Gilbert White's House

Henry had never heard of Gilbert White, but he wanted to see his house because he was told there is a display of Capt. Oates memorabilia.

According to Henry’s father, Captain Lawrence Oates was a real hero because of his self-sacrifice on the return leg from the South Pole during Robert Falcon Scott’s fatal expedition. Capt. Oates had frostbite as well as a gangrenous wound which, in his opinion was slowing the expedition down dangerously.

During a severe blizzard he left the tent famously saying, ‘I’m going out, I may be some time.’

Henry’s father often spoke the man’s heroism and Henry remembered being taught about it at school. He regularly saw the statue of Scott in Christchurch, beside the Avon River and he recalled his class had been taken to see a black and white movie about the ‘Terra Nova Expedition’.

Many times Henry’s father had told him that in 1910, as a ten year old boy he had been on the wharf at Lyttelton to see Scott and the Terra Nova set off for Antarctica. So there was a tangible connection that interested Henry.

Then, under cover of darkness the Terra Nova slipped into Oamaru Harbour and crew members climbed the hill to Arun Street to the Harbourmaster’s residence from where a coded message was sent to England advising of the deaths of the five expedition men.

It happens that Henry’s doctor’s surgery is just a whoop and holler away from the oak tree that was planted 28 November 1913 to commemorate the nocturnal visit and the loss.

Henry, with his two granddaughter in tow, plus the other adults headed off to Selborne, Hampshire to visit Gilbert White’s house. The girls enjoyed the outing because there was a search for an owl in each room and Henry by no means disappointed with the Oates display, especially the glossy centre pages from The Weekly News showing the crowd at Lyttelton, waving the Terra Nova bon voyage – he couldn’t pick his Dad, but enjoyed trying to find him!

The surprise for Henry though was old Gilbert White whose passion was the environment and ecology and well before the sciences were invented! He was born 1720 and died 1793 and he wrote a famous book Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne. Unread by Henry.

Old Gilbert was keen on the study of birds and the link earthworms have with the environment and Henry identified with him! White carried out an early example of phenology – a 25 year phenology. The one Henry did covered one year only.
Penology? The study of a single tree to record its development and changes over a period of time. You have to be keen.

Gilbert White's dairy between 1783 and 84 records the climatic impacts of the Laki Haze. Henry had never heard about the Laki Haze, so he did some research to find that there were these volcanic fissures at Lakagígar in the south of Iceland that erupted over an eight month period 1783 – 84. eight million tons of hydrogen peroxide and 120 million tons of sulphur dioxide belched out to cause the Laki Haze and hung over most of Europe for two years!

The eruption was devastating for Iceland, they lost 25% of their population and most of their domestic animals, but worldwide some six million people died  by inhaling sulphur dioxide! The reaction with moisture in the lining of the lungs causes sulphurous acid! No doubt a miserable death!

The summer became extremely hot, causing unusual thunderstorms with large hailstones that were reported to have killed cattle. The winter of 1783/1784 was very severe and Gilbert White recorded 28 days of continuous frost! The extreme winter is estimated to have caused 8,000 additional deaths in the UK alone. During the spring thaw, through Europe severe flooding caused considerable damage.  

It was not only Europe that was effected by this haze, it effected the monsoons in Africa and Asia and the winter of 1784 was the longest on record for North America.

A very good model for climate change study, Henry thought.

Out in the garden, Henry found a Maidenhair Tree – Ginkgo biloba. He picked a fan-shaped leaf and explained to the girls that the tree is a living fossil (earlier they had been fossicking around the Jurassic Coast together) meaning that fossils of the tree have been dated away back 270 million years ago and he reminded them that dinosaurs died out much later, just 65 million years ago.

Henry kept the leaf, pressed it, labelled it and added it to his small collection or random things.

Henry recalled Linnaeus, the man who set up the system of Latin two-word names for identifying flora and fauna. He named Ginkgo biloba. Henry wondered if Gilbert White had ever been in contact with him – they were alive at the same time.

For Henry it was a happy day out and he was sure that his Granddaughters enjoyed their day – topped off by a stop under the big yellow M.

Sometimes adults have the most fun.