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Trees and woodland in the British landscape
REVIEWS
217
The next two essays concern England. C. Howell examines inheritance in the Midlands, basing her conclusions largely on intensive analysis of manorial records and wills for the village of Kibworth Harcourt. She argues that there was considerable stability and continuity, that the land market was not active and that there was little geographical mobility, especially in the period up to the Black Death and in the later seventeenth century. Some may find her broad generalizations questionable, particularly those based on the continuity of surnames. Yet her study, particularly in its use of wills, is suggestive and original. M. Spufford continues her analysis of Cambridgeshire communities and adds a valuable discussion of the reasons for will-making, pointing out that it was, surprisingly, the poorer who produced most of the wills. We then return to a more general level. J. Thirsk summarizes contemporary treatises on inheritance customs in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which illustrate a growing interest in the spread of male primogeniture among the upper classes. The essay stresses that even within Europe, English law was exceptionally severe in its treatment of younger children. The next third of the book is devoted to an essay by J. Cooper which surveys the inheritance and marriage settlements of great landowners in England, Spain, France and Italy from the fifteenth century to the eighteenth. This is a prodigious feat of erudition and covers many intriguing topics, such as the inflation of marriage portions in seventeenth-century England. Some judicious pruning of this essay would, however, have been in order. A characteristically sparkling essay by E. Thompson stresses the need to set property rights within their social context and includes intriguing material on marriage portions, widowright and the “grid” of customary rights. Finally, V. Kiernan surveys the whole of the world and the whole of history in order to examine the nature and origins of the concept of individual property. Full of suggestive hypotheses, this piece in its style and breadth contrasts oddly with the minute academic scholarship of most of the earlier chapters. Goody starts the volume by arguing that “the transmission of property in Europe displays many common features”; the authors isolate male primogeniture, transmission of property through men and women simultaneously, an emphasis on transmission to children rather than brothers, as some of these features. Furthermore, they show that the economy, including agriculture, is vitally affected by familial customs and laws. Most of the authors stress the danger of deducing behaviour from legal and literary sources and most call for further work. Ladurie believes that out of Yver’s work “emerges a new approach to the history of the family” (p. 70). Berkner admits that he has been unable, as yet, to make the detailed local study which would resolve many of his queries. Sabean calls for “a combination of family reconstitution and village study modelled after the anthropological approach” (p. 101). Spufford believes that much more detailed investigation is needed “by combining wills with both demographic data from parish registers and details of land transactions from court rolls” (p. 175). Thompson points out that we know very little about the relation of custom to practice and that there is no comprehensive study of the workings of the major land court, namely the court baron, for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We could also hope to improve our legal knowledge; it is symbolic that in this massive book on inheritance, arguably the most important legal treatise on the subject in England before the end of the eighteenth century, Swinburne on Wills, should nowhere be mentioned. Cambridge University
OLIVER RACKHAM, Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape
ALAN MACFARLANE
(London: Dent, Archaeology in the Field Series, 1976. Pp. 204. f4.95) This is a selective history of woodland and trees in Britain from prehistoric times to the present day. Plantations, orchards and trees in towns are scarcely mentioned,
278
REVIEWS
whereas coppice woods, hedges, hedgerow trees and other forms of woodland which formed part of the traditional landscape are discussed in some detail. The main structure of the book is chronological. After an introduction to the biology and ecology of trees and woods, chapters deal successively with prehistoric natural woodland and its clearance; the impact of man on woodlands from Roman times to the thirteenth century; traditional coppice management from the Middle Ages onwards; and the decline of such management as modern plantation forestry spread in post-medieval times. Other forms of traditional tree management are described in chapters which deal with wood-pasture management on commons, parks and forests and with hedgerow trees. Surviving woods and trees from these traditional forms of management are happily still common: two further chapters discuss sources and field evidence for their history and the problem of their present-day destruction and the need for conservation. The great majority of the material is drawn from Rackham’s own very detailed studies in East Anglia, yet the publishers (presumably) have chosen a fine but singularly inappropriate photograph of a Highland native pinewood for the dust jacket: I wonder how many Scats have recently become involuntary experts in the woods of East Anglia. Books must be readable, and Rackham’s is eminently so. This is partly because it is well constructed, as indeed it had to be for its enormous subject to be covered in just 170 pages of text and diagrams (which are also admirably clear). The personality of the author and the motives of the people who have shaped and fashioned the woods are allowed to show through, unobtrusively increasing the reader’s interest without obscuring the point. Rackham’s approach is based almost entirely on his own primary observations in the woods and from the historical record, thus breaking with what he describes as “a long tradition of plagiarization” in studies of woodland history. This originality is conveyed in a lucid, untechnical and enthusiastic style. In short, his book is the very opposite of those unhappy texts which