A Natural History of Dragons by Sir Richard Edgeworth
Author: Sir Richard Edgeworth
Publisher: Carringdon & Rudge
Source book: A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent (The Memoirs of Lady Trent #1) by Marie Brennan
Isabella’s father, Sir Daniel Hendemore, gives her Gotherham’s Avian Anatomy to read when she is seven. Much to her mother’s horror, she was discovered dissecting a bird to find what the wishbone was for. Sir Daniel probably wants to prevent another incident and has no idea he is fostering a lifelong interest in wildlife, and particularly dragons.
A Natural History of Dragons is the first book Isabella Hendemore ever reads about dragons. She spots a reprint listed in the Carringdon & Rudge autumn catalogue and strategically leaves the page open on her father’s desk. She then has to wait for her father to order the book, and of course read it himself, before she is able to borrow it (without, she thinks, him noticing: the study of dragons is not a suitable pastime for girls). She reads it four times in a row. Sir Richard gathers his information about dragons by corresponding with missionaries and traders, rather than first hand observation.
Isabella and her husband Jacob Camherst, together with Lord Hilford and Mr Wilker, travel to the mountainous region of Vystrana in search of dragons. They plan a scientific investigation and Isabella is to draw any dragons they discover.
Lady Hannah Spring’s plight, mentioned in passing as publishing books of poetry but pretending they weren’t her work, gives you an idea of just how determined Isabella is in publishing her first book: A Journey to the Mountains of Vystrana. At least travel writing is almost considered a suitable subject for ladies to tackle. Years later, writing her autobiography (A Natural History of Dragons is a book within a book; the first part of her autobiography), Isabella tells us she is embarrassed at how bad her book is. ‘It is a worse piece of drivel than Mr Condale’s Wandering in Central Anthiope’.
A more recent book, written when Isabella’s notoriety means anything she writes will sell well, is Sketches from the Vystrany Highlands. This includes sketches she made when visiting Draconian ruins near the village of Drustanev: the double gateway is decorated with a dragon-headed winged god.
Also mentioned are Reliques of Vystrani Wisdom by David Parnell which includes the story of a king who made a pact with a demon because he wanted to become a dragon. Obviously the demon failed to fulfill his end of the bargain and the king ends off half man, half dragon and mad to boot; and Methods of Cavern Formation in a Variety of Environments by Mr Pegshaw [it sounds gripping!].
Isabella has also written De draconum varietatibus.
Isabella mentions fiction only as an aside. She is scathing in her attitude towards Mrs Watree’s insufferable three-volume novel, and admits to reading The Terrible Thirst of Var Kolak by Mr Wallace, but only at the insistence of her friend Manda.
And finally, something over a year after the expedition returns from Vystrana, this book is published: Concerning the Rock-Wyrms of Vystrana, Their Anatomy, Biology, and Activity, with Particular Attention to Their Relation with Humans, and the Revelation of Mourning Behaviour by Jacob Camherst and others. It has a green leather binding.
I read A Natural History of Dragons at the same time as the wonderful The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Dr Steve Brusatte. That wasn’t confusing at all!
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| Both images: thanks to the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History |
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