The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady

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I like this for the animal and flower illustrations, post cards, and stories of life in the early 1900’s of Edith’s documented life, but not necessarily of most womens’ experiences, just hers. Her whole biography is not complete and although written in bits and pieces of known facts, we must remember that she lived a life with all needs met.

I first got Edith (Holden) Smith’s The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, asa gift, and then later found this biography to compliment the diary. It’s inspired me to create my own country diary of the animals and flora of the place where I live. Every month I read the month that it is, in her diary which is organized by months. I’m currently up to June. I was absolutely charmed by Edith Holden’s The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, which were compiled throughout 1906 and not published until 1977. I really wanted to know more about our charming illustrator. I found a biography, The Edwardian Lady: The Story of Edith Holden by Ina Taylor, and was able to request a revised edition, which was dug out from my local library’s country store. Her sister Evelyn was supposedly an even more talented artist. Edith preferred illustrating animals. I would enjoy seeing their training and work in context with other people during the day. Beatrix Potter was a contemporary, but no contemporary comparison is provided. Book Genre: Art, Autobiography, Biography, British Literature, Classics, Environment, European Literature, Gardening, History, Horticulture, Memoir, Nature, Nonfiction, PoetryLike the format of Ms. Holden's diary, I did not feel rushed. I enjoyed reading her notes from 1906 at random times. Beginning with January, she quoted poetry from her favorite favourite authors. Also, she painted beautiful watercolors watercolours with warm browns, cool blues, muted greens and rich tints of purple. Then, with no rhyme or reason, she opened her 'room with a view' and shared with the reader the happenstances of a particular day. Sometimes it was just a sentence; at other times she included a paragraph. She wrote about the weather, what she witnessed while out on her walks or, simply, she just expressed her feelings. One sad thing to note here is that Holden’s book was written over a century ago. I noticed that some of the species which she talks about as being common – birds, butterflies, and flowers – are things which I have never seen anywhere in Britain.

March 6: Tonight a Toad was discovered jumping about in the hall; it must have come in through the garden door which has been standing open all day."August, watercolor of "Thrush feeding on the berries of the Rowan or Mountain Ash (Pyrus aucuparia)." In 1911 Edith Holden, at the age of thirty-nine, married Ernest Smith, a sculptor, seven years her junior. [2] Smith became principal assistant to Countess Feodora Gleichen. At the Countess's studio in St James Palace the Smiths associated with leading artists such as Sir George Frampton, sculptor of the statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, and royal visitors such as King Faisal of Arabia. Edith continued her career as an illustrator; the couple had no children. It is promised that in The Edwardian Lady, Taylor has ‘established this fascinating story with the inclusion of a previously hidden chapter’ of Edith’s. In this, her first biography, Taylor follows the trajectory of Holden’s life, from her childhood in the West Midlands, to London. Oct 14: Walked to Catherine de Barnes to get some Dogwood berries, which I knew were plentiful in the hedges about there. Before the death of Edith's mother Emma in 1904, the Holden family had become Spiritualists. The Holdens held regular Spiritualist seances at home in Olton, with the intention of communicating with the spirit of their deceased wife and mother. Edith and her four sisters were instrumental in assisting their father with these communications, which culminated in 1913, when Edith's father published them in his own diary, entitled Messages from the Unseen, only weeks before his own death.

If nothing else, this book was a reminder to move at a slower pace and appreciate what is right in front of you. Take a walk by your home and see what you have missed, ride a bicycle and wave to your neighbors neighbours or visit a park and observe nature in all its glory.

During the 1906–09 school years, Edith Holden taught at the Solihull School for Girls. She fashioned her Nature Notes for 1906 as a model for her students' work. Then, like her younger sisters, Holden became an illustrator. She illustrated four volumes, 1907–10, of The Animal's Friend, a magazine of the National Council for Animals' Welfare, and a number of children's books, including The Three Goats Gruff. Her paintings were often exhibited from 1890–1907 by the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, and by the Royal Academy of Arts in 1907 and 1917. The Animal's Friend (four volumes, 1907–1910, the magazine of the National Council for Animals' Welfare)