Halliday Sutherland

"A born writer, especially a born story-teller. Dr. Sutherland, who is distinguished in medicine, is an amateur in the sense that he only writes when he has nothing better to do. But when he does, it could hardly be done better." G.K. Chesterton.

The Hound of Heaven

pexels-photo-127993

The Arches of the Years was included in the Publishers Weekly list in 1933 and was perhaps Halliday Sutherland’s most successful book.

The title is taken from the second line of a poem by Francis Thompson—The Hound of Heaven—which begins:

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;

I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways

Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears

I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

Up vistaed hopes, I sped;

And shot, precipitated,

Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears.

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

But with unhurrying chase.

And unperturbed pace,

Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,

They beat—and a Voice beat

More instant than the Feet—

“All ‘things betray thee, who betrayest Me.”

Thompson lived between 1859 and 1907. In 1885 he moved to London but his plans did not work out and he failed to secure work in the profession he had aimed for. He became an opium addict and slept rough under Charing Cross bridge. He was rescued by a prostitute who looked after him and shared her earnings with him. When Thompson became recognised as a poet, the prostitute faded into the background because she did not want her profession to taint his fame.

Recitals of The Hound of Heaven can be found online: one by the late Sir Richard Burton and the other by Tom O’Bedlam.

Photo credit: Fröken Focus / www.frokenfokus.se

Post-script:

The photograph below shows the title page for an early version of the manuscript that became The Arches of the Years. The eventual title was an improvement on Say, Could that Lad be I? and Recaptured Youth, and it also provides an insight into Sutherland’s life journey.

recaptured-youth

3 comments on “The Hound of Heaven

  1. Rachel M E McKenzie
    1 January 2017

    Thought provoking as always, thanks Rachel

    • markhsutherland
      3 January 2017

      Thanks Rachel, and I am pleased that you enjoy the material on this website. I have added a post-script which shows the title page of what would appear to be an early version of what would become “The Arches of the Years”. You can see that the title was more evocative than earlier versions.

  2. Rachel M E McKenzie
    3 January 2017

    Thanks and a good reminder that a lot of writing is re-writing !

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Information

This entry was posted on 1 January 2017 by in Uncategorized.

Stopes v Sutherland libel trial 1922-24

Centenary of the Court of Appeal's judgment7 July 2023
31 days to go.

E-mail notification

Receive an e-mail when announcements are made.

%d bloggers like this: