The
Henwife.
Her
own experience in her own Poultry-Yard.
To
Which Is Added The Henwife's Later Experience.
THE
HON. MRS ARBUTHNOTT.
With
illustrations by Harrison Weir
1870
Eighth
edition
Ten beautiful hand colored engraved plates highlighted with gum arabic, including 8 of chickens one of ducks and one wild turkey, plus 19 woodcuts in the text. Eighth edition, small 8vo, 218 pp the upper hinge has been repaired. Original gilt titled green buckram like cloth, top of spine a little worn some other minor rubbing. Internally clean.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Barbara Elrington Douglas
Arbuthnott (b. September
12th 1822, d. September 1904 in Sunndal) was born into a wealthy Scottish
family. She was a well-known benefactor who was well versed in foreign
languages.
Her father, Colonel Sir Neil
Douglas, (d. 1853) was ADC to the Duke
of Wellington at the Battle
of Waterloo. In her youth, she studied Greek, Latin and German in
In
She was renowned, among other
things, for driving her sick son with a horse and wagon across Dovrefjell,
trying to save his life. After her son’s death she bought the farm Løken,
which is now a local museum, called Leikvin.
Then she cleared the land for a new farm, Elverhøy. She taught herself
Norwegian, cohabited with the translator, Oluf Endresen from Sunndal, and was
said to be extremely rich and very generous, giving magnificent parties for the bourgeoisie.
She took an interest in the local health service and the local rifle club,
founded a local library and was an agricultural pioneer. She
brought poultry and swine of British quality to the valley, and she wrote books
about chicken farming, ‘’The Henwife’’ and ‘’The Henwife – her
later experiences’’. She built the mountain farm, Alfheim, high up in Grøndalen
in 1876.
Her English bank went bankrupt
in 1886, and from 1892 to her death she lived in poverty at Einabu
near Grøa, bed
with board and lodging paid for by benevolent neighbours. She co-habited with
the local teacher Lars Hoaas.
The
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