from The Naturalists' Diary, May 1826

The Naturalists’ Diary, May 1826

From The Time’s Telescope

            There is something revivifying in this season of the year—a gaiety and mirthfulness of which all God’s creatures more or less partake. A thousand joyous feelings are associated with the smell of hawthorn, and the sight of the bright green trees, and the sound of the notes of the sweet singing birds; and the daisies and cowslips spangle the surface of the grassy fields, and the playful butterflies wanton in the glittering sunbeams.
Daisies
To wander at will, in the earliest hours of spring (as it is beautifully observed by Mr. Wiffen, in his Preface to the ‘Aonian Hours’) is one of the sweetest and most refined enjoyments. The face of things and the mind’s feelings have then a fresher aspect and a dearer sensation than at any other period of the year.
Cowslips
 It is only at the first starting of Nature from the repose of winter, that these emotions are forcibly excited; for, after we have been accustomed but for a few weeks to the prospect of buds, and flowers, and the gladness of all things, the mind recedes into its habitual temper and tone of feeling. When these sensations are connected with other associations,–with the spot of our boyhood or our birth, or with the pleasures of maturer life, the charm becomes still stronger and sweeter; and we may truly say, as the Arabian prophet exclaimed of Damascus, “This is almost too delicious!”
Hawthorne
 Let our readers, then, particularly our female friends,

Rise betimes, while th’ opal-coloured morn

In golden pomp doth May-day’s door adorn

and hasten to enjoy the exhilarating pleasures of a fine May morning.

Spotted Flycatcher

            The latest species of the summer birds of passage arrive about the beginning of May. Among these are the goatsucker, or fern-owl, the spotted fly-catcher, and the sedge bird. In this and the following month, the dotterel is in season. Birds are still occupied in building their nests or laying their eggs. The parental care of birds at this period, in hatching and rearing their young, can never be sufficiently admired.

            The lily of the valley now opens her snowy bells, and the flowers of the chestnut-tree begin to unfold; the tulip tree has its leaves quite out; and the flowers of the Scotch fir, the beech, the oak, and the honey-suckle, climbing round its neighbours for support, are now in full bloom.
 honeysuckle
            All the varieties of the strawberry, ‘plant of my native soil,’ open their blossoms, their runners extending on all sides. The mulberry-tree puts forth its leaves.
Strawberry

            The insect tribe continue to add to their numbers. A few butterflies that have passed the inclement season in the chrysalis state, are seen on the wing early in May. And about the latter end of the month, the Papilio Machaon, or
swallow-tailed butterfly, one of the most superb of the British Insects, makes its appearance. It is very local, but is abundant in the places where it is found, particularly in the fens of Huntingdon and Cambridge. The caterpillar is green, banded with black, and marked by a row of red spots; it feeds on various umbellate plants.

            Mr. Samouelle, in his directions to the Entomological Collector says, ‘as soon as the white-thorn is in leaf, the hedges should be well beaten;–the season for taking caterpillars now commences, from which most of the Lepidoptera are obtained, and this is by far the best method, as the insects are generally perfect, and the specimens very fine. Great attention should be paid to the larvae, and they should be supplied with fresh food, and moist earth kept at the bottom of their cages.’—Introduction to British Entomology, p. 315.

            Field crickets, the chaffer or may-bug, and the forest fly, which so much annoys horses and cattle, are now seen. The female wasp appears at the latter end of the month, and the swarming of bees takes place.—The garden now affords rhubarb, green apricots, and green gooseberries, for making pies and tarts.

            In this month, the orchis will be found in moist pastures, distinguished by its broad, black spotted leaves and spike of large purple flowers. The walnut has its flowers in full bloom.

            The banks of rills and shaded hedges are ornamented with the pretty tribe of speedwells, particularly the germander speedwell, the field mouse-ear, the dove’s foot crane’s bill, and the read campion, the two first of azure blue, and the two last of rose colour, intermixing their flowers with attractive variety.—The country is now in perfection, every bush a nosegay, all the ground a piece of embroidery. The air, indeed, is enriched with native perfumes, and the whole creation seems to smile; on each tree we hear the voice of melody, and in every grove there is a concert of warbling music.
Cranesbill

            The lilac, the barberry, and the maple, are now in flower. At the latter end of the month rye is in ear; the mountain-ash, laburnum, the guilder-rose, clover, columbines, with their singular and fantastic nectarines,–the alder, the wild chervil, the wayfaring tree, or wild guelder-rose, and the elm, have their flowers in full bloom.
Lilac

