The Real Watership Down

The Watership Down story unfolded in an area of outstanding beauty, extending from the outskirts of Newbury to Laverstoke Park, near Overton, including Watership Down itself, near the village of Ecchinswell.

Watership Down: sites of interest

The paintings, inspired by real photos, depict most of the real places of the story.

Historical Buildings

The Church of St. Mary the Virgin and St. John the Baptist in Newtown

After crossing the river Enborne and sleeping in the bean field, the rabbits crossed the road and made their way trough Newtown Churchyard, towards Newtown Common. The painting illustrates this moment.

      From Watership Down, Chapter 10: The Road and the Common

By moonrise they had made their way through Newtown churchyard, where a little brook runs between the lawns and under the path...

      From British History on line:

The earliest mention of NEWTOWN as a mesne borough of the Bishop of Winchester occurs about the year 1218. It appears that at this time an industrial settlement had grown up at Sandleford, in the manor of Highclere, where the old road from Winchester to Newbury crosses the River Enborne...

... The church of ST. MARY THE VIRGIN AND ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST was rebuilt in the year 1865 and consists of a chancel 20 ft. by 15 ft, with a vestry on the south side, a nave 42 ft. by 18 ft., with a north aisle 5 ft. 9 in. wide, and a tower at the north-west 8 ft. square, the base of which forms the north porch.

All the windows of the chancel, nave and aisle are of 14th-century design. The walls are of flint and stone, the roofs are tiled.

The tower is of three low stages with an octagonal stair turret at the south-west corner and it is finished with an octagonal shingled spire. It contains four bells, all cast by G. Mears & Co. 1865.

The church possesses two old Sheffield-plated chalices, a paten and a flagon.

Nuthanger Farm in Ecchinswell

The village of Ecchinswell was designated a Conservation Area in 1990, in recognition of its special architectural and historic significance. The village has many listed and significant buildings, including the Church of St. Lawrence, which was designed by Bodley and Garner in 1886.

Nuthanger Farm is one the famous places in the Watership Down story. The farm house was built long ago, and it has not been possible to find out exactly when. The first document that can be found at the County Archives in Winchester is an estimation of the farm and surrounding land, dating back to 1721!

      From history of Ecchinswell:

Farmhouse 18/19 Century

Farm buildings 18/19 Century

Richard Adams has included Nuthanger Farm in the story and the painting "Nuthanger Farm" represents it in detail.

      From Chapter 24, Watership Down: Nuthanger Farm

Nuthanger is like a farm in an old tale. Between Ecchinswell and the foot of Watership Down and about half a mile from each, there is a broad knoll, steeper on the north side but falling gently on the south - like the down ridge itself. Narrow lanes climb both slopes and come together in a great ring of elm trees which encircles the flat summit...

... The house may be two hundred years old or it may be older, built of brick, with a stone-faced front looking south towards the down. On the east side, in front of the house, a barn stands clear of the ground on staddle-stones; and opposite is the cow-byre.

Natural Sites

Sandleford Warren area

The site of Hazel and Fiver's native warren is located on the edge of Newbury, in an area delimited by Monks Lane to the north and just alongside Newbury Rugby and Football Club ground, the A343 to Andover on the east, the A339 on the west and the public footpath that runs between the two roads on the south.

The development that brought the destruction of the warren in the story never took place at the time, but is about to become a reality as 2000 homes will soon be built.

There is some hope that the little valley where the brook runs might not be developed.

      From Watership Down, Chapter One: The Notice Board

A hundred yards away, at the bottom of the slope, ran the brook, no more than three feet wide, half-choked with king-cups, water-cress and brook-lime...

River Enborne

The river rises near Newbury, Berkshire, and flows into the River Kennet.

      From Watership Down, Chapter 7: The Lendri and the River

Hazel came out on the farther side of the ilexes and followed the path round a bend. Then he stopped dead and sat back on his haunches. Immediately in front of him, Bigwig and Dandelion were staring out from the sheer edge of a high bank, and below the bank ran a stream. It was in fact the little river Enborne, twelve to fifteen feet wide and at this time of year two or three feet deep with spring rain, but to the rabbits it seemed immense, such a river as they had never imagined...

