Nature Book Reader June 2020 - Flipbook - Page 40
A Nature Book Reader
BILL DRUMMOND
Drummond’sis Penkiln
Burnofwork
began
Bill Drummond
the author
45 and
17 in 1997. It continues. The
Penkiln Burn is also a river in Galloway.
The
NaturalHistory
History
The Natural
Of Selbourne by Gilbert White
Of Selbourne by Gilbert White
Up until the age of 14, my
interest in the natural world
was focused on fishing,
collecting birds eggs and
generally spending as much
time in the countryside
as I could because it was
more exciting than being
in the town. Half-a-dozen
Observer’s Books was all the
literature I needed.
As a 19 year old art
student in late 1972 I came
across a book called
Food For Free. I thought
this was great and it sat
comfortably alongside my
Jack Kerouac’s and Henry
Miller’s. A few years later
I found a second hand copy
of a book called In A Green
Shade by the same author
Richard Mabey. From then on
I bought all his books as they
came out.
40
In 1986 Mabey published
a biography of Gilbert White
(1720 – 93). From that I fell
in love with White’s own
masterpiece The Natural
History of Selborne. A book
I have read numerous times
over the years. There are
dozens of quotes from this
book I could have picked, but
today I picked this one:
“The grasshopper-lark*
began his sibilous note in my
fields last Saturday. Nothing
can be more amusing than
the whisper of this little bird,
which seems to be close by
though at an hundred yards
distance; and, when close at
your ear, is scarce any louder
than when a great way
off. Had I not been a little
acquainted with insects, and
known that the grasshopper
kind is not yet hatched, I
