Pishill

Pishill is a place of return and anticipated burial in Edward’s later life: his parents are buried in its churchyard, and he expects to be buried there too. The church and the paths through the surrounding beech woods give the landscape a quiet connection to his memories of Florence and the life they did not share.

Family Burial

Edward’s father died at home in 1983 and was buried in Pishill churchyard beside Edward’s mother, who had died in 1976. After his father’s death, Edward stayed in the family cottage, first using it as a retreat from Camden Town and later making it his home. The churchyard thus holds his parents’ graves while remaining part of the place where he settled after their deaths.

A Place in Edward’s Later Life

Even in his sixties, Edward continued to take long walks. His daily route included an avenue of lime trees and, in fine weather, a circuit through the countryside before returning through the beech woods to Pishill church. There he imagined that he too would one day be buried. Pishill is not only a point on his walking route but the destination toward which his thoughts turn when he considers his own death.

Landscape and Memory

The paths near Pishill also bring Florence into Edward’s thoughts. At a fork deep in the beech woods, he imagines the morning in August when she paused to consult her map while trying to find him; at a view over the Stonor valley, he wonders whether she stopped to eat her orange. These recollections make the surrounding landscape a map of an encounter that did not become a shared life. Pishill’s church, by contrast, marks the settled future Edward anticipates: a final place among his family, with the memory of Florence still accompanying his walks.