The Queen of the fairies
QUESTION Was The Fairy Feller’s MasterStroke, the Queen song from the Seventies, inspired by a painting?
The title comes from a painting by the 19th-century artist Richard Dadd, whose crowded, magical works are reminiscent of the work of the 16th- century Dutch artist hieronymus Bosch.
Queen’s Freddie Mercury was mesmerised by this artwork and visited the Tate Gallery often to view it, insisting that his band members accompany him.
It was created over several years while Dadd was an inmate in Bethlem Royal hospital, infamously known as Bedlam.
The focus of the painting is the Fairy Feller, poised with a raised axe, waiting for the signal to split a large hazelnut, which will be used to construct Queen Mab’s chariot. Weird and wonderful creatures look on in anticipation.
Dadd himself wrote an accompanying poem describing the painting, from which Mercury borrowed archaic words and phrases — tatterdemalion, apothecary man, ostler — for his lyrics, which are an accurate description of the painting: ‘Ah, ah, the fairy folk have gathered Round the new moon’s shine To see the feller crack a nut At night’s noon time To swing his axe he swears As he climbs he dares To deliver the master stroke.’
There are also flamboyant flourishes by Mercury: ‘And a satyr peers under lady’s gown/he’s a dirty fellow/What a dirty laddie- oh . . . Fairy dandy tickling the fancy/Of his lady friend . . .’
Dadd’s life story was tragic. he was a successful young painter who, in 1842, was hired as a draughtsman on a long and unhappy tour of the Middle east, which left him mentally disturbed.
he was convalescing in Cobham, Kent when his father, who had a successful gilding business, visited him. Dadd stabbed and killed his father on a walk in Cobham Park. he fled the country, but in a coach in France, he attacked a fellow passenger with a razor and was arrested and sent back to Britain.
During his trial, he claimed to be controlled by demons. he was found to be a criminal lunatic and incarcerated in Bethlem as a ‘pleasure man’ — detained at the monarch’s pleasure. he was moved to the new asylum of Broadmoor in 1864, where he remained until his death in 1886.
Jim Moore, Chatham, Kent.
QUESTION Are farmers obliged to leave an uncultivated margin at the perimeter of fields for wildlife?
The Basic Payment Scheme is the primary eU rural grants system under the Common Agricultural Policy. In order to receive it, farmers with more than 37 acres of arable land must set aside 5 per cent as an ecological focus area (eFA).
There are seven eFA options that can be used on their own or in combination to meet the commitment: Field margins; fallow land; catch crops; green cover; nitrogen- fixing crops; hedges and agroforestry. each has its benefits, but it’s hard to over-estimate the benefits to wildlife and the farmer himself of leaving a wild field margin.
Grass boosts the number of beneficial insects and spiders on arable farmland, which feed on crop pests such as aphids.
It also attracts grasshoppers and sawflies, which provide food for partridge, sparrow and reed bunting chicks.
Wildflower strips attract nectar-feeding insects, such as bumblebees, and hoverflies, which lay their eggs where there is an abundant supply of aphids for the larvae to feed on. Their presence reduces the need for pesticides and enhances cross-pollination.
A grass strip against a short, thick hedge provides the perfect habitat for ground- nesting birds such as grey partridges and yellowhammers.
Joanne Cummings, Woodcote, Oxon.
QUESTION Was the Venn diagram invented before John Venn was born in 1834?
A Venn diagram represents mathematical or logical sets as circles within an enclosing rectangle. Common elements are represented by intersections of the circles.
This type of diagram is named after the British logician and philosopher John Venn (1834-1923), who introduced it in a paper entitled On The Diagrammatic And Mechanical Representation Of Propositions And Reasonings in the Philosophical Magazine And Journal of Science in 1880.
Venn, who referred to the diagrams as eulerian circles, did not claim his idea was original.
In the opening sentence of his article, he wrote: ‘ Schemes of diagrammatic representation have been so familiarly introduced into logical treatises during the last century or so that many readers, even those who have made no professional study of logic, may be supposed to be acquainted with the general nature and object of such devices.
‘Of these schemes, one only, viz that is commonly called eulerian circles, has met with any general acceptance . . .’
The diagrams created by the 18thcentury Swiss mathematician Leonhard euler show only relevant relationships while Venn diagrams display all possible relations between different sets.
Venn comprehensively surveyed and formalised the usage of the diagram, which was named in his honour by Clarence Irving Lewis in 1918 book A Survey Of Symbolic Logic.
Venn was interested in more than just mathematical theory. As an inventor and cricket enthusiast, he created a bowling machine that bowled out several top batsmen of his day.
Michael Fox, Ipswich, Suffolk. IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London, W8 5TT. You can also fax them to 01952 780111 or you can email them to charles. legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.