Rabbits – Arthur Hofn

It’s A Real Place

Over the summer I took a number of road trips throughout southern England and I used it as an opportunity to learn some more about my own country. It’s ridiculous I’ve been to some far and obscure places and yet some of the obvious ones on my doorstep I’d not visited. Regardless I got in my car and drove away from them to tour some other options.

My first encounter with Watership Down was, probably like a lot of other people, as a child seeing the cartoon and hearing of its reputation to terrify. I do remember it being quite dark, even as a small kid, but at that age I think I’d confused it with Bambi and several other things; I must have been very small.

One day several years ago I was bored at work and was google mapping England (don’t tell my boss) and to my surprise, quite by accident, I came across a location near the town of Newbury, just over the county border, called Watership Down. I love that part of the country anyway and often go there, but I’d never realised there was an actual place called Watership Down. Memories of the film flashed through my mind, fragmented by the passage of time and the comprehension of a child.

It is the location the author Richard Adams had in mind, in 1920 he was born nearby and would have know the area well. He only passed four years ago.

A few days later I found myself in a bookshop and there on the shelf was a copy of the novel. I felt inspired to read it so took it home (I did pay for it) and started straight away. I loved it. There is some darkness there but it’s not as blatant or strange as the film is said to be; well for a story about a colony of rabbits and their need to survive. There is a lot of depth to it, this is not a children’s story but a myth to be passed down the generations and considered, to learn from, for at times the writing is so astute and rich with substance and intelligence…

“My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today.”
― Richard Adams, Watership Down

But what makes this book so brilliant is the fact that the author Richard Adams knows this world completely, the myths, the history, the relationships, it’s all there. Set in the Hampshire countryside this also benefits from creating beautiful imagery in the mind’s eye, which the reality does live up to.

A couple of years ago I watched the film again, or should I say for the first time not as a small child. It was no way as freaky as I was expecting, in fact I really enjoyed it and was hoping for a bit more weirdness, of course the book is so much better.

Having read the book the traveller in me demanded I went there. It took up until this summer to do so, when I couldn’t really go anywhere else. Just south of Newbury the Down is there and what is lovely is that it’s not been commercialised at all, so much so that you’ve really got to be looking to find it, the way it should be.

I parked a short distance away and decided to walk. Several people were heading back in the opposite direction, already near the end of their hike. The rolling hills of the countryside surrounded me, with Newbury clearly in the distance. It was a glorious Sunday afternoon, the sun was bright, the sky was cloudy but the day warm. There was the hollowness in the air that this type of landscape creates, perfectly ruined by the sound of hard-house emanating from a small isolated house in the valley below, I didn’t mind, others complained.

I was sure I was going in the right direction and stopped to ask what looked like some locals. They all said they weren’t too sure. There is a plaque which will confirm the site, but they didn’t know of it. Eventually I discovered it hidden away and ruined the whole atmosphere of the location by hollering to last group of people I’d asked that I’d found it. There was then a difficult moment when they felt they had to come back and look at it simply because I was standing there waiting to show them. It took them a few minutes to get back and I proudly indicated my find and they politely showed an interest until I walked away.

The whole area is beautiful regardless of the literary significance. I didn’t see any rabbits, I didn’t see much fauna, but the Down is lovely and I can understand why a group of rabbits would want to spend their days here.

“The rabbits mingled naturally. They did not talk for talking’s sake, in the artificial manner that human beings – and sometimes even their dogs and cats – do. But this did not mean that they were not communicating; merely that they were not communicating by talking.”
― Richard Adams, Watership Down

Buy Watership Down by Richard Adams