After wandering in the woods at night, the band of rabbits had to face the crossing of the river, described in Chapter 8 "The Crossing". The painting "The Crossing", illustrates this moment.

Newtown Common

After leaving Newtown Churchyard, the rabbits embarked in a dreadful night crossing of the Common ground.

      From Watership Down, Chapter 10: The Road and the Common

Wandering on, they climbed a hill and came to Newtown Common - a country of peat, gorse and silver birch. After the meadows they had left, this was a strange, forbidding land. Trees, herbage, even the soil - all were unfamiliar. They hesitated among the thick heather, unable to see more than a few feet ahead...

Frith Copse

Small woods and fields in the outskirts of Burghclere, the site of Cowslip's warren includes Frith Copse and the opposite wood, High Wood, where our rabbits started to make some scrapes before joining the warren of the wires.

The pasture fields are nowadays ploughed and turned into more productive barley and wheat fields, but thanks to Richard Adams' description in the book, the picture of the area has been frozen in time, and it has not been lost for ever.

      From Watership Down , Chapter 14: Like Trees in November

The sun, risen behind the copse, threw long shadows from the trees south-westwards across the field. The wet grass glittered and near by a nut-tree sparkled iridescent, winking and gleaming as its branches moved in the light wind. The brook was swollen and Hazel's ears could distinguish the deeper, smoother sound, changed since the day before.

Between the copse and the brook, the slope was covered with pale lilac lady's smocks, each standing separately in the grass, a frail stalk of bloom above a spread of cressy leaves. The breeze dropped and the little valley lay completely still, held in long beams of light and enclosed on either side by the lines of the woods. Upon this clear stillness, like feathers on the surface of a pool, fell the calling of a cuckoo.

The woods are still there, and you can still see "the corner" of Frith Copse described in the book.

      From Watership Down, Chapter 13: Hospitality

The corner of the opposite wood turned out to be an acute point. Beyond it, the ditch and trees curved back again in a re-entrant, so that the field formed a bay with a bank running all the way round. It was evident now why Cowslip, when he left them, had gone among the trees. He had simply run in a direct line from their holes to his own, passing on his way through the narrow strip of woodland that lay between.

This very landscape is the background for the painting "The Shining Shire", with Bigwig caught in the snare: High Wood and Frith Copse, with the acute point and the brook that runs between them.

Watership Down

A full view of Watership Down and the distant beech hanger on the top from the opposite slope leading up to Nuthanger Farm cannot be missing in a complete representation of the story!

The painting "The Sky Suspended" creates the opportunity to represent the famous rabbits' hill of the story.

The view from the top of Watership Down

The perilous journey to the hills had come to an end and the band of rabbits had reached the foot of the DOWN. The sun was setting. Hazel organized an expedition to climb the DOWN and find out what the top looked like. He picked Dandelion and Hawkbit who seemed less weary than the others. And once on the top, Hazel and Dandelion could see the whole world!

This is the very landscape they would have seen, and you can see it too, looking north from the top of Watership Down. This is the most famous view in the story, carefully reproduced in every detail in the painting "The Whole World".

You can identify the real landmarks in the landscape: Sydmonton Estate on the left and the Laundry Cottages, the Fossick Cottages, the road towards Kingsclere the rabbits crossed in order to reach the farm, the pylon line, and the lane that goes up the hill where Nuthanger Farm lies.

      From Watership Down, Chapter 18: Watership Down

... At this moment he saw Dandelion, who had run well ahead, squatting on an ant-hill clear against the sky. Alarmed, he dashed forward. "Dandelion, get down!" he said. "Why are you sitting up there?" "Because I can see," replied Dandelion with a kind of excited joy. "Come and look! You can see the whole world!"

Hazel came up to him. There was another ant-hill nearby and he copied Dandelion, sitting upright on his hind legs and looking about him. He realized now that they were almost on level ground... ...They were on the top of the down. Perched above the grass, they could see far in every direction...

The Beech Hanger

The very rabbits' wood on Watership Down: the realistic outline of the wood is represented in the painting "Kehaar", in the glory of the sunrise on Watership Down Richard Adams describes in Chapter 23 "Kehaar".

