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British Travellers & Equestrian Enthusiasts
in Greater Syria and Arabia:
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Lady Anne Blunt, and Others
University of Kent at Canterbury
25-26th May 2007
Grimond Lecture Theatre 1 and Foyer
Sponsors: Kent Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (KIASH); School of English, University of Kent; Juddmonte Farms; HE Dr Sami Khiyami, Ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic; HRH Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf Al Saud, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Organisers: Donna Landry, Professor of English at the University of Kent, Canterbury, Nicholas J. Mills, MRCVS, and Barnaby Rogerson, Eland Press, London
Once part of the Ottoman Empire, ‘Greater Syria’ and ‘Arabia’ serve today as geopolitical flashpoints. Yet for centuries the region was celebrated for being a centre of learning and civilisation that far outshone anything known in Europe. As late as the nineteenth century, Eastern travel could still be seen to be enlightening as well as adventurous.
It thus seems timely to revisit the experiences of Western visitors who travelled to the Middle East in search of something different from the stereotypical backwardness currently presumed by many Western institutions. The travels, accounts, and ideas of Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and Lady Anne Blunt provide a unifying focus within a broader discussion regarding travels to the region, past and present, and representations of Eastern travel in various media.
In their enthusiasm for ‘asil’ Arabian horses, an equine currency and treasured commodity appreciated by both East and West, the Blunts helped transform the global horse industry. By importing some of the finest Arabian bloodstock to establish their internationally famous Crabbet Stud in England, the Blunts changed forever the way the breeding of these magnificent horses has been conducted. We aim to assess the legacy of the Blunts’ views about modernization, imperialism, nomadic culture, and equine genetics by investigating the complex agency of Eastern blood horses in the making of the ‘English’ thoroughbred, and the much-debated story of the origins of the breed.
The conference will bring together academics, independent scholars, authors, travellers, travel writers, and bloodstock experts, for the benefit of a public as well as academic audience. We hope that this might be the first of a series of conferences and publications on the writing and material culture of travel in the region, with an interest in the culture of the horse.
Speakers to include:
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Glenn Bowman, U of Kent, ‘Sites, Spectacles, and Simulacra: The Issue of Authenticity in Approaches to the “Holy Land”’
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Rebecca Cassidy, Goldsmiths, U of London, ‘Lady Wentworth and the Incendiary English Mare’s Nest’
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Naji Chaoui, Vice-President, Syrian Arab Horse Association, ‘The Syrian Desert Horse: European Benchmarks’
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Tim Cox, sporting librarian and archivist
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Kay Dickinson, Goldsmiths, U of London, ‘Travels to and from Syrian ‘Cinema’
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Peter Edwards, Roehampton U, ‘History from the Horses’ Mouth: The Harley Horses of Welbeck and Wimpole’
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Caroline Finkel, historian, and Andrew Byfield, author and botanist, ‘Imagining the Great Anatolian Ride’
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Robin Hanbury-Tenison, FRGS, author and traveller, ‘Six Long-Distance Equestrian Journeys’
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Michael Harris, Arab Horse Society of Great Britain, ‘The Arabian Horse at a Crossroads’
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Marius Kociejowski, author and traveller, ‘European Travellers to Syria and the Question of Orientalism’
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Donna Landry, U of Kent, ‘Stubbs’s Whistlejacket and Oriental Englishness’
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Patricia Lindsay, breeder and author, ‘Defecting to the Poles, or the Eastern European Connection’
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Gerald MacLean, ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Pleasures of Eighteenth-Century Desert Travel According to Henry Abbott’
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Nicholas J. Mills, MRCVS, ‘Origins of the Thoroughbred from the Evidence of Sporting Art’
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Huw Owen-Jones, traveller, ‘Riding from Damascus to Palmyra in Ancestral Hoofprints, Spring 2006’
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Barnaby Rogerson, publisher and author, ‘Wilfrid Blunt, the Radical Traditionalist’
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Caroline Rooney, U of Kent, ‘Equine Messianism in Recent Palestinian Writing’
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Caroline Sussex, breeder, ‘The Influence of the Crabbet Stud Worldwide’
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Peter Upton, author, ‘Reassessing the Blunts’ Legacy’
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Jasper Winn, author and traveller, ‘Bloodstock Politics and the Cultures of the Desert and the Steppe’
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Peter Harrigan, representing H.V.F. Winstone, author, ‘Writing the Life of Lady Anne Blunt’
Other invited guests to give papers, or serve as chairs and discussants, as they wish:
Rosemary Archer, author and breeder; Belinda Whaley, traveller and filmmaker
We intend to publish revised papers in a special issue or handsome volume.
Contact: Emma Bainbridge for registration and details: E.Bainbridge@kent.ac.uk
Professor Donna Landry, School of English, Rutherford College, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT 2 7NX; D.E.Landry@kent.ac.uk
Mobile: 0779 381 2413 or Office: 01227 82 4745