Walking in December
(Sir William Addison)

The wind is wine to those who walk
on bright December days the heath;
Above, the cold, capacious sky,
the rimy grass beneath.

With each a merry heart the guide,
The sun for compass: they who know
the wanton ways and whims of earth,
and laugh to find them so.

No English hills, in English lanes,
A man may walk with ease and find
at every turn the mode and mark
of earth’s best humankind:

May rest in quiet inns at night,
in sleep enfolding bone and brain,
and with the dawn may rise and take
the long, free roads again.

(Sir William Addison)

This poem comes from a small collection, ‘Winter Forest’ by Sir William Addison.
The poems are inspired by Sir William’s long association with Epping Forest where he was one of the four Verderers. The verderers of Epping Forest have represented the views of everyday people for over 800 years acting as a key go-between with the City of London.

Sir William was born in the Ribble Valley in Lancashire and he was educated at Clitheroe Royal Grammar School. His family had connections in the past in Grasmere and Bowness.

When he married Phoebe Dean in 1929, the couple moved south and eventually lived in Buckhurst Hill on the edge of Epping Forest, Essex.He bought a bookshop in the neighbouring town of Loughton, and began his lifelong association with Epping Forest which included a love of the history of the area. The result was a number of books on the Forest area and Essex, Suffolk  and of people like Dick Turpin, highwayman of the Forest.
He worshipped at the Parish Church in Epping.

The collection of poems Winter Forest  was edited by Richard Morris, Verderer of Epping Forest and published by the Corporation of London in 2002, by kind permission of legatees of Sir William’s estate, including the incumbent of St. John’s church in Epping. My personal involvement in this small way has led me to make the poems in this collection more widely known. Walking in December seems a good place to start.
I am grateful that I am able to illustrate this with a ‘December’ photograph by my friend Gill Henwood, and appropriately the scene is from Cumbria, where Sir William’s family had their roots.

[Mr G]