Waugh in Chagford

 

 

By ADRIAN TAHOURDIN

It’s raining here so, in an attempt to cheer myself up, it
seems a good moment to ask: is this the nicest open-air public pool in England?
The pool, which was opened in 1934, lies on the edge of the medieval stannary (i.e. tin-mining) town of
Chagford, in the heart of Dartmoor National Park. It is fed by the nearby river Teign.

The Times recently ran an item on “the 30 best lidos in
Britain” (we do love lists in this country, don’t we?), in which Chagford Pool
was placed a rather lowly 28th. I’d have put it much higher.

A mile or so down the road is Easton Court, the rather
unprepossessing hotel where Evelyn Waugh stayed, on army leave, in 1944, to
write Brideshead Revisited: “I came
to Chagford with the intention of starting on an ambitious novel”, he recorded
in his diary. Meanwhile, to his wife Laura, who was expecting, he wrote in
February, “The other guests in the hotel are all like old house-keepers. There
are plenty of eggs. I have found an old man who will go to Stinkers to get me
claret”, He was composing at quite a rate – “Mag. Op. steams along slowly at
about 1500 words a day”. The novel is signed off “Chagford, February-June,
1944.” To his friend and literary agent A. D. Peters he confessed “It would
have a small public at any time [he has the wartime paper shortages in mind]. I
should not think six Americans will understand it”.

On February 13, he notes in his diary “My wine arrived on
Thursday”. But the war is never far from his thoughts: aside from the anxiety
at the possibility of having his leave cut short – “No news from the War
Office” – he feels that “it is hard to be fighting against Rome. We bombed
Castel Gandolfo”.

The baby arrived in May: “Telephone message that Laura has
had a daughter and is well. A dull day’s work.” The next day, “. . . walked to
Mass at Gidleigh – delicious fresh morning and beautiful path by river” (“mass”
would of course have been pronounced with a long vowel).

Near Easton Court is the field where the Chagford Show is
held every August. In Chapter Four of the novel Waugh describes how Sebastian
and Charles are “sunbathing and watching through a telescope the Agricultural
Show which was in progress in the park below us. It was a modest two-day  show serving the neighbouring parishes, and
surviving more as a fair than as a centre of serious competition”. It would be
nice to think that Waugh may have got the idea for the scene locally.