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dealer from a
plumassier
included 6,000 bird of
paradise feathers and 40,000 hummingbird feathers
alone. By the turn of the century the feathers were no
longer enough and now wings, heads and even whole
taxidermied birds became all the rage. In 1889 Emily
Williamson formed The Plumage League in her
Manchester kitchen to encourage women not to wear
the feathers of any bird not killed for food. Except the
poor old ostrich! The Plumage League joined forces
with the Croydon Fur & Feather League to become
the Society for the Protection of Birds. In 1899 Queen
Victoria ordered that certain regiments should
discontinue wearing osprey plumes and in 1904 the
society received its Royal Charter from Edward V11.
In 1920 a Parliamentary vote killed off The Plumage
Bill leading to even more campaigns against
“murderous millinery” as it was dubbed in the New
York Times. Here the radical left tied themselves
in a few knots when the radical journalist
HW Massingham, writing about the failure to ban
the trade, blamed women:
“What does one expect? They have to be shot in
parenthood for child-bearing women to flaunt the
symbols of it, …. one bird shot for its plumage
means ten other deadly wounds and the starvation
of the young. But what do women care? Look at
Regent Street this morning!”
Virginia Woolf took him to task in her reply essay
The Plumage Bill
in which she created the unthinking
and selfish Lady So-and-So but went on to show
how this creature of fashion was a creation of the
patriarchy. The Plumage Act banning the import of
exotic feathers was finally passed in 1921 supported
by Viscountess Astor of Cliveden on the Thames –
our first female
MP.
Herons & Handsaws
In 1902 a London auction had sold 1600 thirty ounce
packets of heron plumes which represented almost
200,000 herons killed. These were mostly the
white-feathered egret varieties rather than the Grey
Heron which is such a fixture on our rivers, the
Thames included. But the grey heron once faced
the threat of hunting for sport.
"
I am but mad north-northwest. When the wind is
southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw."
So said Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In the 16th and 17th
century hunting herons (handsaws) with Peregrines
was the sport of kings. Heron fat was thought to be
an excellent remedy for rheumatism – and as the
heron was thought to wax and wane with the moon,
the fat of the heron killed at full moon was believed
to be the best. Herons have evolved a way of cleaning
and waterproofing their feathers by plucking special
feathers from their breasts known as powder down
which they crush into granules by trampling with
their long clawed feet. Anglers once believed that
this was how the birds attracted fish and so a heron’s
foot became a fisherman’s amulet – some even
anointed their lines with heron guts.
In Celtic mythology herons had been seen as
messengers of the Gods and of superior intelligence
but when under attack herons tend to take evasive
action rather than fight back which led to a reputation
for cowardice. Legend has it that a young Edward III
was goaded into war with France, (the beginning of
the Hundred Years War), when the exiled Robert of
Artois served roast heron at the King’s table. Clever
or cowardly herons can certainly be ruthless as
anyone who has seen them take ducklings can testify
– herons like their dinner to be dead and will often
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