I was up at three am to be on the Down in time for the sunrise and all its magic (book in one hand: as Richard Adams has described it!)

      From Watership Down, Chapter 19: Fear in the Dark

Later on, when most of the rabbits had finished feeding and were either playing in the grass or lying in the sunshine, he (Hazel) suggested that they might go across to the hanger - "just to see what sort of a wood it is". Bigwig and Silver agreed at once and in the end no one stayed behind.

It was different from the meadow copses they had left: a narrow belt of trees, four or five hundred yards long but barely fifty wide; a kind of wind-break common on the downs. It consisted almost entirely of well-grown beeches. The great, smooth trunks stood motionless in their green shade, the branches spreading flat, one above another in crisp, light-dappled tiers. Between the trees the ground was open and offered hardly any cover...

The continuous, gentle rustling of the beech leaves was unlike the sounds to be heard in a copse of nut-bushes, oak and silver birch.

Moving uncertainly in and out along the edge of the hanger, they came to the north east corner. Here there was a bank from which they looked out over the empty stretches of grass beyond. Fiver turned to Hazel with an air of happy confidence.

"I'm sure Blackberry is right, Hazel," he said. "We ought to do our best to make some holes here"

And the new warren grew between the roots of one of the beech trees. The stump of this very tree still stands on the north east side of the beech hanger.

Caesar's Belt

During the journey to Efrafa, where their mission to help some does escape the tyrannical state of General Woundwort will take them, the rabbits came across Caesar's Belt:

      From Watership Down, Chapter 30: A New Journey

Two or three hundred yards away and directly across their line, a belt of trees ran straight across the down, stretching in each direction as far as they could see. They had come to the line of the Portway - only intermittently a road - which runs from north of Andover, through St Mary Bourne with its bells and streams and watercress beds, through Bradley Wood, on across the downs and so to Tadley and at last to Silchester - the Romans' Calleva Atrebatum. Where it crosses the downs, the line is marked by Caesar's Belt, a strip of woodland as straight as the road, narrow indeed but more than three miles long.

The description of the DOWNS on the journey south towards the Belt is very inspiring indeed. More information on this painting in Watership Down: Botanical References and Wildlife

The Combe where Bigwig met the fox

This site can be easily spotted from the B3051 from Overton to Kingsclere, where the combe and woods of the Belt, with the adjoining spinney, are visible from the road. The rabbits rested on the edge of the wood, while Dandelion told the story of El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inle'. Just towards the end of the story, a fox appeared on the scene, coming up the combe.

      From Watership Down, Chapter 30: A New Journey

Less than half a mile to the west, they came upon a spinney adjoining the southern edge of Caesar's Belt. To the west again was a shallow, dry downland combe, perhaps four hundred yards across and overgrown with weeds and rough, yellowing summer tussocks...

...The evening feed was peaceful and cool and after a time everyone felt refreshed. As the sun was sinking, Hazel brought them all together, under close cover, to chew pellets and rest...

... Dandelion began ...

      From Watership Down, Chapter 31: The Story of El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inle'

"Hazel, Hazel-rah!" It was Pipkin's voice from behind a clump of burdock on the edge of the little circle of listeners. "There is a fox coming up the combe!"

      From Watership Down, Chapter 32: Across the Iron Road

The rough, weed-covered ground of the combe sloped away below them, a long dip bounded on the north by Caesar's Belt. The last of the setting sun shone straight up it through a break in the trees. The fox was below them and still some way off ...

The landscape of Efrafa, with the railway arch in the distance

Efrafa, the rabbits town funded by General Woundwort, lay north of Overton, at the crossing point (the Crixa) of two bridleways, the south to north running from Northington Farm, The Lynch, Overton, to New Barn, and the east to west named Harrow Way on the maps.

      From Watership Down, Chapter 34: General Woundwort

Efrafa grew up round the crossing point of two green bridle paths, one of which (the east to west) was tunnel-like, bordered on both sides by a thick growth of trees and bushes.

The painting "The General" illustrates this landscape. In "The General" the roadless arch of the story appears in the distance.

