The Natural History: Gilbert White's Selborne
Despite his influence on the likes of Charles Darwin, the 18th-century ‘parson-naturalist’ is sorely underrated.
Natural History
Tiger Tiger
No other creature has embodied so many attributes: magic spirit, vermin, guardian of holy men, symbol of mother India, an incarnation of evil yet also its vanquisher.
Green and Pleasant Land
Four centuries of horticultural endeavours in the modest plots of the ‘lower orders’.
Under Good Birds
The role birds played in the lives – intellectual, practical, emotional and otherwise – of men and women in the ancient world.
The Curious Creatures of Victorian Taxidermy
The exotic dead animals that appeared in the menageries of Victorian Britain’s grand exhibitions were far from perfect specimens. Stuffed, stitched, painted hybrids – accuracy was not a priority.
The Wolf Must Be in the Woods
The real and mythical dangers of the wilderness.
Hippos of the Thames
The discovery in Victorian London of the remains of ancient animals – and a fascination with their modern descendants – helped to transform people’s ideas of the deep past, as Chris Manias reveals.
The Monkey Trial
Evolution and religion went head-to-head in a landmark case of 1925.
Shakespeare’s Horse-borne England
Outside the London of Shakespeare's time, writes Anthony Dent, coaches were few and most travellers were horse-borne.
The Dodo and the Mughals
Asok Kumar Das describes how Mughal miniatures illuminate the flightless bird from the Indian Ocean, extinct since 1681.