Raymond Sheppard and Who goes over the sea

Who goes over the sea Cover

"Who goes to the wood, goes to his mother"

When I share Sheppard's illustrations I track down some details on authors I've not heard of. Sometimes there's lots of information; other times hardly anything. In this case we have quite a bit. But first those illustrations beginning with the cover, which is repeated in colour as a frontispiece. "They joined themselves to that happy company going over Sea" says the caption there. And this is the first time we encounter the lack of the definite article in Inchfawn's writing (but not in the title). All parts of nature become proper nouns, as seen in the blurb below.

Who goes over the sea? The answer is the birds who come from abroad to spend their summer here, and in this delightful book Fay Inchfawn tells of the life on a farm where these birds live for a season. All children will love this story for it is written in the charming style well known to readers of Who Goes to the Wood and Who Goes to the Garden

Winter had been cold, but as spring approached Wood put on its summer dress, Rain and Storm departed, and there came the Day Which Was Different—the day of the arrival of the first birds from abroad: chiff-chaffs and blackcaps, white-throats and willow-wrens, and cuckoo. Nests were quickly made, eggs laid and hatched, young fed and taught to fly.
It was a happy summer (even though House-keeper left the farm in a huff and had strange adventures involving a peacock and a bantam cock), for when the birds and animals had any Problems they were soon solved by Weatherfox on the roof, and it was he who sent Whiskers, the tabby cat, in search of Housekeeper. It was a wonderful adventure for Whiskers, but small compared to the one that faced the birds as summer drew to its close, for soon after Housekeeper's welcome return (and she was glad to be back) they and their young set out on the long journey to a warmer land, to a land over the sea.

"Who goes to the wood, goes to his mother" is apparently an old saying, but I can't find any reference to it and frankly don't know what it means. Perhaps it's a local Cornish expression?  Inchfawn states, this is where she got the idea from for one of the three books in her "Who goes..." series which included "Who goes to the Wood", "Who goes to the Garden"  and this title "Who goes over the sea". The latter is the only one in which Raymond Sheppard does the  illustrations.

Who goes over the sea p.9

There's a wonderful observant line to accompany the picture of Black Puss and Magpie: "As Magpie danced, he wound up his clock and chanted"  - just like a magpie's cry!

Who goes over the sea p.13

Farmer and Ploughman feed Whiskers in the above image. And below the chiff-chaffs tell River "No Fuss! No Fuss!" as they bathe and drink.

Who goes over the sea p.34

Sometimes Sheppard creates an image I don't want to play with as text wraps around it and a fight between Hedge-Sparrow and House Sparrow is such an image. .

Who goes over the sea p.39

In the next image, of Rover enjoying his bone, we see a rare signature, where Raymond Sheppard draws an 'R' intersected by a long 'S', similar

Who goes over the sea p.64

Who goes over the sea p.68
'Housekeeper' with 'Bantam' heading down towards the harbour
and 'Wind' from the sea nearly blowing her off her feet!

Who goes over the sea p.76
'Shuffle-Wing' and the other warblers in 'Weeping Ash'.

Who goes over the sea p.94
"Wait for me!" screamed Peacock to Housekeeper

Who goes over the sea p.111
"Whiskers sat down and began to purr"

Who goes over the sea p.123
"The travellers entered Beautiful Wood"

Who goes over the sea p.129
"Shuffle-Wing on his roost watches Farmer"

Who goes over the sea p.131
"Shuffle-Wing is not allowed a roosting-place"

Who goes over the sea p.138
"Shuffle-Wing and Lesser-White-throat shelter from Rain"

Who goes over the sea p.149
"Lesser defends Shuffle-Wing's reputation by attacking Grey Head"

Who goes over the sea p.153
"Bill & Dick are interrupted by a tapping on the lighthouse window"

Fay Inchfawn (2 December 1880 – 16 April 1978)  - a wonderful name - was actually Elizabeth Rebecca Ward and she was born in Portishead, Somerset. She is best remembered for poetry and children's books. Her first solo work appears to be The Verse-Book of a Homely Woman (1920), she wrote one novel, Sweet Water and Bitter (1927). 

Fay lnchfawn has said of herself that, like the happiest nations, she "has no history," but few  writers have been more sensitive to the beauty, interest, and significance of everyday things.
 

Born in a small village along the west coast of England, in the lovely county of Somerset, she has been familiar from childhood with the sight and sound of the sea and the almost mist-hidden Welsh mountains. When she was twelve, a form of infantile paralysis brought her education to an end, and by her doctor's orders she was allowed to run wild, with woods and fields and running water for companions.

She had always written verse and prose, some of which had been published in various magazines, but it was not till after her marriage and the arrival of Bunty, her daughter, that she obtained recognition with a book of verse which told of her struggles in a small, old house, with a young child, and little money.

