39 pages • 1 hour read
All Creatures Great and Small
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Themes
Nostalgia and Optimism
Alf Wight began his veterinary career in 1940, during World War II, but when writing, he chose to send his alter-ego, James Herriot, into practice three years earlier in 1937. He intended to capture a pre-war vision of Yorkshire, displaying the people, their culture, and their language before the turmoil of war. And yet, though this nostalgic, pastoral approach shapes his work, Herriot also shows a strong belief in progress, particularly in the future of veterinary medicine. All Creatures Great and Small sees value in both the past and the future and shows how medicine becomes most effective by incorporating knowledge from the past and greeting new and effective advances with excitement.
The Dales, for Herriot, are particularly appealing because they serve as a time capsule for language and culture. He writes,
The higher up the country, the more I liked them. At the bottom of the valley, where it widened into the plain, the farmers were like farmers everywhere, but the people grew more interesting as the land heightened, and in the scattered hamlets and isolated farms near the bleak tops I found their characteristics most marked; their simplicity and dignity, their rugged independence and their hospitality (75).
He also evokes nostalgia for a farming life already lost, writing, “Agriculture was depressed by a decade of government neglect, the draught horse which had been the mainstay of the profession was fast disappearing” (16). But although the old ways and old times are romantic and attractive to James, he does not fail to appreciate the gifts of the modern era.
New, effective remedies thrill James with each use. He writes, “For generations, cows with milk fever had just died. Then inflation of the udder had saved many; but the calcium was the thing—when they got up within an hour like this one, I always felt like a successful conjurer” (144). Even as he describes James’s first visit to Siegfried Farnon’s dispensary and how they admire “the gleaming rows” of medicines, he remarks that they were “nearly all useless and that the days of the old medicines were nearly over” (27). No matter how charmingly quaint the packaging, or how cutting edge the remedy, the most valuable medicines are ones that work.
James is often frustrated by farmers’ traditional diagnoses and treatments. The “worm in the tail,” a pervasive myth, is one of his least favorites, as the treatment often involves cutting off the tail, and leaving the cow to suffer the pain of unnecessary surgery (180). However, other tips and tricks turn out to be useful. In the story of the cow that would not get up, James misdiagnoses the cow with a broken pelvis and pronounces her unsavable. But it turns out she was just stubbornly sitting down, and the farmer who tried the old remedy of a fresh sheepskin on her back got her back on her feet. Sometimes there is a logic to the old remedies, and when they do not harm the animal, Herriot appreciates their application.
Other old remedies mystify James, such as when Siegfried cuts into the jugular vein of a horse suffering from laminitis. To James, it seems like a trip back to the Middle Ages. Bloodletting is not a scientifically well-founded treatment, and yet the horse seems to be instantly relieved of pain. “In veterinary practice it is difficult to draw conclusions even after spectacular results,” Herriot says (397). He can’t say whether bloodletting was the right thing to do even though it worked in this case. Scientific understanding leads to better and more effective treatments, but sometimes the explanation follows the treatment, rather than precedes it. A risky surgical procedure can become a commonplace one as the technique is standardized. In fact, today, one of the treatments for laminitis is a medication that reduces blood pressure, which provides a very similar benefit to bloodletting (Boden, Edward, and Anthony Andrews. Black's Veterinary Dictionary. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015. 490).
Herriot values both the old methods of treatment still practiced in the Yorkshire Dales and the excitement of modern medical techniques. But in the end, for a vet like Herriot, the health of animals is the priority. Effective treatment for an animal is prized whether it is modern or medieval.
Love of Nature as an Ethic
Though the title of All Creatures Great and Small quotes a Christian hymn, James Herriot’s work has few links to any formal religion. Growing up in Glasgow with a strong Protestant/Catholic divide and attending fiery Methodist sermons unexpectedly produced in Herriot a tolerant and undogmatic character (Wight, James. The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father. Ballantine Books, 2011. 35). Herriot’s ethical values shine through in his book, revealing a perspective on the world where the love of nature and animals satiates spiritual and ethical needs.
Love of life and the natural world is the core of Herriot’s sense of purpose. To Herriot, every birth of a calf is a “little miracle” (15), and the joy of bringing new, healthy life into the world is the greatest pleasure of his work. He describes living in Yorkshire with the sort of pastoral lyricism that reveals how much joy the natural world brings him. He writes, “Even mending a puncture was no penance on the high, unfenced roads with the wheeling curlews for company and the wind bringing the scents of flowers and trees up from the valleys” (59). He repeatedly describes how happy he is in his work and location. Being outdoors and interacting with nature is an essential part of that.
