Out of Essex by James Canton

Author:James Canton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Essex, literary criticism, literary collection, literary landscapes, Conrad, Shakespeare, Defoe, Coleridge
ISBN: 97819084938666
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2013
Published: 2013-07-23T00:00:00+00:00

I placed the 1898 volume in the book cushion and involuntarily muttered,

‘You never know.’ It was a favoured phrase of eva’s.

‘Do you think it’s a lucky day?’ I’d asked her that morning on the way to nursery. She had thought a moment before replying.

‘Yes. It’s a lucky day.’

‘Why?’

‘Because it’s sunny.’

It had seemed a good enough reason. Now I opened the leather bound tome and hoped she was right. There was that musty smell, strangely comforting, which lifted from the book. The Asplins were there. So was William Dale. I turned to the Occupation electors. Somehow a Samuel Cowell of ‘Near the green’ had slipped the alphabetical shackles to sit between James Cooper and Andrew Cook. But there was no Joseph Conrad. William gray was still on Curry Marsh and Henry Howgego was still in Trinity Lighthouse but I seemed no nearer to defining the house in Victoria Road. I ordered the 1899 register anyway. Conrad had left for Kent by the end of October 1898 but might still have been registered for Stanford-le-Hope. Then I stepped outside to the sunshine.

I opened the 1899 volume with little expectation. On page 610 under Division One electors were the same now familiar names but interrupted with ‘S528 Conrad, Joseph. Place of Abode: Ivy Walls farm. Description of Qualifying Property: Victoria Road and Ivy Walls farm.’ Though there was no house number or cottage name I was getting closer. At the desk I explained my task and asked one of the researchers if there was any other way of tracing the address.

‘I don’t think you’ll find it,’ she said with an honest fatality.

A younger, more enthusiastic researcher directed me towards Kelly’s Directory but I knew it would do no good.

‘I think it might be the end of the road,’ I muttered and then laughed a little at the unintended metaphor.

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