Introduction to Pilgrim's Inn

Goudge Readalong December 2023

Pilgrim’s Inn by Elizabeth Goudge. Here is an early US edition.

"At one point," says Miss Goudge, "we had no more fuel to burn and I did my writing wrapped up in an eiderdown.

..Like all my books, Pilgrim's Inn has a happy ending. for I love these people too much to let them be unhappy for long. I know that happy endings are sometimes inartistie, and certainly not always true to life, but I can't write any other kind. I am not a serious chronicler of the very terrible contemporary scene, but just a story-teller, and there is so much tragedy about us everywhere today that we surely don't want it in the story books to which we turn when we are ill or unhappy, or can't go to sleep at night.

We must escape somewhere. I had some happy hours of escape when I was writing this book, and I hope very much that perhaps a few readers may have them when they read it."

Welcome to our December Goudge Readalong: Pilgrim’s Inn / The Herb of Grace ❤️

This US edition by Coward-McCann from 1948 has a wonderful write up about Elizabeth Goudge on the back of the dust jacket. Do take a moment to read the whole interview:

Interview with Elizabeth Goudge after she wrote Pilgrim’s Inn (The Herb of Grace)

Re-enchanting homemaking

I am inspired by the mental picture of Goudge as a 45-year old woman huddled in an eiderdown working madly away on these beloved characters to forget her own grief and need for a while. And who could not feel the resonance of her times with our current global unrest. This particular Goudge novel is a good place for us to cling to these days for a reminder of all that is good in our homes and lives, and why we must not give in to despair. Goudge re-enchants the world of homemaking with her tales of the warm kitchen at the center of the Herb of Grace, the hunt for the white deer through the mysterious wood, and the journey of broken people back to their creative callings.

Two details from the story to help get you going this month:

1. The Vision of St Eustace

“The very first moment Sally had set eyes on this boy she had been reminded of some picture she had seen somewhere, the picture of a young chevalier attired in silk and fur with a hunting horn slung over his shoulder, and riding a white horse through a dark wood. It was a strange wood full of mysterious shapes of beasts, bears and dogs and deer. Up at the top of the picture, with a glorious disregard of perspective, was a lake or river with swans upon it. The young knight had pulled his beautiful horse to a standstill and was gazing with rapt and reverent attention at something which he saw.... With a sudden sense of shock Sally realized today that the background of the remembered but unidentified picture that she always set behind the figure of this boy was much the same as the one her father had set behind the head of the young man in the sketch in the portfolio... They must both of them have been remembering the same picture.”

At the British National Gallery, Goudge would have encountered this painting by Pisanello: The Vision of St Eustace.

The Vision of St Eustace, Pisanello, 1438

It is about 2 feet tall and was painted with egg tempera on wood around 1438. Here is a description from the National Gallery:

We are looking at a miraculous event. An elegantly dressed huntsman has been stopped in his tracks by an apparition: a large stag with a Crucifix between its antlers. This is Saint Eustace, a Roman soldier who, while out hunting one day, had a vision of a stag with Christ on a shining cross between its antlers. He converted to Christianity at once.

He doesn't look like a Roman soldier here, though. Pisanello has depicted an Italian prince, in a fantastic blue hat, hunting with his hounds. We do not know who this painting was for, but its small size suggests it was for the private enjoyment of an aristocrat.

Pisanello was especially famous for his ability to show animals.

2. Blue Ration Books

At this point a long-legged child exploded suddenly from the back of the shop with great news.

"The bananas have come," she said. "Dad's unpacking 'em."

"Then you'd better take yours along now," said the lady of the shop to the children. "Two to each blue ration book, by rights, but never enough to go round really, so if you don't they'll all be gone in no time. Fetch 'em along, Vi. Tell Dad to give you ten for the young Eliots. They've not their books with them but it don't matter…"

"Are you overage for bananas? If you are, have some of ours."

Sally's remembrance of bananas was a faraway memory of rather nauseating scented soap, but she knew they would like her to accept. "Thank you,"she said. "Yes. I am overage for bananas, and I haven't tasted one for seven years. I'd like one very much."

From the Museum of English Rural Life, I found that:

The different kinds of ration booksFor food rations, brown ration books were the most common type, as they were used by most adults. Pregnant women, nursing mothers and children under five received green ration books, whilst blue ration books were issued to children between five and sixteen years old.

However, it wasn’t just food that was rationed in the Second World War. Materials and resources across day-to-day life needs to be carefully distributed to avoid shortages…

Small green books were used for petrol rations…

Bright red ration books were for clothing rations.

Blue ration book from Museum of English Rural Life

This detail, along with many others in the story, gives us the mental setting of this story being not long after the end of WWII. But in fact, ration continued for nearly a decade after the end of the war: “Meat was the last item to be derationed and rationing ended completely in 1954, nine years after the war ended. The UK was the last country involved in the war to stop rationing food.”¹

Let us know below if you are reading along, or how far you’ve gotten so far this December! ❤️📖☺️

See full posts for Pilgrim’s Inn:

Pilgrim’s Inn: Eliot Chronicles book 2 (aka The Herb of Grace)

Related posts:

Which Elizabeth Goudge Book Should I Read First?

Books

The Bird in the Tree: Eliot Chronicles book 1

The Heart of the Family (Eliot Chronicles book 3)

The Dean’s Watch

1. https://merl.reading.ac.uk/blog/2022/05/everything-you-wanted-to-know-ration-books/#:~:text=Meat%20was%20the%20last%20item,war%20to%20stop%20rationing%20food.