After an absence of many years, she returned to Somerset, and now she lives in a lovely gray stone house surrounded by lawns and bright flower beds, cedars and beech trees, set in the middle of the country that she has portrayed in WHO GOES TO THE WOOD.   This book was written chiefly for her own recreation, and it is -she says- an attempt to put on paper some of the beauty, the restfulness and the glory of English countryside, enlivened by the goings-on of some lively wood folk who, in their various characteristics, inevitably remind Fay Inchfawn of the country people she knows so well. [Taken from the American edition of Who goes to the wood]

So it looks like she may have been a sick child whose interior life led to her writing which apparently in the mid-1950s had "sold over half a million copies". Valentines - the postcard company - published some of her verse with attendant illustrations. I'm not sure the Christian verse would stand up too well today. To read more about her, Folly Books who have reprinted her book "Salute to the Village", have an interesting page.  As they state Inchfawn is buried with her husband and daughter in St Mary's, Limpley Stoke - on the western border of Wiltshire. 

Valentine's "Fay Inchfawn" postcard

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Golliwog News. Illustrations by T. C. Smith. [with Philip Inchfawn, pseud. of Atkinson Ward] London: S. W. Partridge & Co, 1913
Father Neptune's Diamond. [with Philip Inchfawn, pseud. of Atkinson Ward] London: S. W. Partridge & Co, 1919
The Verse-book of a Homely Woman. London: Girls' Own Paper,  1920 [Available on Project Gutnberg]
Verses of a House-Mother. London: Girl's Own Paper & Woman's Magazine,  1921
Homely Verses of a Home-Lover. London: Ward Lock & Co,  1922
Homely Talks of a Homely Woman. London:  Ward Lock & Co, 1923
Through the Windows of a Little House. [Poems.] London: Ward Lock & Co,  1923
Songs of the Ups and Downs. London: Ward Lock & Co,  1924
The Adventures of a Homely Woman. London: Ward Lock & Co,  1925
Mary: a tale for the mother-hearted. London:  Ward Lock & Co,  1926
Poems from a Quiet Room. London:  Ward Lock & Co,  1926
The Home Lights. London: R.T.S., 1927
The House-Mother.London: R.T.S.,  1927
The Housewife. London: R.T.S.,  1927
Sweet Water and Bitter. London: Ward Lock & Co,  1927
Silver Trumpets. More “homely woman” talks. London: Ward Lock & Co,  1928
Dreams on the Golden Road. London:  Ward Lock & Co, 1929
A Book of Remembrance. London:  Ward Lock & Co,  1930
The Journal of a Tent-Dweller. London: R.T.S.,  1931
Will You Come as well? illustrations by Treyer Evans. London: Ward Lock & Co,  1931
The Verse Book of a Garden. Illustrated by Treyer Evans. London: Ward Lock & Co,  1932
The Beautiful Presence in the Garden of the Soul. London: R.T.S., 1933
Verses from a Chimney Corner. London: Ward Lock & Co,  1933
The Day's Journey. London:  Ward Lock & Co, 1934
The Life Book of Mary Watt. London:  Ward Lock & Co,  1935
The House of Life. London:  Ward Lock & Co,  1936
Living in a Village. London:  Ward Lock & Co,  1937
Grandmother's Ballads. London: Woman's Magazine Office,  1938
The Little Donkey. A book of religious verse for young people. London: R.T.S.-Lutterworth Press,  1939
Who Goes to the Wood. Illustrated by Maitland Howard. London: R.T.S.-Lutterworth Press,  1940 / USA edition illustrated by Diana Thorne
Salute to the Village. Illustrated by A. E. Bestall. [Reminiscences of life in a West Country village, September 1939 to Christmas, 1942. With verses.] London: Redhill : Lutterworth Press,  1943 [Reprinted in 2010]
Who Goes to the Garden. Illustrated by Henry Barnett. London: Lutterworth Press,  1946
Unposted Letters. London: Ward Lock & Co,  1947
Barrow Down Folk. London & Redhill: Lutterworth Press,  1948
As I lay thinking. London:  Ward Lock & Co,  1950
Who goes over the Sea. Illustrated by Raymond Sheppard. London: Lutterworth Press,  1953
Bright Hour Recitation Book.London: Oliphants,  1958
My Recitation Book. London: Oliphants,  1958
Senior Reciter. London: Oliphants,  1959
Having it out. Talks and readings for women's meetings. London: Lutterworth Press,  1960
Those Remembered Days. A personal recording. London: Lutterworth Press,  1963 [Inchfawn's memoirs]
Something more to say: a personal recording. London: Lutterworth Press,  1965
Not the final word; or, A joyful tribute. London: Lutterworth Press,  1969
Think of the lilies: thirty-nine poems using everyday things and experiences to express everlasting truth. London: Oliphants,  1970
Picnic on the hill, and other poems London: Lakeland,  1972