Russet

One of the Long Reads that dropped into my inbox today was an essay on 'Russet, the Colour of Peasants, Fox Fur and Penance'.. The writer looks at this earthy, vulpine, autumnal colour from several angles: natural, historical, artistic, even culinary.

 I learnt  that russet is a tertiary colour, a blend of two secondary colours, orange and purple. In the middle ages when earthy colours were de rigueur for poor people this could be achieved by dyeing homespun  cloth in a mixture of two plant-derived pigments, woad and madder. On no account could the peasantry sport actual reds and blues.  In 16th  century Scotland  commoners were expressly  instructed  to wear  simple fabrics in “grave colour,” such as “black, russet, sad grey, or sad brown.”  (The russet option must have been very welcome if you didn't want to appear funereal or glum.)


By the 17th century the russet look implied honest dependability without airs and graces: Oliver Cromwell stated  "I had rather have a plain, russet-coated captain that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else".


Bracken when it's green doesn't have anything going for it:  it cloaks the features of the land, reduces the grazing area, and is not particularly hospitable to wild life apart from ticks. Russet is bracken at its best.


(The essay is here if you like  to read it. )