Author Archives: David Haden

Creating an Identity in Early Medieval North-West Staffordshire

by David Haden

An important new PhD thesis from Matthew Blake, “Stories from the Edge: Creating an Identity in Early Medieval North-West Staffordshire”…

“This thesis takes as its research area the southern half of Pirehill Hundred, Staffordshire. Despite being in the Mercian heartland, it is an area that has remained on the periphery of discussions by scholars of the early medieval period. To bring this area into focus this study has undertaken both a multi-disciplinary and a multi-focused approach. Chapters one and two discuss burial mounds, both in terms of survival and their cultural context and the lives of local saints. Both are viewed in terms of their historical context as well and through the lens of storytelling and the formation of identity as expressed in the landscape. The discussion pulls in wider themes concerning the power of the dead as expressed in the landscape. The chapter on the stone sculpture of Staffordshire brings these monuments back into a Mercian context, seeing them as a continuation of this wider narrative as well as bringing to the fore broader discussions around land ownership. This is later linked through a series of case studies to the propensity for early medieval manors to be found on the edge of watery landscapes. It is through these detailed case studies that evidence is provided for a series of ‘symptoms’ by which early medieval settlements can be discerned. The role of the powerful family Wulf is discussed in the final chapter, placing this family and their landholding firmly in a Staffordshire context. What links this thesis is an understanding of ‘edgy-ness’, either in landscape terms with the desire for early medieval manors to seek out the edge, or how this region has remained on the edge of academic discussions. Above all else this thesis is a study of the landscape of the often overlooked rural landscape of early medieval Staffordshire.”

A survey of the biographies of Erasmus Darwin.

by David Haden

I’ve finished reading Erasmus Darwin’s fascinating The Botanic Garden: The Economy of Vegetation (1791). One can see why it was a best-seller and went through many editions, including pirated American and Irish editions. It’s a charming snapshot of science coming-into-being and exploring the world through accessible topics such as plants, geology and the weather. Also coming-into-being via a sprightly poetry in the Pope style, though there’s a curious dip in quality in the middle (which I suspect may relate to the insertion of a few lesser verses by his collaborator). The book was made all the more interesting for me because he’s a Staffordshire man and never misses an opportunity to point up some aspect of his own county, or the nearby Peak District to which he often seems to have travelled from Lichfield. And it often seems that scarcely twenty pages can go past for the reader encounters some spot-on suggestion or forecast for the future, which will delight science fiction readers. If H. G. Wells did read him in 1888, as I suspect, then he would surely have found there a template for the tight alliance of the poetic imagination, hard science and speculative futurology.

What of the biographies of the man, which seems the logical next step after a taste of the poetry. Here’s my quick survey in the form of a date-ordered list:

Sketch of the life and writings of Erasmus Darwin, Monthly Visitor, Vol. X, 1800. With a nice portrait.

Anna Seward, Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Darwin: chiefly during his residence at Lichfield: with anecdotes of his friends, and criticisms on his writings (1804). Apparently a rather scurrilous anecdotal account written by his one-time friend. Seward knew Darwin but had a fairly stormy on-and-off relationship, and by all accounts she wanted to settle old scores by scribbling at the graveside.

Mary Anne Galton (‘Mrs Schimmelpenninck’), Life of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck (1858, 2 volumes). Another woman who somewhat knew Darwin and the Lunar Men. Like Seward she picked faults, real or imagined, in his character, and Charles Darwin later referred to her memories as full of “calumnies”. Charles Darwin states that the memories were “dictated in old age”, and were heavily embroidered and coloured by her religious animosity to Darwin’s ideas and science.

John Dowson, Erasmus Darwin: Philosopher, Poet, and Physician (1861). Printed 60-page copy of an “ingenious and informing” (Westminster Review) lecture, with a strong focus on examples of the evolutionary theories and speculations. Public domain and freely available online.

Ernest Krause, Erasmus Darwin by Ernest Krause, with a Preliminary Notice by Charles Darwin (trans. 1879). Charles Darwin… “added a sketch of his character and habits from materials in my possession”, and apparently this was rather substantial. A silly mistake by Darwin meant that the book had a virulently bad review shortly after publication by the quasi-religious satirist Samuel Butler, which in turn meant that the book sold poorly. Public domain and freely available online in the 1880 New York edition, with a Kindle ebook version. Though this is made difficult to read due to infestation by multiple ” marks, arising from the unconventional layout of quotations on the printed page.

