The Country Child by Alison Uttley
The Country Child
By Alison Uttley
This is a beautiful passage from Alison Uttley’s book, The Country Child, selected by Athene’s twin sister, Susannah Garland.
This semi-autobiographical story evokes a bucolic country life in the Victorian era. The author, Alison Uttley grew up in rural Derbyshire and this novel conjures up a magical and wholesome world. Many of you will know Alison Uttley as the creator of the Little Grey Rabbit Series. This is the story of a year on a farm, told through the eyes of the main character, Susan Garland, an only child, living in a remote house, modelled on Alison’s own home. With no other playmates, Susan has to amuse herself with the daily routine of life on the farm and observing the natural world around her.
Below is an extract from this book – an evocative and nostalgic description of the Winter landscape in the Derbyshire hills.
‘Snow lay thick on the fields and woods cast blue shadows across it. The fir trees were like sparkling, gem-laden Christmas trees, the only ones Susan had ever seen. The orchard, with the lacy old boughs outlined with snow, was a grove of fairy trees. The woods were enchanted, exquisite, the trees were holy, and anything harmful had shrunken to a thin wisp and had retreated into the depths.
The fields lay with their unevennesses gone and paths obliterated, smooth white slopes criss-crossed by black lines running up to the woods. More than ever the farm seemed under a spell, like a toy in the forest, with little wooden animals and men; a brown horse led by a stiff little red-scarfed man to a yellow stable door; round, white, woolly sheep clustering round a blue trough of orange mangolds; red cows drinking from a square, white trough, and returning to a painted cow-house.
Footpaths were everywhere on the snow, rabbits and foxes, blackbirds, pheasants and partridges, trails of small paws, the mark of a brush, and the long feet of the cock pheasant and the tip-mark of his tail.
A jay flew out of the wood like a blue flashing diamond and came to the grass-plot for bread. A robin entered the house and hopped under the table whilst Susan sat very still and her father sprinkled crumbs on the floor.
Rats crouched outside the window, peering out of the walls with gleaming eyes, seizing the birds’ crumbs and scraps, and slowly lolloping back again.
Red squirrels ran along the walls to the back door, close to the window to eat the crumbs on the bench where the milk cans froze. Every wild animal felt that a truce had come with the snow, and they visited the house where there was food in plenty, and sat with paws uplifted and noses twitching.’
Illustration by Pauline Baynes