Scarlet pimpernel...

"They seek him here,
they seek him there,
those Frenchies seek him everywhere.
Is he in heaven or is he in hell?
That damned elusive Pimpernel."

These famous words come from the 'Scarlet Pimpernel', a book which tells the story of Sir Percy Blakeney, a late-Georgian British society fop who is known more for being a dandy than having an semblance to a swordsman and hero. All is not as it seems, however, and Sir Percy leads a double life as "the Scarlet Pimpernel" -the rescuer of aristocrats and innocents during the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution. Sir Percy, feeling betrayed by his bride, French actress Marguerite St. Just, is pursued by his nemesis, the French Republican agent Citizen Chauvelin.

Because the adventures of the Pimpernel were set in immediate post-revolutionary France, people these days tend to think the story has been around since the end of the 1700s, but the novel was first published in London in 1905. It's all very French and very genteel English, but it was written by a Hungarian woman who was an aristocrat by birth. The central thrust of the Pimpernel - that of an unlikely everyman being capable of living a twin life, one of which is unbelievably heroic - has been copied time and time again since Baroness Orczy put pen to paper and has spawned a succession of comic book and film heroes : Zorro, Bruce Wayne/Batman, Clark Kent/Superman. The list goes on...

Today Alex and I went down to Simpsonhill Plantation in Bedfordshire to carry out monitoring of an area of developing acid grassland. Scarlet pimpernel certainly wasn't elusive and didn't take a lot of seeking out at all. There was a sizeable population growing on a damp area of warm brownish iron-stained sand. This common annual species, often considered a weed, only flowers in bright sunshine and closes its flowers about 3pm or in wet or humid weather. This behaviour gives rise to many vernacular names such as shepherd's weatherglass, shepherd's watch and weather-teller. For once, the sun shone today!