Timothy the Tortoise

‘It hobbles towards its benefactress.’ Linocut by Christopher Brown 2020.

Ringmer, north of Glynebourne had a most distinguished resident He was Timothy the Tortoise, who takes pride of place on the village sign beside the green. He belonged to Mrs Rebecca Snooke, who lived at Delves House and was the aunt of the naturalist Gilbert White who took a great interest in the pet’s habits when he paid visits. Mrs Snooke had originally purchased Timothy from a sailor in Chichester harbour.

Village sign beside the green. This stained glass windows in St Mary’s Church, Selborne, commemorates Gilbert White by portraying aspects of the nature he spent his life observing. This roundel depicts pondlife and White’s pet tortoise.

John Nash: Colour lithograph, The Natural History of Selborne with Drawings by John Nash, John Lewis, Lutterworth Press 1951.

White recorded: ‘I was much taken with its sagacity in discerning those that do it kind offices; for as soon as the good old lady comes in sight who has waited on it for more than 30 years it hobbles towards its benefactress with awkward alacrity, but remains inattentive to strangers.

‘Thus not only the ox knoweth its owner, and the ass his master’s crib, but the most abject reptile and torpid of beings distinguishes the hand that feeds it, and is touched with the feelings of gratitude.’

Image of naturalist Gilbert White derived from a colourised sketch.

In April 1780 the aged Timothy went to live with White at Selborne in Hampshire, being carried the 80 miles in post chaises which apparently perked him up enough to do two laps of the garden when he arrived.

Letter to Daines Barrington. Selborne, Aril 21st, 1780.

‘The old Sussex tortoise, that I have mentioned to you so often, is become my property. I dug it out of its winter dormitory in March last, when it was enough awakened to express its resentments by hissing; and, packing it in a box with earth, carried it eighty miles in post-chaises. The rattle and hurry of the journey so perfectly roused it that, when I turned it out on a border, it walked twice down to the bottom of my garden; however, in the evening the weather being cold, it buried itself in the loose mould, and continues still concealed.’

Eric Fitch-Daglish: The Tortoise in the Garden, The Natural History of Selborne, E M Nicholson, Thornton Butterworth Ltd. 1929.

‘This hot weather makes the tortoise so alert that he traverses all the garden by six o’clock in the morning. When the sun grows very powerful he retires under a garden mat, or the shelter of some cabbage; not loving to be about in vehement heat. In such weather he eats greedily.’      GW 16^th June 1782.

Eric Ravilious: The Tortoise in the Kitchen Garden. The Writings of Gilbert White, H G Massingham, The Nonesuch Press, 1938.

‘The tortoise took his usual ramble, & could not be confined within the limits of the garden. His pursuits, which seem to be of the amorous kind, transport him beyond the bounds of his usual gravity at this season. He was missing for some days, but found at last near the upper malt-house.’    GW 5^th June 1787.

The shell of Timothy, a female spur-thighed tortoise which was Gilbert White’s pet, can be seen on display in the Natural History Museum’s.

Timothy remained at Selborne and died in 1794, the year following White’s own death. his shell was preserved at the British Museum. According to the Natural History Museum, after her death, Timothy was identified as having been a girl tortoise all along.

Gilbert White’s Natural History of Selborne has been continuously in print since its first publication in 1789. It was long held to be the fourth-most published book in the English language after the Bible, the works of Shakespeare and John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Top left: John Nash, The Tortoise 1947. Left centre: Claire Oldham, Tortoise, wood engraving, The Natural History of Selborne, James Fisher, Cresset Press, 1947.  Left bottom: Alice Pattullo, Timothy, screenprint 2020. Right: Emily Sutton, Tortoise, watercolour and pencil 2020.

The star of this show is undoubtedly Timothy but it would be amiss not to point you to information re Gilbert White himself which is best served by Wikipedia :-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_White

Graham Bennison https://www.facebook.com/BennisonArtist  ………with the help of :-

Much of the inspiration for this blog came from ‘Drawn to Nature, Gilbert White and the Artists.’ Simon Martin, Pallant House Gallery 2021. Not forgetting – The Natural History of Selborne, Gilbert White, introduced by James Lovelock, illustrated by Eric Ravilious, Little Tolller Books 2014. Gilbert White: the modern naturalist | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)

Sylvia Townsend Warner has extracted from the writings of Gilbert White references to the old tortoise he inherited in 1780 from his aunt.