disguise a poverty of ideas by a mastery of technicalities. This book will surely appeal to a wide audience. Archaeologists tend to ignore the earthworks associated with traditional woodland management, and this book may whet their appetite and encourage them to take a closer look. Geographers and ecologists will value this general review of the history of woodland management and its ecological effects, for hitherto the literature on the historical period has been widely scattered. Those who venture into the woods themselves will be especially interested in chapter 6, which discusses the names, shapes, sites and boundary earthworks of woods, the structure of the stand and botanical indicators of historical features. Although it is described as a field guide, it can only hope to indicate the main sources and approaches upon which the fieldworker may build by first-hand experience. Foresters, on the other hand, may be somewhat sceptical and puzzled. The plantations which they create and manage are deliberately excluded from detailed discussion, and the Royal Forests-upon whose past the literature, and therefore the general understanding of woodland history, has been so strikingly (and unjustifiably) concentrated-are relegated to one short chapter. Instead, prominence is given to the ancient coppices, which foresters have often dismissed as “unutilizable scrub” and hastened to convert to plantations. While most ecologists will undoubtedly find this work stimulating, they may also find it slightly frustrating. Dr Rackham obviously has the material to write a much more detailed account of the history of man’s impact on woodlands over the last 2000 years. Such a book would complement Sir Harry Godwin’s History of the British Flora and might well be a major formative experience for ecology in Britain. The present work is not long, but it may nevertheless have a substantial influence on ecologists, whose understanding of both the influence of man and of those features which really are survivals of prehistoric conditions will be markedly increased. Ecologists have tried recently to take a more precise interest in the history of man’s influence on seminatural vegetation, and to make value judgements about the pace and direction of recent changes; in these senses the book is a product of its times. In another sense it
REVIEWS
279
moves against the trend for it is concerned with “ordinary” woods-the centre of the range of variation in composition and structure-whereas ecologists have tended in the past to study the more distinct woodland types on the edge of this range, such as alderwoods, southern beechwoods, western oakwoods and native pinewoods. Rackham ends with a clear statement of concern about the present rapid rate of loss of ancient woods due to clearance and reforestation. He advocates a revival of use and more survey, so that the best remaining examples are not unwittingly destroyed. For those who wish to understand existing woods in the English lowlands, I can think of no better recommendation than that they frrst look at some of the woods themselves, and then read this work alongside Rackham’s earlier volume on Huyley Wood: Its History and Ecology. Nature Conservancy Council, Huntingdon
G. F. PETERKEN
MARTIN F. WAKELIN,Language and History in Cornwall (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1975. Pp. 239. f1040) This most interesting and important book consists essentially of two very different yet closely related parts. The first half is concerned mainly with the geographical and historical background against which an examination of the linguistic evidence (which forms the second half) must be considered. These two parts will be of particular interest to very different categories of people; the number of readers able to follow the detailed reasoning contained in both of them will be few. The technical vocabulary of the philologist is largely incomprehensible to the geographer and the 52 letters and phonetic symbols (plus the 12 other symbols) used for the all-important phonetic transcriptions merely add to his perplexities. Most geographers (including this reviewer) will have to take the use and evaluation of the linguistic data on trust. Understanding of this book is, however, greatly helped by the logical arrangement of its material. Not only has it been carefully planned but it is also set out in such a way, with numerous headings and sub-headings, that the reader can easily follow the development of the various themes examined. The first chapter, ‘Dialect geography and Cornwall’, sets the scene and gives a brief introduction (very useful to the geographer) to dialect geography; it then summarizes the early work on dialect and language that has been undertaken for Cornwall. Details are also given of all the informants whose replies provided the data on which the arguments put forward in the second part of the book mainly depend. Though the second chapter is entitled ‘Present-day Cornwall’, topics such as the division of the county into hundreds and population trends, settlement, occupations and communications are all (very naturally) treated from an historical point of view. The historical approach is also followed in the third chapter which consists of a useful resume of developments in the county from prehistoric times through to about the end of the Middle Ages. Chapter 4, ‘Cornish and English’, is perhaps the one of most interest to the historical geographer. The three types of evidence for our knowledge of the process of the adoption of the English language in Cornwall-place-names, Comish and English medieval documents, and statements of contemporary writers-are examined and from this the distribution of the two languages at various times in the past is suggested. The succeeding chapter, ‘Phonological features of the dialects of Cornwall’, is undoubtedly the one of most interest to the philologist because it includes the detailed evidence upon which the general conclusions are mainly based. The material discussed here is, however, too specialized for the non-philologist to understand fully. A short chapter entitled ‘Morphological features’ shows how the evidence provided by these largely corroborates the conclusions derived from the phonological material. In Chapter 7, ‘Lexical features: the Cornish loan-words’, the significance of 28 loan words is considered. About half of these words have been derived from Cornish, the others from
