Inspiration of the Week: a picture of the simple life, deep in the Welsh countryside

WB Yeats wrote The Lake Isle of Innisfree in 1888. In the poem, one of his best known, he expresses his desire to walk away from the busy roads and “pavements grey” of busy, urban life and swap them for little more than a small cabin, a vegetable garden, a place where “peace comes dropping slow”. Sound familiar? Almost 135 years later, Yeats’s yearning feels as real and relevant to smartphone scrollers as it once did to those caught up in the whirlwind of industrialised Britain.

Yeats’s poem is about a small island in Ireland, but looking at pictures of Little Harp, a cottage in the Welsh Marches now on the market, one feels he could have been writing about this place. You’ll have to forgive us a little poetic license, for its walls are stone, not “of clay and wattles made”, but it is otherwise the perfect setting for his sanctuary – a place where bees and beans could thrive, where “midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow” (though we can’t vouch for the presence of linnets come gloaming…).

Decorated sparely but not spartanly, its rooms – whitewashed, flagstoned, with simple furniture – are a reminder that while pattern may bring pizzazz and colour can pack a punch, comfort and joy can come in quieter guises too. A well-loved sheepskin on a stick-back chair is as soothing to the soul as any designer sofa.

There is much of the past about Little Harp, which was constructed in the 17th century and is still surrounded by open fields. But if total, pre-industrial solitude (and living conditions) don’t quite tickle your fancy, fear not: the local, the Harp Inn, was recently named the best country pub in the UK by The Good Pub Guide, and underfloor heating has recently been installed in parts of the house. We think Yeats would understand.