After three and a half years the Scottish Executive ruled on AMEC’s proposal. Taking into consideration the protective designations that the moor possessed (including a UN Ramsar designation) and the protests against the development (including 10,924 letters of objection) it decided to reject the wind-farm application.
The moor was saved.
VI
In Which a Baroque Fantasia Is Imagined
We need now, urgently, a Counter-Desecration Phrasebook that would comprehend the world – a glossary of enchantment for the whole earth, which would allow nature to talk back and would help us to listen. A work of words that would encourage responsible place-making, that would keep us from slipping off into abstract space, and keep us from all that would follow such a slip. The glossaries contained here in Landmarks do not constitute this unwriteable phrasebook – but perhaps they might offer a sight of the edge of the shadow of its impossible existence.
Such a phrasebook, as I imagine it – as thought-experiment, as baroque fantasia – would stand not as a competitor to scientific knowledge and ecological analysis, but as their supplement and ally. We need to know how nature proceeds, of course, but we need also to keep wonder alive in our descriptions of it: to provide celebrations of not-quite-knowing, of mystification, of excess. Barry Lopez again: ‘something emotive abides in the land, and … it can be recognized and evoked even if it cannot be thoroughly plumbed’. This ‘something’ is ‘inaccessible to the analytic researcher, and invisible to the ironist’.
Like Lopez, I am drawn to this idea of a valuable superfluity in nature: a content to landscape that exceeds the propositional and that fails to show up on the usual radar sweeps – but which may be expressible, or at least gesturable towards, in certain kinds of language. I relish the etymology of our word thing – that sturdy term of designation, that robust everyday indicator of the empirical – whereby in Old English thynge does not only designate a material object, but can also denote ‘a narrative not fully known’, or indicate ‘the unknowability of larger chains of events’.
As I imagine it, futilely, this phrasebook would be rich with language that is, as the poet Marianne Moore put it in an exceptional essay of 1944 entitled ‘Feeling and Precision’, ‘galvanized against inertia’, where that ‘galvanized’ carries its sense of flowing current, of energy received by contact, of circuitry completed. For Moore, precision of language was crucial to this galvanism. ‘Precision,’ she wrote – in a phrase with which I could not be in more agreement – ‘is a thing of the imagination’ and produces ‘writing of maximum force’. ‘Precision’ here should not be taken as cognate with scientific language. No, precision for Moore is a form of testimony different in kind to rational understanding. It involves not probing for answers, but watching and waiting. And precision, for Moore, is best enabled by metaphor: another reminder that metaphor is not merely something that adorns thought but is, substantively, thought itself. Writers must be, Moore concludes finely, ‘as clear as our natural reticence allows us to be’, where ‘reticence’ mutely reminds us of its etymology from the Latin tacere, ‘to be silent, to keep silent’. I recall Charles Simic: ‘For knowledge, add; for wisdom, take away.’
This phrasebook would help us to understand that there are places and things which make our thinking possible, and leave our thinking changed. In this respect it would inhabit what linguistics calls the ‘middle voice’: that grammatical diathesis which – by hovering between the active and the passive – can infuse inanimate objects with sentience and so evoke a sense of reciprocal perception between human and non-human. It would possess the unfeasible alertness of Jorge Luis Borges’s character Ireneo Funes, who develops perfect recall after a riding accident. ‘John Locke, in the seventeenth century, postulated (and rejected) an impossible language in which each individual thing, each stone, each bird and each branch, would have its own name,’ wrote Borges there; ‘Funes once projected an analogous language, but discarded it because it seemed too general to him, too ambiguous. In fact, Funes remembered not only every leaf of every tree of every wood, but also every one of the times he had perceived or imagined it …’
This phrasebook would find ways of outflanking the cost-benefit framework within which we do so much of our thinking about nature. Again and again when we are brought short by natural events – the helix of a raptor’s ascent on a thermal; a flock of knots shoaling over an east-coast estuary; the shadows of cumulus clouds moving across Lewisian moorland on a sunny day – the astonishment we feel concerns a gift freely given, a natural potlatch. During such encounters, we briefly return to a pre-economical state in which things can be ‘tendered’, as Adam Potkay puts it, ‘that is, treated with tenderness – because of the generosity of their self-giving, as if alterity were itself pure gift’.
