Take
a closer look at Thomas Bewick's woodprint of a farm in the early
19th century. Note the herons, hawks and sparrows nailed to the
farm wall. Farmers then seem to have been just as keen as their
modern chemical-spraying descendants to kill off anything that
could be labelled 'vermin'.
Life was not easy. Inside the farm there would probably have been
little food on the table. The 1830s saw widespread agricultural
riots brought about by poverty and the fear that new machinery
would bring unemployment.
So how do we strike a balance between preservation and the need
to feed ourselves? Maybe it's worth taking time this Advent to
think about our most fundamental attitudes to the earth and our
relationship with it.
