"Some years ago a slim green book caught my eye at our local Oxfam shop in China Street, Llanidloes. I bought it for the simple reason that it had a prefatory letter by Charles Morgan. Let me explain. About half a century ago, when as an Eng. Lit. student I entertained heady dreams of becoming a writer, I happened upon a novel entitled The Judge's Story by Morgan. It had impressed me no end. Morgan, better known in France than in the English speaking world perhaps because his novel The River Line was set against a background of the French Resistance, had slipped from my memory.

And now in Mid Wales, a refugee from the rat race of London, I was relishing again the pleasures of Morgan's pellucid prose. Morgan was celebrating a writer of whom I had never heard, which only goes to prove that the literature of the English language has many mansions, several dimensions, myriads of accents, colours, voices and utterances.

The slim green book, mentioned above, was authored by Eiluned Lewis (1900-1979) and was first published in 1934 by the London firm of Peter Davies. Titled Dew on the Grass it had by 1951 been reprinted ten times. It is a veritable gem of a book that describes the innocence and simple joys of childhood. Quite obviously it draws on the writer's own childhood with her loving siblings in a large Georgian house named Glan Hafren by the banks of the Severn near Newtown.

Eiluned dedicated Dew on the Grass to her mother and her sister Medina. Later, Medina perceptively observed, "Eiluned's childhood days cast a spell on her from which she never really awoke." And J.M. Barrie, of Peter Pan fame, wrote to Eiluned's mother: "In a way your household often reminded me of The Vicar of Wakefield."

The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, Suffolk, brought out a new edition of Dew on the Grass in 1984. The informative introduction by Glen Cavaliero throws valuable light on the life of the Lewises of Newtown. A fascinating interconnection of notable literary endeavour and local history emerged and I decided to consult E. Ronald Morris, an authority on the history of Llanidloes; Margaret Stacey, local studies librarian at the Newtown Library; and Eric Jervis, whom I can best describe as one who loves language. Reading the late C.E. Vaughan Owen's An Arwystli Notebook was also useful.

Mr. Morris dug out the 1891 census which recorded that a Mrs Lewis, a widow of independent means, lived at Mount Severn, Llanidloes. The lady hailed from the Davies family of Llanidloes. Two of her forebears, both named David Davies, had been mayors of the town. Living with his mother was Hugh Lewis, a Cambridge graduate and a JP in Newtown. At the time a bachelor, he ran the successful family-owned Lewis & Son (Newtown) Ltd, which operated a tannery.

It was in Newtown that he met the beautiful Eveline Griffiths, only twenty four and already the first Headmistress of the Newtown Girls Intermediate School. She came from a Welsh-speaking Pembrokeshire family and was a brilliant scholar, a first class M.A. from London University. Hugh and Eveline married and settled at Glan Hafren in Newtown. Later, with financial and social advancement, Milford Hall became the seat of the Lewis family.

By all accounts Hugh and Eveline Lewis led a blissful life. They had five children: Lewis, Medina, Eiluned, May and Peter. Barrie, soon to be awarded a baronetcy, and two of his adopted sons were often at Glan Hafren. While Hugh and Barrie went riding and hunting, the children played by the river bank. But then, by strange coincidence, tragedy struck both families. Hugh's eldest child Lewis died of an asthma attack and Barrie's adopted son Michael died in a drowning accident. Eiluned observed that the Lewis family had given Barrie the "stability of family life".

After attending London University's Westfield College, Eiluned Lewis joined the Daily News, which had been founded by Charles Dickens. She started as personal assistant to its managing director Henry Cadbury, a member of the Quaker chocolate family. Later she worked for the News Chronicle and the Sunday Times. Meanwhile, Dew on the Grass was getting rave notices from the likes of Compton Mackenzie, Howard Spring and L.P. Hartley. It won the Book Guild Gold Medal and was recommended by the Book Society. Her other books were In Country Places, Honey Pots and Brandy Bottles, The Captain's Wife, The Leaves of the Tree, Selected Letters of Charles Morgan and two verse collections. All were well received. It is unbelievable that a writer who in her lifetime was likened to Jane Austen, Mrs Gaskell, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Kenneth Grahame and Arthur Ransome is almost forgotten today.

Incidentally, Eiluned's husband Graeme Hendrey, a professional engineer, was an extremely competent writer. As 'John Scott' he wrote successful plays and as 'Jeremy Tinclair' he authored The Ghost of a Tangerine, a well-known children's book, the title of which was the brainwave of their daughter Katrina."

Article written by Reginald Massey

• This article was first published in Pen Cambria Magazine

More about Eiluned Lewis...

More about Reginald Massey...