THE UVVA COLLOQUIUM

The Usk Valley Vaughan Association Colloquium grew out of the Association’s desire to build on its initial success in marking the tercentenary of Henry Vaughan’s death in 1695. It first met in the Spring of 1996 and has established itself as an annual event, now held at The Hill, Abergavenny, on the last weekend in April, from Friday teatime to Sunday lunchtime. The Hill is situated close to town centre which is easily accessible via the A40. The main building is a large mid nineteenth-century building and is comfortably supported by its more modern extensions.

From the first the UVVA was designed to draw together scholarly academic interest in the Vaughans, their period and preoccupations, with current poetic endeavours, not least those directly or indirectly inspired by the twins’ writings. The nexus of perspectives and concerns embodied in the lives and works of Henry, poet and doctor, and Thomas, theoretician and practitioner of alchemy, represents – though our language and beliefs may not be exactly theirs – the kind of meeting-place we still need. The Colloquium, from which papers and sometimes poems for Scintilla are derived, creates a point of precisely that kind of fruitful conjunction.

It is in every way a highly pleasurable and refreshing few days – a relatively small gathering (around twenty participants) of like-minded people with a shared concern and curiosity, and a belief in the power of imagination and art to regenerate and transform the human spirit, sustaining and restoring even in the most arid of times what Keats called ‘the holiness of the heart’s affections’. Nor are other kinds of refreshment lacking: the accommodation is very comfortable, the food and drink excellent; and there is time free on the Saturday afternoon to visit Brecon or Llansantfraed church, to walk in the grounds, along the baks of the Usk or in the surrounding hills, to enjoy the stunning views, or simply pause for thought. And throughout, late evenings especially, there is a deal of good talk on top of the six scheduled papers and readings. Participants are also invited to bring their own or any other relevant work (in any medium) for display, or sale, or simply talking point.

All in all, the Colloquium aims to create an unstuffy, relaxed but focused weekend. Like Scintilla it is an open testing ground for ideas and experiences, patterned by what people, responding to the Vaughans and/or the kind of things that preoccupied them, have to offer. So though, naturally in such a place, the works and lives of Henry and Thomas Vaughan are very much in our minds, we seek, not least, to connect, through that interest, with concerns and possibilities of a new century.