Google has failed me. I'm looking for the "nymph poem" by Sir Joseph Banks. Anyone out there have a copy?
A few months ago I was listening to National Radio (IknowIknow - Radio New Zealand National. But why do we have to constantly rebrand everything? How are we expected to know where we are any more) about the middle of last year and there happened to be a documenary programme about Banks and his life after the Endeavour.
From what I remember of it, Banks, in addition to being the botanist aboard on Cook's expedition to the antipodes, and later head of the Royal Society back in England, was the son of a wealthy landed family in Lincolnshire.
As a child he wandered the Lincolnshire Fens, at that time teeming with birdlife, fish and flowers and something of a foodbasket for the local people. It was this childhood that apparently gave him his enthusiasm to become a naturalist.
However, when he returned to England after his travels and gained power and influence, he was apparently instrumental in making possible the draining of the fens for farmland. I can't remember if he was in parliament, but he lobbied for law changes and such, and as a result the flora and fauna of the Fens were replaced in a relatively short amount of time with grass and good British cattle. I'm sure he made a lot of money.
Now, what I remember being so poetic about the whole story was that late in life Banks looked back on his childhood and seeing the changes to the Lincolnshire landscape he had brought about, felt a wee bit of despair. The fens of his childhood were gone.
A short extract from a poem he was moved to write was read out on this radio show. The Nymph of the Fens rises out of the water, described wonderfully, and laments the damage done to her home.
I remember thinking: "Gosh, that was quite good. I must look it up"
Anybody out there know what I'm talking about? ...or am I actually going to have to trudge down to the library and look in an actual book? (and-that-reminds-me-return-a-bunch-of-overdue-ones-while-I'm-at-it...)
Never heard of it myself, but it sounds interesting. He must have regretted what he did, but it would have been too late. Sad for the Fens, sad for Banks.
ReplyDeleteI'm just afraid that if I find the whole story it won't be as compelling as the half-remembered whisper of it. Was the penning of an anguished poem of regret enough to redeem the avaricious soul? Tune in next week when the disenfranchised bittern says...
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