[ { "id": 215257, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 34, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "Heligan, and the Eden Project) with a particular reference to an Asian Connection. This visit is being co-ordinated by one of our members Mrs. Penny Byrne who lives in Fowey and to whom we are particularly grateful. This will be followed by our own A.G.M in late May at SOAS and then by a talk by David Mahoney on the subject 'Awards to Britons in China'. David has been collecting medals for some 50 years, and now specialises in medals to Britons who lived and worked in China. If any Hong Kong member is in the U.K. at these times please make yourselves known to any member of the committee.\n\nFinally I would like to pay thanks to all members of the Friends' Committee, who keep us on the road, i.e. Mrs. Rosemary Lee and Mrs. Anita Wilson (Events Organisers), Mr. Paul Bolding (Secretary), Mr. Roger Chandler (Treasurer), Ms Kirsty Norman, Mr. David Mahoney and Mr. Keith Stevens (Committee Members). It is very heartening to have such support for what we are trying to achieve.\n\nDAVID GILKES (CHAIRMAN)\n\nMarch 2002\n\nxxxi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215629, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 406, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "357\n\nFRIENDS OF THE HKBRAS TRIP TO CORNWALL\n\nKIRSTY NORMAN\n\nIn April 2002, 25 members of the Friends of the RAS Hong Kong Branch took part in the group's first Monday-Friday organised tour, thanks to the excellent teamwork and organisation of Anita Wilson, Rosemary Lee and Penny Byrne.\n\nThe group visited six gardens in eastern Cornwall, in order to look specifically at oriental planting, and the connections between Cornwall and the early plant hunters. Given the county's place in the history of early oriental plant introductions, there are many gardens to choose from, but in this choice we were fortunate to have the help of the remarkable Maggie Campbell-Culver, author of the recently published and well received The Origin of Plants and previously in charge of the gardens at Mount Edgcumbe, and also her husband Michael Culver. Both had become close friends of Penny Byrne and her husband Tim Heald while neighbours in Fowey. Maggie's love of her subject, and her instinctive ability to strike a balance between educating us and allowing us to roam made her a very popular guide and companion.\n\nThe group met in Fowey on the Monday, visited two gardens a day for three days, and dispersed on the Friday. The trip also included that essential of a Friends outing, good Chinese food, in the form of two fine dinners organised by Penny. Gardens visited were Trewithen, Pine Lodge, Tregrehan, Heligan, Caerhays, and also the Eden Project, though Eden is perhaps more of a phenomenon than a garden.\n\nThe great Cornish gardens we now know were, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the testing grounds for what was to become a veritable torrent of newly discovered plant material, much of it being brought or sent back from China, Japan, Korea and the Himalayas. The way was paved by men like Major General Thomas Hardwicke (1755-1835) of the Bengal Artillery, who brought the first Himalayan rhododendron to Britain in the early 19th century. Discoveries were made by missionaries such as Père Armand David and Père Jean Delavay in the late 19th century, but it was in the early 20th century when professional explorer-collectors such as Ernest Wilson, George Forrest, Frank Kingdom Ward, and Reginald Farrer began systematic", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215631, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 408, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "359\n\nunusual downward-hanging flowers with nine pure white petals, and rich red stamens, and also found a large specimen of the quite rare Michelia doltsopa, also with rich white, scented flowers. A Metasequoia glyptostroboides gave us one of many chances to benefit from Maggie's knowledge, and showed again how recent so much of our knowledge is. The tree was spotted in 1941 by a forester in Sichuan who, being unable to identify it sent leaves to Beijing. By extraordinary coincidence, a Japanese palaeobotanist was working on three-million-year-old fossils of the same tree, thought to be long extinct, and in 1946 the connection was made between the two. Like the Ginkgo biloba, therefore, this is a fossil survival - and whereas it is struggling to survive in its remote Sichuan valley, thanks to gardens like this it is actually thriving in Britain, and is now widely available. This was a theme we came across in several gardens: British horticulture feeding plants back to their original countries.\n\nHeligan is now one of the best known gardens in Britain, thanks to the televising of its restoration. Its 80 acres had almost disappeared into jungly luxuriance thanks to some 70 years of neglect, and were only \"re-discovered\" in 1990 thanks to a conversation in the pub at St. Ewe between its new owner John Willis, and one Tim Smit (now Director of the Eden Project). The gardens as we see them now are the design commissioned from Thomas Gray by Henry Hawkins Tremayne in 1780, and the last major planting was done before the First World War. Of the 22 gardeners then, all signed up; two thirds were killed, and none returned. The Tremayne family had six houses, and moved to Crone Manor, leaving Heligan tenanted but the gardens neglected, and the rest, as they say, is history.\n\nWe were taken around Heligan by Colin Howlett, whose familiarity with the project since its inception gave us a wonderful insight into its work. Many of the early plantings still visible are the results of Joseph Hooker's 1848-1850 collecting in Sikkim, which were distributed by himself and by Kew almost immediately on his return: 23 of the rhododendrons at Heligan are Hooker plantings, as is the Crinodendron, and the Magnolia campbellii collected by him is now the largest of the magnolias at 60 feet in height. Thanks to the long neglect of the gardens, however, many of the rhododendrons have hybridised, with the result that Heligan now has the job of identifying and naming many new hybrids; this is also true of its camellias.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215632, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 409, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "360\n\nAlthough nothing to do with oriental planting, I think we all hugely enjoyed the Productive Gardens, from the story of the gardeners' tools of 1914 still found hanging in ruined sheds, to seeing a working Pineapple House (heated to 120F with rotting manure, through honeycomb brickwork walls) and the last original Paxton vinehouse. Every detail was thought through by the 19th century gardeners, from the use of cobble drains taking water to a central cistern, to the “beavertail” glass panes in the greenhouses, which direct the water away from the wooden frames. Gardening was not just art and a spade: it was science and engineering too, and only 100 years later we are scrambling to rescue that knowledge.