Above all, then, this phrasebook would speak the language of tact and of tenderness. The Canadian poet Jan Zwicky writes of the importance of ‘having language to hand’ in our dealings with the natural world. There is a quiet reminder in her phrase of the relationship between tactfulness and tactility, between touch and ethics. As the Oxford English Dictionary defines it:
Tact: 1(a). The sense of touch, the act of touching or handling. 1(b) A keen faculty of perception or discrimination likened to the sense of touch. 2(b) Musicologically, a stroke in beating time which ‘directs the equalitie of the measure’ (John Downland, writing in 1609, translating Andreas Ornithoparcus).
Tact as due attention, as tenderness of encounter, as rightful tactility. Tactful language, then, would be language which sings (is lyric), which touches (is born of contact with the lived and felt world), which touches us (affects) and which keeps time – recommending thereby an equality of measure and a keen faculty of perception.
Glossary I
Flatlands
Flowing Water
bugha green bow-shaped area of moor grass or moss, formed by the winding of a stream Gaelic
caochan slender moor-stream obscured by vegetation such that it is virtually hidden (possibly from Old Irish caeich, meaning ‘blind’, i.e. the stream is so overgrown that it cannot see out of its own bed) Gaelic
èit practice of placing quartz stones in moorland streams so that they would sparkle in moonlight and thereby attract salmon to them in the late summer and autumn Gaelic (Isle of Lewis)
feadan small stream running from a moorland loch Gaelic
fèith watercourse running through peat, often dry in summer, the form of which resembles veins or sinews Gaelic
lòn small stream with soft, marshy banks Gaelic
rife small river flowing across the coastal plain Sussex
sike small stream, often flowing through marshy ground Yorkshire
Mists, Fogs, Shadows
ammil ‘The icy casings of leaves and grasses and blades and sprigs were glowing and hid in a mist of sun-fire. Moor-folk call this morning glory the ammil’ Henry Williamson, Tarka the Otter (1927) Exmoor
burnt-arse fire will-o’-the-wisp, ignis fatuus Fenland
daal’mist mist which gathers in valleys overnight and is exhaled when the sun rises Shetland
dag dew or heavy-lying mist on the marsh Suffolk
grumma mirage caused by mist or haze rising from the ground Shetland
haze-fire luminous morning mist through which the dawn sun is shining poetic
muggy dull, misty weather; cf. Welsh mwg, meaning ‘smoke, fume’ Northamptonshire
na luin fast-moving heat-haze on the moor Gaelic
rafty of weather: misty, damply cold Essex
rionnach maoim shadows cast on the moorland by clouds moving across the sky on a bright and windy day Gaelic
roke fog that rises in the evenings off marshes and water meadows East Anglia
summer geese steam that rises from the moor when rain is followed by hot sunshine North Yorkshire
thick wet dense mist Exmoor
Pasture, Transhumance and Grazing
a’ chailleach stone coping topped w
ith dry turf, forming a seat at the end of the bed in the shieling Gaelic
àirigh shieling: i.e. summer pasture, or shelter established near the pasture Gaelic
astar, innis area of moor where sheep spend their first summer and to which they tend to return Gaelic
botann hole in the moor, often wet, where an animal might get stuck Gaelic
both ‘beehive’ shieling with a corbelled stone roof, usually covered in turf such that it resembles a drumlin from a distance Gaelic
clach-tachais upright stone standing outside a shieling, intended for cows to scratch against Gaelic
cotan place made of turf where calves are kept on the shieling Gaelic
doras-iadht door in the shieling which faces the wind and is therefore closed with turfs (the sheltered door being left open) Gaelic
geàrraidh group of shielings Gaelic