            Many fine plants are in flower, both in artificial climates and the open garden. The American tribes flower in great numbers during this month, as Magnolias, Azaleas, Vacciniums, &c. ‘We saw in the last week of April, in Malcolm and Gray’s Nursery, Kensington, one of the finest Youlan Magnolias in flower we ever beheld. It was a standard of a conical shape, about twenty feet high, and in an open, unsheltered part of the garden. It was covered with tulip shaped blossoms of a pure white, and exceedingly fragrant. Each blossom was as large as that of a Van Thol tulip, and their perfume was sensibly felt for a circumference of many yards. Hundreds of lovers of gardening, if they were aware of the beauty of this plant, would possess a specimen, for a greater ornament no shrubbery could possess.
Magnolia
There is not a country gentleman, who, were he to see such a plant, would not have one of them, coute qui coute; but as gentlemen necessarily rely on their gardeners for selecting plants and trees, and as this tree is but of recent introduction, it is unknown to most gardeners in place. Young gardeners recently become masters and now coming out as such, will recommend it; but, still, this shows that scarcely any new plant can become general throughout the country in less than half a century from its first introduction. A gardener takes a place at twenty-five years of age, and remains in it, or in other places, thirty years probably at an average; he then dies, and is succeeded by a young man who, familiar with the best things of the preceding thirty years, introduces them. In this way, the Youlan Magnolia
may be about as common as the Horse-chestnut in 1850 or 1860; Pyrus Japonica, Prunus Japonica and many now rare Azaleas and other early flowering plants, will then abound; and what a glorious sight will our shrubberies present!”—Literary Gazette.

            About the middle of the month the greenhouse plants are ventured out; the rule is, the foliation of the common ash and the mulberry. This is a critical month for insects, especially the green fly or aphis family, and the caterpillars. Tobacco, lime-water, and handpicking, are the remedies.
David Austin Old Roses

            The various species of meadow grass are in flower. The buttercup spreads over the meadows; the coleseed in corn fields, bryony, the arum, or cuckoo-pint, in hedges, the Tartarian honeysuckle, and the Corchorus Japonica, now show their flowers. The ‘rose, with all its sweetest leaves yet folded,’ now tempts the changeful atmosphere of May, but, too oft oppressed with ungentle showers, and overcharged with wet, bows her head to the coming storm; reserving her riper beauties for the more powerful sun of June. Sweet violets still continue to shed their delicious odours.

            Towards the end of the month, that magnificent and beautiful tree, the horse-chestnut, displays its honours of fine green leaves, and its handsome ‘spike pyramidal’ of white and red flowers; it is quite the glory of forest trees. The hawthorn (white and pink) is usually in blossom about the middle or end of the month.
Hawthorne

            The principal show of tulips takes place in this month. The dazzling and gorgeous appearance of beds of tulips cannot fail to attract the notice of the most indifferent observer; some varieties of this elegant flower are very splendid, and unrivalled for the beauty of their exquisite colours. But they boast only of a showy exterior; they possess no fragrance,–and however gaudy their attire, like a handsome female devoid of mental requirements, they soon cease to call forth our admiration. ‘Surprise and wonder are transitory passions,’ and, tired of beholding mere beauty, we seek for utility in the endless charms of a cultivated mind.

            Young hares or leverets, in favourable seasons are now seen feeding near the edges of woods and copses; these may be considered as the first produce of the year, but the mother will commonly bring forth two or more pairs in the season.
Hare

            Towards the end of the month, the Phalaena humuli, called by some the ghost-moth, makes its appearance, and continues visible during the greater part of the month of June. The female glow-worm (Lampyris noctiluca) is now seen on dry banks, about woods, pastures, and hedgeways.

            This is now the benting time of pigeons. After the spring-sown corn has vegetated, until the harvest, they are driven to the immature seeds and green panicles of the grasses for subsistence, and are seen in large flocks in pasture fields, where they pick up so bare a living, as to have occasioned an old couplet, often quoted in the country—

 The pigeon never knoweth woe

Until a benting it doth go.

Pigeon

            May, June, and July constitute the most fashionable portion of a ‘Winter in London’ and during this time there are more dinners, routes, concerts, and public dejeunes a la fourchette, than at any other period of the year. These eagerly sought pleasures, however, will have but little attraction for the contemplative man, and the admirer of the beauties of nature. Dinner parties at eight o’clock, and crowded assemblies which break up at two or three A.M., afford but a bad preparation for a morning ramble, to enjoy the sweet breath of May.

