Some people who knew Elgar said that he liked to give the impression of a country gentleman who, after a round of golf, would come home and just happen to write some of the greatest music ever to be produced in this country.
To take these accounts too literally would be a mistake, but it is certainly true to say that Elgar often had to be bullied into work, and when the creative juices were not flowing there was a vast array of hobbies to be pursued.
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Whether it was cycling along the almost deserted lanes of Worcestershire and Herefordshire; walking the Malvern Hills; flying home‑made kites; fishing the Teme; spoiling his daughter's pet rabbits or his own dogs; causing explosions in his laboratory at Plas Gwyn; cultivating roses at Napleton Grange; baffling his family and friends with cryptic notes and amusing them with cartoons, or simply losing money on the horses. |
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All these activities were very much part of the man and thus part of the artist. Hobbies may be a form of escapism, but so is artistic creativity. The two went hand in hand. As Jerrold Northrop Moore has written:
"he looked to composing and hobbies for the same thing - escape from the world of dull routine and into realms of the imagination."
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