DOCSLIB.ORG

Boyd Cynthia.Pdf

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Boyd Cynthia.Pdf Reading Women's Home and Garden Lives: A Folkloristic Examination of the English Gardening Books of Marion Cran by Cynthia Boyd A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Folklore Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador October 2013 ll Abstract Building on scholarship from folklore and literature, everyday autobiography, women's traditional culture, and women's garden history, this thesis examines how Marion Cran documented home and garden experiences in Surrey and Kent through a series of gardening books she wrote between 1913 and 1941. While providing useful information on plants and gardening practices, Cran' s writing was fragmented and tangential: her books were filled with planting references suffused with culinary tips and recipes and traditional lore that evoked meaning and "encoded memories" (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1989). Although Cran was fascinated by garden styles indicative of the period, such as the English cottage garden, she also valued individuality in garden making, and implored her readers to create gardens that fulfilled their own expectations. In her everyday autobiographies, Cran revealed her innermost thoughts based on her own experiences and what she learned through her observations of and interactions with fellow gardeners and homemakers. Cran inspired a predominantly female audience to create and maintain homes and gardens that benefited their own lives as well as those of their families and members of their communities. In direct correlation, women corresponded with Cran, confiding to her their own home and garden experiences whether they lived in England or South Africa. While exploring Cran's appeal to women readers, this thesis focuses on several themes: community and fellowship in gardening practices, implicit coding, female performativity, and women's sense of empowerment through creating a home and garden. Ill This thesis examines not only how Cran and her books inspired gardeners and homemakers' lives during the interwar period, but also, it recognizes her relevance to contemporary readers and present-day gardeners. Not unlike many gardeners today, Cran was committed to natural gardening practices and growing her own produce. Cran can be found not only between the pages of her books, but through the existence of her former home and garden, "Coggers," in Kent. By preserving Coggers and welcoming visitors, the current residents have fostered a growing community of readers and gardeners whose enthusiasm in Cran and her writings will continue her legacy for future generations. Marion Cran and her garden literature offer folklorists an alternative resource through which to understand and appreciate how women expressed themselves creatively through common, everyday tasks in homes and gardens of the early twentieth century. IV Acknowledgements When something as engrossing and all-consuming as a PhD dissertation takes nearly a decade to finish, there are bound to be so many wonderful people to thank when it is finally completed. Before I thank all these people, I would just like to extend my appreciation to several organizations for their financial assistance while I was a graduate student: Thank you to the School of Graduate Studies and the Department of Folklore, Memorial University of Newfoundland for awarding me a fellowship. I also thank the Department of Folklore for the graduate assistantships and per-course teaching assignments that I was awarded over the years. As my research and fieldwork required me to travel to England on several occasions, I was very fortunate to receive many scholarships and awards. Along with the School of Graduate Studies and the Department of Folklore, my thanks to The Bowring Harlow Foundation, the Very Reverend Edward and Marjorie Rusted Harlow Travel Award, The Scotia Bank Bursaries for International Study, The David Buchan Graduate Research Award in Folklore, and The Mary A. Griffiths Memorial Award for Folklore Field Research. To Diane Tye, my supervisor, thank you so much for taking on such an incredibly eccentric PhD topic! Your faith in me--that I would find a focal point in Marion Cran's fragmented writing/gardening life--was incredible and I am so grateful! Many thanks to Holly Everett and Paul Smith, my supervisory committee, who provided insightful comments and excellent suggestions. My thanks must extend to many other folklorists who have assisted me throughout my lengthy time as a graduate student: Philip Hiscock for answering so many questions over many years; Jillian Gould, Cory Thorne, Martin v Lovelace, Barbara Rieti, Diane Goldstein, John Widdowson, and two wonderful folklorists who I will always remember for their knowledge and because of their kindness to me: the late Peter Narvaez and the late Letty Halpert. Thanks so much to Gerald Pocius for his amazing English Cultural Landscape program at the Harlow campus! It truly was a life changing experience! I so appreciate all the hard work that the staff of the Department of Folklore does on a day-to-day basis. Thank you Sharon Cochrane, Melanie