Another 'Look of Love"

Victoria here, having recently toured the exhibit “The Look of Love” at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama (on my way home from a winter in Florida near Kristine and Jo).

This was my first ever visit to Birmingham and thus my first taste of the delicious museum of art, which we began with luncheon at Oscar’s Restaurant (delicious, indeed!) before approaching our target: The Look of Love: Eye Miniatures from the Skier Collection.

The museum was filled with children. probably school tours, and they seemed particularly attracted to the museum shop, like all kids everywhere, seeking a memento of their visit.

I had read about the exhibition on line in articles published all over (see Jo Manning’s piece here), and in the catalogue, which absorbed my attention cover to cover.  Even if you are not fortunate enough to make your way to Birmingham before June 10, this catalogue will give you an excellent view of all the pieces accompanied by several scholarly articles and Jo Manning’s delightful fictional vignettes.

Nan Skier and Victoria at the exhibition

I was fortunate to be introduced on-line (by Jo Manning) to Nan Skier, and we met in person at the exhibition.  We had an enlightening chat about the unique collection she and her husband, Dr. David Skier, have amassed.  To hear her tell how they got started, listen to this interview via Skype with Polish television.


The very tiny objects, from as small as less than half a square inch to a wallet containing  both a lover’s eye and miniature of a hand, and a tea cup decorated with an eye, are exhibited in a darkened room in handsome cases and vitrines under pinpoints of light. Thus my pictures are both dark and a little blurry since they are enlarged quite a bit.  The better pictures here are the official pictures by the professional photographer Sean Pathashema.

 Above is one of the cases on which the Lover’s Eyes are displayed with descriptions below. Though it might be hard to photograph, the layout is very effective in presenting the delicate objects in the best possible manner.
Gold oval pendant surrounded by seed pearls, ca. 1830. Brown right eye with clouds
1 7/8 (with hanger) x 1 3/8 x 1/4 in.

gold teardrop-shaped brooch surrounded by split pearls, ca. 1790; Blue right eye.
 3/4  x  1 1/4  x  1/4 in.
The Lover’s Eyes in the Skier Collection are all similar — yet no two are alike. Most of them are worn as jewelry — rings, pendants, bracelets, e.g.
Bracelet surmounted with miniature in gold surround with drop pearl;
Plaited hairwork on reverse;
 Restrung with four strands of cultured pearls; Gray right eye.
 1 5/8 x 2 x 1/4 in. (surround only)
Many are set with precious stones: there are examples of pearls, diamonds, garnets, coral and turquoise, among others. 
Yellow gold brooch with border of thirty-two natural oriental half pearls in a floral motif
with eight small turquoise stones;
oval locket back with woven brown hair under glass, c. 1820
brown right eye; 1 x 1 1/8 x 1/4 in.
Rose gold oval brooch surrounded by double asymmetrical rows of seed pearls;
 suggestion of cloud border; convex backing with Prince of Wales hair plumes;
 brown right eye; 1 x 1 1/4 x 1/4 in.
Heart shaped gold ring with Hessonite garnet surround
crowned with a flower and ribbon motif, c. 1790. Blue right eye.
 on reverse of ivory lozenge is a sepia and embroidered hairwork image depicting interlocking hearts
 in front of an oak.  15/16 x 5/8 x 7/8 in.
Every one of these objects must have a story — of love or of loss.  But few can be identified by either sitter or artist.  History has made them unknown, and this gives a particularly poignant and mysterious twist to the exhibition. In a brilliant move, however, the catalogue contains several fictional stories — what MIGHT have been.  Jo Manning is the author and her imagination took wing. Highly recommended.
So-called “Memory Box” made of embossed and painted paper
containing eye miniature, c. 1830. Brown left eye.
1 1/8 x 1 1/4 x 5/8 in.
A patch box, a stick pin, the wallet, and the teacup — what many uses have been found for the lover’s eyes.  Nan and I discussed the fact that many of the eyes portrayed are from the left side, and we speculated on how such a choice could be made — by the artist, the sitter or the person who made the commission?

Rose gold pendant surrounded by blue enamel with half pearls.
 Brown left eye. 1 x 11/16 x 1.8 in.

Richard Cosway, self-portrait (1742-1821) c. 1790
National Portrait Gallery, London

It amused me to note that one of the few lover’s eyes that an be identified by its artist is by Richard Cosway (1742-1821) greatly celebrated in his day as a painter and a close friend of the Prince Regent, later George IV.  And yet, this particular piece is one of very few that is not bejeweled, but instead decorated with paste (fake) red stones. Rather ironic, I thought.