Charles Darwin, The Life of Erasmus Darwin (1887). I haven’t yet had time to compare closely, but this appears to be a second edition of Ernest Krause’s book (above), issued under a new title. Curiously there appears to be no free edition on Hathi, Archive.org or Gutenberg, at least not under that title on via a search for “Erasmus Darwin”. It’s available today as an “unabridged” version produced in 2003 by Cambridge University Press. King-Hele states that 16% of both the 1879 and 1887 editions was censored and cut by one Henrietta Litchfield before publication, apparently because the material offended her prim Victorian sensibilities. Possibly the involvement of Henrietta Litchfield has somehow kept it in copyright? Anyway, the 2003 Cambridge edition saw these “cuts being restored and printed in italics”, and a double-set of footnotes. There appears to be no ebook of the 2003 Cambridge edition, though a PDF can be had if you peer hard enough through the tangle of fake malware-laden ebook vendors which infest the search-engine results.

On the Amazon store there seems, at first glance, to be a cheap £2.50 Kindle edition of the New York University Press Works of Charles Darwin, Volume 29: Erasmus Darwin (2010). Though note that the ebook publisher there is Golgotha not the University, and as such this appears likely to be a result of Amazon’s foul and misleading practice of failing to discriminate between public domain ‘shovelware’ ebook reprints and scholarly editions. It thus seems likely this will have the same infestation by multiple ” marks as the 1879 Krause edition.

Hesketh Pearson, Doctor Darwin. With portraits (1930). Republished as a Penguin Books paperback in 1943. Apparently a lively and readable yet fastidious survey of the life, intended for the learned public outside academia. Freely available online in the abandonware 1940s American edition, with a Kindle ebook version which has OCR errors in places but is readable. Possibly the best free introduction to the man, for the general reader and the 1930 date suggests it’s likely to be free of modern leftist spin.

Update: yes, it’s an excellent read, though marred by some OCR errors.

Donald M. Hassler, Erasmus Darwin (Twayne’s English authors series, No. 160), 1973. A short 140-page reader guide by an American science-fiction scholar, later President of the Science Fiction Research Association. Apparently focuses on Darwin’s humour while lamenting his need for all the scientific and explanatory footnotes (personally I found it a delightful and easy format, at least in The Economy of Vegetation), but also explores his influences and the ways he influenced later generations. Sounds interesting, although the Isis review of 1975 laments “it is a pity it is not written in an easy style”. In paper only, as a used book, but is appears that £10 copies can be had. But as a general short primer on the poetics I suspect one might perhaps be better off with James V. Logan’s The Poetry and Aesthetics of Erasmus Darwin (1936) from Princeton University Press.

Desmond King-Hele, Doctor of Revolution: Life and Genius of Erasmus Darwin (1977). Can currently be had for pennies on Amazon, in paper. I’m guessing that’s because it’s probably been superseded by King-Hele’s expanded 1999 biography? The title suggests that the publisher envisaged a market among late-1970s leftist academics, so there may be some political skew?

Desmond King-Hele, Erasmus Darwin and the Romantic Poets (1986). Ridiculously high prices, so presumably aimed at elite academic libraries and lit-crit thesis writers.

Maureen McNeill, Under the Banner of Science: Erasmus Darwin and His Age (1987). The first book to place the topic in a robust and wider set of historical contexts. By all accounts it sounds like a fine book, although sadly it’s another one of those £100+ academic slabs which are effectively inaccessible to anyone of modest means living outside of the university system. A prime candidate for open access via the Knowledge Unlatched programme, I’d suggest, though these days they seem to strongly favour leftist books.

Desmond King-Hele, Erasmus Darwin: A Life of Unequalled Achievement (1999). A chunky 448 pages, with a Kindle ebook edition. Probably the best option if you can afford £10 and have a Kindle ereader. I’m guessing it must take into account the historical contexts explored a decade earlier in Under the Banner of Science (1987).

Desmond King-Hele and Stuart Harris, Erasmus Darwin and Evolution (2014). Hardcover only, but fairly affordable at around £10. Presumably a summation of all the research done on the title topic over the decades, and a shelf companion to King-Hele’s 1999 biography.

