Crabtree's tale: early life and background
Little was known of Crabtree’s origins other than rumours that he and a twin sister had been born in secret in a north London asylum, to which a wicked Lord Percival had committed Crabtree's mother, who died in labour.
Some years later young Samuel's father, a drunken tanner from Nottingham, looked on in inebriated indifference as Sir Reginald Sleeping, having casually encountered Crabtree at the city's goose fair and thoroughly impressed by the boy’s natural wit and intelligence, took the lad into his service as cabin boy aboard HMS Basset, which was shortly to set sail for India on her maiden voyage.
Upon arrival in the subcontinent Sir Reginald requested that Crabtree should become his personal dogsbody on a scientific expedition to the Thar desert in Rajasthan. There, Sleeping was to study the khejri (Prosopis cineraria) tree, a bountiful drought-resistant legume that was known to enhance soil fertility and reverse the onset of the desert in extremely dry regions.
Sleeping had been commissioned by the Royal Geographical Society to lead a team of non-naturist scientists from all disciplines to investigate the possible transfer of khejri trees from India to the Libyan desert in Sudan, where William Gladstone’s government was planning to establish plantations of cabbages, cauliflowers and Brussels sprouts. The implications of transplanting the khejri were resounding. Should the cultivation of Brassicaceae be possible, the British government would thus be able to deliver a severe blow to French designs to become the first world power to provide their troops with daily greens, a victory that would prove a morale-boosting milestone in England’s mission to dominate Africa.
The Empire builders were of course aware that the water requirements of such veg were unlikely to be fulfilled in the arid conditions of northern Sudan. They therefore contracted the services of Pieter Martens, a civil engineer from Ghent, who at the time was working on the construction of the Suez Canal under Ferdinand de Lesseps, the famous Belgian engineer whose public prominence and salary Martens greatly envied. The British government planned to build a series irrigation canals from Dongola on the river Nile to Akashah, the site chosen for thwarting French colonial ambitions in Africa.
But enough of ag(g)ro-political history and back to Crabtree
Upon arrival in the subcontinent Sir Reginald requested that Crabtree should become his personal dogsbody on a scientific expedition to the Thar desert in Rajasthan. There, Sleeping was to study the khejri (Prosopis cineraria) tree, a bountiful drought-resistant legume that was known to enhance soil fertility and reverse the onset of the desert in extremely dry regions.
Sleeping had been commissioned by the Royal Geographical Society to lead a team of non-naturist scientists from all disciplines to investigate the possible transfer of khejri trees from India to the Libyan desert in Sudan, where William Gladstone’s government was planning to establish plantations of cabbages, cauliflowers and Brussels sprouts. The implications of transplanting the khejri were resounding. Should the cultivation of Brassicaceae be possible, the British government would thus be able to deliver a severe blow to French designs to become the first world power to provide their troops with daily greens, a victory that would prove a morale-boosting milestone in England’s mission to dominate Africa.
The Empire builders were of course aware that the water requirements of such veg were unlikely to be fulfilled in the arid conditions of northern Sudan. They therefore contracted the services of Pieter Martens, a civil engineer from Ghent, who at the time was working on the construction of the Suez Canal under Ferdinand de Lesseps, the famous Belgian engineer whose public prominence and salary Martens greatly envied. The British government planned to build a series irrigation canals from Dongola on the river Nile to Akashah, the site chosen for thwarting French colonial ambitions in Africa.
But enough of ag(g)ro-political history and back to Crabtree
posted by Bob @ 7:16 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home