2 Read now an explanation from those THE LAWNS no means exclusively English, the who know……... Lawns may be about to host the picnic Contributors “Phytophthora ramorum (P. by Philip Pacey party depicted in Manet's Déjeuner sur Phi li p Pacey ramorum) is a fungus-like pathogen of After leaving Southampton, the train l'Herbe — you can almost hear the Owen Manning plants that is causing extensive damage from London to Christchurch and be- jangle of the harness of their pony trap; yond, wends its way through the New Tessa Goodman and mortality to trees and other plants soon they, but not it, will appear, open Forest, stopping at Brockenhurst and, in parts of the United Kingdom”. (I am the hamper, pour champagne, and — Davi d Harman and rarely, at Beaulieu Road, a station, a quoting now from the Forestry joy of joys! the ladies will undress as if landscape Emma Waterton Commission website). “ It has also been handful of cottages and a hotel sur- nothing could be more natural. rounded by heath, exposed on all sides, research Bärbel Franci s and found in a number of European coun- Vera Vicenzotti tries, but mostly on plants and shrubs, in the middle of nowhere. The heath The New Forest is a landscape of especially rhododendron, viburnum and doesn't quite reach the horizon; this 'prospect and shelter', not exactly extra 62 Bud Young vast open space is — distantly — en- camellia, and has caused significant 'picturesque', contrived and planted to damage and mortality to many trees closed; the train emerges from wood- be seen as a picture, but designed and Copy deadline for and other plants in parts of the USA. land and, after crossing the heath, is managed precisely to give shelter to reclaimed by woodland, immersing its LRE 63 However, few trees in the UK were the monarch's deer and to enhance the June 2012 affected until 2009, when P. ramorum- passengers once again in the depths of prospects of the chase. To enter the September 1st was found infecting and killing large the forest, running through patches of woodland and walk among the Lawns dreary, regimented plantation but also, numbers of Japanese larch trees in is to sacrifice the view for shelter and exquisitely, affording glimpses of South West England. Then in 2010 it opportunities to study the flora and was found on Japanese larches in lawns, sunlit glades where cropped fauna close-to; it is to be unable to 'see Wales, Northern Ireland and the Re- grass grows beneath the trees where, the wood for the trees'. Deer are here, or so it seems to me, grass shouldn't be public of Ireland, and 2011 it was con- relatively secure, not too afraid to Sudden larch death firmed at locations in western Scot- able to grow — where it should by emerge cautiously from the bracken; rights be undernourished, suffocated by land.This sudden change in the patho- not spooked by the trains. One day, it may have been March, driving from Moretonhampstead to Bovey Tracey those familiar shade and fallen leaves and whatever gen’s behaviour was the first time in larches on the hill side of the Wray valley — the ones that go to red gold in the autumn, you know the the world that P. ramorum had infected plants succeed on the forest floor. This But what am I doing! writing as if in ones — they aren’t there any more! Or they are but just look at them! No one performs forestry like forest floor is a carpet, kept trim by the and sporulated (reproduced) on large the forest when a moment ago I was numbers of a commercially important constant grazing of ponies and cattle, peering at it from a passing train? The this! And they are still there months later as I write this. What a mess, what a loss! What’s it all about? conifer tree species. It was also an un- not natural but a by-product of forest truth is, that having seen the Lawns management over hundreds of years, expected setback to efforts to tackle from trains so many times, there came a but, to my eyes, utterly magical. ramorum disease. We (the Forestry day when I simply had to experience Commission) and our partners have them directly. So I claimed a few hours moved quickly to respond to this devel- The Lawns, for so they are called, are for myself and caught a stopping train scenes from a mythic, pastoral land- opment. Full details about the pathogen to Beaulieu Road, where the platform is and what’s being done to research it, scape which nymphs and shepherds so short that passengers can only alight have only just left and to which they minimise its impact, and support af- from the front coach. I was reminded of may return at any moment. fected woodland owners are available another day, many years ago, when my at the links on this