tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post2003923635066884254..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Gilbert White: A Naturalist's Journal: One day in JulyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-67750065688607964932012-07-26T05:16:17.246-07:002012-07-26T05:16:17.246-07:00Wheat and mercury surely represent a poetico-alche...Wheat and mercury surely represent a poetico-alchemical conjunction.<br /><br />To sit with Dorothy and William in the orchard in the warm Somerset evening, after the baking of the pies, a heavenly imagination.<br /><br />The buzzing of the bees about the wild lavender in the zucchini patch... <br /><br />I love the mental picture I have of Gilbert and John White clearing and constructing the Zigzag path. A poetry of place that first pitches in with the literal fashioning of the place, long before beginning the loving annotation of its natural history.<br /><br />He improved the land and improved the knowledge we have of the things that lived upon it. "He added the harvest mouse and the noctule bat to the list of British mammals, and was the first to distinguish clearly the three species of 'willow wrens'," as his great editor Walter Johnson tells us.<br /><br />All evidence indicates he was a cheerful, witty, mild and endlessly curious man. There is scant report of his ever having been cross with anyone about anything. The one instance noted is the story concerning his manservant, Thomas Hoar. Hoar was a few years older than White; in the end he survived White by four years, reaching the grand age of eighty-three. White left him a generous legacy in his will. There were those who felt Hoar took liberties due to his privileged position in the household; that he had been "spoilt" by White's exceptional kindness and generosity. But only one tale survives of White coming even near to losing his temper with Hoar. Hoar is to have broken a glass, and confessed it. How did you do that, then, Thomas? enquired GW. "I'll show you, Sir," declared Hoar, who promptly went and got another wine glass, and dashed it upon the floor. "There, go along Thomas! you are a great fool," White said; and then muttered, "And I was as great a one for asking such a foolish question."<br /><br />The secret hero of his Journals is Timothy the Tortoise, bequeathed to him by an aunt, Mrs Snooke of Ringmer. Timothy was a great favourite of White's, but White being White, this meant Timothy often found himself involuntarily participating in the naturalist's scientific experiments. Immersion in water, for example, brought little joy to Timothy. Small wonder then we often find him burrowing-in for the long haul.<br /><br />This would begin in late autumn.<br /><br />White began to note these seasonal retirements when Timothy was still at Ringmer. <br /><br />"1 November, 1771. Mrs Snooke's tortoise begins to dig in order to hide himself for the winter...<br /><br />"10 November, 1771. Tortoise comes out in the sun about noon, but soon returns to his work of digging a hole to retire into..."<br /><br />The pleasure of observing animals and plants in their ways of living and being was for White a form of love.<br /><br />One could write a book about his relations with Timothy, for example.<br /><br />(In fact, someone has done!)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-41952545652418894312012-07-25T15:33:44.894-07:002012-07-25T15:33:44.894-07:00So rich, so beautiful. I want to live there, teeth...So rich, so beautiful. I want to live there, teeth sinking into everything, into escape. I see a softness that is welcome to contrast the harsh. Healing, gorgeous. That's why people go there--more than lavender to attract the bees.Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-32603182344505178912012-07-25T14:22:11.133-07:002012-07-25T14:22:11.133-07:00I love this and all the comments also, esp. your i...I love this and all the comments also, esp. your initial one and WB's note. I will be eternally grateful for your introduction to Gilbert White. I keep White by my bedside and he never fails to restore me when I think nothing possibly can. CurtisACravanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00315707533118640284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-92118988041105667552012-07-25T13:57:03.342-07:002012-07-25T13:57:03.342-07:00The “lovely convoluted fuzzy yellow flower” makes ...The “lovely convoluted fuzzy yellow flower” makes for one of summer’s yummier delicacies over here in Hellas but first someone has to get up very early and pick them before the heat wilts them; after that, just leave it to the wife to stuff and cook them. Gusto perfecto!vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14515165428574974933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-42659044581832805742012-07-25T13:18:20.542-07:002012-07-25T13:18:20.542-07:00"The only place where omens possess any reali..."The only place where omens possess any reality is inside that sad prison, the human mind."...TC<br />beautiful pics!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-13178024930725089522012-07-25T09:35:26.750-07:002012-07-25T09:35:26.750-07:00A good,soft English light in all the photos.
I lo...A good,soft English light in all the photos.<br /><br />I love the line: "Wheat turns yellowish. Mercury falls very fast".<br /><br />Wheat and mercury together; something almost alchemical there. <br /><br />A wonderful post, TCMose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-80340100695779518712012-07-25T08:24:35.738-07:002012-07-25T08:24:35.738-07:00Tom,
Lovely indeed, to think that it was all goin...Tom,<br /><br />Lovely indeed, to think that it was all going on there, back then. Here's Dorothy Wordsworth's journal entry for July 25th --<br /><br />"But the day after Friday July [25th] still hotter. All the morning I was engaged in unpacking our Somersetshire goods & in making pies. The house was a hot oven but yet we could bake the pies -- I was so weary I could not walk so I went & sate with Wm in the orchard -- we had a delightful half hour in the warm still evening."<br /><br />7.25<br /><br />light coming into fog against invisible<br />top of ridge, bird chirping from branch<br />in foreground, sound of wave in channel<br /><br /> sketch of, views that stood<br /> at odds with the fact<br /><br /> sense of something, what is<br /> by way of, appears in<br /><br />grey white of sky to the left of point,<br />shadowed green pine on tip of sandspitSTEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-9514111615667642482012-07-25T08:19:33.505-07:002012-07-25T08:19:33.505-07:00Jonathan,
Nothing more useful than the local kno...Jonathan, <br /><br />Nothing more useful than the local knowledge. <br /><br />But ah, the sodden slug infested pastoral! Alas, the <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Zucchini_flower_20070701_0082.jpg" rel="nofollow">lovely convoluted fuzzy yellow flower</a> lost!TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-64371267642213336202012-07-25T08:06:16.888-07:002012-07-25T08:06:16.888-07:00Hampshire, July 25th 2012
The sun finally arrives...Hampshire, July 25th 2012<br /><br />The sun finally arrives after weeks of cold and rain. Re-planting carrots. The courgettes, like the pastoral allusions, stripped away by the slugs.Jonathan Chanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03647746685252448938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-44015950678200546352012-07-25T06:14:40.039-07:002012-07-25T06:14:40.039-07:00And see also:
AbundanceAnd see also:<br /><br /><a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/abundance-hooded-crow-gilbert-white.html" rel="nofollow">Abundance</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-45654350438354890832012-07-25T05:56:36.023-07:002012-07-25T05:56:36.023-07:00Of Gilbert White's uniquely observant, precise...Of Gilbert White's uniquely observant, precise, artful and curious Journals his biographer Richard Mabey has commented: "...it is possible to read the journals as a simple historical record of natural events, and spanning forty years without a break... yet it is the lucidity and resonance of the best of the entries that are his most important legacy. Stripping away pastoral allusions, adjectival excess, self-examination, searches for meaning, he distilled a form of spare, literary miniature which had an immediacy not seen in this kind of prose before... Yet it is doubtful if White saw his journals as 'writing' in any literary sense. For him, I think, they were his intellectual ledger, where he took stock of his understanding of the physical world. They always have this probing, investigative sense about them that lifts them beyond merely passive records..."TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.com