Opening of Round Low, near Swinnerton

by David Haden

The Analyst, 1836. “Proceedings of Provincial Societies”. A report to the Shropshire and North Wales Natural History and Antiquarian Society on an investigation of a now ploughed-out tumulus near Bury Bank…

“Some brief remarks, by Mr. Henry Pidgeon, were next read, on the opening of a tumulus, called the Round Low, near Swinnerton, Staffordshire [near Saxon’s Low, Trentham]. The mound consisted of various kinds of stones, collected from the neighbourhood and promiscuously thrown together. Some of these, which were of sandstone, appeared to have been subjected to the action of fire, and on their tops, as well as on all sides of the tumulus, lay bones, intermixed with charcoal. In the centre of the mound, large irregular sandstones, of from thirty inches to three feet in size, occurred, in an upright position, forming an octagon of about twenty feet in diameter. The soil, within the stones, to the depth of three feet, consisted of mixed sands of different colour, below which were other large stones. As the investigation, which was undertaken by the occupier of the land for the mere purpose of rendering the mound available for cultivation, was not further prosecuted, it is quite evident that the proper deposit of the tumulus, which in most, if not in all, cases occurs at some depth below the level of the adjacent surface, remains yet unexplored. Similar tumuli, called the Saxon Low, Blake Low, White Low, and Barrow Bank [presumably the main mound at Bury Bank], exist in the immediate vicinity.”

‘Lady Wells’ in the High Peak.

by David Haden

It appears there was once a living tradition of ‘Lady Wells’ in the High Peak, and of the dropping pins into them. This fits with the very extensive archaeology of votive objects thrown into dew-ponds and wells. Note there is also a comment on the nearby practice of anointing deceased children with May-dew. The Peak context suggests a time (early spring) for such votive offerings, and a reason (clean water there, for the coming year), and a female gender for the genius loci of such places.

From Memorials of Old Derbyshire. The book also has a photo of the folklore collector’s summer house, presumably with the folk-lore collector visible.

Another book, Lore of the Holy Wells of England, suggests a possible method of divination once associated with the pins…

It is easy to dismiss the curious reference to “or else an insect” as the chuntering of an ignorant country bumpkin. But perhaps it is we who are the ignorant ones. Since his reference may be explained as his recalling to mind the memorable words of the local poet and scientist Erasmus Darwin, given in his notes to his best-selling The Botanic Garden (1792, then much reprinted and pirated). Darwin explains aspects of the famous Portland Vase, as painstakingly copied locally by Wedgwood…

“The Psyche of the Egyptians was one of their most favourite emblems, and represented the soul, or a future life; it was originally no other than the aurelia, or butterfly, but in after times was represented by a lovely female child, with the beautiful wings of that insect. The aurelia, after its first stage as an eruca or caterpillar, lies for a season in a manner dead, and is enclosed in a sort of coffin: in this state of darkness it remains all the winter; but, at the return of spring, it bursts its bonds and comes out with new life, and in the most beautiful attire. The Egyptians thought this a very proper picture of the soul of man, and of the immortality to which it aspired.”

This striking recovery of historical imagery was also taken up by Blake, as seen on the title page of the famous “Jerusalem” (1804–1820). Such items are perhaps what an educated countryman, one interested in botanic poetry and Blake’s works, might have been musing on when he was recorded speculating “or else an insect”.

Darwin also mentions in the same passages that certain sacred trees such as elms were deemed to capture dreams as their leaves fell. Admittedly this was in the Ancient Roman context, and yet Rome also strongly affected much of northern Europe. This belief is quite congruent with the biology of our temperate woodland where…

“Most butterflies are less specialised, but still have quite precise requirements regarding habitats, larval foodplants, adult food sources and climate. A typical example is the White-letter Hairstreak, a butterfly of temperate deciduous woodlands, which exists in very localised colonies, often based on a single elm tree. The butterfly lays its eggs on elm twigs, and the caterpillars hatch a few days after the flowers appear on the tree in early spring. When tiny they feed within the flowers, but when the flowers have withered and died they feed openly on the elm leaves. The adult butterflies emerge in mid-summer and spend most of their lives at the top of the trees, but occasionally descend to feed on the nectar of thistles and other flowers.” (Adrian Hoskins / learnaboutbutterflies.com) (my emphasis)

One can thus quite imagine an ancient people venerating such a singular “butterfly tree” in various ways, especially if it was surrounded by food plants and a water spring that would tempt the butterflies down from the treetop. Perhaps they would even have imagined some connection between the elm leaves, the butterflies, and the dreams of their departed children.

Early Crossings of the River Dove

by David Haden

From an old copy of Country Life, and just about readable. The Dove forms the boundary between mid Staffordshire and the Derbyshire Peak.

Update: on WordPress you may now need to click twice on a picture to see it full-size. Click once, load and see in on white with ads, go back, then click again and see it on black full-size. Then click the magnifying class with the + icon.