Record Number: 33949

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Many thanks for your Hill book. ["On Cambrian and Cumbrian Hills"] I had meant to thank you verbally on the evening of your annual meeting last Friday but it came about on that very day I was compelled by aches to have some teeth extracted and did not feel fit to go out that evening in consequence. I have meanwhile kept your book and others on the country lately sent to me, to read when I get back [i.e. to the country] very soon. I have glanced though the chapter on wild life: of course you are right about the Raven and I was wrong in saying what I did about its rarity. But there is one thing in that charming chapter with which I am not in agreement with you and you know what that is. I do not want to see the large rapacious birds and beasts removed.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 1 Apr 1908 and 15 Apr 1908

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: London
specific address: 40 St Luke's Road

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

William Henry Hudson

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

4 Aug 1841

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Field naturalist, author

Religion:

Protestant (Anglican) in childhood only

Country of Origin:

Argentina

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Henry Salt

Title:

On Cambrian and Cumbrian Hills: Pilgrimages to Snowdon and Scawfell

Genre:

Geography / Travel, Natural history

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

London: Arthur C. Fifield, 1908

Provenance

owned
internal evidence suggests a gift not a loan

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Source Information:

Record ID:

33949

Source:

Print

Author:

William Henry Hudson

Editor:

Denis Shrubsall

Title:

The Unpublished Letters of W. H. Hudson, the First Literary Environmentalist, 1841-1922

Place of Publication:

Lewiston, N.Y.

Date of Publication:

2006

Vol:

2

Page:

420

Additional Comments:

Letter from Hudson to Henry Salt, 15 April 1908, 40 St Luke's Road, West London.

Citation:

William Henry Hudson, Denis Shrubsall (ed.), The Unpublished Letters of W. H. Hudson, the First Literary Environmentalist, 1841-1922, (Lewiston, N.Y., 2006), 2, p. 420, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33949, accessed: 23 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

When Hudson says that he is keeping a text aside to read later, or that he has 'not read' a text, he often means that he has at the time only looked at it briefly, as here. Here this is clearly a reading experience, with the implication of a future, more engaged, reading in a few days hence.