www.robertgraves.org

[ian]

A fascinating link unearthed by William Graves recently:

http://www.gravesfa.org/gen068.htm

It's the Graves family tree stretching back to the 15th century.

From the website:

The family of Graves is one of the most ancient in England. This family is believed to have used the name De Grava in Bordeaux, Gascony. It went in with the Norman army, and settled in Yorkshire. The name underwent several changes, and its members have been De Grevis, De Greves, Greve, Grave, Greaves, Greeves, and Graves. John de Grevis was in the army of King John. His great grandson was Thomas de les Greves.

[notarius]

There is also a long narrative account of the history of the Graves family, particularly (but not exclusively) those in Ireland, on the website of Ballylickey Manor House on Bantry Bay in County Cork: http://www.ballylickeymanorhouse.com/history/index.htm.

Ballylickey Manor House (which seems rather fine) is still in the possession of a branch of the Graves family and is now run as as a hotel. It looks like it would make a good venue for a future meeting if the Society!

Robert Graves visited Co. Cork in May 1975 when he went there, with his wife Beryl, to give readings at University College, Cork and the Peacock Theatre, Dublin. It was his first visit to Ireland since 1918. His biographer Miranda Seymour describes how Graves, accompanied by the poet John Montague, made a "sentimental visit" to his grandfather's grave. Seymour goes on to write:

"Recalling the occasion for a radio programme some years later, Montague described how Graves had pointed to a star as they stood by a lake in the Wicklow Mountains and how, the moment they reached the house, 'the star just disappeared....he had become the kind of poet that he wanted to be. He had got magic powers.' (Miranda Seymour, Life on the Edge, Doubleday, 1995, p. 458, quoting from John Montague in A Story Worth Telling, BBC Radio 3, 2 August 1982); Seymour's book was republished in paperback by Simon & Schuster in 2003.
[/i]

There is a well-known photograph by Angus Forbes of Robert Graves, then aged almost 80, standing by the lake (surely it must be the same one?) at Luggala, Co. Wicklow, during this visit. (See: Miranda Seymour, Life on the Edge, op. cit., printed opposite. p. 237.)

Patrick