A few bits of Belloc

Hilaire Belloc was GA President in 1915. He was a bit of an 'outsider' President.

While in Devon I found a second hand copy of one of his 'geographical' books: The Road. He was a great traveller and quite a few of his books are on the theme of travel, and this was one of the reasons he was asked to be President (you can read his own entry on this blog)

I was also reading a copy of Edward Thomas (a hero of mine's) excellent 'The South Country' last week in Devon and discovered that the title of the book was taken from a poem by Belloc of the same name, which starts with the lines: 

When I am living in the Midlands

That are sodden and unkind,

I light my lamp in the evening:
My work is left behind;
And the great hills of the South Country
Come back into my mind.

The great hills of the South Country
They stand along the sea;
And it's there walking in the high woods
That I could wish to be,
And the men that were boys when I was a boy
Walking along with me.

Image: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license