A Monmouthshire meander with Nigel Jarrett
D
riving near Wolvesnewton close to Christmas one year I came across Santa Claus at the side of
the road. I knew it was Santa even though he had his head under the bonnet of a Volvo estate. The red trousers, black boots and red jacket with the white woolly hem gave him away. The scene was guaranteed to
demolish a child’s illusions of Yuletide, as newspapers call the festive season. I assumed that Santa – there’s only one, isn’t there? – had broken down while on his way to some pre-Christmas village giveaway. I had visions of a score of youngsters slowly yielding to frostbite and waiting in vain like a fl otilla of Dickensian urchins. I stopped and offered to help, making
a bad joke about obsolete reindeers and sleighs. A Santa-like chuckle rose from the
depths of the engine but there was no movement to full height. What was he doing out and about before Christmas Day anyway? He claimed to have
done his duty at some charity event and was on the way home. A likely story. It was a long way to Lapland. But it would have explained the Volvo, that Scandinavian, steel- reinforced workhorse with day-running lights. You’d need all those extras in the fastnesses of Snowsville. He giggled again and waved me on. It was all very strange. I wish it had happened before I’d
completed my journalistic assignment for that afternoon. I’d just left the American writer Martha Gellhorn swooning at my lowly and ignorant state and my effrontery at taking up her time with questions that specifi cally excluded her former status as Mrs Ernest Hemingway. Believe it or not, Gellhorn was then
living in Wolvesnewton, near Llangwm. She was diffi cult to interview and couldn’t stop wondering out loud how anyone had discovered that she was in the area,
which I thought was odd for a journalist. Anyway, I’d found out. She was adamant before our meeting
that the name of Hemingway could not be mentioned. Her explanation was that she refused to be defi ned in someone else’s terms. A considerable fi gure in her own right, she was probably correct. We soon got round to talking about her own attributes as war correspondent, novelist and travel writer. She controversially covered the British miners’ strike, criticising both Margaret Thatcher and Arthur Scargill. Many years before, Gellhorn had
married Hemingway after he divorced his wife, Pauline. But in Monmouthshire fi eldsport country the odd shotgun blast may have reminded her of her time with Hemingway in the hills and vales of Idaho, where her husband seemed to spend most of his hours decimating the local wildlife - grouse, duck, quail, the odd antelope. Within a few years of those gun-totin’ days, they’d divorced. She appeared to be on
her own in the house. It had begun snowing as the afternoon wore on and I wondered if she were spending Christmas there with friends. She seemed steely and resourceful enough to have survived the jollifi cation season by herself. I didn’t ask. It wasn’t my best
interview, and she was soon gone from these parts. She died in London in 1998,
suffering from cancer and aged 89. There are wintry scenes in
Monmouthshire that remind me of a picture of some snowbound Idaho fi eld in the collection of Lloyd Arnold, Hemingway’s buddy and companion-in- slaughter. I like to think that Gellhorn walked the lanes around Wolvesnewton and recalled something similar: a distant pasture in her case, crystally silent save for the cry of a bobcat. If cry is what a bobcat does. Nigel Jarrett’s fi rst poetry collection,
Miners At The Quarry Pool, has just been published by Parthian.
MyCountyLife
Liz Maher talks to MCL about Time Team, shoes and breakfast at the White Hart Village Inn...
Who are you and what do you do? Farmer’s daughter, business owner and director of Centurion VAT, wife and mum
What do you like most about living in Monmouthshire? Coming from a farming background I love the accessibility to the countryside that living in Monmouthshire gives us as a family. At the same time it’s a great place to locate your business, with a strong business culture and good access to the wider UK.
Where do you go for an unforgettable dining experience? Monmouthshire is so lucky in the range of places to have great meals. The Hardwick at Abergavenny; The White Hart in Llangybi, Tapas at Number 42 in Usk – great local businesses which love what they do and look after their customers. I’ve still got to try the Foxhunter at Nantyderry and there’s a great Thai place in Monmouth for a takeway meal which is a bit different – Whole Earth cafe bistro. The other great place to mention is afternoon tea at The Angel Abergavenny. I could plan a weekend around mealtimes starting with Saturday breakfast at the White Hart, afternoon tea at the Angel and Sunday lunch at the Hardwick!
What do you tell your friends about the county who have never been here before? About the scenery and the warmth of the welcome. It’s a county steeped in history
as well, with so much to see: Raglan Castle’s a favourite and just off the a449.
Who would be your ideal companion for a trip around the county and why? Someone knowledgeable on the fl ora and fauna would be great to point out the wealth of things in nature or an archaeologist from Time Team to read the landscape.
Favourite town in Monmouthshire and why? Monmouth: great independent shops especially a fab shoe shop, Envee, and kitchenware at Salt & Pepper.
Favourite place for a picnic and why? Top of our fi eld with a view across the valleys to the beacons in the distance, wind in my hair! Fabulous.
Favourite place for a walk? I’d like to walk more than I do and plan a trip up the Sugar Loaf as soon as I can.
If there is one thing missing from Monmouthshire, what do you think it is? Not sure there is any one physical thing!
If you weren’t living here, where would you be? By the seaside in a cottage, in the countryside in Devon perhaps, or in rural south west France near a lovely Bastide Town.
Three words which sum up Monmouthshire for you… Rural, special, home
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