One hundred years ago Edward Thomas searched for the first signs of spring on a journey from London to Somerset
Finding any hint of springtime sounds like a forlorn hope this month, but exactly a hundred years ago the naturalist Edward Thomas searched for the first signs of spring on a journey he made on foot and cycle from his home in Clapham, London, to the Quantock Hills in Somerset. The record of that journey was published in a classic natural history and travel book, In Pursuit of Spring, describing the birds, spring flowers and weather.
“The wind blew and the sun shone over London. A myriad roofs laughed together in the light ... The clouds did honour to the city,