The Ecology of British Romantic Conservatism, 1790–1837

225 Pages·2013·1.723 MB·English

by  Katey Castellano (auth.)

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Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
The Ecology of British
Romantic Conservatism,
1790– 1837
Katey Castellano
Associate Professor, James Madison University, USA
Palgrave
macmillan
© Katey Castellano 2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-35419-8
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First published 2013 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-46992-5 ISBN 978-1-137-35420-4 (eBook)
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Contents
List of Figures vi
Acknowledgements vii
List of Abbreviations ix
Introduction: Conservatism and the Intergenerational
Imagination 1
Part I Imagination
1 Intergenerational Imagination in Edmund Burke’s
Reflections on the Revolution in France 15
2 “Their graves are green”: Conservation in
Wordsworth’s Epitaphic Ballads 37
Part II Habitation
3 Thomas Bewick’s A History of British Birds and
the Politics of the Miniature 65
4 Conservation or Catastrophe: Reflexive
Regionalism in Maria Edgeworth’s Irish Tales 91
5 Subsistence as Resistance: William Cobbett’s
Food Politics 113
6 Anthropomorphism and the Critique of Liberal
Rights in John Clare’s Enclosure Elegies 141
Epilogue 163
Notes 169
Bibliography 197
Index 211
v
List of Figures
3.1 “The Newcastle Arms on a Boundary Stone,”
engraving for the title page of the History of British Birds:
Land Birds (1797). Courtesy of the Rare Book
and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania 75
3.2 “Winnowing Corn in a Farmyard,” engraving from the
introduction to History of British Birds: Land Birds (1797).
Courtesy of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
University of Pennsylvania 77
3.3 “The Beggar and his Dog at the Rich Man’s Gate,”
tailpiece engraving from History of British Birds: Water
Birds (1804). Courtesy of the Rare Book and Manuscript
Library, University of Pennsylvania 81
3.4 Tailpiece engraving from History of British Birds: Water
Birds (1804). Courtesy of the Rare Book and Manuscript
Library, University of Pennsylvania 88
vi
Acknowledgements
Many people and institutions have provided assistance and encour-
agement during the development and writing of this book. My interest
in Romantic conservatism began during my graduate studies at Duke
University. I owe a great debt to my dissertation advisor, Thomas Pfau,
who challenged me to pursue my intellectual interests in conserva-
tism. Thanks are also due to Rob Mitchell, who encouraged my early
ideas about the environmental implications of conservatism. Other
faculty and fellow students at Duke supported my work and sharpened
my thinking: Monique Allewaert, Ian Baucom, Max Brzezinski, Nihad
Farooq, Cara Hersh, and Susan Thorne. My dissertation focused on
the aesthetics of Romantic conservatism. This book is a new project
that was written during my years at James Madison University, where
colleagues supported my research by reading chapter drafts and offer-
ing encouragement and knowledgeable guidance: Dabney Bankert,
Dawn Goode, Laura Lewis, Chris Morris, Mark Parker, and Siân White
have my gratitude. Thanks are also due to the generous community of
scholars at the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism
and the International Conference on Romanticism, where I presented
drafts of several chapters. In particular I am indebted to the intellectual
generosity and acumen of Ron Broglio, David L. Clark, David Collings,
Allison Dushane, Elizabeth Fay, Michael Gamer, Noah Heringman,
Scott Hess, Kevin Hutchings, Nick Mason, and Scott McEathron.
Ghislaine McDayter, John Rickard, and Harold Schweizer offered
insightful suggestions after a presentation at Bucknell University.
For their guidance in shaping the book, I thank the editors of
Palgrave Studies in the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Cultures
of Print, Anne Mellor and Clifford Siskin. The detailed, thoughtful
suggestions of the anonymous reviewers made this a more coherent,
carefully argued book. Many thanks are also due to commissioning
editor Ben Doyle and his assistant Sophie Ainscough for their patient
direction through the publishing process. John Pollack, Lynne
Farrington, and Elton Torres at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
University of Pennsylvania assisted with my research. The engravings
from Thomas Bewick’s History of British Birds appear in this book due
vii
viii Acknowledgements
to their assistance and kind permission. Research materials were also
provided by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript
Library, Duke University, and the Albert and Shirley Small Special
Collections Library, University of Virginia. I am most grateful to the
librarians at James Madison University’s Carrier Library, who tire-
lessly facilitated my access to research materials. Without the support
of Pete Bsumek, I would have been unable to complete this project;
his criticism of the chapters sharpened the arguments, and the inter-
generational optimism that stirs his activism inspires me.
Portions of the material in the introduction and first and second
chapters originally appeared in “Romantic Conservation in Burke,
Wordsworth, and Wendell Berry,” SubStance #125, 40.2 (2011): 7 3– 91.
© 2011 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
Excerpts are reproduced courtesy of University of Wisconsin Press.
List of Abbreviations
A Edgeworth, The Absentee
BB1 Bewick, History of British Birds: Land Birds, vol. 1
BB2 Bewick, History of British Birds: Water Birds, vol. 2
BH Clare, By Himself
CE Cobbett, Cottage Economy
CR Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent
E Edgeworth, Ennui
HQ Bewick, History of Quadrupeds
LB Wordsworth and Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads
M Bewick, Memoir
O Edgeworth, Ormond
PW Wordsworth, Prose Works
R Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
SW Hazlitt, Selected Writing
TPR Paine, The Paine Reader
ix