Many
of us these days are pleased that we are living in a golden age of
non-fiction nature writing, even if some of the varied wildlife
subjects of this genre are in steady or steep decline. Robert
MacFarlane, Stephen Moss, Mark Cocker, Helen McDonald, Kathleen Jamie
and Adam Nicolson can enchant and entertain us with the quality of
their writing, nature knowledge and insight. What has been largely
forgotten, however, is that fiction has been used as a way of
celebrating and trying to protect animals and birds in the English
countryside for the whole of the twentieth century, up to the early
1980s, when the advent of wildlife documentaries took over the story
telling function.
Many
readers may remember
Tarka the Otter by
Henry Williamson (1927), which has been widely praised for its
realism born of long hours of observation in the field. What has been
lost, however, has been the memory of the other writers who were
inspired by Williamson to write about other animals and birds
highlighting the routine practices in the counntryside which killed
and maimed many creatures up to the 1970s when many trapping
practices were banned. It was only because wildlife numbers were
relatively abundant at that time that populations were able to
sustain the onslaught.
The
type of book I have been describing is the life history of an animal
or bird which aims to be naturalistic and, while the creature may be
given a name, sometimes a variation on its Latin name, it does not
speak or have conversations like the rabbits in Watership
Down.
This literary genre was probably invented by the American writer and
woodsman Ernest Thompson Seaton, whose book Wild
Animals I Have Known was
published in 1898 and followed by many other similar popular books
written by him, often with separate chapters covering different
animals.
Those
who think Henry Williamson invented the entire genre in Britain would
be surprised to learn that the real originator here was John Coulson
Tregarthan, a Cornishman, now practically unknown outside his native
county, who wrote four books on British mammals - hare, fox, otter
and badger, between 1912-25, drawing on his general knowledge of the
Cornish countryside. Three of which meet the criteria for this
collection.
Snares
and gin traps
One
of Williamson's targets in Tarka
the Otter are
the snares and gin traps which are deployed indiscriminately by
farmers and game keepers in the rivers and the countryside at that
time. Tregarthan has his otter trapped in one, but describes him as
pulling himself free, surviving swimming in water for three
days with the trap attached to his paw, and eventually escaping when
the trap is stuck in a bush. Williamson more realistically has
Tarka 's sister trapped in a gin and killed by the keeper. Tarka also
gets trapped and is only freed when another otter bites through his
toes. Later in the book he describes a female otter who has drowned
in a gin trap set by the river owner: “iron sinks and however long
cubs call her, a bitch otter cannot swim with three legs forever.”
(p. 142) Williamson also highlights the wildlife slaughter visible
on the keeper's gibbets: “the wood where the corpses of herons,
kingfishers, red throated divers, cormorants and shags were nailed to
a tree. Some had been shot, others trapped. The cormorants and shags
were beheaded, for the Two Rivers Conservancy paid one shilling for
every head. The wings of the kingfishers were cut off their tiny
bodies, for some women in town were willing to pay money for the
bright feathers which they wore as ornaments on their hats.” (p.71)
Tarka is eventually caught by an otter hound but drowns his killer
along with him. Williamson was not totally opposed to hunting but
reserves his most searing writing for the death of Tarka's
inexperienced son at the jaws of the hounds.
Williamson,
Henry (1927) Tarka
the Otter.
In The
Henry Williamson Animal Saga. London:
Macdonald and Jane (pp. 13-194)
Williamson
wrote a short book about badger baiting which graphically depicted
the cruelty involved in sending terriers down badger setts or digging
them out from the top. In his book about a salmon he also depicted
fishermen routinely shooting at and killing seals because they
thought the numbers were too great.
Denys
Watkins Pitchford BB
He
was a nature writer in many different genres but could see his native
Northants changing and declining in wildlife diversity and lambasted
the type of farmer responsible in his book about badgers.
“Marney
cut down all the trees in his hedgerows because they shaded his corn
crops; he uprooted the hedges themselves because he regarded the
cutting and laying of them as a shocking waste of labour and money;
he dressed his corn with the new deadly weed dressings which killed
off the finches in their thousands. He would have no rookeries in his
fields and if the badgers had been on his land he would have gassed
them long ago.” (p17).
Watkins-Pitchford,
Denys (BB) (1961) The
Badgers of Bearshanks.
London: Ernest Benn Ltd
He
also criticised the ignorance of countrymen who would batter a
harmless grass snake to death on principle.
