Cowslip's Warren,

in Summer 1987.

Looking towards Frith Copse, site of Cowslip's warren.

From chapter 13, 'Hospitality':       '...the ditch and trees curved back again in a re-entrant, so that the field formed a bay with a bank running all the way round.... In the bank on the further side of the bay the rabbit-holes were plain to see, showing dark and distinct in the bare ground. It was as conspicuous a warren as could be imagined.'

It can be quite difficult to accurately locate some sites in a single visit. This photograph shows Frith Copse, or at least I think it does. There is no easy public access to this warren site and though this is a 'best guess' it cannot be far away, no more than a couple of hundred yards. If anything the warren lies just off to the left of this photograph. One day I shall have to sort this out. Access is along a series of field edges and gaps in the hedges like those below.         These three photographs were shot on Ektachrome 200 film (E6 process), but unlike the film from my first visit, these were perfectly processed by Dave Blunden in Bournemouth. He runs a very successful advertising and industrial photography and professional processing business; he does not do 'holiday snaps'. I used to help out from time during my school and university holidays. As the tod might have said: 'He's reet mazer wi'nlarger.'. Thanks Dave, for teaching me to try to get it right first time, every time.

Cowslip and his warren of snares was not part of the story Adams told his daughters ‘on the road to Stratford-on-Avon’, he added it on the spur of the moment as he was writing. Adams has stated the warren was not meant to signify anything, or meant to mean anything – it is just there.

Field edges and...

These two shots illustrate the beauty of agricultural southern England and the difficulty of getting to this warren site. They were taken with in a few hundred yards of Frith Copse, I had to creep along field boundaries such as on the left and through overgrown gaps in the hedges such as you can see on the right. The rabbits would have, once again, had an easier time of it. While I was negotiating the field edges I startled a fallow deer, I have the photo!

...hedgerow gaps typical of the area.

Could this be Hazel or Cowslip or even Strawberry?      'Hazel sat nibbling and biting, the rich, full, taste of the cultivated roots filling him with a wave of pleasure. he hopped about the grass, gnawing one piece after another...'      I have to come clean about this photo. It was actually taken on Primrose Hill in central London....

A wild rabbit on flayrah - well, he's almost wild!