Saturday 21 August 2010

The Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady

Willow Warblers

In 1977 - so long ago - a charming book was published. It had actually been written (and beautifully illustrated) back in 1906 by Edith Holden and had only just been discovered. It was a lady naturalists diary, all written by hand, which included all her favourite mottoes and poems and lots of delightful observations on the wildlife and fauna around her home in Warwickshire and on her travels throughout England and Scotland.

Edith Holden 1871-1920


The drawings and paintings are just so very pretty and printed on faded parchment paper, and when I found a copy of it in a local charity shop window I just had to have it.


Daisy
Red Campion
Moor Hen

Now what to do with it?  I think I am going to chop it up (very carefully) with my guillotine and make it into some pretty craft cards. With careful stitching onto stock cards I am hoping that it will be a very personal tribute to the lovely work of Edith Holden (1871-1920). Edith died at the age of forty-nine by drowning in the Thames at Kew while gathering buds from a chestnut tree to draw! This really is a lovely book - do you like it too?

3 comments:

  1. I adore this book, I was given a copy as a child and still love to look through it today.

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  2. Hi Loulee - you must be a very young thing ... I adore this book too!

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  3. i picked up a copy of this yesterday at one of the local charity shops for the grand sum of £1.50, I cant put the book down, superb piece of writing and the illustrations are truly stunning

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