Collections and recollections of natural history and sport in the life of a country vicar

Preface

When I began to put together the subject-matter contained in the following pages, I bad hardly any definite idea that what I was writing would ever be published. Different friends who had been much interested iu various stories that I had told them of what had come under my own observation, had said to me that it was a pity that such things should not be recorded for the amusement of others, so, as I had diaries at hand to refresh my memory about most of these things, I determined to put into some connected form a history of the events which led to the acquisi¬ tion of my various treasures, thinking that, whether these notes ever came before the eye of any one else or not, my children would certainly be interested to know the real story of each object in my collections, and would value the memories associated with them in my mind. When I had been amusing myself during spare moments for some time with writing these re¬ miniscences, a friend came to stay with me who looked over them, was much interested in them, and persuaded me to go on with them assiduously, and make a com¬ plete work ; assuring me at the same time that there

Vlll

PREFACE.

were many publishers who would gladly undertake to bring such a book before the public, and that on his next visit to London he would undertake to see some of them, and bring me their proposals. The interest which many in different parts of the country had expressed to me on reading my contributions to The Field about Natural History, Angling, Otter¬ hunting, and Yachting tours, encouraged me to think that he might be right, and the publication of the present work is the result. As I have made many water-colour sketches of all the various places that I visited, and of the birds and insects that I have collected, it was an easy matter to illustrate it. There is nothing very startling, novel, or scientific in it. It is a narrative of out-door observations ; but the truth of everything asserted may be depended upon, as I have put down nothing but what I can verify by my own personal observation. I have endeavoured throughout to place the reader in my own situation so that he might see with my eyes, and feel my feelings. It remains to be proved whether my book can effect this at all. At any rate it has been an amusement to me to write it. I hope it may be an amusement to some to read it.

G. C. GREEN.

Modbury Vicarage,

October 5th, 1885.

Chapter I. Page

Introductory — General prevalence of a taste for natural history and sport — The author’s early experiences in natural history — The chances that led to his forming collections either of butterflies or birds — Observations of a young collector in the early spring morning — An Eton boy’s efforts in the pursuit of natural history . 1

Chapter II

Natural history at Cambridge — Expeditions to the Fens — Short-eared Owls and Grasshopper Warblers — Mountain Linnets — Yisits to the markets, and pur¬ chases there — Falconry . . . . . .20

Chapter III

Entomological reminiscences — Mothing in evening at Eton, Bromley, and Sheerness — Rambles in Northamp¬ tonshire woods — Rarities secured — V. C. Album —

T. W. Album — S. Apiformis — Brighton Downs — New Forest — Dorset — Lul worth Cove— Corfe Castle — - Death’s Head Moths — S. Convolvuli — Curious cap¬ tures of Deilephila Livovnica . ... .36

X

CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. Page

Early fishing recollections — Large perch in Daventry Reservoir — Pike and eels in brooks — Eirst trout-fishing — A walking tour in North Wales — Snowdon — Various reminiscences . . . . . .55

Chapter V

Ireland — Impression of country and people — Dublin — Phoenix Park — River Tolka — Trout-fishing — Snipe and woodcock — Small hawk and rook — Stag and hounds run to a standstill — Castle Howard and Vale of Avoca — A tour to the south — Cork— Glengariff —

A day’s sport in Glengariff Bay — Killarney — Mangerton — A spring salmon . . . . . .74

Chapter VI

A tour in Sutherland — Voyage to Invergordon — Long walks — Loch Boarlan — Innisnadamph — My first trout of one pound — Loch Inver — Black-throated Divers — Loch Roe — Scourie — Handa — Durness — Sea-trout — Roseate Terns — Loch Katrine — Stirling . . .94

Chapter VII

South Devon — Trout — Eirst salmon in Devon — The white fish of Devon — Observations on the same in various rivers — Salmon versus trout — Piscatorial anec¬ dotes — Snipe and woodcock in Devon — Notes ornithological — Entomological — D. Livornica again —

Bolt Head — P. Avion — Slapton Ley — White Moles — Burying Beetles . . . . . . .114

CONTENTS.