217
The next two essays concern England. C. Howell examines inheritance in the Midlands, basing her conclusions largely on intensive analysis of manorial records and wills for the village of Kibworth Harcourt. She argues that there was considerable stability and continuity, that the land market was not active and that there was little geographical mobility, especially in the period up to the Black Death and in the later seventeenth century. Some may find her broad generalizations questionable, particularly those based on the continuity of surnames. Yet her study, particularly in its use of wills, is suggestive and original. M. Spufford continues her analysis of Cambridgeshire communities and adds a valuable discussion of the reasons for will-making, pointing out that it was, surprisingly, the poorer who produced most of the wills. We then return to a more general level. J. Thirsk summarizes contemporary treatises on inheritance customs in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which illustrate a growing interest in the spread of male primogeniture among the upper classes. The essay stresses that even within Europe, English law was exceptionally severe in its treatment of younger children. The next third of the book is devoted to an essay by J. Cooper which surveys the inheritance and marriage settlements of great landowners in England, Spain, France and Italy from the fifteenth century to the eighteenth. This is a prodigious feat of erudition and covers many intriguing topics, such as the inflation of marriage portions in seventeenth-century England. Some judicious pruning of this essay would, however, have been in order. A characteristically sparkling essay by E. Thompson stresses the need to set property rights within their social context and includes intriguing material on marriage portions, widowright and the “grid” of customary rights. Finally, V. Kiernan surveys the whole of the world and the whole of history in order to examine the nature and origins of the concept of individual property. Full of suggestive hypotheses, this piece in its style and breadth contrasts oddly with the minute academic scholarship of most of the earlier chapters. Goody starts the volume by arguing that “the transmission of property in Europe displays many common features”; the authors isolate male primogeniture, transmission of property through men and women simultaneously, an emphasis on transmission to children rather than brothers, as some of these features. Furthermore, they show that the economy, including agriculture, is vitally affected by familial customs and laws. Most of the authors stress the danger of deducing behaviour from legal and literary sources and most call for further work. Ladurie believes that out of Yver’s work “emerges a new approach to the history of the family” (p. 70). Berkner admits that he has been unable, as yet, to make the detailed local study which would resolve many of his queries. Sabean calls for “a combination of family reconstitution and village study modelled after the anthropological approach” (p. 101). Spufford believes that much more detailed investigation is needed “by combining wills with both demographic data from parish registers and details of land transactions from court rolls” (p. 175). Thompson points out that we know very little about the relation of custom to practice and that there is no comprehensive study of the workings of the major land court, namely the court baron, for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We could also hope to improve our legal knowledge; it is symbolic that in this massive book on inheritance, arguably the most important legal treatise on the subject in England before the end of the eighteenth century, Swinburne on Wills, should nowhere be mentioned. Cambridge University
OLIVER RACKHAM, Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape
ALAN MACFARLANE
(London: Dent, Archaeology in the Field Series, 1976. Pp. 204. f4.95) This is a selective history of woodland and trees in Britain from prehistoric times to the present day. Plantations, orchards and trees in towns are scarcely mentioned,
278
REVIEWS
whereas coppice woods, hedges, hedgerow trees and other forms of woodland which formed part of the traditional landscape are discussed in some detail. The main structure of the book is chronological. After an introduction to the biology and ecology of trees and woods, chapters deal successively with prehistoric natural woodland and its clearance; the impact of man on woodlands from Roman times to the thirteenth century; traditional coppice management from the Middle Ages onwards; and the decline of such management as modern plantation forestry spread in post-medieval times. Other forms of traditional tree management are described in chapters which deal with wood-pasture management on commons, parks and forests and with hedgerow trees. Surviving woods and trees from these traditional forms of management are happily still common: two further chapters discuss sources and field evidence for their history and the problem of their present-day destruction and the need for conservation. The great majority of the material is drawn from Rackham’s own very detailed studies in East Anglia, yet the publishers (presumably) have chosen a fine but singularly inappropriate photograph of a Highland native pinewood for the dust jacket: I wonder how many Scats have recently become involuntary experts in the woods of East Anglia. Books must be readable, and Rackham’s is eminently so. This is partly because it is well constructed, as indeed it had to be for its enormous subject to be covered in just 170 pages of text and diagrams (which are also admirably clear). The personality of the author and the motives of the people who have shaped and fashioned the woods are allowed to show through, unobtrusively increasing the reader’s interest without obscuring the point. Rackham’s approach is based almost entirely on his own primary observations in the woods and from the historical record, thus breaking with what he describes as “a long tradition of plagiarization” in studies of woodland history. This originality is conveyed in a lucid, untechnical and enthusiastic style. In short, his book is the very opposite of those unhappy texts which disguise a poverty of ideas by a mastery of