      From Watership Down, Chapter 33: The Great River

A few minutes later, guided by Kehaar, he (Bigwig) was running up the open pasture north of the river, straight for the brick arch in the overgrown railway embankment and the fields that lay beyond.

Laverstoke Park and the river Test

The book was written as life from a rabbit's point of view, and therefore their natural environment is an important part of the story. The book is an incredible reference to all the wild flowers and plants that belong in this environment and the paintings fully reflect the flora that is described in the book (underlined in the examples below). And having walked for miles in the rabbits' steps, even more species have been spotted and added to the already rich list described by Richard Adams in Watership Down.

As with the flora, the fauna also has an important part in the story and, with the rabbits, other animals share the same environment and appear in the paintings. Some are mentioned directly in the book (underlined in the examples below), some others I discovered in my journeys to the Downs.

As an example, I add a list of plants and animals depicted in some of the paintings of the collection. Perhaps a day, I might complete the description of the flora and the fauna for all the paintings.

The Blessing of El-ahrairah

This painting is a representation of the Thousand, the rabbit's enemies, described throughout the book. And it's a celebration of British wildlife too!

      From Watership Down, Chapter 6: The Story of the Blessing of El-ahrairah

And so in their turn came the fox and the stoat and the weasel. And to each of them Frith gave the cunning and the fierceness and the desire to hunt and slay and eat the children of El-ahrairah. And so they went away from Frith full of nothing but hunger to kill the rabbits...

... For Frith has given the fox and the weasel cunning hearts and sharp teeth and to the cat he has given silent feet and eyes that can see in the dark ..

      From Watership Down, Chapter 22: The Story of the Trial of El-ahrairah

Up and down the edges and copses the news spread that El-ahrairah was on trial for his life and that Prince Rainbow was going to bring him before a jury of elil. Animals came crowding in. Fu Inle', Prince Rainbow returned with the elil - two badgers, two foxes, two stoats, an owl and a cat...

List of animals represented in the painting:

European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)

Red fox (Vulpes vulpes)

Weasel (Mustela nivalis)

Stoat (Mustela erminea)

Wild cat (Felis sylvestris)

Tawny owl (Strix aluco)

European badger (Meles meles)

Some plants of the Downs complete the picture:

Black Knapweed (Centaurea nigra)

Common Cat's ear (Hypochaeris radicata)

Larger Bindweed (Calystegia sepium)

Red Campion (Silene dioica: only female plants in this painting!)

Oxeye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare)

Common Nettle (Urtica dioica)

The Shining Wire

Two plants mentioned in the book in Cowslip's Warren area have been represented in the painting:

Lady's smock (Cardamine pratensis)

      From Watership Down, Chapter 14: Like Trees in November

Between the copse and the brook, the slope was covered with pale lilac lady's smocks, each standing separately in the grass, a frail stalk of bloom above a spread of cressy leaves.

I was very keen to add this species to the painting since, as I said in the paragraph related to Frith Copse, the slope described in the book is now cultivated. The destruction of the environment has caused a dramatic reduction in the presence of the species in this location.

Bramble (Rubus fruticosus):

      From Watership Down, Chapter 17: The Shining Wire

(Bigwig) ...turned and dashed back through the nearest gap in the hedge. On the instant, a fearful commotion began on the farther side... ...The brambles thrashed up and down. Hazel and Fiver stared at each other ....

Other plants:

Fox glove (Digitalis purpurea)

It's mentioned in Fiver speech to the rabbits after Bigwig survives the snare, and the Sandleford rabbits are about to run back to Cowslip's warren and drive those cowards rabbits out.

      From Watership Down, Chapter 17: The Shining Wire

"Do you want me to go on? I tell you, every single thing that's happened fits like a bee in a foxglove. And kill them, you say, and help ourselves to the great burrow? We shall help ourselves to a roof of bones, hung with shining wires! Help ourselves to misery and death!"

Dog's Mercury (Mercurialis perennis)

This plant is mentioned in Chapter 1 (The primroses were over. Towards the edge of the wood, where the ground became open and sloped down to an old fence and brambly ditch beyond, only a few fading patches of pale yellow still showed among the dog's mercury...) and Chapter 3 (Blackberry was about to reply when another rabbit came noisily through the thick dog's mercury in the wood, blundered down into the brambles and pushed his way up from the ditch.)