XI

Chapter VIII. Page

Otter-hunting in Devon — Uncertainty of the sport — Its charm — Good days — The Ernie, Avon, Plym, and Tavy . . . . . . . . .139

Chapter IX

Yachting reminiscences — The South Coast. — The Chan¬ nel Islands — St. Malo — An amusing adventure — Cher¬ bourg — Havre — Dartmouth — Falmouth — A yachting cruise on the west coast of Scotland — Campbeltown, Oban, Portree, Gairloch, Stornoway, Lochinver, Arran ......... 159

Chapter X

Other tours in the north — Ullswater — Xewcastle — Pallinsburn — Its gullery — Shooting over Flodden Field — Sutherland again — Rhiconich — Among the salmon — Garbet Beg — Trolling for lythe with phan¬ tom — Ferns — Cromarty — Loch Lurgan— A battle with a five-pound trout — Wild geese — Lochs Ganavich and Skenaskink . . . . . .182

Chapter XI

Supplementary reminiscences, many and various — Golden Oriole’s nest at Tiptofts in 1841 — Remarkable shots — Taming of birds — Migration of birds — The charms of nature, and the advantage to the man that can perceive and appreciate them ..... 203

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Handa Island in June ....... Frontispiece

Lime Hawk Moth ......... 8

Common Crossbill ......... 9

Roman bridge at Everdon , . . . . . . .11

Cromwell’s Bridge . . . . . . . . .81

Killing six shags at a shot .

Sutherlandshire mountains .

Flete and Sequers Bridge Otter-hunting : a mark .

„ „ tailing an otter

, , „ treeing the otter

Gannets fishing Lurgan Falls

Trout too large for landing-net Tiptofts ....

OF

NATURAL HISTORY AND SPORT.

Chapter I

Introductory — General prevalence of a taste for natural history and sport — The author’s early experiences in natural history — The chances that led to his forming collections either of butterflies or birds— Observations of a young collector in the early spring morning — An Eton boy’s efforts in the pursuit of natural history.

Another book about Natural History ? Well ! Why not ? Many as are the books that have been written, and are being constantly written, about Natural History and Sport, and especially about the two combined, it is the exception to take up any that are not interesting to a very numerous class of readers. The taste for natural history is prevalent, as a general rule, among most young people, and I think it would be much to be lamented if it were otherwise. It is the first study that is offered to the young mind seeking for knowledge ; and it seems to promise pleasure as obtainable with the least possible amount of trouble. What is there about which a child is more likely to be interested at first than those objects of nature which meet his eye at every turn ? If ever he tries

B to use a pencil or a pen, these are the first things that he attempts to depict. In almost every intelligent child there is that which would lead him to wish to become, up to a certain point, a naturalist. I do not mean to say that almost every child icould become a naturalist. As years go on, the early-formed wish may pass away. So many tastes may come in to interfere with this particular one ; so many things to hinder its development.

In the pursuit of this so much depends upon the encouragement received ; upon answers given to questions ; upon the view taken by any older persons who may be about the child as to the use and de¬ sirability of thinking about these things, and as to what is, and what is not, waste of time. For my own part, I feel sure that this is a taste which it would be wise for every parent to encourage in every possible way, at any rate during the hours of recreation.

I know well the very great pleasure which such little information as I have been able to acquire has given me throughout the whole of my life — the additional charm given to every walk or ride, or even to a railway journey ; how by this what often might be a dreary solitude is changed into lively company, when I can look upon many other things besides human beings as my friends and companions : hence I can hardly imagine it possible to be placed in a scene where I could not find something to interest and amuse me.

Much regret has often been expressed to me by those who have grown up without an interest in these things. Deeply have they envied me my power of enjoyment ; and, moreover, besides the pleasure

OP NATURAL HISTORY AND SPORT.

which a slight knowledg-e of natural history gives, I say that it gives something* much better than pleasure. For, besides leading a reasonable being to use his eyes, it is also an excellent teacher of religion — it leads the mind almost imperceptibly from the things created to the necessity of there being a Creator. I am sure that there is nothing by which a child's mind is more easily led to forming right notions of God than by putting that God forward as the Maker of all the animals and plants which he sees every day about him. Therefore it is that, as I said at the outset, I think that it would be a lamentable thing if a taste for natural history were not prevalent among the young.

