Coleridge Link leaflet A3:Layout 1 6/12/11 11:21 Page 1 Further information Maps M5 OS Explorer 1:25000 sheet 115 Coleridge Link (Exeter and Sidmouth). Cullompton The 1:50000 OS Landranger sheet 28 Explore the countryside familiar to the poet Samuel Taylor 192 is also useful but not detailed Coleridge on this waymarked nine mile walking route in the enough for navigation without the beautiful Otter Valley. Discover the sources of his poetic Devon A30 notes below on hand. A373 inspiration for Songs of the Pixies and Sonnet to the River Otter. Ottery St Mary Tourist Information Honiton Centre 01404 813864 An audio version of this walk, and Ottery St Mary further information is available from www.coleridgememorial.org.uk (see QR code below) 77 B31 A30 Coleridge Link 29 Coleridge Link on W East Dev ay 30 y n Wa evo Exeter D Sidmouth t s A3052 M5 a E Introduction west to the river Otter at Harpford, then returns northwards to Ottery along the western bank of the river. The walk detailed here describes a circular route in the The walk is generally easy going but requires proper Otter Valley. If you are walking the East Devon Way, you footwear, especially in the winter months when the can use the route to make a detour up to Ottery St Mary. paths can be muddy or waterlogged in places. The eastern leg of the Link is just over 2.8 miles long Also included are two shorter excursions from Ottery St (4.5Km) and rises 620 feet between Pixies’ Parlour and Mary to significant Coleridge locations. The first is to the White Cross (where the route joins the East Devon Way). place where, at the age of seven, he hid all night after a The views from here are more than worth the climb, fight with his brother, causing a great stir in the entire however.The East Devon Way going westward drops town. The second is to Pixies’ Parlour - the place which down 650 feet in the 2.5 miles (4Km) to the river at inspired his Songs of the Pixies and where he 'anointed' Harpford. The walk back to Ottery St. Mary rises only his ‘Faery Queen’. This walk is along the Coleridge Link about 30 feet along the 3.5 miles (5.5Km) return path. in any case. (See also Pixies’ Parlour information below). The round trip is just under 9 miles (14.5Km). The nine mile (14.5Km) route described begins at St Most waymarkers are tagged with the Coleridge Link Saviour’s Bridge in Ottery St Mary, goes south and Logo. The East Devon Way leg is marked by purple eastwards to White Cross at the top of East Hill, then arrows and/or the Foxglove logo. published by Coleridge Memorial Project © 2011 Fir Grove, Lower Broad Oak Road, West Hill, Ottery St Mary EX11 1UF g www.coleridgememorial.org.uk w kin photos: Chris Wakefield, Peter Beasley. Map base - Google Maps. wal ww g.uk/ COLERIDGE .c al.or MEMORIAL oleridgememori PROJECT The European Agricultural Fund is supported by for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas. Excursion one - Coleridge’s Big Night Out Excursion two - Pixies’ Parlour & the Songs of the Pixies This short excursion takes you to the place wet & stiff, and cold, closed my eyes again that I Coleridge’s poem the Songs of the Pixies was Then with quaint music hymn the parting gleam where Coleridge, aged seven, spent an October might forget it. In the mean time my Mother waited inspired by a day out with a small group of By lonely Otter's sleep-persuading stream; night out by the river after a row with his about half an hour, expecting my return, when the young ladies to the Pixies’ Parlour. Or where his wave with loud unquiet song brother. The story comes from Coleridge Dashed o'er the rocky channel froths along; Sulks had evaporated - I not returning, she sent into To find it, follow stages to on the route himself in an autobiographical letter to his Or where, his silver waters smoothed to rest, the Church-yard, & round the town - not found! - guide for Coleridge Link overleaf. The poem is friend Tom Poole in 1797: The tall tree's shadow sleeps upon his breast. Several men & all the boys were sent to ramble introduced by Coleridge as follows: about & seek me - in vain! My Mother was almost ‘Dear Poole, and Coleridge makes his play by proclaiming Elizabeth distracted - and at ten o’clock at night I was cry’d The Pixies, in the superstition of Devonshire, are a race a Faery Queen, and paying her some elegant by the crier in Ottery, and in two