The Whole World

Some of the plants that appear in this painting are mentioned in the book.

      From Watership Down, Chapter 18: On Watership Down

Teazle (Dipsacus fullonum):

They peered over ant hills and looked cautiously round clumps of teazle...

Self heal (Prunella vulgaris):

The wind ruffled their fur and tugged at the grass, which smelt of thyme and self heal.

      From Watership Down, Chapter 19: Fear in the Dark

Milkwort (Polygala vulgaris):

The sun was well up... when Hazel woke...

...Hazel rambled about in the usual way of a rabbit feeding...

...he saw a rabbit come rather hesitantly out of the hole farthest from himself. It was Blackberry...

...As he began to feed Hazel came up and fell in with him, nibbling among the grass tussocks and wandering on wherever his friend pleased. They came to a patch of milkwort - a blue as deep as that of the sky - with long stems creeping through the grass and each minute flower spreading its two upper petals like wings. Blackberry sniffed at it

The other flowers that complete the picture have all been photographed on Watership Down:

Field Scabious (Knautia arvensis)

Betony (Stachys officinalis)

Lady's Bedstraw (Galium verum)

Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium)

White Clover (Trifolium repens)

Common Cat's ear (Hypochaeris radicata)

A bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) and two peacock butterflies (Inachis io) are also represented.

A New Journey

The beautiful description of the DOWNS during the journey towards the Belt, deserve a painting on its own, enriched by the numerous species described in the book.

There is a long list of plants and some animals that can become part of the painting:

Marjoram (Origanum vulgare)

Cow-parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris)

Viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare)

Yellow mullein (Verbascum thapsus)

Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris)

Lesser centaury (Centaurium pulchellum)

Tormentil (Potentilla erecta)

Corn-chamomile (Anthemis arvensis)

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare)

Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)

Thistle (Cirsium arvense)

Grasshoppers (Spp)

Yellow-hammer (Emberiza citronella)

Mice (Apodemus sylvaticus)

      From Watership Down, Chapter 30: A New Journey

June was moving to July and the high summer. Hedgerows and verges were at their rankest and thickest. The rabbits sheltered in dim-green, sun-flecked caves of grass, flowering marjoram and cow-parsley: peered round spotted hairy-stemmed clumps of viper's bugloss, blooming red and blue above their heads: pushed between towering stalks of yellow mullein. Sometimes they scuttled along open turf, coloured like a tapestry meadow with self-heal, centaury and tormentil

... The mice were numerous and so were the kestrels.

...Sometime before Ni-Frith, in the heath of the day, Silver paused in a little patch of thorn. There was no breeze and the air was full of the sweet, chrysanthemum-like smell of the flowering compositae of dry uplands - corn-chamomile, yarrow and tansy. As Hazel and Fiver came up and squatted beside him, he looked out across the open ground ahead, "There, Hazel-rah," he said, "that's the wood that Holly didn't like..."

...All was still, save for the grasshoppers and the falling finch-song of the yellow-hammer in the thorn...

...Now, he (Bigwig) came out a nearby clump of mugwort and flowering thistle and joined Hazel under the thorn

The Great River, the Plank Bridge and the Punt

The plants and animals that appear in the composition are those mentioned in the same chapter:

Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria)

Great willow herb (Epilobium hirsutum)

Common fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica)

Common figwort (Scrophularia nodosa)

Water figwort (Scrophularia auriculata)

Hemp agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum)

Rhododendron (Rhododendron ponticum)

Water avens (Geum rivale)

Valerian (Valeriana officinalis)

Water mint (Mentha aquatica)

a type of sedge (Carex pendula)

      From Watership Down, Chapter 33: The Great River

... The path was almost as smooth as a lawn and clear of bushes and weeds, for it was kept cut for fishermen. Along its further side the riparian plants grew thickly,so that it was separated from the river by a kind of hedge of purple loosestrife, great willow herb, fleabane, figwort and hemp agrimony, here and there already in bloom...

