"On Monday as Messrs. Hutchings and Frost were walking over their grounds, their attention was attracted by a screeching noise proceeding from the Kenn Brook, where they soon found that a fine heron had entangled its legs in some night lines, by which it was held at bay; on their approach, the noble bird, arose with an effort, carrying the line and two heavy stones attached to it, to a tree in the immediate neighbourhood, where it got bound fast. The two gentlemen now endevoured to free the bird, which with the assistance of a labourer they eventually managed, not without much difficulty and trouble, as the bird showed fight, and it proved no easy matter to release it from its accidental trap. After obtaining its freedom, it winged its way towards Powderham Park."
This is just the kind of story that it is a joy to find - delightfully inconsequential, for mankind at least - and with a happy end. Two Victorian gentlemen strolling across their own grounds, beside the Kenn brook, now called the Staplake brook (?), on a sunny (?) day in late May, 1844,, (I would guess where is now the Starcross golf-course) to find a screeching heron tangled in some night lines. Do they shoot it and send it to Exeter to be stuffed? No, no, no! They put themselves to the trouble of rescuing the noble bird despite it being one that showed fight, and with that wicked bill too. And the story gets in the paper!
Those were the days!,: when gentlemen could always find a nameless labourer to lend them a hand!
Source: The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 1st June 1844.
No comments:
Post a Comment