Gillian Morgan - United Kingdom - Email, Address, Phone number, everything! 123people.co.uk

Gillian Morgan - United Kingdom - Email, Address, Phone number, everything! 123people.co.uk



I live in the County Town, Haverfordwest and, like all old towns, it has a deep, rich history.

Today, I walked passed the house in Hill Street where Gwen and Augustus John, the painters, lived for many years when they were children. Situated at the top of the town, the house displays a blue commmemorative plaque.

All his life, Augustus John was deeply fascinated by the gypsies, seeing in them a superiority not possessed by ordinary people.

In 'Chiaroscuro', Augustus tells how, when the fair came to the 'Green', he and Gwen were told to be wary of the travellers, for they stole children. The young boy pondered these words, failing to understand why gypsies would want anyone else's children when they had so many of their own.

Although their mother died when they were young, Augustus remembers happy times when he and Gwen were taken for walks by their father.

In the spring time they picked primroses in Scotchwells. There was a water-mill along the way and the children entered the mill through an iron turnstile which played a tune. Sometimes the miller would appear, dusted in flour and resembling a character from a fairy tale.

The John family went to Bethesda Chapel. Often, two ladies who also attended, would remark that the children would miss their mother more and more as time went by. So irksome did Augustus's father find their behavious that he moved the family to Tenby.