The first session of the Exploring the Archives Session
The first of the three sessions were spent exploring some of the wonderful items in the archives of the Natural History Society of Northumbria.
Who knew that the writer of the Owl and the Pussycat was one of the best bird illustrators of his time - parrots were his thing.
And then here comes the Jabberwocky - perhaps inspired but the Lambton Worm. But what’s this? A very old book in the library here revealed the Hamburg Hydra - turned out to be a stitch-up - seven snake heads stitched together. Could this be the Jabberwocky?
Here comes the Jabberwocky.
Heaven sent creatures seems to be my emerging theme - creatures such as the Great Auk, the Passenger Pigeon and the giant Oarfish. Oh and of course the Dodo appears - inspired by the story from Lewis Carroll’s "A Caucus Race and a Long Tale”.
Heaven Sent - the Cover of the Chapbook of my Chapbook.
A very precious copy of Gilbert White’s Natural history of Selborne is in the library and this account of the worm (not the Lambton one) is so very interesting:
“Earthworms, though in appearance, small and despicable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost would make a lamentable chasm. For, to say, nothing of half the birds, and, some quadrupeds, which are almost entirely supported by them … worms are great promoters of vegetation."
