It is over a hundred and fifty years since Henry Thoreau first built his log cabin by Walden Pond, moved out of town, and began his life in the woods. It was not really a wilderness experience, certainly not by American standards – his cabin was only a mile or so from where he had been living, and he remained there only for a couple of years. Nonetheless, his meditation on his time there remains the template for all those who yearn to leave behind the trappings of society and civilization, and turn to a simpler life; as Thoreau put it, to ‘live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.’
There are many people since who have trodden in Thoreau’s footsteps, myself included. Though I was not consciously emulating him when I moved to a mountainside in Wales at the age of thirty, I think my motivation was similar; I wanted to see just how little I really needed in order to lead a fulfilling life. Other than that, I had no plan. I didn’t even know if I would be able to tolerate such an isolated life, yet in the end I remained there for over five years. The cottage had no services at all, not even water, no road and no neighbours, and I chose to do without many things that could have made my life there a little easier, such as transport or a phone.
I found, like Thoreau before me, that solitude freely chosen becomes almost the opposite of loneliness. In his words; ‘I never found the companion that was more companionable than solitude.’ Rather than becoming reflective and inward-looking, I found that my thoughts turned more and more outwards, and I found myself increasingly absorbed by and immersed in the hills and woods all around me.
Neil Ansell, swapped his life as an award winning television journalist with the BBC and a long standing writer for the broadsheets in London for a remote hillside cottage in Wales, without water, electricity, gas or people. His book, Deep Country (Hamish Hamilton), is an account of the five years he spent in the hills, how he lived and what he lived for, of how he learned to become self-sufficient in every sense of the word.
You can discover more from the Youtube clip below:
Neil will be hosting our ‘Picnic with Thoreau’ this coming Thursday 16 June. Hurry! There are a few remaining tickets left. Click here for more details.
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