E. W. Swanton and mycology at Haslemere Educational Museum

It was about this time last year that I took myself off to Kew for the British Mycological Society's Autumn Meeting, where I picked up this book:

'Fungi and How to Know Them' by E. W. Swanton. Written in 1909.

It was the title that first grabbed my attention. Because it speaks to the question that must be on the mind of anyone beginning to get interested in fungi: how do I even do this? Fungi are so weird, so ephemeral, so difficult to identify. How does anyone get to know them?

And then I saw that the preface was written in Haslemere, where I grew up. At the Educational Museum, next door to the house I grew up in. And I had to have it.

It's been mentioned on this blog before that it was through Haslemere Educational Museum that I got my first introduction to fungi, on a fungal foray with the mycologist Audrey Thomas. It left an indelible impression on me and I vividly recall leaving mushrooms outside on the garden table, in the hope of getting a spore print, only to return some time later to a table writhing with maggots: an experience both fascinating and horrifying. But then other interests took over and somehow 25 years went past before I started properly looking at fungi again.

Audrey Thomas instructing a school party, a bit before my time. Reproduced from A Country Museum Revisited.

Arthur Jewell was the curator in my day and I was an enthusiastic member of Museum Club, where I remember learning about spiders and looking at frogs; and marvelling at the plant table.

Exhibit of wild flowers, July 1946. Which is pretty much exactly how I remember it looking in 1986. Reproduced from A Country Museum.

Mr. Jewell was a great naturalist and educator, in his sixties by the time I knew him; and something of an authority on Liverworts, having published the Observer's Book of Mosses and Liverworts. He was the third curator of Haslemere Educational Museum, having taken over the post from John Clegg in 1962.

Arthur Jewell, exactly how I remember him. Reproduced from A Country Museum Revisited.

E.W. Swanton had been the first curator: a post he held for over 50 years, from 1897 to 1948. Mr. Jewell had worked at the museum as a younger man, in the early 1950's, so I imagine he must have known E. W. Swanton, then only recently retired.

E. W. Swanton was a very eminent mycologist in his time (he became president of the British Mycological Society in 1916). He writes in a very engaging style and his book must have been popular as the copy I picked up is a second edition. Of a generation when women were effectively barred from participating in the scientific discourse relating to mycology (for more on that, read this Brainpickings article on Beatrix Potter), Swanton made a particular point of acknowledging his "great indebtedness" to his friend Miss M. K. Spittal for her excellent illustrations. I can find very little about Miss M. K. Spittal but she must have been a great naturalist herself, as her illustrations are beautifully observed.

E. W. Swanton does a terrific job of explaining the biology and ecology of fungi. In a chapter on 'methods of spores dispersal' he reflects on the roles that slugs, snails and various insects, and the birds which prey upon them, must have in the dispersal of spores and changes in species' distributions. Clearly his interest does not start and end just with fungi, as is perhaps the trend in some modern books; Swanton takes great interest in the complex interactions that fungi have with the rest of nature.

His writing is punctuated with wonderfully pithy tales and anecdotes illustrating the awesomeness of fungi, from the "phosphorescence in Fomes annosus growing on timber in the Cardiff coal-mines" to "old records of fungi occurring on iron which had been red hot only a few hours previously".

I find Swanton's observations on the economic importance of fungi particularly fascinating, as he gathers tremendously specific facts about how fungi are used in the vicinity of Haslemere. This is a theme that he expanded upon in a paper in Transactions of the British Mycological Society on 'Economic and Folklore Notes' where he describes how, "until quite recently", King Alfred's Cakes Daldinia concentrica were carried by "old men in the 'fold' district of West Surrey and Sussex as a safeguard against cramp"; how the custom of keeping a Giant Puffball Calvatia gigantea in your cottage for use as a styptic [i.e. to stop bleeding when applied to a wound] "still lingers but is rapidly dying out". And how Cushion Bracket "Fomes [=Phellinus] pomaceus has a reputation about Lurgashall and other West Sussex villages as a poultice for a swollen face." It's scarcely more than 100 years since Swanton made those observations but it's hard now to imagine the people of Haslemere and surrounding villages having such an intimate relationship with the fungi that grow around them.