Sears, Pauline Cox, Patricia Fulton, and to Barbara Reddy, Cindy Turpin, and Eileen Collins who are enjoying retirement but have been great supporters of me all along! I want to say a very sincere thank you to Pauline Greenhill at the University of Winnipeg for reading a very early chapter of this thesis. Thank you as well to Jo Shawyer (Department of Geography, MUN) for your encouragement. In England, I have many delightful people to thank for their incredible memories of the gardening and writing life of Marion Cran. Cran's nephew, the late Dudley Graeme, welcomed me into his home in Chichester and answered my questions for several days. In between interviews, we visited some pretty fantastic places and I will never forget the short trips or the conversation. I am so sorry that Mr. Graeme passed away before seeing this thesis completed. I want to also thank his daughter, Sue Sandison, who has kept alive Marion Cran's memory by treasuring her books and her garden statues, especially Sally. I also appreciate the phone conversations I had with Mrs. Sandison's brother David Graeme and his son, Philip Graeme, in Toronto. I wish to thank Fairless Masterman, and the late, Dodie Masterman for sharing their memories of VI Lesley Templeton, and for their hospitality. After visiting Marion Cran's former home, Coggers, in Kent, I was so utterly enchanted and I have the current owners, Arianwen and Christopher Neve to thank for preserving that amazing medieval "Ruin"! The Neves have been wonderful in their dedication to Cran and her legacy as a gardener and writer. Thanks so very much for telling your stories and sharing your memories of all the "Crannies" who have come your way. Without your continued love of Coggers, Cran would only be found on the pages of her books! My thanks to Dr. Brent Elliott, Liz Gilbert and the staff of the Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library, Vincent Square, London. I wish to thank the helpful staff of the British Library as well. Thank you Peter Allen, Cranbrook History Society and Betty Carmen, Archivist of the Cranbrook History Museum and Archives, Cranbrook, Kent--I am so glad there are keen historians like both of you, keeping things preserved and thus, remembered for future generations. Thank you so much Dominic Cole, Tim Richardson, and many other members of the Garden History Society, London. I want to especially acknowledge Dominic Cole and Robert Peel for asking me, sight unseen, to speak about Marion Cran at their study day in London, November, 2005. Thanks to Jan Anderson, Robert Peel, and Sarah Couch for your hospitality while I visited England on several occasions! Cheers! Heartfelt thanks to members of the Society for Folklore Studies who listened to my presentations about Marion Cran in Swansea, Wales (2007) and Kerry, Ireland (2008). Thank you! My warmest thanks to all the staff at MUN Harlow Campus for your Vll assistance and your companionship while I worked on my fieldwork in the autumn of 2007 and 2008. To Jane and Gordon Whittle, "Nunn's" on Market Street in Old Harlow, thanks so much for letting me stay in your lovely home and for your hospitality on so many other occasions while I worked on various aspects of my thesis. You provided this wayward traveler with a home away from home and I will always remember your kindness to me! There are many folklore graduate students, past and present, who have been supportive and I would like to thank them all so very much, especially Linda D., Ginny F., Anna G., Meghann J., Heather K., AnnaL., Jeff L., Lynn M., Ben S., Emily U., Ayako Y. , and particularly Evelyn 0. for listening. My sincerest thanks to all the employees at Chapters 943, St. John's for their camaraderie as my co-workers from October 2011 until May 2013. Many nods of appreciation go to friends, Leslie Fram and Chris Pan·ish, for being so completely supportive. Thanks Penny and Stewart Gillies for your kindness to myself and my family over many years. Thank you Gail Pearcey and Bmce Ryan for your friendship, computer knowledge, and gardening expertise! Thanks Jackie Healey for watching over my boys when I first started graduate school. To Linda and Wish Downey for being super friends and neighbours who help me out so often, I am so thankful to you both. And to Loretta Kearney, you have been just amazing. I appreciated the kind words of encouragement from the late Patricia "Pat" Cowan early on in my research. Thanks to the many gardeners and floral arrangers of the Newfoundland Horticultural Society and the Floral Art Group. I am so glad I've had the privilege to know Pam Bmce, Susan VIII Bishop, Betty Hall, Elizabeth Hall, Ian and Joy Senciall, Louise and Murray Swantee, John Hearn, Frank and Margarete Smith, and the late Ken Proudfoot- you've all taught me so much about Newfoundland and English gardening practices! Thanks to my parents, Roberta and Peter Boyd, for being amazing teachers through this very long process called "my education"! While Mom spurred on my creativity, Dad ignited my curiosity in wanting to learn more.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Review of Current Methods and Approaches for Simple on Farm Environmental Monitoring Of
