Jonathan Bate favours ‘Beech’ (as he prefers ‘Helpston’ to Clare's ‘Helpstone’). William Addison, author of Epping Forest, Its Literary and Historical Associations (1945), opts for ‘High Beach’. Clare is an improvisatory, free-jazz speller. ‘Leopards Hill’, is his improvement on ‘Leppit's Hill Lodge’ (or ‘Lippitts Hill’, according to the OS map), the villa that housed the most troubled of Matthew Allen's patients, the ‘incurables’. Period illustrations, offering a white house surrounded by lawns and shrubs, use the title: ‘View of Leopard's Hill Lodge’. Authentic Lea Valley pastoral. Greenhouse, creepers, encroaching forest. English clouds. The only way Clare could gain access to such an estate was through the tradesman's entry: straight round to the potato beds, John. Moleskin trousers kneecapped with twine. Sharp thorns under blackened fingernails. Buttons struggling to confine a greasy leather waistcoat.Leppit's Hill Lodge, photographed for the edition of The Letters of John Clare (1970 reprint), edited by J.
