The Works of Charlotte Smith

Romantic

“…The attitudes of the birds are stiff and forced, and without their natural accompaniments … Their formal or awkward appearances, when stuffed or set on wires, always convey to my mind ideas of the sufferings of the poor birds when they were caught and killed, and the disagreeable operations of embowelling and drying them. 64 Mrs Talbot identifies two related problems with displays of taxidermy. One is ethical: taxidermy reminds one of the death and 'sufferings' of the creatures portrayed, as well as the indignities inflicted on their bodies.…”

“…What time these fossil shells, Buoy'd on their native element, were thrown Among the imbedding calx: when the huge hill Its giant bulk heaved. 110 themselves, even if they were to open up dangerous possibilities. As in 'The Swallow', Smith asks natural-philosophical questions only to draw back from them as 'but conjecture / Food for vain theories, or vain dispute'.…”