Spiritual questions only explicitly appear in the story of Miss Stubbs, a woman whose physical health is ailing and whose room is decorated with a handmade cardboard sign saying “God is Near.” Miss Stubbs, near to death, struggles with the dogmatic position that animals don’t have souls. For a lover of animals, no image of heaven can be truly heavenly if it does not involve being reunited with your animals after death. James assures her that animals must have souls. He says, “If having a soul means to be able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans” (283). James is unsure about religious dogma, but he is certain about the value of animals and the relationship between animals and humans.
Herriot describes many amusing characters in his work, but he is particularly kind to those who love their animals deeply. Terry Watson, who stays up all night, stripping the infection out of his precious cow’s teat and then heads out to work, is described with admiration for his work ethic, and his devotion to his family and his animals. Mr. Skipton, seemingly the opposite of Terry Watson, because he is now a wealthy farmer, and seems crotchety and ungenerous, is shown to embody Herriot’s definition of “soul”: the ability to feel love, loyalty, and gratitude. Though his horses are elderly and have been retired from labor for 12 years, he still cares for them and visits them every day.
But not every character chooses to love. Though most of the inhabitants of Darrowby and the surrounding area are described with generosity and kind humor, Herriot reserves his coldest tones for the Sidlows. With biting irony, he says,
Mr. Sidlow was a just and humane man. After maybe five or six days of dedicated nursing during which he would perhaps push half a-pound of lard and raisins down the cow’s throat three times a day, rub its udder vigorously with turpentine or maybe cut a bit off the end of the tail to let the bad out, he always in the end called the vet […] When the vet arrived he invariably found a sunken-eyed, dying creature and the despairing treatment he gave was like a figurative administration of the last rites. The animal always died so the Sidlows were repeatedly confirmed in their opinion—vets were useless (305).
Even when James comes to deal with a simple problem, like a bull with a potato caught in its throat, it is too late. In an attempt to dislodge the potato, the Sidlows poked the bull’s delicate gullet and burst it. James makes certain to call the butcher himself, knowing that the family will let the bull suffer for longer simply because they do not trust him. Causing an animal to suffer is the greatest crime anyone can commit in Herriot’s ethical view.
Though James says, “I’m afraid I’m a bit foggy about all this,” when it comes to spiritual matters (284), Herriot conveys a strong ethical framework. For him, the greatest virtues are love, loyalty, and gratitude, and we reveal our true natures in how we treat animals and the natural world.
The Difficulty of Finding Acceptance as an Outsider
Herriot tells of a man who grew up in Glasgow but made Yorkshire his home. He stumbles with the language, “I had listened to my first case history without understanding a word of it” (22), and never quite gets used to the way Yorkshire farmers tell time. As an outsider to Yorkshire, and a newly qualified vet, his main struggle is being accepted by the locals. Neither impressing them nor charming them has much of an effect. It is only through hard work, tenacity, and care that he can build a place for himself in Yorkshire.
James tells stories about how even his greatest successes fail to impress the Yorkshire farmers. In the first story, he successfully delivers a breech calf, yet he is still unfavorably compared with a more experienced vet. He is not only battling the intense skepticism of the Yorkshire farmers, but he also must prove himself as a worthy assistant to Siegfried. He writes, “The farmers, after a generation of neglect, had seen the coming of a prophet, the wonderful new vet, Mr. Farnon […]. And now, at the height of the honeymoon, I had to push my way into the act, and I just wasn’t wanted” (55). And, as Siegfried warns him, there is no way to be infallible as a vet. Even when he gets it right, the next time might end in failure. He writes, “Animals are unpredictable things so our whole life is unpredictable. It’s a long tale of little triumphs and disasters and you’ve got to really like it to stick it” (45). All of James’s triumphs fail to impress the Yorkshire farmers, and yet as he continues to do his best and put in every effort for their animals, they do eventually come to accept him, and even, very occasionally, appreciate his skill.
James’s moment of pride for being accepted by the Yorkshire farmers is when he is invited to the silver wedding anniversary of Dick Rudd. He admires Rudd for how he embodies the tireless determination that the life of a farmer requires, and appreciates his family’s generosity, always leaving a few eggs or a cabbage on his passenger seat in thanks for James’s services. The story Herriot tells is, eventually, a success for James, but he sees it as a near miss. He waits nearly too long to try a risky surgery, and then, even afterward, it seems like it has failed. Although losing this cow will be disastrous for him, Rudd is still grateful for his efforts: “Don’t worry, lad […] These things happen. Thank ye for all you’ve done” (354). The cow does turn the corner and recovers, and James is honored when Rudd invites him to be their guest at their silver wedding anniversary party. It was not being impressive or heroic that earned him this invitation but simply doing his best for the farmers whose livestock are in his care.
Though, as an outsider, Herriot sees the amusing idiosyncrasies of the people of Yorkshire, his goal is to be accepted and valued by them as both a veterinarian and a friend. These people are not easily impressed or charmed by city manners. It is also very challenging to be consistently impressive as a vet. James succeeds in becoming part of the Yorkshire community by always doing his best for the livestock in his care.
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