Countryside
practices
Foxes
gradually
adapted to hunting with dogs but writers documenting them highlighted
certain hunt practices which they felt were unfair. Prior to a hunt,
countrymen employed by the organisation would block both known fox
earths and badger setts so an animal sighted would have no places of
refuge, which increased the chances of a kill, but also brought
badgers into confrontation with hounds. The pretence that 'hunts kept
foxes under control’ was weakened by the well known practice
described in two
books of importing Cumbrian and Scottish hill foxes to southern
districts to “improve” the stock of southern foxes and avoid them
being killed off totally. Snares were routinely set out for them
which sometimes meant them biting an ankle to get free and surviving
on three
legs.
Badgers
as
we have seen were the target of country sports involving them being
attacked by terriers and
dug out and killed from setts sometimes for food or skins. It was a
Scottish countryman who killed Gavin Maxwell's beloved pet otter
because he regarded them as vermin and wanted to make some money from
the skin. In the 1980s, the link with BSE led to widespread gassing.
Glyn Frewer in Bryn
of Brockle Hanger (1980)
developed a story about this and had his young hero learn lobbying
skills to negotiate with local Councils and developers to gain
protection for them. The illegal and underground “sport” of
badger baiting was highlighted by Brian Plummer in Trog
(1988).
Deer
were
subject to poaching and also suffered from capture in snares set for
foxes and others. Indiscriminate shooting of females could also leave
orphan fauns to die. The issue of who should control their numbers
was gradually debated over the years as numbers increased through
forestry practice and the lack of alpha predators like wolves or
lynx. Red deer were hunted by dogs in Devon to a comparatively late
period and not banned until 2007.
Hares
were hunted by beagles in an organised hunt and also by free range
countrymen who wanted to test their dogs – a practice noted by
Plummer again in Lepus
(1981).
During the summer when hay was being cut it was routine practice for
local countrymen to line up with their guns and kill as many breeding
animals trying to escape as possible, including leverets.
Birds
were
subject to different kinds of harassment, including from gamekeepers
trying to preserve their stock and poisoning from the DDT pesticide.
Up to the 1950s, it was routine for country boys to go “egging”
to make a collection but the pursuit
of rare birds by obsessive egg collectors was highlighted in
Adventure
Lit Their Star
(Allsop,
1942) about Little Ringed Plovers and Adams Winged
Thunderbolt
(1954) about peregrines. BB also depicted an obsessive wildfowler who eventually
lost his life trying to shoot a rare albino Pinkfooted goose.
Manka the Sky Gypsy
(1939).
Ewan
Clarkson, 1929-2010
He
was the writer above all others who used his books to highlight
conservation issues and
would be a major climate change campaigner today no doubt. He worked
as a scientist, veterinarian, zookeeper, mink farmer, rabbit farmer,
beach photographer and truck driver, and finally freelance writer.
Ewan
Clarkson’s animal stories were motivated by his belief that ‘man
is part of nature and it is only possible for man to survive as a
species if he is prepared to co-exist in harmony with other species
of life. If he destroys his environment he will destroy his own
life”.
In his book Halic the story of a grey seal (1971), he highlighted the danger of plastics in the ocean long before this was widely known:
“The oceans were a dumping ground for all sorts of waste. Much of it sank but some floated to the surface carried by wind and tide until thrown up on some remote beach, to litter and foul the shoreline......The plastic was almost indestructible. unaffected by sea or weather, too light to be broken up by the pounding of the waves, it might float around for weeks and lie on a beach for years.” (p. 39)
In the Shadow of The Falcon (1974) was his peregrine bird book in which Clarkson recorded the various threats to the species during the twentieth century, including the mass shooting of birds during World War Two to protect carrier pigeons, poisoning by DDT and persecution by gamekeepers. His peregrine pair have to adapt to various threats to their survival including an attempt to steal their eggs.
The Running of the Deer (1972) was his sustained attack on red deer hunting in Devon. which made him unpopular with his neighbours as he was now living there. He depicted the difficulty of people coming into the county from outside to farm who disliked deer hunting as they witnessed it and forbade the hunt access to their land. He describes the harassment and isolation inflicted on the family by the local community which eventually drove them from the county. After another failed attempt to maintain the land as a sanctuary run by the League Against Cruel Sports a local man split from the hunt and recruited some students as embryonic Hunt Saboteurs who arrange a confrontation during the next hunt outing.
Conclusions
Fiction proved to be a very effective way of helping young people and adults to engage with and identify with the life of an animal or bird and highlight indiscriminate practices which harmed them. Snares, gin traps and hunting are now banned and the last remaining campaigns are largely between gamekeepers and birds of prey although illegal hare coursing and badger baiting still persist while the internet facilitates misguided people who believe such practices are traditional country sports to find each other. These books are in a sense time capsules to remind us how far we have come on trying to protect our wildlife.
By Alison Skinner
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