On Pastoral Scenes

I’ve recently come into possession of a first edition of the book “Highways and Byways in Dorset” by Sir Frederick Treves.  Sir Treves was a leading anatomist and surgeon in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Indeed, he is most famous for his care of Joseph Merrick, unfairly dubbed the Elephant Man, after being forced into a tragic existence in travelling freak shows.  Ultimately, Treves treated Merrick with palliative care and enabled him to reside in the London Hospital where Treves worked. Merrick died in 1890, only 27 years of age.  

Treve’s success grew.  After finding fame from performing the first appendectomy in England in 1888, he went on to become one of the surgeons appointed to Queen Victoria. After her death in 1901, he became one of the honorary Sergeant Surgeons to King Edward VII.  Just two days before the King's coronation in June of 1902, Treves insisted on operating on him to fix an inflammation of his appendix.  Assisted by Lord Lister, of revolutionary antibacterial fame, they successfully saved the King’s life.  

Throughout his life he was a prolific writer, and due to his professional success was able to fully retire by the time he was 50.  While he was Sergeant Surgeon to the King, he was approached by the publishers Macmillian.  They asked him to write the Dorset edition of the Highways and Byways series they had commissioned in the early 1900s.  Having been born and raised for some of his childhood in Dorset, he relished the opportunity.  Treves was a good personal friend of the eminent poet and author Thomas Hardy, another Dorset native.  Treves travelled over 2,000 miles on foot and bicycle to visit as many towns, villages, and hamlets as possible.  Considering his fame and fortune at the time, he undertook a very humble endeavour.  His volume, although in the public domain in the US, is still in print in the UK.  A testament to its long standing popularity and cultural significance.  

Back to my edition.  I purchased it on something of a whim.  I have deep family roots in the Dorset region of the UK and miss the area terribly.  I decided to see what it was like, as it’s one of the more popular editions from the series. It exceeded my expectations.  Think Bill Bryson meets Thomas Hardy.  Treves seems to have travelled to even the smallest Dorsetshire hamlet.  Each place he documents, he describes the landscape, houses, and details anything he deems interesting about the local history or famous residence.  He is very opinionated about some areas.  But his love for the county is evident throughout his work, along with his affection for William Barnes; the famous Dorset dialect poet, who was Treve’s first schoolmaster.  

The book itself was published back in 1906, making it 120 years old.  The spine is still intact, the end papers haven’t torn, and there is little rolling of the edges of the boards.  The top of the book block still has gilding, although faded through age.  There is a simple fabric headband, and the pages have a deckled edge.  The pages have been printed with typeset; you can still feel the embossing caused by each character within the press.  Illustrated plates are protected by guard sheets; onion-skin paper designed to protect both the artwork, and the facing page from ink transfer. Remarkably, there is a pull out map of the county of Dorset mounted in the last signature of the book.  It’s still intact and shows minimal signs of its age.  I treat the volume with the reverence it deserves.  

Famous areas of Dorset are obviously included; Dorchester, Lyme Regis, Weymouth, Portland, Durdle Door, Lulworth Cove, Corfe Castle, Poole, and Weymouth.  But it also includes many small villages and hamlets.  Reading through the descriptions of the landscape of various areas of the county, one is able to easily picture them.  Dorset is unique in England in that historical evidence is still visible, and easily accessible, throughout the county.  One can walk from the Jurassic Coast after seeing fossils and petrified wood, dating back millions of years. Then over downland where there are countless barrows, standing stones and other Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments. There is still evidence of the Roman occupation, through city walls and floor mosaics.  In some areas there is evidence of medieval farming, with visible field terraces dating back thousands of years.  Right up to the more modern era of defensive structures and emplacements for military training and Home Guard use during the second world war.  Not to mention many historic buildings dating back to the Norman Conquest dotted throughout many towns and villages.

The Dorset landscape is the quintessential picture of England.  Rolling downland, with arable farm boundaries as far as the eye can see.  There are some beautiful natural structures, Durdle Door and the Lulworth Crumple, likely being the most famous.  But there is also Cheddar Gorge, where the Cheddar Man was discovered in 1903.  It is an almost complete human skeleton dating back to the last ice age, approximately 10,000 years ago.  Remarkably, genetic testing of the local area has found evidence of a living ancestor! 

There are also some remarkable and unique manmade structures.  Maiden Castle, the largest Iron Age hill fort in the UK.  Maumbury Rings, on the southern edge of Dorchester; a Neolithic henge that was adapted by the Romans as an amphitheater and used up until the 19th century as a place of celebration, fairs, and public executions.  There’s the Cerne Giant just north of Dorchester.  A slightly questionable hill figure, carved into the chalk.  Its origins are debated, as is its completeness.  Recent investigations suggest it was constructed by local monks from the abbey in Cerne Abbas.  

Reading through the descriptions of areas, and being able to travel around the County, remotely, somewhat satisfies my homesickness for the area.  I spent many a happy time throughout my childhood, during Easter, summer, and Christmas, exploring the area and visiting family.  Reading about a place is by no means comparable to actually visiting it.  To be able to feel the breeze on your face, smell the air, walk across heathland, or look out from a ridge, down into a valley that hasn't seen human habitation for millennia.  Walk through ancient forests, with ferns, blankets of moss, and centuries old trees, thinking that the same piece of land has likely changed little in hundreds, if not thousands of years.  Or walk down an old droveway, that was reused from an ancient holloway.  Literally walking in the footsteps of forgotten ancestors, seeing the same views they did.  

I’ve gotten to the point in my life where the reminiscence has begun.  Looking back over earlier years with a, likely biased, fondness.  Dorset is one of the few places where I have ever felt truly relaxed.  Being able to get away from the all encompassing routine of life, walk amongst history, visit family, experience some of the most beautiful countryside in the UK.  Reading the Highways and Byways gives me a little relief, a small respite and escape into the landscape of my mind.  A welcome break from the daily stressors.  

Dorset is a beautiful area, made all the more significant with my family history.  I long for its embrace, the views, the landscapes, the ability to step back in time and experience life at the pace it was meant to have.  One day I will live within its rustic charms and pastoral beauty.  

I strongly believe that when the Gods decide to go on holiday, they do so in Dorset.