Lost Gods of Albion

Paul Newman

Yes, you are correct, that is a picture of a man that seems to be very pleased to see you. And he has been that way for a very long time, since 1694 at least.

Some may wonder why I include a book on chalk hill figures in a blog about books on geology, but it is due to that very geology, and man’s interaction with it, that such wonderful artefacts exist. People have identified a hill, an aspect, its underlying soil and used these to tell a story, to advertise a fact or possibly just to show off.

Regimental Badges at Fovant, Wiltshire. Cut into the grass by soldiers stationed in the district during the 1914-18 war. In 1951 the badge of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry was added

Almost exclusively peculiar to England, the majority of chalk hill figures are of horses with some lovely exceptions, which include crosses, the 180 feet (55m) high Cerne Giant shown on the cover of the book above and even a Panda.

Lost Gods of Albion only looks a few of the hill figures to be found and virtually ignores anything modern, preferring to concentrate on any perceived spirituality associated with some chalk hill figures. It does make interesting reading though.

The 231 feet (70m) Long Man of Wilmington, East Sussex was passed by Three Points of the Compass on the Wealdway. Still just visible in the light snow on the hill, the hill figure is designed so as to appear proportional when viewed from below . It dates from the 16th or 17th century.

This little book from Kate Bergamar is an early Shire Publication from 1972. I don’t think I bought it as a nipper, it was much more likely to have been one of my parents. It went some way to explaining the hill figures we would see from the car on holidays. A number of errors are present in the text though

Reaching Ivinghoe Beacon on my final day on the Ridgeway, over my right shoulder could be seen the huge figure of the Whipsnade White Lion. It measures 483 feet (147m) across

I defy anyone, when striding across the chalk hills of England, if presented with one of the fifty plus chalk hill figures to be found, to not stand and give it more than a casual glance. And while you do admire it, consider that you are seeing the product of show-offs, an earlier people that had something to say and they stood on their hill and cut the turf to do so, using the very geology of their land to shout their message across to you.

Just about the worst place to see a chalk-hill figure is standing next to it, even when it measures 360 feet (110m) nose to tail. Three Points of the Compass passed the top of Uffington Horse, cut into White Horse Hill, on the Ridgeway in 2016. However you can see how those who constructed it, over 3000 years ago, looked out at their vista and said- ‘this is the place’

Another two books to consider are the 1991 second edition reprint of the definitive White Horses and other Hill Figures by Morris Marples, or Ancient British Hill Figures by Rodney Castleden, published in 2000, which concentrates on the older chalk figures

Book in featured image:

Lost Gods of Albion, the chalk-hill figures of Britain, Paul Newman. Robert Hale, 1997. ISBN 0 7509 1563 3

If you want to look for a cheaper option than Lost Gods of Albion, then Gods and Graven Images was simply an earlier (1987) version of the book by the same author

The Handbook of British Mammals

Corbet and Southern

This volume is probably more a historical document today but use it alongside any modern Field Guide and it works wonderfully. Just don’t go looking for Coypu in East Anglia today, they were probably eradicated by the early 1990s.

Part of the seven and a half pages that covers the Harvest Mouse in Great Britain in The Handbook of British Mammals

As usual, Collins publish excellent Field Guides to Mammals. Such a volume works brilliantly alongside a good reference work such that by Corbet and Southern

I suppose at some point I ought to purchase the most up to date version of a handbook to British Mammals, however much of the salient historical and biological data in my volume is still correct and I supplement this with species specific detail in other volumes on my bookshelves. Perhaps the most relevant aspect is that not only am I a naturalist, but I am a reader of books too. Corbet and Southern’s volume has prose as well as fact.

Good information is included on the Classification of Mammals and I am especially pleased that detail on extinct species is included, such as Brown Bear and Wolf. Hopefully in my time the latter species may be reintroduced to Scotland.

Line drawings of dentition and skulls are included and the systematic accounts, each written by an authority, are broken down in to Description, Measurements, Distribution, Habitat, Behaviour, Food, Breeding, Predators and Mortality, and Relations with Man.

A very good, reasonably priced series of books was published by Whittet Books. Updated and new editions are available. Written by acknowledged experts in their field, these are very accessible and in no way daunting, but still give good information on species. Some authors of these volumes also wrote the species accounts in The Handbook of British Mammals

Book in featured image:

The Handbook of British Mammals, G B Corbet and H N Southern. Blackwell Scientific Publications, second edition 1977. ISBN 0 632 09080 4

‘A Generall Historie of plantes’

or

Gerard’s Herbal

After identification manuals and handbooks, ecology guides, accounts of rare and unusual flowers, where should the botanist turn to next- How about a guide to what the ancients thought of as the various ‘vertues‘ of plants for food and health?

Mugwort- ‘That the traveller or wayfaring man that hathe the herb tied about him feeleth no wearisomnesse at all; and that he who hathe it about him can be hurt by no poysonsome medicines, nor by any wilde beast, neither yet by the Sun it selfe’- dubious advice from Gerard

Apparently the longest book in print after the Bible, Gerard’s Herbal is a fascinating concoction of fact, local lore, nonsense and downright dangerous advice. John Gerard was an Elizabethan physician, herbalist and botanist who tended Lord Burleigh’s gardens. In 1597 he published his famous Historie of Plantes and this informed and led the way for just about every herbal that followed. This is, of course, to ignore the fact that Gerard heavily ‘borrowed’ much of his work from others, particularly that of Rembert Dodoens. The woodcuts for the drawings were widely sourced and are probably amongst the finest of their day.

