Savoring the Language of Lost Crafts.

Over Christmas I received a copy of Una McGovern’s Lost Crafts: Rediscovering Traditional Skills. From its cover (with evocative art by Rob Ryan) and all the way to the last page of its lush interior, illustrated with scenes of handicrafts both past and present, this book is a treat. McGovern’s approach is part history, part how-to, and a wholehearted homage to those who do the hard work of creating useful objects and edibles by hand. All in all, I love this book.

There are six main sections to Lost Crafts: Farming, Hunting & Gathering, Food & Drink, Home & Garden, Practical Crafts, and Decorative Crafts. Within each of these sections McGovern has collected dozens of short essays in which she discusses each skill’s history and techniques and tools, accompanied by advice for places and organizations to turn to to learn more.  Reading about candied peel, for instance, I found two recipes—one from 1718 for “China Chips” and the author’s own guide to the confection. And the fascinating discussion of beekeeping includes mention of the English church’s appetite for beeswax (for candles), the discovery by Lorenzo Langstroth of “bee space,” the practice of “telling the bees” household news, and a recommendation to turn to the British Beekeepers Association for further guidance.

While reading Lost Crafts, I had the unanticipated pleasure of encountering the specialist vocabularies that come to life in discussions of these forgotten skills. My eye would halt over certain words–like inkle, proggy, crusies, Scotch hands, cobnuts, conkers, guddling, sniggling, and smoots—and lead me to wonder about the many such terms that have fallen from familiarity because the skills they describe have also been lost.
And perhaps it’s because I’ve been studying guides to English walking holidays lately, but McGovern’s book also struck me as a way to get to know the rural corners of that country.  Lost Crafts offers a means of better understanding what a hedgerow is and how to guess its age; how much work goes into a thatched roof; the way that dry stone walls are constructed and why.

With its images, language, and respectful approach, Lost Crafts offers an appreciation for traditional everyday arts that remain well worth understanding and valuing today.