Ponds, Pools and Puddles by Jeremy Biggs & Penny Williams, 2024. New Naturalist’s Series No. 148. London, William Collins. 615pp. ISBN 978-0-00-220085-1.  £65

The authors are founders of the ‘Freshwater Habitats Trust’ which was formed out of ‘Pond Conservation’ initially formed in 1988 by Jeremy Biggs, now Prof. Biggs. It’s a very big and comprehensive book compiled by these two go-to pond experts. The fruits of pond research have been trawled to bring up to date information, graphs and maps of changes in the landscape, and the rise and fall of pond organisms at the hands of man manipulating the landscape. It is not only a good read but it provides a resumé of the state of populations of native and introduced wildlife, with especial detailed information of amphibians. GCNs (Great Crested Newts) we learn are the ‘pantomine villains of British nature conservation’ and ‘more money has been spent on this animal than other, often ‘without much success’ and of Natterjacks we learn are ‘perhaps the most intensively studied of Britain’s amphibians,” but one that is least seen I would add.  A dive into the book for obvious topics such as pingoes, the 1 million ponds project and fairy shrimps are all there with further information.  The history of ponds in Britain provides a fascinating insight into the how aquatic wildlife has worked its way into different habitats, even coastal ones, and abroad, too with information on now toads have evolved into old wet woodland. What the book will be particularly useful for practicing ecologists is that management strategies for looking after, enhancing and making new ponds and what to do with old terrestrialised ponds is all there with illustrations. The book carries many colour photographs demonstrating different types of ponds and wildlife from birds to dependant invertebrates – but no mention of ‘Buglife – The Invertebrate Trust’ in the index. There are indexes to common names and species and a big section on references typical of these NNS books which never disappoint.

The Education of a Prince, The Diary and correspondence of Frederick Waymouth Gibbs: tutor to King Edward VII. Edited by Ghillean T. Prance and Rachel J. Crosby. 2024. pp141.  ISBN 978-1-908787-50-7 and ISBN 9 781908 787507.

The papers of Mr. Gibbs (1821-1898), including his diary, letters and prints have come directly down the family tree to these two authors, Prof. Sir Ghillean T. Prance (Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew from 1988 to 1999) and his daughter (manager of international projects in Africa and South America), Frederick Gibbs being Prance’s second cousin of his grandfather.  Gibbs’ claim to fame was that he was the tutor to Queen Victoria’s two eldest sons, from 1851-1856, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and Prince Alfred.

And what a hard life Gibbs seems to have had. It was not an easy teaching job, since the Prince of Wales was particularly truculent, aggressive and prone to throwing things around. These transcripts of diary entries and letters (some originals are shown written in a spidery quill hand) are revealing and deal mostly with everyday life in royal Victorian circles. Most of the political issues of the day are not included. There are timetables and strict work schedules, often metered out by Victoria who insisted on seven hours teaching, sometimes seven days a week especially if the princes were especially naughty. There were many “wishes of the Queen on a number of small points and generally the host of nothings which become important only when neglected” said Gibbs in a letter home from Windsor Castle in 1852. There were “Rules for Meals” and regulations, such as not being rude to their sisters, how not to fidget with cutlery at the table, and never to interrupt people speaking at mealtimes, and when precisely to wear a kilt.   The Queen also provided approved lists of suitable boys (17 are listed) who the Prince of Wales could have round to play during the summer – and  eight listed for Prince Alfred.  Eton, being next door to Windsor Castle had been a source of teachers and appropriate playmates.

Day to day entries in his diaries are sometimes like entries in a school report…”the impulse to oppose is very strong and offers great difficulties in his education”, and  “nothing makes a deep impression, and he forgets the greatest part of what he learns”…  It seems hard work for Mr. Gibbs considering all the non-cooperation he had with the Prince of Wales, all for an annual fee of £1,000. He took over from a master at Eton who was regarded as being too lenient with the boys, which is why the Queen wanted someone a little more stricter. This did not go down well with the boys so Gibbs took a while to settle in. The diaries show that Victoria gave him presents, and that he dined with her on some evenings. In his role as a teacher he had to work at Buckingham Palace, Osborne House and Sandringham and took voyages around the coast following his subjects. In 1852 the Queen had a phrenologist look at the princes’ heads to see if they were developing correctly. “The predominant organs are still combativeness, destructiveness, self-esteem, firmness and conscistiousness. Concentrativeness also is large, and the cerebellum is of considerable size having increased since May 1851.”  Phrenology was highly regarded at the time.

The book is illustrated with very good sketches from Albert Edward, and black and white photographs of the boys later in life, and Queen Victoria.  There is correspondence between the princes after Gibbs left when he continued to write to them, and received letters from them with presents, and others, including Tennyson residing at Henley on Thames. He was given £400 rising to £800 for his pension after four years.

