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Jonathan Otley's
Concise Description of the English Lakes, 1823.
The transcription, and notes, are from the
Concise Description of the English Lakes, by Jonathan
Otley, 1823, published by the author, Simpkin and
Marshall, London, and Arthur Foster, Kirkby
Lonsdale, Westmorland, 5th edition, 1834. The copy used is
in a private collection.
source type: Otley 1823
Transcription
Deciding how to arrange a transcription in 'records'
which are destined to become html pages is not always
easy. Jonathan Otley's text is well structured in
sections with regular use of headings; but to match
previous efforts this transcript is made page by
page, ignoring the problems that a section or
sentence might be split across page breaks. The
original markers for the few footnotes are a star
(asterisk), which are replaced in the transcript by a
serial number within each page.
Somewhen, the text, at present in MODES records,
will migrate to xml. At this change the Text
Encoding Initiative (TEI) should be considered, though
that methodology is biased towards academic study
of 'Literature' rather than everyday text. TEI would
mark up the whole of Otley's text as one document,
the particular arrangement into pages for an edition
treated as a subsidiary feature. I need to have smaller
units as records, which will become html pages. The book
here is being treated as an object in its own right,
rather than a text which just happens to be in
a book.
Some of the exact typesetting has been ignored,
though italics and some characters are indicated using
html markup. Hyphenation across lines has been
removed, judging as well as I am able to retain the
hyphen where it likely belongs, comparing with the same
word elsewhere in the text if possible. A word split
across pages is left that way, but the beginning part of
the word is added as inferred data to its continuation on
the following page.
Peculiarities of spelling and grammar are preserved; they
might be confirmed by '(sic)', but not always: I have
typed and have proof read as accurately as I can.
Transcription rules are given in Topics.
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Text Indexing
Keywords for indexing the text have been recorded, as
well as I am able: mostly using today's placenames rather
than the text's version; recognising unnamed places
if possible; using locality type terms if nothing else
is possible, in particular trying to spot 'stations'
ie special viewpoints; indexing objects and topics only
if useful. Thus, I have tried to interpret and understand
the text to make the indexing helpful and comprehensible
in today's world; a basic rule is 'would you
want this page if you were searching with this keyword?'
The placename spellings of the text are put into the
Old Cumbria Gazetteer, where all sorts of spellings
are indexed. References to different rocks are mostly
indexed by the keyword geology, as I am not always able
to make a reliable interpretation of Otley's
rock names. Botanical names are indexed with
spellings standardsised to today's pattern, but no attempt
has been made to regularise the binomial to a modern term.
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placenames
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If Otley's placename is similar but not exactly the same,
index under the regularised form, eg:-
Crummock Water
for Crummock Lake.
If there is probably confusion, then add a locality term to
the placename, eg:-
Raven Crag, Longsleddale
using the place identifier in the standard gazetteer. For
streams this might appear as:-
Sour Milk Gill (2)
If Otley's placename is really different then record two
keywords, eg:-
Bleaberry Tarn (Burtness Tarn) &
Burtness Tarn
The first explains what the regularised term refers to, the
second indexes Otley's term which would otherwise be
unfindable.
Uncertainty is marked by an added detail:-
Tarn How (?)
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Gazetteer Extracts
Chunks of text relevant to each place are extracted and
gathered together, and loaded into the record for the place
in a gazetteer. This is much easier to use for a place
than searching through pages in the guide book; you can go
to the original text and read it all in context if you
wish. The gazetteer is arranged using standard
placename spellings, today's version of the placename,
but will be indexable on all sorts of spellings,
and by other place data. The gazetteer can also hold
extracts from other sources, and map square images,
including Jonathan Otley's map.
Not all keywords allocated to the text will prompt
a gazetteer entry. Some places in the text will
be unidentifiable some keywords are for other topics
than places, char, botanical species, rocks, etc.
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Stations
Jonathan Otley makes little formal use of 'stations'
as were proposed by Thomas West in his Guide to the
Lakes, 1778. Good viewpoints from which to appreciate a
view are suggested, and might be considered as stations.
The gazetteer entries, and indexing keywords, use the
term 'station' followed with a pertinent placename when
this seems a useful thing to do.
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Binomial Names
In his botanical notices, Jonathan Otley makes does not follow
the regular pattern of leading capitals that we
recognise today. In many instances he has a leading
capital for the Genus and not for the species, which is
now normal practice; but in the same paragraph he will
mix this with other styles. When a genus is repeated he
might or might not indicate this with a capital
letter abbreviation. I have followed his spelling
accurately, I hope. None of the variations are marked
by '(sic)'. The pattern of a leading capital for genus but
not for species is a recent convention. The preface
of Clapham, Tutin and Warburg, 1952, has:-
In the spelling of certain specific epithets it has been
customary to use an initial capital letter when the epithet
concerned is derived from a personal name or is a noun,
e.g. the name of another genus, or the pre-Linnean name
for the plant. This custom is not made obligatory by
the International Rules of Nomenclature but is mentioned in
a recommendation attached to these Rules. The use of
the initial capital has certain advantages; for instance
it conveys some information about the origin of the name
and explains the apparent lack of grammatical
agreement between a generic name and a specific epithet
which appears when written with a small initial letter to
be adjectival (e.g. Selinum Carvifolia). We found
upon inquiry, however, that many botanists in this
country prefer, as a matter of convenience, to drop
the initial capital. We have therefore adopted small
initial letters for all specific epithets in
the body of the book, but have indicated those which
are commonly spelled with capitals.
Jonathan Otley's botanical data is not ordered by
any obvious plan; not listed by species or place.
Clapham, A R & Tutin, T G & Warburg, E F: 1952: Flora of the
British Isles: Cambridge University Press
For indexing the modern style of spelling is used.
Gazetteer Extracts?
The botanical data is NOT used for gazetteer
extracts. Instead an attempt has been made to tabulate
the data by:-
binomial / common name / habitat / placename
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binomial
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as given, no attempt to modernise.
The few missing binomials have been added, using
modern terms, marked by being in [ ]s.
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common name
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as given, except put into lowercase and unecessary hyphens
removed to match other conventions in this project.
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habitat
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a simple list of keywords, sometimes deduced rather
uncertainly from Jonathan Otley's information, some
detail kept in ( )s.
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placename
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standardised terms, matching the gazetteer.
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All this means that what you get is not what Jonathan Otley
wrote: if you want his form of words you will have to look
at the original text. If the data is not edited it remains
a confusing muddle, edited it is no longer the
original data.
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Following Otley
Jonathan Otley's descriptions of his routes use no grid
references of locations. He travelled on foot and horseback on
roads and tracks that will have changed, perhaps
improved perhaps faded away; though paths are
remarkably longlived.
When travelling around, Jonathan Otley could presume
on other gentlemen. He could ask to cross their
private grounds, stand in their gardens for views, and so
on. Today this is not possible. As an individual you may
be well behaved, even gentlemanly, but the number of
people wanting to see what there is to see, is too great
for access to be granted so easily to private land.
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Lakes Guides menu.
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