A glass of whisky, a pipe of tobacco and, above all, as the snow falls silently outside, the opportunity to linger over a favourite novel. It sounds like the perfect Christmas in Britain. But it is the picture Captain Robert Falcon Scott drew a century ago as he battled through the icy wastes of Antarctica.

A new study of RSS Discovery’s inventory shows that along with the essentials of polar exploration – sledges, scientific equipment, basic food-stuffs and warm clothing – Scott set sail from Dundee with more than 1,200 books among other “supplies requisite for human comfort”.

His Christmas selection in 1901 included the works of Thucydides, in two volumes, Macaulay’s History of England and Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley novels as well as essays by Charles Lamb, The Diary of Samuel Pepys and the collected poems of Byron.

He also kept Whitaker’s Almanac, The Times Gazetteer and Who’s Who close by to make sure that he stayed ahead of his officers in any after-dinner arguments.

Discovery’s library catalogue has enabled Bill Bell, of the Centre for the History of the Book at Edinburgh University, to analyse Scott’s reading habits, and though an inventory does not exist for the fatal mission on board Terra Nova, photographic records show that good books remained at the heart of his enterprise.

At Cape Evans in October 1911, six months before his death, Scott was photographed among part of his library by the expedition photographer, Herbert Ponting. The image deliberately mimics the Renaissance paintings of the scholar St Jerome.

It is as if, Dr Bell said, Scott was saying: “This is Western civilisation, it continues here with a vengeance even in the remotest part of the world.

“There is a pocket watch there – usually Jerome had an hourglass in the background; Jerome takes off his shoes before he sits at his desk – Scott’s shoes sit at the side.”

The officers’ library on Discovery was stuffed with fiction, biography and poetry, as well as practical scientific books. Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre was popular, there were novels by the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and the works of George Meredith. Below deck, the ordinary sailors could read Sheor King Solomon’s Minesby H. Rider Haggard or flick through bound editions of the magazine Punch.

When literature was not enough, the crew of Discovery could find comfort in 27 gallons of whisky, 28 cases of champagne, 1,800lb of tobacco, two pianolas and a phonograph.

Life on board ship was luxurious compared to the trials faced on land. Scott spent Christmas 1902 trudging towards the South Pole with Second Lieutenant Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson. By the new year, scurvy, frostbite, and a shortage of supplies had forced them to turn back. But on Christmas Day, the three men allowed themselves a double ration of stew. “I am writing over my second pipe,” Scott recorded in his diary. “The Sun is still circling our small tent. We have been wondering what Christmas is like in England . . and how our friends picture us. They will guess that we are away on our sledge journey, and will perhaps think of us on plains of snow; but few, I think, will imagine the truth, that for us this has been the reddest of all red-letter days.”

Bedside reading

Scott’s catalogue of books for Christmas 1901 includes:

Thucydides in two volumes
Macaulay’s History of England
Pepys’ Diary
The Times Gazetteer
Lamb, Essays of Elia
Works of Byron
Chapman’s Homer
Scott’s Waverley novels

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