technicalities. This book will surely appeal to a wide audience. Archaeologists tend to ignore the earthworks associated with traditional woodland management, and this book may whet their appetite and encourage them to take a closer look. Geographers and ecologists will value this general review of the history of woodland management and its ecological effects, for hitherto the literature on the historical period has been widely scattered. Those who venture into the woods themselves will be especially interested in chapter 6, which discusses the names, shapes, sites and boundary earthworks of woods, the structure of the stand and botanical indicators of historical features. Although it is described as a field guide, it can only hope to indicate the main sources and approaches upon which the fieldworker may build by first-hand experience. Foresters, on the other hand, may be somewhat sceptical and puzzled. The plantations which they create and manage are deliberately excluded from detailed discussion, and the Royal Forests-upon whose past the literature, and therefore the general understanding of woodland history, has been so strikingly (and unjustifiably) concentrated-are relegated to one short chapter. Instead, prominence is given to the ancient coppices, which foresters have often dismissed as “unutilizable scrub” and hastened to convert to plantations. While most ecologists will undoubtedly find this work stimulating, they may also find it slightly frustrating. Dr Rackham obviously has the material to write a much more detailed account of the history of man’s impact on woodlands over the last 2000 years. Such a book would complement Sir Harry Godwin’s History of the British Flora and might well be a major formative experience for ecology in Britain. The present work is not long, but it may nevertheless have a substantial influence on ecologists, whose understanding of both the influence of man and of those features which really are survivals of prehistoric conditions will be markedly increased. Ecologists have tried recently to take a more precise interest in the history of man’s influence on seminatural vegetation, and to make value judgements about the pace and direction of recent changes; in these senses the book is a product of its times. In another sense it
REVIEWS
279
moves against the trend for it is concerned with “ordinary” woods-the centre of the range of variation in composition and structure-whereas ecologists have tended in the past to study the more distinct woodland types on the edge of this range, such as alderwoods, southern beechwoods, western oakwoods and native pinewoods. Rackham ends with a clear statement of concern about the present rapid rate of loss of ancient woods due to clearance and reforestation. He advocates a revival of use and more survey, so that the best remaining examples are not unwittingly destroyed. For those who wish to understand existing woods in the English lowlands, I can think of no better recommendation than that they frrst look at some of the woods themselves, and then read this work alongside Rackham’s earlier volume on Huyley Wood: Its History and Ecology. Nature Conservancy Council, Huntingdon
G. F. PETERKEN
MARTIN F. WAKELIN,Language and History in Cornwall (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1975. Pp. 239. f1040) This most interesting and important book consists essentially of two very different yet closely related parts. The first half is concerned mainly with the geographical and historical background against which an examination of the linguistic evidence (which forms the second half) must be considered. These two parts will be of particular interest to very different categories of people; the number of readers able to follow the detailed reasoning contained in both of them will be few. The technical vocabulary of the philologist is largely incomprehensible to the geographer and the 52 letters and phonetic symbols (plus the 12 other symbols) used for the all-important phonetic transcriptions merely add to his perplexities. Most geographers (including this reviewer) will have to take the use and evaluation of the linguistic data on trust. Understanding of this book is, however, greatly helped by the logical arrangement of its material. Not only has it been carefully planned but it is also set out in such a way, with numerous headings and sub-headings, that the reader can easily follow the development of the various themes examined. The first chapter, ‘Dialect geography and Cornwall’, sets the scene and gives a brief introduction (very useful to the geographer) to dialect geography; it then summarizes the early work on dialect and language that has been undertaken for Cornwall. Details are also given of all the informants whose replies provided the data on which the arguments put forward in the second part of the book mainly depend. Though the second chapter is entitled ‘Present-day Cornwall’, topics such as the division of the county into hundreds and population trends, settlement, occupations and communications are all (very naturally) treated from an historical point of view. The historical approach is also followed in the third chapter which consists of a useful resume of developments in the county from prehistoric times through to about the end of the Middle Ages. Chapter 4, ‘Cornish and English’, is perhaps the one of most interest to the historical geographer. The three types of evidence for our knowledge of the process of the adoption of the English language in Cornwall-place-names, Comish and English medieval documents, and statements of contemporary writers-are examined and from this the distribution of the two languages at various times in the past is suggested. The succeeding chapter, ‘Phonological features of the dialects of Cornwall’, is undoubtedly the one of most interest to the philologist because it includes the detailed evidence upon which the general conclusions are mainly based. The material discussed here is, however, too specialized for the non-philologist to understand fully. A short chapter entitled ‘Morphological features’ shows how the evidence provided by these largely corroborates the conclusions derived from the phonological material. In Chapter 7, ‘Lexical features: the Cornish loan-words’, the significance of 28 loan words is considered. About half of these words have been derived from Cornish, the others from