ABSTRACT
The majority of Taunt’s work was done in his home counties, those of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, the countryside immortalized in the last century by the poetry of Matthew Arnold and the delightful books of Flora Thompson, Lark Rise to Candleford and Still Glides the Stream. It was to the towns, villages and hamlets of these three counties that Taunt could most easily travel by his limited means of transport. I have related in my introduction how Taunt first became familiar with the countryside at West Ilsley in the Berkshire Downs, his mother’s home, and how in later years he became a familiar entertainer in many town and village halls. His love of natural things is evident from his work and frequently in later years when business pressures increased he sought sanctuary in the ordered and peaceful existence of rural life.
