Ellic Howe (ed.), The Alchemist of the Golden Dawn: the Letters of the Revd W. A. Ayton to F. L. Gardner and Others 1886–1905 (Wellingborough: Aquarian Press, 1985).

Abstract

The “Roots of the Golden Dawn” are notoriously shallow, but they are dense. The Aquarian Press’s series of that title has already included R. A. Gilbert’s anthologies of writings by Mathers, Westcott and Brodie-Innes, and his forthcoming Magicians of the Middle Pillar will include work by Florence Farr and others. Ellie Howe’s collection of Ayton’s letters is drawn from documents in the Gerald Yorke collection (see pp. 168–70 above). It distils the charm and eccentricity of the man himself. Yeats described Ayton as “the most panic-stricken person” he had known. Ayton had made the elixir of life and cautiously preserved half of it for his old age, despite the fact that drinking some of it had made his nails fall out and his hair fall off. By the time he was elderly enough to feel the need of a second swig, Ayton found that the brew had all dried up. At the age of ninety, he made a fresh batch, so that those members of the G. D. in whom longevity could be “honestly” encouraged could take a dram (L 365). A rabbit, appointed as taster, died.