page. The wife and I got off a train at Berney end-of-season report on the P. ‘The fairies break their dances/ and Arms in Norfolk, then watched the leave the printed lawns’ ramorum management programme train disappear into the distance, taking during 2011 is now available. As is an (as it seemed) civilisation with it, leav- wrote Housman, not of this landscape update report. The Forestry Commis- ing us without concealment, alone un- but of somewhere equally enchanted. sion have published a one-stop-shop der the sky in a silence embroidered by 'update' report in accessible language Printed lawns? Printed, presumably, by birdsong. Here, as I had known there summarising all aspects of the P. the lightest of footprints, leaving almost would be, there was at least a hotel. no impression. Nobody can be seen; ramorum outbreak in larch. It summa- After partaking of some local ale, I set rises a range of topics including the somebody must be there, in such a out across the open moor, on a path of kempt landscape, yet their presence is current scientific knowledge, symptoms white sand. I soon found myself under not felt to be threatening. I'm reminded and treatment, its impact on the timber the trees, amid a silence broken only by market, and advice and assistance to of Tolkien's Rivendell — a secret val- occasional trains and aircraft high over- woodland owners”. ley rather than a sprawling forest — a head, the mocking laugh of the green wooded place, where in an 'open glade' woodpecker, and a deer crashing Note there is heard a 'burst of song' – the through bracken. If I had hoped to see singing of elves who initially choose I am grateful to the Forestry Commis- birds I would have been disappointed; not to reveal themselves. Or the scene sion website for this explanation. My what I did see were butterflies in abun- first instinct as I looked this up was to is set for the entire company of A Mid- dance, including Silver-washed Fritil- read about it in Nature but found that summer Night's Dream. 'This green laries. So much larger than most British plot shall be our stage...' Or Shake- this would have cost me $18! butterflies as to seem even larger than speare's Puck may be about to reappear, they actually are. At close quarters I conjured up by Kipling's imagination. witnessed the green sward growing Or, since such pastoral scenes are by under the trees (oaks and birches), sur- 3 4 rounding the trunks. And I satisfied my From the outset, the session’s ambition Refiguring the geopolitics of the mu- desire to engage physically with this was to showcase the growing interest in seum cabinet: Doing post-Imperial Clarke and Waterton illustrate signage landscape by taking off my shoes and both ‘heritage’ and ‘landscape’ as cate- ecologies of nation, art history and cul- socks and walking a little way on the gories of scholarship, identity, experi- ture (Divya Tolia-Kelly) turf in bare feet. (Do not follow my ence and performance, as well as for Contested landscapes of heritage in a example. Adders are common in the purposes of entertainment, commerce suburban housing estate (Gunhild Set- Forest, though I guess on the heath and policy engagement. For us, the two ten and Hilde Nymoen Rortveit) rather on the Lawns). concepts have always seemed to fit Land, Landscape and Heritage from PP nicely together, tagged as being cultural Below in the Scottish Highlands (Iain and natural; tangible and intangible; Robertson) personal, collective and especially Signs of a Distant Past: interpretive ‘national’. The session, then, was an signage and the representation of In- attempt to provoke international and digenous history in Australian pro- interdisciplinary discussion and conver- tected areas (Annie Clarke and Emma Landscapes of sation between those working within Waterton) Heritage and Heritage the realms of landscape and heritage studies, and explore the tensions and Landscapes opportunities that exist with the pairing David Harvey began the session by Report of an LRG-sponsored session at of these most slippery of terms. When examining the recent histories of heri- the inaugural conference for the putting the session together, we hoped tage and landscape studies, focussing Association of Critical Heritage to include papers that covered the upon the twinning of their epistemo- Studies, “Re-theorising Heritage”, range, intensity and quality of the rela- logical, ideological and methodological University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 5–8 tionships between landscape and heri- twists and turns within a common intel- June 2012. tage, with each paper providing explo- lectual and interdisciplinary space.