làrach àirigh mark where a shieling has been, its vestigial remains Gaelic
leabaidh liatha mossy bed where the cattle lie at a distance from the shieling Gaelic
mow, mowfen name formerly given to a fen which in the summertime yielded fodder for cattle Northamptonshire
rathad nam path to the shieling (literally ‘the road of the
banachagan dairymaids’) Gaelic
sgombair old grass found around the edges of lochs after storms and used as bedding for cattle Gaelic
sgrath thin turf used to roof the shieling Gaelic
teine leathan fire made from heather and moor-grass bedding on the morning before returning home from the shieling at the end of summer. This fire was the signal to the cattle to set off home Gaelic
tulach na h-àirigh site of the shieling Gaelic
uinneagan alcoves set into shieling walls for holding basins of milk Gaelic
Peat, Turf and Earth
an caoran lowest layer of a peat bank Gaelic
baitíneach fibrous turf Irish
bàrr-fhàd topmost layer of peat cut Gaelic
beat rough sod of moorland (along with the heather growing on it) which is sliced or pared off, and burnt when the land is about to be ploughed Devon
blàr mònach field of peat banks Gaelic
bruach natural peat bank Gaelic
brug stump of earth standing with the sward intact where the ground has been broken by the continued action of the weather Shetland
bull-pated applied to a tuft of grass driven by the wind into a quiff, i.e. standing up like the tuft on a bull’s forehead Northamptonshire
bungel clod of turf used as a missile, for pelting with Shetland
caorán peat embers, used to light or relight a fire Irish
carcair turfed surface of a peat bank Gaelic
ceap murain turf that is difficult to cut because of the tough grassy growth through it, and which is therefore often used as a seat in the shieling Gaelic
coirceog mhóna small heap or ‘beehive’ (coirceog) of turf left for drying Irish
cruach mhònach peat stack Gaelic
delf sod or cut turf Scots
densher, devonshire paring off the top layer of turf in a field and burning it in order to enrich the soil with ash Dorset, Somerset
flaa hunk of turf, matted with roots of heather and grass, torn up by hand without a spade and used in thatching Shetland
flag turf Suffolk
fòid depth of a peat bank measured in the number of peats that can be cut from the top of bank; thus poll aon fòid, poll dà fhòid, poll thrì fòid – a bank one, two, three peats deep Gaelic
gàrradh peats placed on top of each other in such a way as to let the air circulate through them, on the bank Gaelic
hassock, hussock tuft of coarse grass growing on boggy land Northamptonshire
kast to cut peats out of the ground and cast them onto the bank to dry Shetland
maoim place on the moor where there has been peat movement in the past Gaelic
mawn peat Herefordshire
mòine peat, once it is cut and dried Gaelic
mòine dhubh heavier and darker peats which lie deeper and older into the moor Gaelic
mump block of peat dug out by hand Exmoor
rathad an isein narrow gap left on top of the peat bank (literally ‘the bird’s road’) Gaelic
rind edge of a peat bed Scots
rùdhan set of four peat blocks leaned up against one another such that wind and sun hasten their drying Gaelic
rùsg turf covering a peat bank Gaelic
skumpi clumsy, lumpish peat; outermost peat in each row as the peats are cut out of the bank Shetland
stèidheadh peat stack constructed in such a way as to shed rain. Various patterns are used in the side wall of the stack, e.g. sloping wall, flat wall, herringbone Gaelic
teine biorach flame or will-o’-the-wisp that runs on top of heather when the moor is burnt during the summer Gaelic
teine mònach peat fire Gaelic
tott clump or tuft of grass Kent
tubins grass sods Cornwall
turbary the right to cut turf or peat for fuel on a common or on another person’s land legal
tusk tuft of grass or reeds Northamptonshire
veggs peat Devon
