Life and Tradition on the Cotswolds by Edith Brill ~ Review
Nature
Life and Tradition on the Cotswolds
by Edith Brill
(1973)
Front Cover 2009 Edition
2009 Edition (First published 1973)
Rear Cover 2009 Edition
2009 Edition (First published 1973)
“The Wold landscape in the north is austere, bare ridge succeeding bare ridge in subtle curving folds and the whole dominated by wide skies with an ever-changing play of light and shade defeating monotony. An occasional rounded beech clump planted by a nineteenth-century landowner to commemorate an important personal or national event makes a dark focal point in the lighter tones of the Wolds, a few belts of wind-tattered conifers on the skyline introduce an alien fringe to the otherwise onward flow. Hill farms and buildings rarely interrupt the skyline. Built of stone from a local quarry, sited in shallow folds for protection against the wind, they blend into the scene and are a natural part of it. Indeed, such is the quality of the weathered limestone that in misty weather buildings merge into the background and seem as insubstantial as the mist itself.”
This beautiful description of the Cotswolds penned by Edith Brill in 1970-72 perfectly encapsulates exactly the Cotswolds as I recall them aged 17-19. And this description holds true over half a century later.
This is one of Edith Brill’s masterpieces.
There are over forty plates that capture exactly the working Cotswolds, and the fact that these plates are in black and white and have not been colourised by artificial intelligence, reminds me of what I grew up to know and appreciate as an art form in Black and White Photography.
The writing style, too, flows easily. It is how I learned to read and write from the 1950s onwards, a far distance now from the lazy English that is all too often encouraged today.
Yes, we move with the times. But a cardinal rule applies in every generation. It is this…
“In our haste to move with the times let us not throw the baby out with the bathwater!”
March 2026
All Rights Reserved
Gloucestershire and Cotswold
© 2026 Kenneth Thomas Webb
Digital Artwork and Phoptography ~ KTW
