Not just for Christmas

As the current Library Graduate Trainee here at Kew, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time familiarising myself with the many diverse collections that comprise the Library, Art and Archives. I’ve particularly enjoyed exploring the main library, which houses a vast range of books and journals which are of interest to botanists, horticulturalists, historians and students, and really anyone with an interest in plants and their critical importance to life on our planet.

I recently came across a book which I immediately liked and, I feel, is a great example of the diversity of our collections here at Kew. The title is Sylvan Winter, written by Francis George Heath and published by Kegan Paul Trench, London, in 1886. The cover looks like it should belong to an exciting adventure novel or a terribly spooky mystery of the early 20th century, but the title is completely literal - it really is about trees in winter (there aren’t even any elves!).

The book contains seventy illustrations – engravings by James D. Cooper, of Oak and Ash, Hornbeam and Acacia, in all their leafless winter glory.

Each chapter begins with an illustrated initial representing a little scene of wintry tranquillity: the preface begins with a little watermill, and chapter 9 - 'Snow-flowers and Ice-crystals' features a river running below a broken-down old stone bridge, set against a background of hills, with a gnarled old tree-trunk standing alone, off to one side.

Part 2, Chapter 1 - 'Spray' features many detailed close-up illustrations of the twigs of these trees, which would no-doubt help us identify the species we encounter during our post-roast winter rambles.

The chapters have wonderfully evocative names like 'Winter moonlight', 'Hoar-frost' and 'Evergreen Beauty', the latter of which features verses from Wordsworth and Blair. But I looked carefully and I couldn’t find any advice for selecting or decorating Christmas trees: no baubles, or tinsel, optimal tree-skirt dimensions or how best to arrange presents below. This book isn’t an adventure or a spooky mystery, but it is a love story about the silent trees that spend the winter outdoors, un-festooned but waiting for spring when their real fun begins again.

- Andy Farquhar -