|
Children's books often have wonderful, evocative pictures, and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows was no exception. Although it has been published in many versions, the early ones illustrated by Arthur Rackham offer a double treat: the story itself, and illustrations that paved the way for modern illustrators and animators as well. Walt Disney often mentioned Rackham's works as a starting point for his own imagination.
Although the book's author lived on the banks of the Thames, it is believed that the setting for the story was actually Lerryn, Cornwall. Lerryn's post office is in nearby Lostwithiel, a town named for fairy tales if ever there was one--although it is not known that any fairy tales were written about it.
Lerryn sits upon the Lerryn River, a tributary of the better-known Fowey River. As far as Lerryn, the Lerryn River is tidal, although a bridge has spanned it for more than 700 years. The tiny arched stone bridge, still standing, was built in 1573 at the order of Queen Elizabeth so that gold could be transported form a smelt on the south bank of the river. There are also stepping stones, even older, but they are only accessible at low tide.
There are lots of landscapes in Lerryn eminently suitable for hosting small woodland and riverbank creatures with human characteristics. Ethy Woods hides the entrance to a tunnel where contraband was hidden, in myth. In reality, it is no more than a place where trees were burned to make charcoal.
There is a real lane in the village called Brandy Lane, a fitting sort of name for Toad's world. Willows surround ethy Rock, at the banks of the river, and many think Grahame might have lingered there to write his tale. Gazing downstream, he may have decided to fashion the story's Troy Town after Fowey, a large port on the River Fowey downriver from the Lerryn.
Other magical elements, too, might have influenced Grahame. A large earthworks, the Giant's Hedge, runs along the coast for fifteen miles from Lerryn to the coastal city of Looe. Doubtless, Grahame knew the ages old rhyme, "One day when the devil had nothing better to do, he built a hedge from Lerryn to Looe."
No one knows the exact history of that long structure, but it is believed to be a defensive dyke built during the Middle Ages.
|
|