There have been a number of herbals published over the years, and countless new editions of some of the older ones. Some later editions have heavily abridged the original text or work, printing of the old plates has also suffered in some later volumes. You can pay a lot of money for a good, early copy, but with care, there are some more reasonably priced editions to be found. There are also good modern herbals though Three Points of the Compass has not really gone down that route, preferring a modern day botanists’ view on what our forebears had to say. For example, I grew up with David Bellamy on the television, his particular favourite herbalist was Culpeper. It is good that someone has time for these almost forgotten men. Bellamy tells us that apparently Culpeper himself, is buried somewhere beneath platform 11 of Liverpool Street station, London.

Potentially of more practical use than an old herbal, is Blooming Bellamy, the book that accompanied David Bellamy’s BBC series, first broadcast in 1993. It is still worth watching if only for the howlingly funny view of an ‘ageing botanist’ crawling around the feet of commuters on a railway station platform, while extolling the virtues of the plants to be found there

Book in featured image:

Gerard’s Herbal. The History of Plants. John Gerard. Bracken Books, 1985 edition. ISBN 0 946495 27 0

Three Points of the Compass purchased a digital copy of Culpepper’s Herbal for diverting reading, though I am not sure I’ll be following much of the advice- “the juice of the leaves, or rather the roots themselves, given to drink with old wine, doth wonderfully help the biting of any serpents: and the root beaten with a little salt, and laid on the place, suddenly eases the pain thereof, and helps those that are bit by a mad dog”

Birds of the Western Palearctic

If you can afford them, then anyone that is keen to fill space on their bookshelves with an authoritative set of volumes on the avifauna of the Western Palearctic or any sub-region of that area, should be purchasing the BWP.

Birds of the Western Palearctic, volume IV

Birds of the Western Palearctic, or to give its full title- Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic, or BWP for short, was a masterful exercise in producing a comprehensive regional guide to the birds of a particular region, in this case, the Western Palearctic. I have the complete nine volumes however a two volume concise edition was published in 1998, I don’t have that as I have no need for it.

Obviously there have been advances in our knowledge of some of these species. For example various taxonomic changes have taken place in the intervening years.

Following the release of volume IX of BWP, from 1997-2004, there were published updates- BWP Update. These would occasionally include improved plates showing some species, but can be a tad difficult to get hold of now.

There were also a couple of electronic versions released and a fair amount of the text can be found online, but there is little to actually beat the not-inconsiderable heft of the full nine volume set.

Pages from Birds of the Western Palearctic, Volume IX Buntings and New World Warblers

Not only are these large and heavy volumes, but they are not cheap either. Remarkably, soon after the final volume was published in 1994, I was able to pick up the entire nine volume set at a remaindered price of twenty five quid! For me, it was the bargain of the decade.

The Handbook of British Birds, (published 1938-41) by HF Witherby et al were masterful works in their time. I have four of the five volumes published. Pioneering as they were, they set a standard that BWP more than supplanted

Be warned, these books are not easy to wade through. You have to understand their layout and deal with the constant referencing in the text. The printed sonograms are also now largely superfluous as there are excellent aural guides now available. The region chosen, the Western Palearctic is somewhat arbitrary as birds do not see geographical barriers beyond extensive mountain ranges of oceans, and even then, not for all species. But still, they are masterful reference works and signify a massive step-forward from the pioneering work produced by earlier ornithologists such as Witherby and Jourdain.

Books in featured image:

Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume I. Ostriches to Ducks. Edited by: Stanley Cramp. Oxford University Press, 1977: ISBN 978-0-19-857358-6, 722 pages

Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume II Hawks to Bustards. Edited by: Stanley Cramp. Oxford University Press, 1980: ISBN 978-0-19-857505-4, 696 pages

Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume III Waders to Gulls. Edited by: Stanley Cramp. Oxford University Press, 1983: ISBN 978-0-19-857506-1, 913 pages

Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume IV Terns to Woodpeckers. Edited by: Stanley Cramp. Oxford University Press, 1985: ISBN 978-0-19-857507-8, 960 pages

Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume V Tyrant Flycatchers to Thrushes. Edited by: Stanley Cramp. Oxford University Press, 1988: ISBN 978-0-19-857508-5, 1136 pages

Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume VI. Warblers. Edited by: Stanley Cramp and Duncan J Brooks. Oxford University Press, 1992: ISBN 978-0-19-857509-2, 760 pages

Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume VII. Flycatchers to Shrikes. Edited by: Stanley Cramp, Christopher M Perrins and Duncan J Brooks. Oxford University Press, 1993: ISBN 978-0-19-857510-8, 610 pages

Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume VIII. Crows to Finches. Edited by: Stanley Cramp, Christopher M Perrins and Duncan J Brooks. Oxford University Press, 1994: ISBN 978-0-19-854679-5, 956 pages

Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume IX, Buntings and New World Warblers. Edited by: Stanley Cramp, Christopher M Perrins and Duncan J Brooks. Oxford University Press, 1994: ISBN 978-0-19-854843-0, 522 pages

BWP, find space for it on your bookshelves…