'...Caught a large snake in the herbaceous border beside the drive. About 2’ 6” long, grey colour, black markings on belly but none on back except, on back of neck, a mark resembling an arrow head (ñ) all down the back. Not certain whether an adder, as these I think usually have a sort of broad arrow mark (^) all down the back. Did not care to handle it too recklessly, so only picked it up by extreme tip of tail. Held thus it could nearly turn far enough to bite my hand, but not quite. Marx interested at first, but after smelling it was frightened & ran away. The people here normally kill all snakes. As usual, the tongue referred to as “fangs”...'
Such is the first entry of George Orwell's new blog. From August 9th, 1938. Starting on August 9th of this month, The Orwell Trust is reprinting the entirety of George Orwell's diaries in blogging form, with each entry exactly 70 years after it's original date. Complete with footnotes and such, and it's open for comments as well:
'...Two legs bad, no legs good...'
'...When I see snakes I advise them to be more careful to avoid humans; other people will cut their heads off. From Orwell’s entry it seems he did not kill the snake, although I dislike picking them up because it seems abusive...'
'...Any herpetologists out there? What kind of snake do you think that might’ve been?...'
'...@Joe - would’ve been an adder (vipera berus) I’d imagine...'
'...What’s this “(ñ)” is that just my machines rendering? A drawing of the arrow?...'
'...The hyperlinks don’t show up clearly in the post. I’m using FF3 on a laptop running XP...'
'...Some blogs are more equal than others...'
