Editing Fern Hill (section)

==Creation==
Thomas had started writing ''Fern Hill'' in [[New Quay]], [[Cardiganshire]], where he lived from 4 September 1944 to July 1945.<ref>See (1) C. Fitzgibbon (1965) ''The Life of Dylan Thomas'', p.266, Little-Brown. (2) C. Thomas (1986) ''Caitlin: Life with Dylan Thomas'', p92, Secker and Warburg. (3) P. Ferris (1999) ''Dylan Thomas: The Biography'', p.4, J. M. Dent.</ref> Further work was done on the poem in July and August 1945 at Blaencwm, the family cottage in [[Carmarthenshire]]. A draft was sent to a friend in late August,<ref>On 28 August 1945, to David Tennant. See P. Ferris ed. (2000) ''The Collected Letters of Dylan Thomas'', p. 629, J. M. Dent.</ref> and then the completed poem to his publisher on 18 September 1945.<ref>To A.J. Hoppe, a Dent director. See P. Ferris ed. op.cit. p.633</ref>

The house Fernhill is a Grade 2 listed residence just outside [[Llangain]]<ref>H. Williams (2007) ''The Book of Llangain: from farming community to residential village'', Halsgrove</ref>  in Carmarthenshire. In Thomas' day, it had an orchard and fifteen acres<ref>''1910 Land Tax Survey'', Carmarthenshire County Archives</ref> of farmland, most of it of poor quality.<ref>Much of Fernhill’s farmland had been taken over by reeds and, on the high ground above the house, fern and gorse. For more on the quality of Fernhill’s land, see Note 48  in ''A True Childhood: Dylan’s Peninsularity'' by D. N. Thomas in ''Dylan Thomas: A Centenary Celebration'' ed. H. Ellis, Bloomsbury, 2014 and online at  [https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomaspeninsularity/a-true-childhood-dylan-s-peninsularity?authuser=0]</ref> Thomas had extended stays here in the 1920s with his aunt Annie and her husband, Jim Jones. They had lived at Fernhill from about 1908 to 1928, renting it from the daughter of Robert Ricketts Evans (also known as [[Robert Anderson Evans]]), an occasional hangman and public executioner<ref>On Evans' role as a hangman between 1873 and 1875, see [http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/hangmen.html UK hangmen]</ref> who once lived in Fernhill.<ref>See chapter 5 of D. N. Thomas, (2003) ''Dylan Remembered 1914-1934'', vol. 1, Seren.</ref> Thomas' own notes about Fernhill confirm that he knew the various stories about Evans the Hangman.<ref>See P. Ferris (1999) ''Dylan Thomas: The Biography'', p.340, Dent. See also John Brinnin’s account of Thomas recounting these stories on a visit to Fernhill: ''Dylan Thomas in America'' (1955) p.241, Avon.</ref>

Thomas wrote about Fernhill (calling it Gorsehill) in his short story, ''The Peaches'', in which he describes it as a ramshackle house of hollow fear. Fernhill's dilapidated farmyard and buildings are also described in ''The Peaches''.<ref>''The Peaches'' was published in October 1938 in ''Life and Letters Today'' and in ''Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog'' (J. M. Dent, 1940).</ref> Jim Jones had shown little interest in farming, as his neighbours had noticed: there was "no work in him...left Fernhill farm to ruins."<ref>D. N. Thomas (2003) op.cit. p213.</ref> Jim had sold most of his farming machinery, implements and livestock before moving to Fernhill.<ref>See ''The Carmarthen Journal'' of 18 September 1908 at:[https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3763705/3763710/35/Pentowin Pentowin sale]</ref> He had also been convicted for allowing decomposing animal carcasses to lie around his fields.<ref>See The Carmarthen Journal of 9 October 1908 at:[https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3763732/3763739/79/Pentowyn Jim's conviction]</ref>

Fernhill, said an official survey,<ref>Rural Housing Inspection Report, 1945, Carmarthenshire County Archives</ref> had an outside earth closet, water was carried in from a well in the farmyard, washing oneself was done in the kitchen, whilst meals were cooked on an open fire. Its two living rooms were lit by candles and paraffin lamps. The house, said the survey, had "extreme rising dampness" and smelt, wrote Thomas in ''The Peaches'', "of rotten wood and damp and animals".<ref>For more, see D. N. Thomas (2003) op.cit., p203.</ref>

Thomas' holidays here have been recalled in interviews with his schoolboy friends and with Annie and Jim's neighbours.<ref>D N Thomas (2003) op.cit. pp43-56</ref> A further account describes both Thomas' childhood and later years on the family farms between Llangain and [[Llansteffan]], as well as suggesting that the poem ''Fern Hill'' was inspired not just by the house Fernhill but by another farm as well.<ref>''A True Childhood: Dylan’s Peninsularity'' by D. N. Thomas in ''Dylan Thomas: A Centenary Celebration'' ed. H. Ellis, Bloomsbury, 2014 and online at 
 [https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomaspeninsularity/a-true-childhood-dylan-s-peninsularity?authuser=0]</ref>