    REVIEW OF CURRENT METHODS AND APPROACHES FOR SIMPLE ON FARM ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING OF FAB SOLUTIONS Activity 2 will identify user-friendly tools and methods to measure the environmental and socio- economic performance of FAB solutions The aim of this report is to: • Review methods to measure the environmental performance of FAB solutions. The focus is on biodiversity, soils and water quality. • Identify scientific approaches that could be used at the farm level and implemented by farmers or extension workers. • Determine if and potentially how these measurement approaches could feed into and support regional or national monitoring. Program Practical information “FABulous Farmers” Project, Activity 2.1 Report DATE: 19th December 2019 CONTACT: David Robinson: [email protected] +44 (0)1491-374-500 Organised by UKCEH Authors: Lindsay Maskell, Lisa Norton, Jamie Alison, Sabine Reinsch & David A. Robinson Page 1 CONTENTS Review of current methods and approaches for simple on farm environmental monitoring of FAB solutions ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 Program........................................................................................................................................................ 1 Practical information .................................................................................................................................. 1 Contents .......................................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • BIRD R£F Ugts
    BIRD R£f UGtS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FISH AND WILDLIFE BULLETIN 17 SERVICE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Harold L. Ickes, Secretary FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE Ira N. Gabrielson, Director Conservation Bulletin 17 LOCAL BIRD REFUGES By W. L. McATEE Technical Adviser, Office of the Director Fish and Wildlife Service UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1942 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. Price 10 cents IRDS appeal strongly to the interests and affec­ B tions of mankind. Not only do they charm by their graceful forms, harmonious colors, sprightly actions, and usually pleasing notes, but they have an even more important claim upon our esteem because of their great economic value. Birds feed upon practically all insect pests. They are voracious, are aide to move freely from place to place, and exert a steady influence in keeping down the swelling tide of insect life. For economic as well as for esthetic reasons, there­ fore, an effort should he made to attract and protect birds and to increase their numbers. Where proper measures of this kind have been taken an increase of several fold in the bird population has resulted, with decreased losses from depredations of injurious insects. This bulletin deals with the establishment of local refuges as a means of attracting birds and is adapted for use throughout the United States. ii LOCAL BIRD REFUGES CONTENTS Page rage Introduction 1 Municipal parks and picnic and fair Bird refuges on farms 2 grounds n Wood lots 4 School and college grounds 14 Roadsides a Cemeteries 15 Rights-of-way S Reservoirs 15 Community parkings 0 Golf courses in INTRODUCTION "DIRD CONSERVATION hi the United States is a well-estab­ lished policy that has been written into one of the best codes of State and Federal protective laws in the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Build Bird Populations with Food Plants
    ARNOLDIA A continuation of the BULLETIN OF POPULAR INFORMATION of the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University VOLUME 5 April 6, IJ’I~J NUMBERS 2-3 BUILD BIRD POPULATION WITH FOOD PLANTS is an essential feature of every attractive landscape. Not only the BIRD-LIFEtown garden and lawn, but the farmstead with its fence rows and hedges, its fields and woodland edges, has its interest heightened by the color, the activ- ity, and the song of our native birds. And the charm of these feathered citizens lies not only in their beauty, but in the hard, cold fact that they benefit the townsman and the farmer economically through their destruction of harmful in- insects and weed seeds. They serve to maintain balance in nature by keeping in check grasshoppers, gypsy moths, tent caterpillars and rodents, the over-popu- lation of any one of which might drive man from great areas of the earth. By the consumption of millions of weed seeds they also reduce the competition of weeds with cultivated plants. The most interesting way to attract a greater population of birds about the home is to plant trees and shrubs especially attractive to them. Such plants may provide escape cover, in which birds may take refuge from their enemies or from storms ; nesting cover, which furnishes the right type of support for young birds’ cradles; or winter cover, represented by the conifers and most important where the ground is long covered with snow. If a cover, in addition to any of the above uses, will serve to provide bird food-mainly as seeds or fruits, but for some birds as buds or leaves or bark -such trees and shrubs serve doubly well.
