ADVENTURERS FEN: THE CLASSIC PORTRAIT OF PRIMITIVE FENLAND. By E.A.R. Ennion.

(1942) 1996 3rd edition. Square 8vo (174 x 226mm). Ppxviii,67. B/w illustrations, pictorial endpapers. Foreword by Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald, 1996 foreword by John Humphreys. Brown boards, spine titled in gilt.

"...With forewords by Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald and John Humphreys". "A mere ten miles from the centre of Cambridge lies an almost forgotten corner of the Fenland that was the last to succumb to modern agriculture. Now this primitive fenland has gone for ever. But before the draglines rumbled in, Dr. Ennion saw the last of it. With the keeper, Ernest Parr, he watched and sketched the birds of the waterland. He recalls the old industries of turf and sedge and reed cutting, the art of the scythe, the lesser harvest of the Fens, the onset and decline of cultivation, the long struggle between winter flood and summer drought... He traces plant and insect changes and reveals an astounding wealth of bird life. ...He presents in exquisite sketches the birds and insects and the old implements of fen-craft". A unique portrait of a little known chapter in the history of agriculture and fenland life.