C Ihe Ladies c cu. V'VVAN - History and Classics, Department of

XXXVITHE LADIES, THE GWICH'IN, AND THE RATthem to junior editors in the 1960s ("Notes"). In her field note for 18 June, sheobserved with evident approval that Stevenson's works were included in theimpressive library at Fort Simpson.Gwendolen Dorrien Smith was raised at Tresco Abbey, off the coast ofCornwall on the Isles of Scilly. It is not known how or when the women met orbefriended one another, but a trip together to the Balkans in 1924 hadconfirmed their compatibility as fellow-travellers. The sixth child in a family ofseven, Dorrien Smith learned a good deal about boats and sailing in her youth.Vyvyan's reader learns that "Landlubber" is her friend's darkest imprecation.According to Susan Lea, Dorrien Smith remained single and inclined to exotictravel by land and water throughout her life. She had to be pretty resourceful andwas a traveller where finances permitted but [was] not well off. She sold herpictures chiefly in order to pay for her trips-besides the Balkans, she went toN. Mrica, Morocco, and South America. Mter the 2nd [World] War she andher sister went to Australia and New Zealand. They had lots of friends all overthe world. Gwen took a tremendous interest in birds and plants and was veryknowledgeable about them. Tresco Abbey Garden grew and grows plants fromall over the temperate world and new plants were being brought back all thetime. (Lea)It was chiefly. Dorrien Smith who made the collection of plants during the arctictrip; upon their return to England in the autumn of1926, she correspondedwith the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew in hopes of placing the collection there.Although she also kept field notes during the journey, Dorrien Smith wasoften busy painting watercolour sketches while Vyvyan wrote. Self-taught, she wasa competent colourist in the English landscape tradition; as some of the reproductionsin this edition indicate, she handled water and boats particularly well.The mood of repose imparted to most of the scenes encourages a quiet contemplativenessthat is the hallmark of this cultural expression. It is not alwaysappropriate to the drama of the North-one cannot imagine vertical perspectivessuch as mountain peaks or the drama of the Northern Lights becoming hersubject matter (the latter are rather difficult to spot in summer's nearly continuousday, at any rate). But the relative gentleness of topography in the MackenzieRiver valley was conducive to her style, as was the small scale of the settlementsvisited by the women.