Some Birds and Beasts

Eight short films featuring native British wildlife, farm animals, or country scenes, including foxhounds at their kennels and a family of travellers cooking a meal by a country road. The final film features a model of an English village with model railway and country scenes in miniature.

Film of swan with three cygnets on water; swan with two cygnets on its back disturbs the water beneath; swan and cygnets move on the water’s surface as a group; leave water for land. Film of bat in presumably the Alliott home. Bat handled presumably by Eunice Alliott, who places it on a cushion; the bat moves around the cushion; when the bat is held by one leg, it extends its wings; wing extended by Eunice for camera. Film of fox laying, sitting, moving in a field close to rabbits; the fox and a rabbit watch each other’s movements. Film of lambs in field; the film features Eunice Alliott with a pet dog (a chow). Lambs with their mothers, feed, or lie on ground. Lambs and sheep follow unidentified farm worker carrying a sack of feed into field; lambs run around as a group; sheep and lambs eat feed when placed on ground. Deer in Cowdray Park; Eunice Alliott feeds one deer from her car. Foxhounds released from their kennels for exercise by two [unidentified] men; the hounds are encouraged to exercise by the two men who run with the dogs and offer some edible rewards to them. Film of a family of travellers (a man, a woman and a young child) by a country road, clear shot of a small wagon and laundry airing in a hedge; the man leads a pony towards the wagon; the woman cooks over an open fire; the man and child sit close by and watch; the woman removes a pan from over the firs and pours a drink from a kettle into three bowls; the woman adds sugar (presumably) to one of the bowls and offers it to the young child. Film of a miniature model of a village, featuring a model railway with model passenger and goods trains, filmed against a background of a model fox hunt; a child sits on a model bridge above the railway line at the model rail station and watches as a train passes; Eunice walks over model bridges and inspects the scenes.

Featured Buildings

[Unidentified] Farm at The Lee, Buckinghamshire Model village, Bekonscot, Buckinghamshire

Keywords

British country wildlife; Farm animals; Travellers; Gypsies; Miniature model villages

Intertitles

The Swan Family. The Bat. Only just awake after its winter sleep. The Fox earth in the Rabbit warren: Chilboro’ February Lambs at The Lee Deer – in Cowdray Park near Midhurst The Tring farmers Drag Hunt: At the kennels. A gypsy family Miniature scenery at Bekonskot [Bekonscot] The End

Other Places

Chilboro [possibly Chilboro Hill Farm, near Aylesbury]; The Lee [near Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire]; Cowdray Park, near Midhurst [West Sussex]; Bekonscot [Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire].