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| | | From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique.
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|  | | The Wakes, Selborne | |
A biographical note from 1813 says:
"...being of an unambitious temper, and strongly attached to the charms of rural scenery, he early fixed his residence in his native village, where he spent the greater part of his life in literary occupations, and especially in the study of nature. This he followed with patient assiduity, and a mind ever open to the lessons of piety and benevolence which such a study is so well calculated to afford. Though several occasions offered of settling upon a college living, he could never persuade himself to quite the beloved spot, which was, indeed, a peculiarly happy situation for an observer..."
Gilbert White is often called England's first ecologist and lived in the quiet Hampshire village of Selborne for most of his life. He had a very enquiring mind and a passion for the natural world. His observations - in the form of letters to friends - were eventually published in his classic book The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne. The book has been in print for over 200 years and is the fourth most published in English after the Bible, Shakespeare and the Oxford English Dictionary.
His observations are idiosyncratic, though acute and detailed. Modern day researchers who try to follow his books find themselves faced with a jigsaw puzzle of clues with gaps they have to fill in themselves.
Gilbert White's Hampshire offered a wide variety of habitats to study. Within a few miles of Selborne there were (and indeed in many cases, still are) woodland, sheep-grazed downland, acid heathland, farmland, ponds and streams, marshes and bogs.
Charlotte Smith treads in Gilbert White's footsteps as she visits his haunts around Selborne.
Her first port of call is The Wakes, White's house, now a museum. Here, gardener Karen Bridgman talks about Gilbert and his life, and in particular his love for his garden. This is gradually being restored. Already established are his Quincunx, wooden ha-ha, alcove and Six Quarters, beds to display many of the plants known to White. And then there was his passion for eating hundreds of cucumbers.
The Wakes, Selborne
Insects fascinated White, he even went as far as trying to see if bees could hear by shouting down a large ear trumpet next to the hives. He was also enchanted with the habits of May flies. Charlotte goes to Shortheath Common to meet Dr Bill Wain and Charlie Murray of the British Dragonfly Society to learn more about these creatures, who live for years underwater and then have a brief but glorious life in the air.
British Dragonfly Society
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On the other side of the Common Charlotte meets Nicky Hetherington, of the County Council, and learns of a modern experiment to re-introduce field crickets to the area. Gilbert White mentions them as shy and cautious creatures who stop singing the moment he approaches. Nicky explains that they've died out since then, but an enterprising partnership with London Zoo has released some crickets back on the common and she shows Charlotte how they count them by tickling them out of their burrows.
English Nature field cricket recovery programme
Birds were perhaps Gilbert White's great passion and in particular, the hirondines - the swallows, swifts and martins. In the graveyard where Gilbert is buried, Keith Noble of the RSPB talks about the habits of these summer visitors and explains that Gilbert was convinced at one point they were too small to migrate, and must merely hibernate through the winter.
RSPB
"In a district so diversified with such a variety of hill and dale, aspects and soils, it is no wonder that great choice of plants should be found. To ennumerate all the plants that have been discovered within our limits would be a needless work; but a short list of the more rare, and the spots where they are to be found, may be neither unacceptable nor unentertaining..." Many of the flower meadows so beloved of Gilbert have succumbed to modern pressures. Chris Webb of the National Trust takes Charlotte to Kings Field, a tiny patch of chalk grassland full of colourful and fragrant flowers. He explains what's vanished since Gilbert's time and the ways in which 21st century environmentalists are trying to stop the decline.
As evening descends, Charlotte goes on a glow worm hunt with John Durnell of the Hampshire Wildlife Trust on Noar Hill. Gilbert White described the creatures as lighting an "amorous fire" and, as it gets dark, Charlotte spots the tell-tale signal that the female is waiting for a male to fly down from the skies: they glow by mixing two chemicals in their abdomen, an effect known as bioluminescence.
Hampshire Wildlife Trust
UK Glow worm Survey
This week's competition
Last week Ian Mackintosh of Dunkirk Mill asked what was the dye used to make Stroud Scarlet - the vivid red colour of Guardsmen's uniforms? The answer was cochineal and the winner is Mr D H Stewart of Edinburgh.
This week's question is: The cricket uses his wings to make his chirring noise. What is the technical name for this?
Submit your entry by emailing [email protected]
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