And this taste for natural history leads by an easy consequence to a certain amount of taste for sport. For from the habit of observing animals a young person is very easily led to the desire of possessing them ; and the greater the difficulty in this, the greater is sure to be the desire of obtaining possession. Human intellect and skill is matched against the instinct of the animal. Here is a foundation for the love of the chase, whether it be of beast, fowl, or fish. Of course there are many other incentives to a love of sport which have nothing to do with natural history. Emulation or a love of adventure are either of them found to be quite sufficient to make a man distinguished in the hunting- field, or a proficient with his gun, though he may know or care very little about the animals which are the objects of pursuit. The sportsman is not by any means sure to become a naturalist, nor is it safe to conclude that he has at any time been a naturalist ; but the naturalist is sure

b 2 to become, to a certain extent, a sportsman, and, wbat is more, to have the best parts of a sportsman in him. In hunting he will be more interested in following out the working of the hounds, than in showing his skill and courage over difficult fences, or being the first in a rapid flight across country. In shooting he may from various causes be by no means a first-rate shot, and may not be nearly so keen as many another in counting a large number of slain as his own share of the bag at the end of the day ; but in a wild or unknown country he will probably get the greater number of shots, and will be most sure of a day's pleasure, with fewer drawbacks from jealousy or disappointment. He has so many more sources of enjoyment to depend upon than the sportsman who is no naturalist.

The love of natural history and of the chase being so strongly implanted in man, it is not to be wondered at that books which treat of these subjects should be so popular. And as the greater number of readers are likely to be of that class who do not care to pursue this study to its furthest depths and to make a science of it, so those books are most popular which deal chiefly with out-of-door observations, and bring before them over again things with which they are to a certain extent already familiar, only extending their infor¬ mation about those things of which they do already know something, and would like to know more, and about which they are always glad to talk. So such books as “ White of Selborne," “ Jessie’s Gleanings," Waterton's Essays, the Eev. J. G. Wood's books, St. John's “ Wild Sports of the Highlands," and “Tour in Sutherland," and many others, are sure to be favourites. They treat, in a rambling, easy, familiar way, subjects

OF NATURAL HISTORY AND SPORT.

which are in themselves of a pleasant nature, and they bring pleasant pictures and reminiscences to the mind ; and, however many there may be, they are almost sure, each of them, to bring forward something new, though on an old subject, just as any two naturalists meeting for the first time and conversing on their favou¬ rite theme are sure to learn something fresh from each other. Feeling certain that this is the case, I have been led to imagine that some observations on this subject, collected out of an experience of more than forty years, may not prove otherwise than interesting, and that what has given myself such intense pleasure may also be the means of conveying pleasure to others.

I cannot recollect any time in my life when natural history in almost any branch was not a subject of the greatest possible interest to me. My earliest remini¬ scences are connected with Wombwelhs Menagerie, the Saffron Walden Museum, and the Zoological Gardens. I think my taste was helped on by a rather early talent for drawing, and animals gave the most scope for the exercise of my pencil. I know that when I was six years old I had cut out in paper every animal then in the Zoological Gardens, and their shapes and proportions were sufficiently accurate for any ordinary person to recognize them. To cut out the Zoological Gardens was one of my favourite amusements ; and many did I give away to those friends whom I wished to favour. Mrs. Trim¬ mer's fabulous histories, and books with pictures and stories of animals were the chief ones that had any charm for me. But in this I have no doubt I was only like the generality of children, who all like much the same sort of things during those early years. These tastes often fall off, or alter as the children grow older, especially if they have no help or special encouragement from older persons to keep them alive, and I had no relations with any particular knowledge of natural history, or taste for it. However, I think I can say what it was that fixed my taste for these things from falling off, and that was the beginning to make a collection. Is it a good thing to make a collection ? Is it a thing to be encouraged in children ? There are various opinions about this. With regard to collections in general, there is no doubt that the idea of forming collections is with many only originated by a desire of outdoing some one else in something that may for the time be fashionable ; and so a man, who has plenty of money at his command, gets together a large collection of birds or butter¬ flies, or ferns or plants, about which he knows nothing. He cannot tell from whence his specimens come, or anything about their habits or history. I look upon such a collection as this as the most worth¬ less one possible : worthless to the possessor, and of very little use to any one else, because of the scanty information that can be gathered about it. And children, like grown-up people, are led by example to try and make collections. They see how pretty a collection looks which has been made by some play¬ fellow, and they think they should like to have some¬ thing as pretty, and so they begin to catch butterflies, or take birds' eggs. But if this is only done from force of example, and the desire to have something pretty, the zeal in the pursuit will soon flag.