watter-sick of peats: saturated with water; of land: needing to be drained Cumbria
yarpha peat full of fibres and roots Orkney
Raised Ground, Flat Ground
bivan puv clover field Anglo-Romani
breck breach, blemish or failing; thus ‘Brecklands’, the name given to the broken sandy heathlands of south Norfolk Middle English
bruerie heath, common Suffolk
bukkalo tan heath, common Anglo-Romani
cnoc low-lying hill, often with surrounding flat or low ground Gaelic
druim wide ridge of high ground Gaelic
eig raised area of land or lifted turf mark used to designate a boundary Gaelic
eiscir ridge of ground separating two plains or lower land-levels Irish
ffridd moorland; mountain pasture Welsh
gallitrop fairy ring Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset
gwaun moor; meadow; downland, usually walkable Welsh
hoath heath Kent
knowe field head; hillock; fairy mound Scots
ling sandy heathland Norfolk, Suffolk
má plain; region of level and even country Irish
machair rich grasslands and flower meadows that overlie shell-sand on the west coasts of Scotland, especially the Atlantic coast of Outer Hebridean islands Gaelic
machaireach inhabitant of low-lying landscapes Gaelic
maghannan open moorland, sometimes with low hills Gaelic
mall of land: bad, quaggy Welsh
mign bog, mire Welsh
reeast moorland Manx
rhos moor, heath; extent of level land Welsh
roddam raised silt bank left behind by a drained river, as the surrounding peat dries and lowers following the drainage. Land with an undulating surface is known as roddamy land or rolling land Fenland
saltings salt marshes, usually on the seaward side of sea walls Essex, Kent
sìthean derived from sìth (fairy hill or mound), by association with features within which fairies were thought to dwell: applied to small knolls, in most cases crowned by green grass Gaelic
skradge small bank raised on an old one to prevent flooding Fenland
smeeth level space East Anglia
tafolog abounding in dock leaves (now found only as place-name element) Welsh
tòl moor-mound Gaelic
tom round hillock, small raised area Gaelic
wong portion of unenclosed land under the open-field system agricultural
wonty-tump molehill Herefordshire
Rushes, Mosses, Grasses, Heathers
canach white cotton grass, bog cotton: a sedge that typically grows on wet moor and produces tufts of long white silky hairs Gaelic
falaisgeir burning of heather to encourage fresh growth Gaelic
fianach deergrass, usually purple G
aelic
fizmer rustling noise produced in grass by petty agitations of the wind East Anglia
foggagey of grass: rank, tufted, matted Scots
foggit covered in moss or lichen Scots
fraoch heather Gaelic
fub long withered grass on old pastures or meadows Galloway
gads rushes and sedges that grow on wet, marshy ground Kent
gersick reed swamp Cornish
grugog heath-covered, abounding in heather Welsh
hover floating island, bed of reeds Norfolk
juncary land overgrown with rushes southern English
kite-log coarse grass on marshland, used for making doormats Suffolk
lìananach type of filamentous green algae that grows in moorland rivers and streams Gaelic
may-blobs kingcups, marsh marigolds Herefordshire
mycelia network of fine filaments constituting the tissue of a fungus botanical
quealed of vegetation: curled up, withered Exmoor
quicks roots of stubbornly vivacious grasses harrowed out of long-neglected soil East Anglia
quill to dry up or wither; to part with its sap: applied to grass or any green vegetable matter Exmoor
roshin large lump of weeds Galloway
scraunching withering with heat (vegetation) Exmoor
stàrr sedge that grows in moorland lochs Gaelic
swailing, swaling zwealing, burning heather, bracken and gorse on moorland Cornwall, Devon
zwer whizzing noise made by a covey of partridges as they break suddenly from cover Exmoor
Watery Ground
aller-grove marshy place where alders grow Exmoor