    [Show full text]
  • Open As a Single Document
    ARNOLD ARBORETUM HARVARD UNIVERSITY ARNOLDIA A continuation of the BULLETIN OF POPULAR INFORMATION VOLUME V 1945 PUBLISHED BY THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM J.4MAIC4 PLAIN, hIASS.hCHUSE’1"1S - ILLUSTRATIONS The Cedar Waxwing is so fond of fruit that it has been called the Cherry Bird. Plate I, p. 7. Winterberry (Ilex verticillafa) a deciduous holly with red berries in the fall and early winter. Plate II, p. 11. Mountain Ash (Sorbus americarra). Always attractive to the birds in early fall. Plate III, p. 13. Most of the viburnums prove attractive to the birds when in fruit. This is the Arrowwood (Viburnum dentatum) in flower. Plate IV, p. 17. Plants in the tropical arboretum of the Atkins Institution of the Arnold Arbore- tum, Soledad, Cienfuegos, Cuba, one of the few arboretums in Tropical Amer- ica. (I) The Traveller’s Tree. (2) Bamboo at its best. Plate V, p. 30. The famous "Lilac Path" at the Arnold Arboretum. Plate VI, p. 35. The well planned propagating unit of the Arboretum of the University of Wash- ington, Seattle. Plate VII, p. 41. The beautiful Thornhill Building of the Morton Arboretum. Plate VIII, p. 43. The hedge collection from the rose garden at the Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illi- nois. Plate IX, p. 43. Jlap of the United States showing the locations of the arboretums listed on pages 46-48. Plate X, p. 45. Viburnum Lantaua grown as a hedge in the Canadian Government Experimental Garden at Ottawa, Canada. Plate XI, p. 59. Two snowballs for the North. Left, the European snowball, Viburnum Opulus ro- seum.
    [Show full text]
  • Naturalistic Landscaping
    Naturalistic Landscaping Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service “I went to stay at a very grand and beautiful place in the country where the grounds are said to be laid out with consummate taste. For the first three or four days, I was enchanted. It seemed much better than Nature, that I began to wish the earth had been laid out according to the latest principles of improvement. In three days’ time I was tired to death; a Thistle, a heap of dead bushes, anything that wore the appearance of accident and want of intention was quite a relief. I used to escape from the made grounds and walk upon the adjacent goose common, where the cart ruts, gravel pits, bumps, coarse ungentlemanlike Grass, and all the varieties produced by neglect were a thousand times more gratifying.” —Sydney Smith 2 Landscaping is the arrangement of plant material results and provide the most pleasure. A home stand- using its form, texture and color to create special ing on the “prairie” with one old apple tree can create effects. Good landscaping can create a sense of privacy a living environment. A house in the woods with a or a feeling of being somewhere special. winding trail among the tree trunks leading away The above statement does not make a distinction from the house and returning to a patio in the sun also between ornamental plant material, with which we creates a living environment. create ornamental landscapes, and indigenous or The selection of plant material and the creation of native plant material of the natural landscape.
    [Show full text]
  • Using Native Plants to Attract Birds in the Washington, D.C. Area
    Green Spring Gardens 4603 Green Spring Rd ● Alexandria ● VA 22312 Phone: 703-642-5173 ● TTY: 703-803-3354 www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/greenspring USING NATIVE PLANTS TO ATTRACT BIRDS IN THE WASHINGTON, D.C. AREA Gardening for wildlife is a unique type of gardening that aims to attract and sustain wildlife. Birds make a garden come alive and help nourish our delight in the natural world. Growing Native Plants For Birds Native plants evolved in our region. Native plants greatly benefit birds because native species of plants and animals evolved together, so native plants are much more likely to provide the right mix of foods and support the insect populations that birds need to flourish. The Needs Of Birds 1. � Food - Plants provide food for birds in many forms: nectar, seeds, fruits, nuts, acorns, cones, buds, twigs, leaves, flowers, and sap, as well as harboring tasty animals such as insects and spiders. A landscape with many different plants can support birds with a diversity of appetites. Insects and Spiders – Native plants support far more wildlife than non-native species. Most terrestrial bird species eat insects and spiders, and almost all North American birds other than sea birds rear their young with insects and spiders (see Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife With Native Plants by Douglas Tallamy). Summer-Fruiting Trees and Shrubs Fruits that ripen from late spring into the summer are often sweet and are eagerly eaten by birds that feed on fruit. These fruits include juneberry (serviceberry), wild cherry, red mulberry, elderberry, blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry.
    [Show full text]