We'd ended up going to Newark-on-Trent a day earlier than planned, to get an extra day in the Travelodge so that my friend could rest his badly blistered feet.
We got to Newark on Thursday evening, and on Friday morning, I found myself getting up early and travelling from Newark Castle to Eastwood via Nottingham train station:
At Nottingham train station, I caught a train northward bound to Sheffield and got off at Langley Mill station:
Which left me with a two-mile stroll down to Eastwood, Lawrence's hometown, of course.
About halfway to Eastwood, I came across a great canal opening:
This looked like it was part of the Erewash Valley canal system which Lawrence mentions in the early part of The Rainbow, possibly in the opening prose poem (I read The Rainbow three times between my mid and late 20s but that's now half a lifetime away).
For me, The Rainbow is one of the finest books ever written in English language.
The early parts of the book, including the sublime prose poem, describe how a beautiful Erewash Valley landscape becomes badly scarred by the effects of industrialisation (especially coal mining and the building of the railways).
But the real magic of The Rainbow lies in Lawrence's exploration of male-female polarity (heterosexual mysticism) in the novel.
Tied in with the male-polarity theme, Lawrence explores the changing roles of women in 19th century and early 20th century England, as he describes the destinies of Lydia Lensky, a Polish woman, with Tom Brangwen; their daughter Anna's marriage with Tom; and finally, Ursula Brangwen's destruction of Anton Skrebensky.
Throughout Lawrence's exploration of the three male-female relationships mentioned above, he focuses on an instinctive search for well-balanced harmony between the male (mental/social) and female (inner sensual/sexual) forces at play.
While both Lydia and Anna dominate their husbands, Tom and Will, they don't destroy them, but Ursula does so in her relationship with Skrebensky, and while the latter lies emotionally and psychologically wrecked afterwards, Ursula, after the stampeding horses dream/episode, emerges triumphant and fully ready to explore and create her own place in an ever-widening social world.
Lawrence explains his male-female polarity (heterosexual mysticism) theme very clearly in one of his philosophical works, The Study of Thomas Hardy, where he expresses a belief that the male and female forces at play have to revolve around each other, while leaving some necessary space for individual growth, and, thus, should avoid completely fusing together.
In his male-female polarity theme, Lawrence also expresses a belief that the male and female forces at play have to reconcile themselves through reaching a harmony both between men and women themselves (in male-female relationships), and in the individual psyche of every man and woman too.
Thus, with the above kinds of thought in mind, I was ready to enter D.H. Lawrence's home town, Eastwood:
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