Having
been privileged to find this moth in my garden, I became intrigued by
the origin of its name. It was first described in this country by
Benjamin Wilkes as the Cleifden
Nonpareil in his book 'British Butterflies and
Moths' (1749), in the following words:
“This
curious fly was found by Mr.Davenport, sticking against the body of
an ash tree, near Cleifden in Buckinghamshire. It was taken in the
month of July: is at present in the possession of Charles Lockyer,
Esq., and is the only one of the sort that I have yet seen or heard
of.”
Cleifden
or Clifden is the modern Cliveden, an estate on the edge of the
Thames near Maidenhead now owned by the National Trust. Curiously,
while it seems clear from maps that Cliveden is
in Buckinghamshire (on the east of the River Thames, which provides
the county boundary), the Wikipedia entry for the moth refers to the
'Cliveden estate in Berkshire', and the address of Cliveden House is
also given as Berkshire. So which county has the record?
John Thacker, Harwell
The original record is held by VC24. Cliveden was most definitely in Bucks because it says so on my birth certificate (I was born in the now derelict hospital on the edge of the Estate!). It remains so too, even after the boundary changes of the last century which saw Bucks happily get shot of Slough to Berkshire! As you say, the Thames forms the county boundary. I think the erroneous Berkshire references probably come from the postal address because Maidenhead (Berks) is the closest town.
ReplyDeleteNothing Wrong with slough - it is apparently now one of the top places to live and work! However I think Berkshire (under pressure from Windsor no doubt) have just sold Slough to Qatar - so it might be their press office.
DeleteThe only good thing I can remember about Slough is from my school days in Burnham. When the wind was in the right direction you could smell the Mars factory...!
DeleteThe conundrum about this record is that although it is said to be the first for the UK Wilkes doesn't give a year for the record, just July. This is the same for other books, but the account of where it was actually seen do vary a bit. Wilkes gives on an ash tree, but I've also seen an account where it was on the plinth of a statue. If anyone tracks down the date for the record or any other detail for this record I'd very much like to hear about it.
ReplyDeleteMartin Albertini
Bucks (vc24) moth recorder