Hidden history, worth revealing

DONALD SKINNER-REID is delighted with the treasure trove of information in the pages of a specialist society newsletter, which fills in the historical gaps in the progress of his chosen breed

- DONALD SKINNER-REID

I’VE felt like an Egyptologist this week. Huw Evans gifted me his Old Varieties Canary Association (OVCA) newsletters covering a 10-year period and it’s a Tutankhamun hoard for Scots fancy lovers.

It’s undeniable that the Scots fancy owes a great deal to the breeders of the OVCA. Wil Cummings’s book Glasgow’s Famous Canary mentions Mr F. Holland of Southampton as one of the collaborators in recreating the variety. In a little piece written by B.D. Toghill, Mr Holland comes to life from being just a name. Long before GDPR, this newspaper passed on Mr Holland’s address to Mr Toghill and the two met after correspondence. Mr Holland was very excited to meet someone with an interest in Scots fancies and explained that there were very few breeders with any stock. As Mr Toghill writes: “Mr Holland said as far as he was aware, he and a man in Scotland” had the only stock. That Scotsman will have been Mr Cummings.

Mr Toghill describes the frilling on the birds’ chests and mantle and thought they resembled south Dutch frills (at least the curve was present.) That is an interesting comment, given what we know of the history of the breed.