the essay, he suddenly chuckles.] Oh yes, it's Thackeray
all right . . . [He slaps the hook shut.] Unbearable . . . [He hands it hack to her.] What were you saying?
HANNAH Are you always like this? BERNARD Like what? HANNAH The point is, the Crooms, of course, had the hermit under their
noses for twenty years so hardly thought him worth remarking. As I'm finding out. The Peacock letter is still the main source, unfortunately. When I read this [the magazine in her hand], well, it was one of those moments that tell you what your next book is going to be. The hermit of Sidley Park was my . . .
BERNARD Peg. HANNAH Epiphany. BERNARD Epiphany, that's it. HANNAH The hermit was placed in the landscape exactly as one might place
a pottery gnome. And there he lived out his life as a garden ornament. BERNARD Did he do anything? HANNAH Oh, he was very busy. When he died, the cottage was stacked solid
with paper. Hundreds of pages. Thousands. Peacock says he was suspected of genius. It turned out, of course, he was off his head. He'd covered every sheet with cabalistic4 proofs that the world was coming to an end. It's perfect, isn't it? A perfect symbol, I mean.
RERNARD Oh, yes. Of what?
HANNAH The whole Romantic sham, Bernard! It's what happened to the Enlightenment, isn't it? A century of intellectual rigour turned in on itself. A mind in chaos suspected of genius. In a setting of cheap thrills and false emotion. The history of the garden says it all, beautifully. There's an engraving of Sidley Park in 1730 that makes you want to weep. Paradise in the age of reason. By 1760 everything had gone?the topiary, pools and terraces, fountains, an avenue of limes?the whole sublime geometry was ploughed under by Capability Brown. The grass went from the doorstep to the horizon and the best box hedge in Derbyshire was dug up for the ha-ha so that the fools could pretend they were living in God's countryside. And then Richard Noakes came in to bring God up to date. By the time he'd finished it looked like this [the sketch book]. The decline from thinking to feeling, you see.
BERNARD [A judgement.] That's awfully good. [HANNAH looks at him in case of irony hut he is professional.]
No, that'll stand up. HANNAH Thank you. BERNARD Personally I like the ha-ha. Do you like hedges? HANNAH I don't like sentimentality. BERNARD Yes, I see. Are you sure? You seem quite sentimental over geometry.
But the hermit is very very good. The genius5 of the place. HANNAH [Pleased.] That's my title! BERNARD Of course.
4. Coded. 5. With a pun on the meaning 'attendant spirit of a person or a place.'
.
ARCADIA II.5 / 2773
HANNAH [Less pleased. ] Of course? BERNARD Of course. Who was he when he wasn't being a symbol? HANNAH I don't know. BERNARD Ah . HANNAH I mean, yet. BERNARD Absolutely. What did they do with all the paper? Does Peacock say? HANNAH Made a bonfire. BERNARD Ah, well. HANNAH I've still got Lady Croom's garden books to go through. BERNARD Account books or journals? HANNAH A bit of both. They're gappy but they span the period. BERNARD Really? Have you come across Byron at all? As a matter of interest. HANNAH A first edition of 'Childe Harold' in the library, and English Bards, I
think.6 BERNARD Inscribed? HANNAH No. BERNARD And he doesn't pop up in the letters at all? HANNAH Why should he? The Crooms don't pop up in his. BERNARD [Casually.] That's true, of course. Rut Newstead7 isn't so far away.
Would you mind terribly if I poked about a bit? Only in the papers you've
done with, of course.
[HANNAH twigs8 something.]
HANNAH Are you looking into Byron or Chater?
[CHLOE enters in stockinged feet through one of the side doors, laden with an armful of generally similar leather-covered ledgers. She detours to collect her shoes. ]
CHLOE Sorry?just cutting through?there's tea in the pantry if you don't
mind mugs? BERNARD How kind. CHLOE Hannah will show you. BERNARD Let me help you. CHLOE No, it's all right?
[BERNARD opens the opposite door for her.]
Thank you?I've been saving Val's game books. Thanks.
[BERNARD closes the door.] BERNARD Sweet girl. HANNAH Mmm. BERNARD Oh, really? HANNAH Oh really what?
[CHLOE'S door opens again and she puts her head round it.]
CHLOE Meant to say, don't worry if father makes remarks about your car, Mr
Nightingale, he's got a thing about?[and the Nightingale now being out of
the bag] ooh-?ah, how was the surprise??not yet, eh? Oh, well?sorry?
tea, anyway?so sorry if I?[Embarrassed, she leaves again, closing the door.
Pause. ] HANNAH You absolute shit.
[She heads off to leave.]
6. Two of Byron's long poems: English Bards and 7. Newstead Abbey, Byron's family home. Scotch Reviewers (1809) and Childe Harold's Pil-8. Perceives. grimage (1812).
.
