Writing to Henry Miller in August 1936, George Orwell confessed to having 'a sort of belly to earth attitude and always feel[ing] uneasy when I get away from the ordinary world where grass is green, stones hard, etc'. As if to illustrate the integrity of this revelation, he interrupts the letter because he has 'to go and milk the goat'.
Orwell was living at 'The Stores', in the small Hertfordshire village of Wallington. He had rented sight unseen a ramshackle house and arrived there in April, after three months among the unemployed coal miners in the north, to write The Road to Wigan Pier.
He also set to work to make the 300-year-old house habitable, reclaim the weedy garden, buy a goat and some hens and open a small 'general store'. He made good progress on all these projects, so much so that when he interrupted his letter to Miller, he really did have to do the milking.
Orwell's Wallington interlude and, at the other end of his life, his retreat to Barnhill on the inhospitable Hebridean island of Jura were the two occasions when he was able to indulge his 'belly to earth' preference and his desire for peace and seclusion.
By 'belly to earth', however, Orwell meant not only the uncomplicated, hands-on approach that he brought to these places but also, pre-eminently, a close engagement and harmony with the natural world, an engagement threatened by what he judged to be the 'evil' times into which he had been born.
His diary of this time — as events in Europe deteriorated daily — is determinedly bucolic.
14-4-39: Cloudy, & a few small showers. Cold after dark. Saw two swallows (not martins) ... Wall flowers in sheltered positions are full out. No apple blossom anywhere yet. Eight eggs. For the first time M [Muriel, Orwell's goat — also the Animal Farm goat] gave a quart today.
15-4-39: Chilly, windy in the evening & light showers. Began clearing out rhubarb patch, otherwise busy moving hen-houses ... Saw another swallow. Thrush is sitting on eggs in our hedge ... Eight eggs.
5-8-39: Raining almost continuously until 6.30pm. Parts of the day rain extremely heavy. Baldock High Street said to have been flooded. Marrows swelling rapidly. French &