www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

My daughter got me a really thoughtful present for Christmas - a copy of W S Coleman's British Butterflies.

Must admit I'm not sure exactly what year it's from. The plates are black and white and an advert on the back page is dated 1885.

What makes it even more special to me is the fact that someone has annotated it. There's no name or date given, so I've no idea how long after the book was published the annotations were written.

As there's not too much about at the minute, and we enter another lock down phase, if you'll excuse the indulgence I'll share some of these with you to salute a fellow traveller from a bygone era.

I'll do in two batches.

The person has marked on the butterflies they've seen on the index page and plate page (next batch).

Final batch.....

I must admit to having some form here myself.

My ma still keeps the Shopping With Mother Ladybird book where I've added "and they did a poo" in crayon at the bottom of every page.

Absolutely fascinating! Thanks for posting these. I particularly like the "almost hopeless" annotation by Bath White! Very interesting to see that Large Heath was annotated as "quite common", and mentioned in the text as being "very common". What a great Christmas present!

I actually have two editions of this book, the first from 1867 which has colour plates. There's only one piece of 'historic graffity' in it though although not really sure what the author was trying to say... The second 'up to date' copy is from 1901, These old books are fascinating to read. Talk of the Comma being rare, Large Tortoiseshell being common, the mention of a brand new species called the 'Lineola' Skipper in the later edition and all the old fashioned names like the 'Large Heath' mentioned by Pete which is actually what we know as the Gatekeeper (explains why it was noted as being common), the real Large Heath in these books goes by the 'Marsh Ringlet or Small Ringet Butterfly'. The scientific name taxonomy has come a long way too, with the Grayling, Meadow Brown, Large Heath (Gatekeeper) and Ringlet all members of the Hipparchia genus in both of my editions

Fascinating, Buggy.

Peering at the pencil notations on your second slide, it looks as if they may be a list of foreign species the owner had obtained. He appears to say: "I have Danais plexippus & chrysippus, Heliconia phyllis, Papilio telemus. Foreign butterflies."

It's always interesting to read these books for the contemporary views on abundance, distribution, habitat - and comparing with current day ideas. I see the book counted 70 species, of which the author was prepared to discard five as very unlikely to be encountered. One of these five is the Long-tailed Blue...

Cheers,

Dave

zigzag_wanderer wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 8:56 pmMy daughter got me a really thoughtful present for Christmas - a copy of W S Coleman's British Butterflies....

What a wonderful gift, ZZW. Reading even the restricted text from your images gives such an insight into the mindset of the late 19th Century, with several acknowledgements towards collecting, which one suspects was commonplace back then.

I love the style of writing too; the Orange Tip description on show is poetry!

Parts of it make me a little sad though, for instance reading about the status of Mazarine Blue and seeing Pearl Bordered Fritillary described as "This very common insect...."

An inspired gift! I have a colour copy dated 1866, which states the book is also available in black-and-white. Mine has no comments written in it but I wish it did - it gives such an intimate connection to the person who previously owned the book. They had no conception they were communicating with you (one way) a century-and-a-half in the future.

I wonder if these posts will be available to browse in 150 years' time ... Pete - future-proof the site!

Guy

Really interesting reading through those aged images. I don't know 'when' but there are some clues in there to where the annotation writer was based which I'm finding fascinating . Were they based on the Dorset/Hampshire border with short train journeys to Bournemouth, Christchurch Harbour (Southwick) and the New Forest or somewhere in the South East

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Thanks for all the comments. Yes, it's a fascinating little time capsule and a great book in general.

And I totally agree - the person was talking down the years to any future readers without necessarily realising it. Whilst it would have been great if they'd signed and dated it, in many ways not knowing the who or exactly when adds a small sense of mystery.

I've attached most of the remaining ones, which, while not conclusive probably add to Hampshire being the favourite for the "where".

The "Cambridgeshire only" comment on the first slide is in regard to the Swallowtail.

All comments are written in pencil.

I love the "a mistake often committed by young entomologists" comment regarding Pale Clouded Yellow / Helice.

Few comments:
- I'm saying Hampshire based on the number of New Forest, IoW and Pompey (Fort Widley / Portsdown) related stuff. I think the "forts on the hill" for the Wall probably relates to the latter.
- The IoW gets quoted a lot and there is specific mention of Culver Down for Dingy Skippers - but interesting that the writer had never seen a Glanville fritillary.
- Slightly odd to mark the Peacock as specifically "Common IoW" (when Red Admiral is just "Common").
- I like the cheeky "Very" inserted into the Common Blue in the earlier ones.
- Never good to see "Extinct" written down on a page in a natural history book.

I also have a copy, but the 1893 version with beautiful plates for the fritillaries where the silver marks on the undersides are actually printed in silver. Not sure if that was the case in earlier versions.

There is a clue perhaps as to when the comments were made in that the writer says that the Black-veined White was practically extinct whereas as the last paragraph in the book describes it as being very common throughout the country. I think it became extinct in 1911 (I don’t have my books to hand) maybe as a result of a series of very poor summers leading up to that. So it would seem that the pencilled comments were made just prior to 1911.

