was another child by his first marriage, wasn't there?
11:34His first wife took the other child with her, as I'm sure you know.
11:38How very sad.
11:39Yes.
11:39Ah, here comes the countess.
11:43Perhaps Ernest is with you.
11:45Hello, my dear.
11:47How splendid it all looks.
11:49Hello, Theo.
11:50Is Ernest not with you?
11:52No, he left before me.
11:53Don't worry.
11:54He will have run into some friends and be bringing them.
11:57Theo.
11:57I say, Ernest, old fellow.
11:58He's a delightfully quaint.
12:01If I knew any children, I'd buy heaps.
12:05What did I tell you?
12:06I've brought some friends to liven things up.
12:08How considerate of you, Ernest.
12:10Hello, Melissa.
12:11Been cheering Edith up, have you?
12:13Well, excuse me.
12:18I'll see about the drinks.
12:23I never seem to have you to myself anymore, Ernest.
12:27I know that's selfish of me.
12:30It's good to have friends.
12:33Somehow when you're with them,
12:34I feel a complete stranger to you.
12:40But how's that possible?
12:42Tonight was your night.
12:50Couldn't we go away together somewhere soon?
12:55What about your new book?
12:57After that.
12:59All right, my mum.
13:00Mother, tell me what to do.
13:22Have you deserted me because I left father?
13:24I thought you would want me to be happy.
13:46Why am I childless?
13:48Why are all your girls childless?
14:04I'm sure if I lived in the quiet of the country,
14:07you could hear me.
14:08I'm sure if I lived in the quiet of the country,
14:09you could hear me.
14:10I'm sure if I lived in the quiet of the country,
14:11you could hear me.
14:12I love you.
14:20Oh, all wide places,
14:22far from fever's towns,
14:28great shining seas.
14:29Pine forests, mountains wild
14:39Rock-bosomed shores
14:47Rough heaths and sheep-cropped downs
14:56Vast pallid clouds
14:59Blue spaces, undefiled
15:05Room, give me room
15:11Give loneliness and air
15:17Free things and plenteous
15:21In your regions fair
15:25And when we've got the stone on the hook
15:35We'll hold it right up here where we need it
15:38And then over
15:39That's it
15:47Come to your finished piece
15:49Here we are working on a children's book
15:56Trying to imagine the sort of stories they would enjoy
16:00Designing it specifically for their tiny hands
16:05None of the women in this room have children
16:10None of the Holden sisters have children
16:15It's like a curse
16:18Nonsense
16:21We all have to work too hard to have time for children
16:25We are fellow artists
16:28And no one knows better than I what it is to gain recognition as a woman artist
16:33You must take on more work than you can cope with
16:37More than your strength can bear
16:40As I do
16:42And you will come through
16:43You must study
16:47You must study
16:50Edith
16:50We all need the inspiration of the great
16:54Do you think it's a good likeness?
16:56Yeah, very good
16:56She's very pretty, isn't she?
16:59Yes
17:00Are you cold?
17:03As soon as Edith has finished the dog
17:07We must go on to the cat
17:08I've finished the poem for it
17:10Esmond
17:12What do you think of my ending?
17:16So the cunning old cat lay down on a mat
17:19By the fire in the servant's hall
17:21If the little mice peep
17:24They'll think I'm asleep
17:25So she rolled herself up like a ball
17:28Nibble, nibble, nibble
17:31Went all the little mice
17:32And they licked their little paws
17:34Then the cunning old cat sprang up from the mat
17:38And caught them all with her claws
17:41Oh, you're too grown up for words
17:47Why do children have to grow up?
18:04October the 14th
18:20Walked to Catherine de Barnes
18:22To get some dogwood berries
18:24Which I knew were plentiful in the hedges about there
18:26The hips made a great display all along the route
18:31Especially on a wild piece of common land we crossed
18:35I noticed great numbers of finches here
18:42Feeding on the berries
18:43Some of the gorse bushes were in flower
18:51These, with the bushes of scarlet rose hips
18:58And trailing blackberry briars
19:00Covered with red and yellow leaves
19:02Made fine patches of colour in the bright sunshine
19:05The cottage gardens are very gay just now
19:23With chrysanthemums, dahlias
19:25And nickelness daisies
19:28And the cottage walls are covered with great splashes of crimson
19:32Where the virginia creeper has turned colour
19:41Now autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods
19:46And day by day the dead leaves fall and melt
19:51And night by night the monetary blast wails in the keyhole
19:56Telling how it passed o'er empty fields
19:59Or upland solitude moods
20:01Or grim, wide wave
20:06And now the power is felt of melancholy
20:11Tenderer in its moods than any joy indulgent summer dealt
20:16October the 21st
20:22The tomtits are returning in great numbers to their old haunts in the garden
20:27Which they have deserted during the summer
20:29They flutter about the wall and windows of the house
20:33I believe with a secret hope of finding a coconut waiting for them
20:38There's a postcard from your father, Esmond
20:56It's getting much better
21:02Will he be home soon?
21:17Quite soon
21:18When?
21:19When?
21:20Not long
21:22Not long
21:23Not long now
21:26With the zoo to go to
21:29Battersea Park
21:31Then up the Thames to Hampton Court
21:33Time will rush by
21:35And then your father will be here to collect you
21:37So
21:38Don't be homesick
21:40Don't be homesick
21:42Oh, how can father bear it?
22:09Oh, Edie, you shouldn't have come
22:11I knew you'd brood if you saw it happening
22:15Gowan Bank hasn't been your home for a long time
22:18And you mustn't trouble yourself about it now
22:21It was always there when I needed it
22:32Oh, George
22:34I feel as though I'm being torn up by the roofs