It takes some trouble to find out the names and

OF NATURAL HISTORY AND SPORT.

classification, and relative value of the various objects of pursuit, and not only to secure them, but to take care of them after they are secured. For instance, we will suppose that in trying to make a collection of butterflies, which is perhaps the most likely for a child to begin with, he is checked from catching a number of specimens of the same sort, and is obliged himself to take care of those that he has caught, to set them out properly, and put them away carefully, and not allowed to catch any more unless he can show that this has been done, and that he knows something about the names or the history of those that he has got ; if he is collecting merely for col¬ lecting's sake, or to imitate another, or from the love of chasing and destroying pretty living objects, he will soon give it up. The pleasure will not be worth the trouble entailed. This will be a very good way of put¬ ting a stop to any wanton sacrifice of life which many suppose must be associated with forming a collection, and which they very reasonably think should be dis¬ couraged in children. But with such precautions as I have suggested there will be very little danger of this pernicious habit, and then, I think, the making a collection is a thing decidedly to be encouraged in the young. It confirms the child in the pursuit of some particular taste. It is a centre of attraction for him. To look at it is his reward after his trouble. It is an incentive to fresh exertions. And besides this, his collection is the beginning of a book of reference, a diary, for his life.

My collections, whether of birds or of butterflies, are such to me. Each of them has been made at spare moments snatched out of a period of forty years of my life which was most of it rather a busy one. But either of these two bring back to me, look at them when I will, memories innumerable — of bright summer days, early spring mornings, cold snowy afternoons ; rambles by sea and land, fen or heath, wood and river, mountain and plain ; of friends living or dead ; of fireside chat ; — almost every circumstance of my life can be pictured over again as I look at a few stuffed birds, or some drawers full of insects. I say therefore unhesitatingly that it is a good thing for one who shows a taste for natural history to make a collection. How well I can remember the beginning of our collection ! It was in the butterfly line. We chil¬ dren had already begun to catch a few butterflies with our hats or caps, and to pin them on loose sheets of letter-paper, when one evening a lady, to whose house we had been invited to tea, gave us a specimen of the Lime Hawk Moth ( Smerinthus Tilice), which she had caught, telling us at the same time its name and its value. This was something quite different from anything that we had ever had before, and on our return we were allowed to have a drawer to keep it in, and to put any others there that we might catch. About the same time my sister returned from a visit at a house where there were many boys who were butterfly collectors, and brought back with her the knowledge of how to set out the insects, as well as the names of several species.

No. 1. — Lime Hawk Moth.

OF NATURAL HISTORY AND SPORT.

Upon this we were set np by our parents with butterfly-nets and the two volumes in the Naturalist's Library on British Butterflies, and, a part of an out-of-the-way closet which had several deal drawers in it having been handed over to us, we commenced what we called a museum.

We had much to contend with at first. Our drawers were not lined with cork or paper, so our specimens were apt to tumble about, and we had never heard of such a thing as entomological pins, so some of the insects appeared almost as if they had been transfixed with a spear or pike ; still I have some of those early treasures even now in my cabinet, and notably that which I look upon as the foundation of our collection, the Lime Hawk Moth given me by Miss Bearblock, at Eton, more than forty years ago.

And our collection of birds. — It was a few years after this, when I was a lower boy at Eton, that I heard in a letter from home that our gardener had shot in our kitchen garden a curious bird called a Crossbill, and that my father had sent it to be stuffed. How well I recollect, when I returned home, what a delight this case was to us children. How our fancy ran upon birds, their habits, and their names. It was a discovery to us to find that a carpenter in the village was also a birdstuffer, and many were our visits to his shop to see what specimens he had got. It was about this time that my father began to take in for us Yarr ell's “ History of British Birds," the

No. 2.— Common Crossbill.

first numbers of wbicb were then appearing. We studied them greedily, and were never tired of copying the illustrations. Then came observations out of doors. The gardener was allowed to shoot us a few specimens of the commoner birds, which, as well as some pets that from time to time died in their cages, were sent to the village- birdstuffer, and the nucleus of a collection was formed. Our taste for ornithology progressed rapidly, and our observations became more and more accurate as far as we had the opportunity of exercising them. And then, among my schoolfellows at Eton, I began to make the acquaintance of naturalists. I found others besides myself who were collectors either of birds or butterflies, and, besides the infor¬ mation that I picked up from them, my emulation was aroused. I was shown, by those older than myself, one or two really valuable collections, and in the birdstuhers’ shops I was able to pick up a few rather rare specimens that were within the reach of my allowance of pocket-money, which encouraged me to entertain the idea of forming a regular collection of British birds.

Ah ! those happy days during the early period of carrying this scheme into execution ! The field of research just opened seemed so vast, and each day brought some fresh discovery or experience. What an interest it was to find out for ourselves the various warblers and small birds, new to us, common though they might be, as they came over in the spring, or to fit the real name to birds which we heard designated by the common people as cuckoo’s mates, fire-tails, dishwashers, bags, wind- thrushes, and a vast number whose names were utterly unknown to these simple

OF NATURAL HISTORY AND SPORT.

folk, although they saw them every day. And then our chief collecting-ground was a very pleasant spot.