But my absolute favourite section of the book is that which describes the autumnal exhibition of fungi at the Haslemere Educational Museum. Probably because it transports me back to Museum Club with old Arthur Jewell, where nature tables would be piled high and exhibits thoroughly examined. Swanton describes how "specimens are arranged in a long, roomy, and well-lighted shed" and adds that "by keeping the windows and doors open, and placing pans of charcoal about, the smell which always emanates from a large collection of fungi is not very pronounced". "'Eggs' of Stinkhorn fungi are embedded in damp sand, and placed on a ledge outside a closed window." He also notes that "many young friends are zealous in keeping the exhibition going, bringing in large consignments on half-holidays". What fine times those must have been for budding mycologists!

Swanton must have had great skill in engaging the youngsters of Haslemere in learning about natural history, as he recounts in his book A Country Museum the great enthusiasm there was about the town for sitting museum examinations, giving rise to my favourite index entry of all time.

For information on "Examinations, zeal for," see page 48 of A Country Museum.

The second part of Swanton's book is essentially an identification guide to mushrooms and other fungi, with illustrations by Miss M. K. Spittal. The descriptions are interesting but rather difficult to navigate due to considerable changes in taxonomy since Swanton's book was published. It very helpfully provides some explanation as to the derivation of the scientific names, making them easy to remember. (Many of the 'common names' for fungi which we're familiar with now are modern contrivances which didn't exist in Swanton's day).

E. W. Swanton in 1920, a couple of years before the second edition of Fungi and how to know them was published. Reproduced from A Country Museum.

Swanton was a keen forayer himself and notes of the Haslemere forays were written up in the Transactions of the British Mycological Society. They're worth a read if you enjoy a bit of riding around in carriages and being entertained to tea with your fungus foraying. I quite fancy re-creating the Autumn foray of 1932 when a journey was made by motor-bus to Cocking and members took shelter from the rain in Charlton Forest, where they encountered an abundance of Garlic Parachute Marasmius alliceus.

The Haslemere Foray, 1913. E. W. Swanton is on the right hand end of the front row. (Reproduced from the Transactions of the British Mycological Society.)

E. W. Swanton's legacy lived on, after his retirement, as Haslemere Educational Museum continued as a centre for mycological studies. I love this photo of Dr. J. R. Ramsbottom "on one of his many courses on fungi at the museum" circa 1955. It makes me feel better about my own microscope set-up, as I at least have an angle-poise lamp. John Ramsbottom was also president of the British Mycological Society, in 1924, a few years after E. W. Swanton.

Dr. J. R. Ramsbottom, on one of his many fungi courses. Reproduced from A Country Museum Revisited.

Still today, the Haslemere Natural History Society continues the tradition, organising fungus forays as part of its programme of field meetings (albeit with less riding around in carriages and taking tea than in E. W. Swanton's day). And I hope to join the West Weald Fungus Recording Group on its foray at Swan Barn Farm, Haslemere, next Thursday.


If anyone reading this has any further information about E. W. Swanton and the history of mycology at Haslemere Educational Museum, I'd love to hear from you. I feel that he must have been someone I would have liked to know.

 
Acknowledgements & References

I would like to extend my thanks to Dr. June Chatfield who was kind enough to share with me her researches into the life of E. W. Swanton when I visited her at Haslemere Museum, and who provided me with access to the Museum's wonderful library.

And belated thanks to Arthur Jewell and Audrey Thomas, for igniting an interest in natural history and mycology.

Anon, 1913, The Haslemere foray: 22nd to the 27th September, 1913, URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0007-1536(12)80022-2
Ainsworth, G. C., 1987, British Mycologists: 2. E. W. Swanton (1870–1958), URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0269-915X(87)80119-2
Ainsworth, G. C., 1994, British Mycologists: John Ramsbottom (1885–1974), URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0269-915X(09)80684-8
Chatfield, J., 2016, The Plant Table at Haslemere Museum, Country-Side [Journal of the British Naturalists' Association]
Haslemere Educational Museum, 1995, A Country Museum Revisited
Swanton, E. W., 1914–1916, Economic and Folklore Notes, URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0007-1536(14)80040-5
Swanton, E. W., 1947, A Country Museum
Wakefield, E.M., 1932, The Haslemere Foray September 19th to 24th 1932, URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0007-1536(33)80021-0