Sad to read today that Oliver Rackham, the ethno-botanist, has died.
Many years I go I went on a course he led for the Field Studies Centre at Flatford Mill on "History & Ecology of Trees and Woodland" which I thoroughly enjoyed and found really interesting. I have several of his books and have been planning to get his recent on on the ash tree.
We were out visiting woods during the day, then talks in the evening. Oliver was full of energy and enthusiasm, it was we the students who got tired despite our interest. "Please, Oliver, can we go to bed now?"
He was a great believer in going back to original sources and working out how things really operated back then, not just copying what historians had written since. In medieval times dogs in Forests (an area reserved for hunting, not necessarily wooded) were not maimed as stated in the Forest law. You paid a fee at the manor court not to have to maim your dog - an early form of dog licence.
This might not seem very relevant to a blog on green and country living in the city, but trees are important in the city, and give me great pleasure. Also I have the ancient Epping Forest a bus/tube ride away, and Wick Wood, a new wood, a cycle ride down the Lea Navigation tow path.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11417959/Professor-Oliver-Rackham-historical-ecologist-obituary.html
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