The Icknield Way

Description:

Illustrations by A.L. Collins. Second issue. (First published 1913). Edward Thomas (1878-1917) was a British poet, essayist, and novelist. He died at the battle of Arras in the first World War, shortly after enlisting and arriving in France.

"Thomas was under instructions to produce a literal account, with accurate description of places. But like his other country books, the work combines fact with observation, anecdote, literary criticism and reflection, in an account which is half a guide book, half, in Thomas’s own words, ‘diluted me’." … "The Icknield Way is a prehistoric path, dotted with archaeological remains, which can claim to be the oldest road in Britain. It is now thought to run for 110 miles between the start of Peddar’s Way at Knettishall Heath near Thetford, Tring, in Norfolk, and the Ridgway Path at Ivinghoe Beacon near Tring, on the coast of Dorset. Thomas traced it from Thetford to Wanborough, near Swindon in Wiltshire, beyond which: ‘At present documents and traditions keep a perfect silence west of Wanborough, and among mere possibilities the choice is endless’ (pp. 309-10); in his introduction, he wrote: ‘I could not find a beginning or an end of the Icknield Way. It is thus a symbol of mortal things with their beginnings and ends always in mortal darkness’ (p. vii).

Thomas wrote the book in 1911. He began with research at home and in the British Museum Library in February and March, when he also undertook a few short expeditions along his conjectured path. He explored the route more fully by bicycle in April and May and again in June and July before writing the book between July and September, a year and a half before publication. Ostensibly the book recorded a ten-day journey, with a chapter for each day…"

(Dr Karen Attar, Senate House Library blog, 03/04/2017).

Condition

Orig. cloth-backed, paper-covered boards, map design to top of front board, some wear, short split to foot of rear joint, old water stain to lower inner corner of frontis and boards, extending lightly to bottom half of spine. Edges spotted, some scattered foxing. Occasional marginal pencil annotations. Good copy.