The book provides a valuable insight into royal life during this snapshot of Victoria’s life. The entries will provide historians with a wealth of finer detail from ‘upstairs’ as seen by a teacher, as well as shining a light on the abundance of courtesy, etiquette and behaviour amongst the royals.  As a teacher Gibbs clearly earnt his keep within the household and the princes obviously appreciated his efforts as they continued to send him presents during his retirement; so did the Queen. This was not an ordinary life of a teacher, but a privileged one.

Groundbreakers, The return of Britain’s wild boar. By Chantal Lyons. London, Bloomsbury Wildlife. 2024. ISBN  978 3994 0163 0  &  9 781399 401630.  288pp

 Having almost been shot by a chasseur, whilst he was stalking me as a wild boar, and I was stalking him, I am fully aware of how keen the French are to kill les sanglier. The British wild boar was always native to Britain but then it went extinct, then reintroduced. This book picks up the European story. Chantal Lyons has French blood, and whilst visiting family in SW France has embraced what it is like to get inside the way of life of this large herbivore, which also doubles up as an omnivore and carnivore. Lyons says they are 90% herbivorous. Tell that to the French farmer rearing boar decades ago who said if a gendarme fell into the corral there would be nothing left except his pistol.  Her particular boar habitat of study is The Forest of Dean (Gloucestershire) where there is a viable population, and made Sus scrofa her subject of at least two dissertations. Why Dean? She says it is ‘The biggest unintentional field experiment in Britain’s nascent rewilding history’ (steady on). On bluebells she provides evidence that boar eat the bulbs, and help to wreck woodlands, which is understandable as they search for invertebrates in wet woodland. Incidentally she refers to geophytic bluebells, so I am left wondering where the epiphytic ones might be in our delicate Atlantic climate. One very important aspect of boar’s rotavating the soil is that they enhance biodiversity as wildflowers spring up from seeds brought to the surface. Biodiversity is only mentioned in the index in the sense that Britain is in its own Anthropocene where it is declining. I like the book; it follows Ramamoto’s 2017 book ‘Wild Boar’ (Reaktion Books) which has a more historic worldwide edge. I would like more on male ‘solitaires’ which do their own thing, or on ‘ear-tagging’ data, and on cross-country movements in France, and ‘motorway tunnels’ that boar do through impenetrable thick scrub.  I don’t like the flannelly paper used in the printing of this book, already foxed within the year, and which smells!  (not of foxes)  There are no illustrations or references, but there is an index.

Sus scrofa, the wild boar in captivity, with young

Crane, N. 2016. The Making of the British Landscape, from the Ice Age to the Present. W&N, Orion Books. 581pp.

I had to fact-check with The Making of The British Landscape by Nicholas Crane on the populations of large mammals that roamed these isles before man arrived. All fine and amazing. Crane is familiar with British TV audiences for his walks along the coast (there is a book on coasts along with his other six titles).  He takes a very forensic and mathematical look at all the dwellings he describes from the earliest times to the present. He can read the landscape better than anyone, and can describe the lumps and bumps and the travails that man has had in eeking out a living from the soil and rocks.  If you have watched countless archaeological programs on fascinating discoveries, this book knits them all together to make a good read. From early block houses, natural gathering places, enclosures, roundhouses, urban grids, the influence of the Romans in Britain and when they left are all covered. Crane blends all these together to make sense of them all, a sort of drone’s eye view of how they are all connected. From earliest times (when Britain was attached to the continent) he takes us up the Thames and westwards through the Cheddar gorge visiting all sorts of locations that make sense with the wandering Home sapiens forever chasing food and foraging. By the time William the Conqueror arrived in 1066 he says that there were 100 market towns in Britain ‘by the time the Normans showed up’  ‘By doomsday, maybe as little as 15 per cent  of the 27 million acres of land covered in the 1089 returns were wooded, rather less than the proportion of woodland seen today in France.’  The Forest of Dean was probably felled in the 12th century. I think that Crane cannot look at any earthwork or man-made structure without making a calculation of how many people were needed, and how many man-hours and days were needed to get the job done. For example he says of Windmill Hill around 62,000 worker-hours would have been involved labouring 10 hr a day, in groups of 50 people to make the mound. And this was continued for over 50 years involving generations of families and lots of food and timber. There were about 80 of the temenoi (sacred places) in Britain, and Glastonbury, Aintree and Wembley Stadium locations were built on these important sites. These were places that people gathered for all sorts of social engagements. At this period, by 3,000yrs ago man had felled more tree than raised walls and all the elms had gone he says. The book has a general reference list per chapter, plenty of photographs and an index. It is a comprehensive book much recommended.