\n\nAt Pine Lodge we had the pleasure of being guided by co-owner Raymond Clemo. Pine Lodge is unusual in that it is a much more recently created garden. In the mid-1970s, the Clemos were persuaded to open their then much smaller garden for a day, to raise funds for a hospice. More than 2,000 people turned up, and the garden has been expanding and opening to the public ever since. The Clemos are still buying land, and adding to the garden, the most recent addition being a field now planted as an arboretum. Its recent creation has not changed the tradition of oriental connections: 20 years ago Clemo saw an advertisement placed in the RHS magazine by a young man who wanted to go plant collecting in the Himalayas, and sent him a cheque. Pine Lodge now houses many of Chris Chadwell's introductions, and the relationship between Cornwall and the plant hunters continues. Students have now come to work at the gardens, including several from Japan, who have helped Clemo to create a replica of a traditional garden from Kyoto. Seeds were also contributed by colleagues at the Kyoto Botanical Gardens.\n\nOne of the most enjoyable aspects of Pine Lodge is its intimacy: it started small, and its most mature areas are the original densely planted mixed borders of shrubs, bulbs, and perennials, and its ponds and other water features, rather than its woodland gardens of huge rhododendrons, conifers, etc. Although the planting may be more exotic than most, its style is more familiar, and closer to something those of us with small gardens can aim for.\n\nThe Eden Project was a very different experience. Eden clearly has a manifesto, which is to educate, and our guide was a true evangelist.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215633, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 410, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "361\n\nThe Mediterranean and Tropical biomes are not planted in order to try to recreate sections of those floras in toto, but more to provide examples for the message, which is an understanding of the importance of biodiversity. And unlike the other gardens where plants are grown to perform at their best, Eden grows them to perform \"to type\"; e.g. rhododendrons are grown on the rather scrubby soil they would have in the wild, which in Cornwall of all places provides a great contrast in results and was interesting to us in particular. However, as Tim Smit himself has admitted, conditions in the biomes are still not \"real\": tropical trees are growing far faster and with smaller root systems, for lack of any wind or storms, for instance. And at the moment, insects are excluded, so that the staff must actually play God, and pollinate plants by hand.\n\nIf our guide was typical, the staff at Eden are genuinely convinced of the value of their work: he was hugely enthusiastic, (and rather frighteningly asked if he could read my notes, so that he could see which parts of his tour had come across best) and we were booked for the full tour, encompassing both biomes. Eden is the biggest event in Cornwall, and suffers a little from its success in that it is rather impersonal, but it is hugely impressive and very well organised. Maggie, who knows its creator Tim Smit, said that she felt that they were learning as they went along, and that having established an educational base they may move on now to more academic research in order to ensure the project's long-term interest and value. Some research is already carried out, particularly into the plant diversity of the Oceanic islands, and Eden also propagates examples of rare plants, such as Impatiens gordonii, of which only 250 examples remain in the wild, in the Seychelles. A more unexpected aspect of Eden was the amount of modern sculpture installed about the site. In the Humid Tropics biome, a \"shimenawa\" has been hung above the rice exhibit area by two Japanese artists: a huge swag of rice straw signifying a sacred space in the Shinto religion.\n\nTregrehan is run by Tom Hudson, himself a modern-day plant collector, though as a native New Zealander, his collecting comes not only from the Far East, but much of the southern hemisphere as well. At first glance it is a very traditional landscape of walled gardens and woodland walks, but one soon descends into a tree-shaded valley where the garden makes a radical departure into planting from the landmasses", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215744, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 43, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "the Friends' Committee, particularly to Mrs Rosemary Lee and Mrs Anita Wilson, Events Organisers. Other active members are Mr Paul Bolding (Secretary), Mr Roger Chandler (Treasurer), Mrs Kirsty Norman, Mr Keith Stevens and Mr David Mahoney. The last of these will be retiring this year and we would like to thank him for his past support and particularly for last year's Annual General Meeting Lecture.\n\nThe Friends normally meet once a quarter in London on a Saturday at the School of Oriental Studies. There is a Chinese lunch gathering followed by a lecture [Hon. Ed. - Suggest you consider doing it the other way around!]. Once a year there could be a week-end away. In the last year Friends started its programme (April 2002) with a very successful week to Cornwall, when around 25 members visited the well known Gardens (Caerhayes, Trewithen, Pine Lodge, Heligan and the Eden Project) with particular reference to the Asian connection; a very sincere thanks to Mrs Penny Byrne who co-ordinated this.\n\nThe programme continued with a very well informed lecture by Mr David Mahoney on Awards to Britons in China. David has been collecting medals for some 50 years, some of which he brought to the meeting; the lecture was illustrated with slides which showed the extent of the awards systems to Britons who served in China in the 19th and 20th centuries.\n\nIn September 2002 the Friends were fortunate to benefit from a visit to the United Kingdom by Dr Elizabeth Sinn, who gave a talk entitled The Ultimate Return: Transhipment of Chinese Migrants' Bones to the Native Village and Hong Kong's Role in the Chinese Diaspora. This was a fascinating insight into the methods and motives as to why the Chinese living in America transported bones of relatives and friends back to China in the 19th Century.\n\nMore recently, (February 2003) the Friends held their Annual Chinese New Year lunch at the Joy King Lau Chinese Restaurant in Leicester Street, London. Around 50 members attended to welcome in the Year of the Ram, of whom six were new members.\n\nFor the future the Friends are looking forward to the Annual General Meeting (17th May 2003), when Dr Frances Wood, Curator of Chinese Collections at the British Library will be the speaker on Marco\n\nxxxiv", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]