Regarding Pale Clouded Yellow, if only we could go back and tell the author that, up until 1947, there was no realisation that Pale CY could just as easily have been Berger’s CY and that it is said that most photos depicted in books as Pale CY up to 1947 were in fact Berger’s CY. Maybe he wouldn’t have been so quick to condemn young entomologists

Roger

Roger Gibbons wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 10:16 am I also have a copy, but the 1893 version with beautiful plates for the fritillaries where the silver marks on the undersides are actually printed in silver. Not sure if that was the case in earlier versions.

Roger

Yes it is silver in both of my editions

Based on the "Routledge's Railway Library Advertiser" ads at the front and back of mine (which I'm assuming your volumes don't have) then Mr Google tells me this:

https://www.publishinghistory.com/routl ... brary.html

ROUTLEDGE'S RAILWAY LIBRARY (GEORGE ROUTLEDGE)
Series Note: This was a popular cheap reprint series designed to be sold to train travellers on the fast growing British railway network in the Victorian period. These were sold through W. H. Smith's bookstalls on railway platforms. Over a period of 50 years 1,277 books were published in this series. Most books were published as pictorial hardbacks in the "yellowback" format (with bestsellers being later released as even cheaper paperbacks).

These ran 1849-1898 (or 1899 - I see both mentioned online)

Looking at the list of the first 100 in the series most were novels.

So that probably explains why I don't see a date on the title page and obviously the fact that everything is black and white - definitely no silver undersides here !

The first slide below shows an ad on the last page mentioning 1885 and right at the bottom it says 10-1-85. But as Roger mentions there may be clues to possibly suggest that the writings are Edwardian rather than late Victorian.

The ads of the day do make some fairly strong and all-encompassing claims

This is the most wonderful thread! Thank you, Zigzag, for sharing these. I love the descriptions in some of these: the theories put forward for the variety in annual Clouded Yellow numbers for instance. Interesting to see just how much emergence dates have changed over this time - every species mentioned is at least a month earlier. Dark Green Fritillary was out in May last year!

I too have this book (somewhere) and will dig it out to investigate.

Best wishes,

Lee

Yes i also agree, a brilliant thread Zig-zag !
Unfortunately i don,t have this particular book ,but do have quite a few others ,sadly none (bar one) innotated ,the one i do have is a book by
"The butterfly farmer " L .Hugh Newman ,i found it at a boot fair a few years back ,for two quid !
When i got it home and started looking through it ,i found that it was signed by author and dated( 1/1/47) , as i got near the back of the book ,i found
tucked between the pages ,a small 6 page catalogue for his butterfly farm ,with some pencil markings, with ticks and a talley,in a youngsters handwriting (in £sd) of the specimens he intended to buy ,i,m guessing he,d worried his parents ,after christmas to take him to the farm to buy a "late"
Christmas pressie !
Regards Allan.W.

ZZW, this is proving to be a most entertaining diversion during these dark days! Many thanks for initiating this thread, and feel free to add further images from this delightful book.

The narrative is absolutely beautiful - did everyone write like that back in Victorian times? Again, it's fascinating (yet equally often depressing) to read about how common and widespread some species were back then which are now extremely rare (High Brown Fritillary) or even extinct (Large Copper).

I feel I will have to do a bit of research to see if I can get my own hands on a few historic gems such as this.

Unfortunately i don,t have this particular book ,but do have quite a few others ,sadly none (bar one) innotated ,the one i do have is a book by
"The butterfly farmer " L .Hugh Newman ,i found it at a boot fair a few years back ,for two quid !

I also had this book when I was young, which I bought at the Butterfly Farm in Bexley. It must have been around 1954 as I think I was about 7 or 8. I remember it was a rainy day and I was the only person there (apart from my father) and we were given the grand tour by L. Hugh Newman himself. I seem to recall that L. Hugh was the son and L. Newman was his father.

A quick search revealed this archive footage: https://www.londonsscreenarchives.org.uk/title/41/

Roger

Thanks again all for the very kind comments. I thought this one might prove a winner !

I have sent my daughter an email to thank her again and say that her present has proved of interest to a larger audience. She will be chuffed.

Ironically enough she has recently landed her first full time job (marine biologist - taken her a while but not a great year to graduate) and that's in Hampshire too (Southampton) probably not too far from where the person who owned the book lived.

The book itself even without any additional annotation is fascinating, and I agree with you on the beautiful prose style David, but most of all I'm just very grateful that via technological developments since the owner wrote these little comments, I am able to share them with a group of kindred spirits separated from him/her only by time - I think they too would be chuffed.

Hello Roger ,
Yes LHugh Newman was the son and he took over the business from his father Leonard Woods Newman .Some years ago ,i was working for a lady
at a big house in Saltwood ,Kent ,and during my lunch break we got chatting about interests and suchlike and L Hugh Newmans name came up ,and she said that he actually lived in Saltwood ,then a very elderly gentleman .
When i first joined Butterfly conservation (in the early 80s ) ,he did occasionally write sh ort bits and pieces for the magazines, the last was an observation of an abberant "Black" Small Tortoiseshell on his garden Buddleja ,he died in early 93'
Regards Allan.W.