Thurs 1st Aug 6:30pm £10
Dr Sara Lodge, author of ‘Inventing Edward Lear’ and curator of our current Exhibition ‘The Nature of Friendship’ shares her research on the relationship between the nonsense poet and artist Edward Lear and the zoologist Thomas Bell here in the village of Selborne. The two men collaborated on Bell’s History of British Quadrupeds, to which Lear contributed charming illustrations, and later on Bell’s Monograph of the Testudinata (Tortoises and Turtles), for which Lear supplied brilliantly characterful lithographs. The talk will explore this partnership and friendship drawing on Lodge’s research on how these two energetic, enquiring Victorians spent their time together, sharing Lear’s nonsense songs, experimental botany, and even discussing colour photography.