villages near it - of beings invisibly small, and harmless or friendly to I had asked my mother one evening to cut my with a reward offered for me. - No one went to bed compliments... cheese entire, so that I might toast it: this was no man. At a small distance from a village in that county, - indeed, I believe, half the town were up all one half-way up a wood-covered hill, is an excavation easy matter as it was a crumbly cheese. My mother, Unboastful Maid! though now the Lily pale night! To return to myself - About five in the called the Pixies' Parlour.The roots of old trees form its however did it. I went to the garden for something Transparent grace thy beauties meek; morning or a little after, I was broad awake; and ceiling ; and on its sides are innumerable cyphers, or other, and in the meantime my brother Frank, Yet ere again along the impurpling vale, attempted to get up & walk - but I could not move among which the author discovered his own cypher minced my cheese - ‘to disappoint the favorite’. The purpling vale and elfin-haunted grove, - I saw the Shepherds & Workmen at a distance - & and those of his brothers, cut by the hand of their I returned, saw the exploit, and in an agony of Young Zephyr his fresh flowers profusely throws, cryed but so faintly, that it was impossible to hear childhood. At the foot of the hill flows the river Otter. passion flew at Frank - he pretended to have been We'll tinge with livelier hues thy cheek; me 30 yards off and there I might have lain & died - To this place the Author, during the summer months of seriously hurt by my blow, flung himself on the And, haply, from the nectar-breathing Rose for I was now almost given over, the ponds & even the year 1793, conducted a party of young ladies ; one ground, and there lay with outstretched limbs - Extract a Blush for Love! the river near which I was lying, having been of whom, of stature elegantly small, and of I hung over him moaning & in a great fright - he dragged. - But by good luck Sir Stafford Northcote, complexion colourless yet clear, was proclaimed the leaped up, & with a horse-laugh gave me a severe The Pixies’ Parlour you find today is little changed who had been out all night, resolved to make one ‘Faery Queen’. blow in the face. I seized a knife, and was running other trial, and came so near that he heard my since Coleridge and his young ladies appeared there in at him, when my Mother came in & took me by the 1793. It retains its magic, and often you will find signs crying - He carried me in his arms, for near a The poem begins with a welcome to the walkers... arm-Iexpected a flogging - & struggling from her quarter of a mile; when we met my father & Sir of a modern response by the young who still attend the court of the pixies. I ran away, to a hill at the bottom of which the Stafford’s servants. - I remember, & never shall Whom the untaught Shepherds call Otter flows - about one mile from Ottery. There forget, my father’s face as he looked upon me while Pixies in their madrigal, I stayed; my rage died away; but my obstinacy St Mary’s I lay in the servant’s arms - so calm, and the tears Fancy's children, here we dwell: church vanquished my fears-&taking out a little shilling stealing down his face: for I was the child of his Welcome, Ladies! to our cell. Raleigh House: Elizabeth book which had, at the end, morning & evening old age.’ Here the wren of softest note Boutflowerʼs home prayers, I very devoutly repeated them thinking at Builds its nest and warbles well; Kings School e e t the same time with inward & gloomy satisfaction, To find this spot, walk out of t r Here the blackbird strains his throat; S Factory how miserable my Mother must be! town from the Poetry Stones Head l Welcome, Ladies! to our cell. l northwest along the minor Weir i road past the long stay car Cadhay a r r a c k R M B o a St Saviour’s I distinctly remember my feelings when I saw a Mr d park. After a quarter mile, just Bridge He explains that the pixies hide in the cave to avoid Bridge Vaughan pass over the Bridge, at about a furlong’s past the small bridge over the Night Out the daylight, then notes the graffiti scrawled in the e spot n distance - and how I watched the Calves in the mill leat, turn right off the a r walls of the cave - which remains a feature of the cave L road through the stile and e y fields beyond the river.