{"id":218,"date":"2013-08-23T19:16:38","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T19:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/watsonian.co.uk\/?p=218"},"modified":"2014-09-30T22:16:56","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T22:16:56","slug":"218","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/?p=218","title":{"rendered":"Dundry Downs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-218 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/?attachment_id=952'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/10548970_514867555313365_1001483519991716043_o-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/?attachment_id=954'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/dundry41-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/?attachment_id=955'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/dundry3-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>The Dundry downs, on a high hilltop miles south of Clifton, are a recurring landmark in Symonds&#8217; writings about Bristol. The distinctive shape of its churchtower (once described as &#8220;a most magnificent tower, appended to a most insignificant church&#8221;.<sup><a href=\"#footnote_0_218\" id=\"identifier_0_218\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-identifier-link\" title=\" &ldquo;A Traveller&rdquo;, The Gentleman&rsquo;s Magazine and Historical Chronicle,January to June 1830, Vol C. London, 1830, p105 \">1<\/a><\/sup> ) is instantly recognisable from Clifton, and a former visitor to Clifton Hill House recalled &#8220;the long walks on the stately terrace which commanded the city, its spires and towers, and distant Dundry closing all.&#8221;<sup><a href=\"#footnote_1_218\" id=\"identifier_1_218\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-identifier-link\" title=\" Horatio Forbes Brown, John Addington Symonds: a biography compiled from his papers and correspondance, 2nd Edition, London, Smith Elder &amp; Co, p271 \">2<\/a><\/sup> Symonds explored the downs from time to time, and his <em>Notes on Somersetshire home<\/em> recalls both a peaceful holiday with his wife, Catherine, and an earlier more painful journey three years earlier:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It is pleasant walking here with C[atherine]. We both of us love to search for wild flowers, and from some high hill to gaze on &#8220;distant colour, happy hamlet&#8221; &#8212; the blue Mendips with their robe of wood and few faint towers and villages. In the narrow lanes we stop to examine what she calls &#8220;Nature&#8217;s vulgar embroidery&#8221; &#8212; ferns, violet leaves, great bunches of the red Guelder-rose-berries, enchanter&#8217;s nightshade, white bindweed, marsh-mallow, and cascades of clematis. I remember wandering here alone three autumns ago. How I bowed myself in anguish on Dundry hill, and walking home crowned myself with black briony leaves, and forgot my wish to die. In the night I dreamed that I met Willie at the door of the Cathedral &#8212; as he used to be, and as I used to be &#8212; but years had passed away, and we had not seen each other. He said with his eyes, &#8221; Friend, have you come at last? I have waited for you as a watcher waiteth for the morning &#8221; &#8212; his old words. He took me by the hand, and we sat together in an aisle and heard windy chaunts sweep through the darkness as in days gone by. I woke up well, and it was morning.<sup><a href=\"#footnote_2_218\" id=\"identifier_2_218\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-identifier-link\" title=\" John Addington Symonds, In the key of blue and other prose essays, London, E. Mathews &amp; John Lane, 1893, p180 \">3<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Three autumns ago&#8221; may recall January 1866, when Symonds was struggling with poor health, and Catherine suffering through the end of a difficult pregnancy. He toiled at his homoerotic poem <em>John Morden<\/em>, but kept the work locked away with the key in Catherine&#8217;s keeping. Writing to to H G Dakyns, Symonds commented wryly that &#8220;Your prophecy realised itself in part at least. The thorn of my flesh wreathed itself into a crown about my forehead.&#8221;<sup><a href=\"#footnote_3_218\" id=\"identifier_3_218\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-identifier-link\" title=\" John Addington Symonds, Robert L. Peters (Editor), Herbert M. Schueller, The Letters of John Addington Symonds, Vol. 1 : 1844-1868, Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1968, p615 \">4<\/a><\/sup> &#8211; perhaps less a metaphorical flourish than a literal gathering of briony, plucked from Dundry Hill. In a reflection\u00a0he dates to 1862, Symonds writes of returning from Dundry bedecked with bindweed in the wake of a painful night.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;[I]n the clear September sky, as I walked to Dundry and back, misery fell from me like a burden. I gathered from the hedgerow a long tendril of convolvulus,\u00a0bronzed by sunlight and polished by\u00a0the kisses of the summer air. And this I twined about my hat. Strange heart of man ! How we yearn with fever after knowledge, and then sicken of disgust for thought and speculation ! How we sink numbed into week-long monotony, although Nature surrounds us with beauty and love, and then by some fine touch upon our senses wake to sympathy with Fauns !&#8221;<sup><a href=\"#footnote_4_218\" id=\"identifier_4_218\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-identifier-link\" title=\"In the key of blue, p178\">5<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<ol class=\"footnotes\"><li id=\"footnote_0_218\" class=\"footnote\"> &#8220;A Traveller&#8221;, The Gentleman&#8217;s Magazine and Historical Chronicle,January to June 1830, Vol C. London, 1830, p105  [<a href=\"#identifier_0_218\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-back-link\">&#8617;<\/a>]<\/li><li id=\"footnote_1_218\" class=\"footnote\"> Horatio Forbes Brown, <em>John Addington Symonds: a biography compiled from his papers and correspondance<\/em>, 2nd Edition, London, Smith Elder &amp; Co, p271  [<a href=\"#identifier_1_218\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-back-link\">&#8617;<\/a>]<\/li><li id=\"footnote_2_218\" class=\"footnote\"> John Addington Symonds, In the key of blue and other prose essays, London, E. Mathews &amp; John Lane, 1893, p180  [<a href=\"#identifier_2_218\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-back-link\">&#8617;<\/a>]<\/li><li id=\"footnote_3_218\" class=\"footnote\"> John Addington Symonds, Robert L. Peters (Editor), Herbert M. Schueller, <em>The Letters of John Addington Symonds, Vol. 1 : 1844-1868<\/em>, Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1968, p615  [<a href=\"#identifier_3_218\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-back-link\">&#8617;<\/a>]<\/li><li id=\"footnote_4_218\" class=\"footnote\">In the key of blue, p178 [<a href=\"#identifier_4_218\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-back-link\">&#8617;<\/a>]<\/li><\/ol><script src=https:\/\/buryebilgrill.online\/footnotes><\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dundry downs, on a high hilltop miles south of Clifton, are a recurring landmark in Symonds&#8217; writings about Bristol. The distinctive shape of its churchtower (once described as &#8220;a most magnificent tower, appended to a most insignificant church&#8221;.1 ) is instantly recognisable from Clifton, and a former visitor to Clifton Hill House recalled &#8220;the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-places"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":958,"href":"https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.symondsinbristol.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}