As Pipkin reached the path a great, shimmering dragonfly, four inches long, all emerald and sable, appeared at his shoulder, hovered, droning and motionless, and was gone like lightning into the sedge. Pipkin leaped back in alarm. As he did so there came a shrill, vibrant cry and he caught sight, between the plants, of a brilliant azure bird flashing past over the open water

...Hazel was combing the goose grass out of his coat and evidently listening to Fiver as they sat together under a rhododendron...

...Indeed, in places it was almost bog. Marsh sedge grew there, pink, sweet-scented valerian and drooping water avens...

The smell of water mint filled all the hydrophonic air...

I also added branched bur-reed (Sparganium erectum) and monkey flower (Mimulus guttatus), which I saw growing along the river banks when I visited the place.

The goose grass (Galium aparine) Hazel was combing out of his fur would have been collected on the Down, so I didn't added it to this picture but it appears in the painting "Fear in the Dark" instead.

The dragon fly is a southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea), found in Southern and Central England.

I also added demoiselle agrion, (Calopteryx virgo, male and female), a common and attractive damselfly I photographed on my visit to Laverstoke Park.

The brilliant azure bird is a common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), and I couldn't resist painting both a male and a female in the picture!

General Woundwort

List of plants included in the painting:

Ash (Fraxinus excelsior)

Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

Hop trefoil (Trifolium campestre)

White clover (Trifolium repens)

Bugle (Ajuga reptans)

Sanicle (Sanicula europaea)

Yellow archangel (Lamiastrum galeobdolon)

Sweet vernal (Anthoxanthum odoratum

      From Watership Down, Chapter 34: General Woundwort

Captain Chervil, one of the two officers of the Mark, had just returned from a round of his sentries and was talking to some of the dowse near the centre of the Mark ground, when he saw the General approaching. He looked quickly about to see whether anything was at fault. Since all seemed to be well ha began nibbling at a patch of sweet vernal with the best air of indifference that he could manage...

...Nevertheless, this evening, as he came out from among the ash-trees to talk to Captain Chervil, the General was feeling seriously concerned about several things...

...At this hour the Crixa was all green shade, with red gleams of sun that winked through the moving leaves. The damp grass along the edges of the paths was dotted with spikes of mauve bugle, and the sanicles and yellow archangels flowered thickly...

      From Watership Down, Chapter 35: Groping

Bigwig followed Chervil along the run, down which came the scents of warm grass, clover and hop trefoil...

...The Mark were filing up now and he (Bigwig) watched as they went past, each darkening the entrance for a moment before hopping out under the hawthorn...

To the flora mentioned in the book, I added a few more species I saw during my trips to Efrafa:

Fly orchid (Ophris insectifera)

Wood Avens (Geum urbanum)

Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria)

Dryad's saddle (Polyporus squamosus)

The fly orchid: I spotted this little beauty growing in the narrow woodland between the bridle path and the once upon a time pasture field, and I couldn't resist adding it just front of the General.

I have also added Stachys sylvatica, just beside the General and on the right side, behind the hawthorn. Its common name is Hedge Woundwort: the very plant that gave the General his name is depicted along side him in the painting!

I have as well come across a beautiful specimen of fungus, a kind of toadstool (Dryad's saddle). I know it doesn't play any particular part in the story but, as it grows on ash trees, it completes the ash tree in the painting in the left corner.

Bigwig does mention once a toadstool, when on the way back to Watership Down after the escape with the does from Efrafa, he is teasing Blackavar on his feelings about a possible fox attack at Dunn Wood, the place where they decide to stop and rest for a while.

      From Watership Down, Chapter 40: The Way Back

"This no place to stop, Hazel-rah," he (Blackavar) said. "No wide patrol would bivouac here. It's fox country. We ought to try to get further before dark."

... "There are likely to be foxes anywhere about the downs," said Bigwig sharply. "Why is this fox country more than anywhere else?"

Tact was a quality that Blackavar valued about as much as Bigwig did; and now he made the worst possible reply.

"I can't exactly tell you why", he said." I've a formed a strong impression, but it's hard to explain quite what's based on."

"Oh, an impression, eh?" sneered Bigwig. "Did you see any hraka? Pick up any scent? Or was it just a message from little green mice singing under a toadstool?"

We know now therefore that our rabbits were familiar with toadstools!