Sussex
tortoise
LETTER L
TO THE SAME
Selborne, April 21, 1780
Dear Sir,
Percy Bysshe
Shelley, 1792-1822, who was familiar with Sussex tortoises.
As it will be
under my eye, I shall now have an opportunity of enlarging my observations on
its mode of life, and propensities ; and perceive already that, toward the time of coming forth,
it opens a breathing place in the ground near its head, requiring I conclude, a
freer respiration, as it becomes more alive. This creature not only goes under
the earth from the middle of November to the middle of April, but sleeps great
part of the summer ; for it goes to bed in the longest days at four in the
afternoon, and often does not stir in the morning till late. Besides it retires to rest for every shower ;
and does not move at all in wet days.
Portway Patent Tortoise Slow Combustion Stove, Brightling church,
Brightling, East Sussex, England. Late 19th
century stove, often seen in churches. Designed to burn coal slowly, to extract
maximum heat, and designed by Charles Portway. A tortoise logo with motto
"Slow but sure combustion."
When one
reflects on the date of
this strange being, it is a matter of wonder to find that Providence
should bestow such a profusion of days, such a seeming waste of longevity, on a reptile that seems to relish it so little as to squander more than two-thirds
of its existence in a joyless stupor, and be lost to all sensation for months
altogether in the profoundest of slumbers.
Brave (or
foolish) girl leaping across “an haha” in West Sussex.
Because we
call this creature an abject reptile, we are too apt to undervalue
his abilities, and depreciate his power of instinct. Yet he is, as Mr Pope says of his lord,
“Much too
wise to walk into a well” :
and has so much discernment as not to fall down an haha ; but to stop and withdraw
from the brink with the readiest precaution.
Intelligent
cattle cautiously approaching “an haha” in West Sussex.
Though he
loves warm weather he avoids the hot sun ; because his thick shell, when once heated, would, as the poet
says of solid armour – “scald with safety.”
He therefore spends the more sultry hours under the umbrella of a large
cabbage-leaf, or amidst the waving forests of an asparagus-bed.
Cabbage
leaf in Sussex
But as he
avoids the heat in summer, so, in the decline of the year, he improves the
faint autumnal beams, by getting within the reflection of a fruit-wall ; and, though
he has never
read that planes inclining to the horizon receive a greater share of warmth, he inclines
his shell, by tilting it against the wall, to collect and admit every feeble ray.
Another
Sussex tortoise
Pitiable seems
the condition of this poor embarrassed reptile : to be cased in a suit of ponderous armour,
which he cannot lay aside ; to be imprisoned, as it were, within its own shell,
must preclude, we should suppose, all activity and predisposition for
enterprise. Yet there is a season of the
year (usually the beginning of June) when his exertions are remarkable. He then walks on tiptoe, and is stirring by
five in the morning ; and, traversing the garden, examines every wicket and interstice in the
fences, through which he will escape if possible : and often has eluded the
care of the gardener, and wandered to some distant field. The motives that impel him to undertake these
rambles seem to be of the amorous kind : his fancy then becomes intent on
sexual attachments, which transport him beyond his usual gravity, and induce
him to forget for a time his ordinary solemn deportment.
Sussex
shell-snail
While I was
writing this letter, a moist and warm afternoon, with the thermometer
at 50, brought forth troops of shell-snails ; and at the same juncture the tortoise heaved up the mould and put out its head ; and the next morning
came forth, as it were raised from the dead ; and walked about till four in the
afternoon. This was a curious coincidence! a very amusing occurrence!
to see such a similarity of feelings between the two фєρєοκοι! for so the
Greeks called both the shell-snail and the tortoise.
Summer birds
are, this cold and backward spring, unusually late : I have seen but one swallow yet. The
conformity with the weather convinces me more and more that they sleep in the
winter.
Sussex
spring swallow
From: The Essential Gilbert White of Selborne (ed.
H.J. Massingham), Boston, David R. Godine, 1985
Note: There’s nothing, really, that one profitably can
add to Gilbert White’s extraordinary accounts of nature, even after the passage
of 232 years (exactly!), but I just wanted to say that the smell of the
blooming lilac in our garden this morning is divine. Two nights ago at dusk on Church Road in Devon, Jane and I saw a
creature racing across and quickly ducking under the fence into fields. Neither of us could identify it as one of the
usual suspects, i.e., ground hog, opossum, fox, squirrel, raccoon. Possibly a beaver? Oddly, since moving to Chester County five years ago, we've never seen a tortoise.
Wow! I had never heard of this writer. Wonderful. How the hell do you come across all this stuff?
ReplyDeleteSpectacular pics, as usual. The cows my favorite.
I will post a couple of cow pictures on facebook.
I'm happy you read and liked this. I hope it eventually gets read more than it was yesterday (Saturdays tend to be slowest) and believe it will because Gilbert White is so special. I first learned about White's writing on Tom Clark's blog and I think you'll be surprised, as I was, that there is nothing obscure about him. His The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne has been in continuous print since its first publication in 1789 and he is widely appreciated.
ReplyDeleteHis biography is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_White
You would enjoy reading more of White's writing, I think, as a Connecticut country person, though he also brings the country into city sojourns.
And now I've learned what a "haha" is; never knew before, though I had seen them.
Curtis
What a lovely passage! We saw some magnificent ha-has when we were in the other Devon last September.
ReplyDeleteThe Greek word White mentions means "carrying houses". I'm a bit of a фєρєοκοs myself.
You can visit White's house at Selborne. Looks like a beautiful garden. Let's go!
I would love to visit Selborne. Let's plan the trip. I'm planning on changing everything. Sounds ambitious, no? I'm glad you liked this. Thought ha-has would be up your and Judy's alley. Curtis
ReplyDelete