Towards the lower end of our village there ran a very sluggish but prettily-winding brook, well known to those who followed the Py tchley, or the Duke of Grafton's hounds, as Everdon Brook. Upon this brook were two water¬ mills, at a distance of per¬ haps half a mile from each other. Between these two mills the brook was very thickly bushed, and a great variety of trees grew in tolerable pro¬ fusion. The ground was very much diversified with steep banks and tangled

brakes ; and a long line of pollard willows marked the straight course of the cut to each mill. The brook abounded in reeds, and flags, and every kind of common aquatic plant, and on the bank of the higher milldam was a small osier-bed, from which, though it was not fifty yards long, nor half that in width, I once saw three foxes bolt at the same time, thus sorely puzzling the pack which had just been thrown in. This stretch of ground from mill to mill was our ornithological paradise.

Here I made my first acquaintance with the various warblers and other small birds. We were too young at that time to be trusted with firearms ourselves, but my father had a servant, as gardener and general

No. 3. — Roman bridge at Everdon.

out-door mart, who had a gun of his own, and was a very good shot. He was enlisted into our service : we provided the ammunition, we pointed out the birds which we wanted, and he secured them for us ; and then, in order that neither his work nor our lessons might be hindered by this, the time generally chosen for our collecting was the early morning. At 4 a.m., or even earlier sometimes, in the month of April or beginning of May, while the rest of the household were sound asleep, would my brother and myself let ourselves out at the back door, and sally forth down the village to our friendly gardener’s cottage. With much rapping at his windows we would rouse him up, and, as soon as he could get himself ready, away we went to our happy hunting-grounds.

How lovely is a woodland scene on a bright early spring morning ! How delicious every sight, every sound, every scent ! Although the clear sky and the newly risen sun impart a gentle and pleasant warmth that speaks of a far hotter time to come by-and-by, how fresh, and green, and cool, and moist is each leaflet, and blade of grass ! The cattle, some sleepy, and apparently not yet willing to rise from the spot which they have chosen for their couch during the past night ; some having just begun the crunch, crunch of the dewy grass which sounds so clear and crisp on the ear before there are any other noises bespeaking business or toil from the neighbouring village to mingle with it and divide the attention. And then the thought that this is a treat that you have all to yourself; others might have had it, but they have not taken the trouble; you have taken some trouble to win it, and you have won it, and you find

OP NATURAL HISTORY AND SPORT.

it amply repays you. There may be a certain amount of conceit in it ; but there is undoubtedly a feeling of satisfaction. Such I am sure were our feelings. But I am afraid I am allowing these pleasant memories to carry me away, and am wandering from my subject ; and here we are on our scene of action.

The Chiff-chaff is in full song, and we are well acquainted with him and possess a specimen, so we would not think of interfering with him. But what is that other little fellow whose song sounds so plain¬ tive with a minor cadence from the top of that tall tree ? Yes ! there he is — that must be the bird. He is just the size of a Chiff-chaff, and at that distance looks the same colour : we must get him. Well ! here he is ; and now that I have him in my hand I cannot see any difference between him and the Chiff-chaff, and yet how different was his song. From his size I expect he will prove to be the Willow Warbler, but we shall see from Yarrell when we get home.

The Black-cap Warbler is a well-known friend. He is so easily distinguishable, and answers so well to his title, that no one could fail to recognize him, but what are these two that we have got — one like a Black-cap, with a chestnut cap instead of a black one, and the other a Black-cap with no cap at all ? Yarrell must show us this also. And so Yarrell did, for when we got home we found that we had got, as we expected, a specimen of the Willow Warbler, or Willow Wren, and also a female specimen of the Black-cap, and a Garden Warbler.

During these early morning rambles we became perfectly well acquainted with the note, appearance, and flight, of most of the spring visitors, and many others besides. Among our earliest spoils were the Sedge and Reed Warbler, the Redstart, and the Black-headed Bunting. The villagers were soon aware of our collecting propensity, and word was continually being brought to me that a “strange bird ” had been seen in this place or that. Most marvellous, I well recollect, was the description given of a very ft finecoloured ” bird which was said to frequent a certain hedge, and which, on being secured, turned out to be the Whinchat ; and a very pretty bird it certainly is, and we found it to be very tolerably abundant in our neighbourhood. The Stonechat I never saw there.