Gold oval brooch surrounded by foil-backed red pastes, c. 1790. Blue left eye surrounded by curls
Attributed to Richard Cosway

Many thanks to Nan Skier for gracious hospitality and fascinating discussion.

The Look of Love is a most interesting and beautiful exhibition.  You have a month, until June 10, 2012, to make it to Birmingham. Hurry!
 I will report on other treasures in the Birmingham Museum of Art shortly.

Centenary of the Titanic Sinking

The White Star ocean liner RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg. Though the ship had been touted as “unsinkable,” more than 1,500 lives were lost in the disaster.  Every man, woman and child in the U.S. and U.K. probably knows this story.

The story has been told and retold in so many formats that it is almost impossible to ignore. And you are no doubt aware of all the re-telling underway for this centennial observance.  Soon we will all be watching (or enduring) another Julian Fellowes creation, much hyped after the success of his Downtown Abbey series.

a photo of an old book just like the one my grandmother owned
I first learned about the Titanic from a book published in 1912 that I found on Mimi’s (my grandmother) bookshelf.  She remembered hearing about the disaster as a young married woman and gave the book to me when she eventually moved into a care center. I read every word over and over, studied the pictures and  imagined what happened on the doomed ship.  Nevertheless, I am an enthusiastic boater, sailor, cruiser and all things aquatic.  Who’da thunk it?
I loved the pictures especially, black and white artists’ renderings of the interior of the vessel as well as the lifeboats, the icy waters and the ship slipping below the surface while the orchestra played Nearer My God to Thee.  It stirred the heart of a little girl — and still stirs the heart of a considerably older and more experienced me!
Grand Staircase in First Class
The movie set, 1997
Probably all of us remember the movie Titanic, staring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, in 1997.  A version in 3-D is in movie theatres now — or will be soon.

But it did not make anything like the impression on me that the film A Night to Remember (1958) made.  I think I lost sleep for weeks.  Maybe it had something to do with my age — then and now!!
Ceremonies are already underway in Belfast where the ship was built.  And there will be many other observances on the anniversary.
The Memorial in Belfast
Since soon after the wreck was discovered,  exhibitions of materials from the ship have been traveling around the world.  I admit to having seen it twice and will probably go again someday.  When we entered, they gave us cards with the names of passe
ngers. At the conclusion of the exhibition we learned whether “we” survived or were among the lost.  The first time, I survived, but not the second time I visited.

Titanic artifacts
One of the most compelling stories for me as a child was the fate of the skipper, Captain Edward J. Smith, who, in the naval tradition, went down with his ship.  He was one of the 1,500+ who died that night; his remains were never recovered.

RMS Titanic Captain E. J. Smith

I suppose I will not be able to resist watching the new Titanic mini-series when it is shown in the U.S.  But given my disappointment with the cliched characters and trite plot of Downton Abbey, I predict similar disappointment — the early reviews use terms such as “hectic” to describe it.
However, I will continue to treasure the vision I have of the doomed ship — acquired so long ago they are indelible!  Many thanks to Mimi for giving me the book!!

Fab Photos of Queen Elizabeth II at the V and A

Kristine and Victoria are sad to report that we will miss the V and A Museum’s exhibit of Cecil Beaton’s photographs of Queen Elizabeth II, which is scheduled to close in London on April 22, 2012.  We will share  little of it with you today, and here is the website.  Below is the schedule for additional presentations of the exhibit in the UK, Canada, and Australia.

Beaton’s talents for portrait photography were unrivaled, and he exercised them fully when the subject was the Queen.

Curtis Moffat, ‘Cecil Beaton’  about 1925
Gelatin silver print; Museum no. E.1556-2007
Sir Cecil W. H. Beaton (1904-1980) created hundreds of iconic portraits of celebrities ad designed sets and costumes for theatre and film.  As a photographer for Vogue magazine, he lived what he saw, and was named to Hall of Fame of the Best Dressed List.  Among his best known work
Princess Elizabeth by Cecil Beaton, March 1945
 Museum no. PH.1746-1987
Princess Elizabeth and Prince Charles, Gelatin silver print, December 1948, Buckingham Palace
Museum no. PH.218-1987

Beaton photographed Queen Elizabeth before she came to the throne in 1952, and he took her official Coronation portrait.

Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton, 2 June 1953
Museum no. PH.311-1987

Beaton was renowned for his romantic portraits of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

Queen Elizabeth, Buckingham Palace Garden, 1939
Gelatin silver print Museum no. E.1374-2010
Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton tours throughout 2012, the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
United Kingdom

Dundee, McManus Gallery – 30 September 2011 – 8 January 2012

Leeds City Museum – 8 May – 24 June 2012
Norwich Castle Museum – 7 July – 30 September 2012
Laing Art Gallery, Tyne & Wear – 13 October – 2 December 2012

International
Fine Art Gallery, Ballarat, Australia – 25 February – 15 April 2012
Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada – 1 June – 3 September 2012
Perhaps the only compensation for missing this exhibition is that the book Queen Elizabeth II: Portraits by Cecil Beaton by Susanna Brown is available from the V and A Shop, here.
From the book’s description:  “… This fascinating book explores Beaton’s long relationship with the Queen and the royal family, and describes how his royal portraits shaped the monarchy’s public image from the 1930s to the late 1960s… [and] moulded the world’s perception of a princess, monarch and mother.”

Obituary of the Duchess of Devonshire

Georgiana by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1775-6
Huntington Art Gallery
Obituary of the Duchess of Devonshire

The Universal Magazine of April 1806

Died at Devonshire house, Piccadilly, aged 49, on the 30th of March, after a short but severe illness, her grace, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. She was eldest daughter of the late Earl Spencer, and Georgiana, his countess, daughter of Stephen Poyntz, Esq. was born June 7, 1757, and married to the present Duke of Devonshire, June 6, 1774. She was educated under the immediate inspection of her venerable mother, the present Countess Dowager Spencer, and indicated even from her infancy the most flattering promises of worth and loveliness, and on her presentation at court, like a comet above the horizon, all inquiries centered in who was to be the happy man destined to receive the fair hand of so much grace and beauty.

Gainsborough’s Georgiana, on display at Chatsworth

The young Duke of Devonshire was reserved for the honour and soon after the union of this noble pair, her grace not only became the head, but actually gave, the fashion to every article of female dress, not an apron, gown, cap or bonnet but were Devonshire. So high a station did the duchess retain among the fashionable world, that when the contest with America brought our military into camps, then was her grace found dressed in the uniform of the Derby militia of which the Duke of Devonshire was colonel, and from that time every lady, young or old, became dressed a la militaire. At the first drawing room which the duchess attended after her marriage, she was accompanied by all the distinguished females of the two great families from which she was descended, and to which she was allied. It is asserted that she was literally loaded with jewels, even to produce inconvenience. In the course of the summer of 1792, the Duchess of Devonshire visited the continent, in company with her mother, the Countess Spencer, and her sister Lady Duncannon, both of whom were in declining states of health. During this excursion her grace mixed with the company of several foreign literati, among whom we may enumerate Sausure, Tissot, Lavater, Necker, and the English historian Gibbon; on this occasion public fame attributed to her a short descriptive poem, not void of taste, entitled, the Passage of the Mountain of St Gothard. During the latter part of her life the duchess did not appear in the gay world so much as she had formerly done, yet at the institution of the Pic Nic society in 1801, she stood forward as one of its principal promoters; but the formidable opposition which was organized against these theatrical dilettanti, soon became more than a match for the subscribers to this favourite dramatic project. In the cause of one of the greatest statesmen of the age, (we allude to Mr. Fox) she interested herself frequently and essentially; and in the Westminster election of 1784, her grace took so active a part in favour of that gentleman as subjected her in some degree to the censure of public opinion. The disorder which terminated the life of this distinguished personage, is said to have been an abscess of the liver, the attack of which was first perceived about four months ago, while she sat at table at the Marquis of Stafford’s, and which from that period so increased its feverish progress, as eventually resisted all the efforts of the first medical skill. Her mind was richly stored with useful as well as ornamental endowments; she was well read in history, but the Belles Lettres had principally attracted her attention. Though forced into female supremacy by that general admiration which a felicitious combination of charms had excited, she yet found leisure for the systematic exercise of a natural benevolence, which yielding irresistibly and perhaps too indiscriminately, to the supplications of distress, subjected her to embarrassments that the world erroneously imputed to causes less amiable and meritorious. Her grace has left issue, 1. Lady Georgiana Cavendish, born July 12, 1783, married March 21, 1801 to Viscount Morpeth. 2. Lady Henrietta, born August 12, 1785. 3. William George, Marquis of Hartington, born May 21, 1790.

Hart, later the 6th Duke of Devonshire, on display at Chatsworth