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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