THE JOURNAL OF THE FRIENDS OF MUSEUM New Series No. 15 elcome to the latest edition the layout and design of the Journal. Winter 2017 of the Friends of Bushey Thank you. W Museum’s Journal. This time it contains articles about students who Thank you to all the contributors. attended the Art School as well as a Please keep the articles coming in: variety of articles on other subjects. without your support there will be Philip Kirby’s article about This Happy no Journal. Do you have some Breed in the previous issue obviously interesting photos tucked away? brought back happy memories to Articles can be as long or as short Mollie Thomas. as you like, hand written or in digital form and please send them to the A registered charity in support of Ian Read has been helpful in finding Editor c/o Bushey Museum. Bushey Museum Registered Charity 1039713 photographs to illustrate the articles and Nick Overhead is responsible for Janet Murphy

Journal Editor IN THIS ISSUE Janet Murphy 2 Memories of a Student 2 Part Two of Mary Sloane’s Layout and Design student days with Nick Overhead Hubert Herkomer

The 1st Bushey Scout Troup 6 Bushey Museum Janet Murphy on our Rudolph Road local pack Bushey, Herts WD23 3HW 6 Tel; 020 8420 4057 Joseph Syddall 8 E; [email protected]. Janet Murphy on an artist who was Open; Thurs-Sun 11am-4pm born in Chesterfield and studied with Herkomer The Journal is published by the William Chewett 10 Friends of Bushey Museum 10 and is mailed to all friends and Katharine Whitaker on a selected local organizations. Canadian pioneer with a Contributions on all aspects of Bushey connection Bushey’s social and artistic history are welcome and should be sent direct to You’re on Next 12 the editor at the Museum. Mollie Thomas treads the boards The Friends support the activities of 14 Bushey Museum and can be contacted 14 via The Secretary, 119 Road Pat Woollard on one of Bushey, Herts WD23 2LU Canada’s esteemed painters © Bushey Museum 2017 The Herkomer Konkurrenz 18 Printed by Philip Morgan and a Lonsdale Print Solutions Limited 20 unforgetable few days

Ivy House School 20 A short lived school in Bushey

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Memories of My Time as a Student at Bushey under Professor Herkomer

One of the life rooms was Mary A Sloane panelled with old oak from one of the old city churches pulled down a Part 1 appeared in the Journal of few years ago and it had a very good Autumn 2016. Again the notes have floor and was just the place for a not been edited. dance and every now and then a petition was got up and sent in and hen I first went there if we could get leave a school dance used to be a set of was organized. There was generally students known as the no difficulty – occasionally leave was his arm. It must have been disgusting. Wlilies of the field because refused for some reason and then (They didn’t ask me to it.) they were not fond of work – “they someone would offer their own toiled not” and even might be studio and the dance came off just There was a prehistoric dance described as rowdy, the same but if we got leave to use another time. Everybody who was the school a committee was formed not asked was wild to know what There was another set known to arrange everything. Programmes they wore. One man sent to as the Christian name set. About were put out to be painted by for his get up and it not come in a dozen girls who were devoted the students. I have brought one time so I believe he went in an friends and called each other by to show you it has a view of the arrangement of door mats on top their names, and then there were the cloisters of the school and the of his dress clothes. The rest wore tramps. About half the school were minute the models left the furniture skin rugs and ivy leaf crowns and all tramps and the lilies looked down was turned out, the floor polished sorts of funny things. on them with supreme contempt and the class rooms transformed because they worked hard and were into sitting out rooms and when Four girls borrowed the not given to social affairs – perhaps we arrived in the evening we hardly biggest studio in Bushey and gave not much accustomed to them or knew the place. a magnificent series of tableaux in have much money to waste. Almost which nearly all the guests took every one of the geniuses has come We were never allowed fancy part. They did the chief of the from the ranks of the tramps but dress. Prof. H had some prejudice Academy pictures Nettleship’s * that made no difference to the lilies against it but in the dances at other Big Drink, a huge tiger at a pool, a they did not care how clever a man studios the wildest fancy dress tiger skin was in nearly every one or a girl might be if he or she was a prevailed. of the tableaux. Samson and Delilah tramp. I and my friend kept out of all by Solomon J. Solomon with the parties and were called the twins I Invitations were sent out tiger skin on the couch. Pygmalion believe, because we stuck together to a ghost dance and everybody and Galatea, Burne Jones with the and were inseparable. The rest of went in the most blood curdling tiger skin on the floor and several the school was unclassified and now arrangements of sheets and blood classical scenes by Weguelin and I believe there are no cliques of any stained daggers and rattling chains other masters where the tiger skin sort. and one boy carried his head under came in again as a drapery. They

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Herkomer School Cycling Club lined up outside Lululaund

There used to be a strict rule that that some new students were Pictures Bushey Museum Archive We were told all the instant that happened the girl really shocked at the regardless about a bicycle tour must leave the school but there way when two people went about seem to have been a good many of together and when they heard the Prof. and Mrs H had these engagements lately and I have explanation, Oh don’t you know he’s had and advised to not heard if that stern rule is still her uncle – they thought it over for enforced. half a minute and said Oh and is Mr. follow their example Smith Miss Jones’s uncle and Miss were the best tableaux I have ever It was not that he considered Brown to Mr. Robinson - and Mr. seen anywhere and they ended with the girl solely responsible for the Smith and Mr. Robinson were always a Bacchanalian procession round the engagement but Prof. H used to afterward alluded to as uncles. studio, all the guests being in some hold that the instant a girl became The students as a rule live in sort of classical costume. The men’s engaged she must drop painting lodgings, there is no large boarding dress was very funny as they were and begin at once to study cooking house, though a great many private obliged to do a festive compromise and housework all day long and families take in one or more as between classic and modern evening nothing else. I am sure he has been boarders. One of these ladies made dress but they showed great powers making exceptions to that law lately objections to the student from her of invention and resource and because some extremely clever girls house going out to any students’ wound red braid in their hair and have got engaged and married and picnics or parties. She uncivilly called cross ways around their stockings they are still on speaking terms with them “John and Mary” parties and and looked quite unconscious of him but he used to implore clever told the girl if she went to them anything queer about it. girls to break off their engagements she could not mix with the other and stick to painting and if they residents as she could not serve god As the men and girls work would not do that at least not and mammon. The girl thought that together in the Prelim and all live to call it “an engagement” but an at all events the students had little in the village they naturally go “understanding”. enough to do with mammon poor out sketching together, and go for things. rowing parties and even sometimes The students generally refer to become very friendly. It has been the parties in these affairs as uncle The residents are not all like known that they become engaged. and niece because it once happened that. They are generally very friendly

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new 2017 journal 2.indd 3 15/11/2017 13:26 Pictures Bushey Museum Archive after the success of my blackberry pudding.

We were told all about a bicycle tour Prof. and Mrs H had had and advised to follow their example. They stopped to wake up a couple of tramps sleeping at the bottom of a hill and Prof. H offered them 6d to wheel the bicycles to the top. The first tramp was up in a moment, ready for the job and was for handing the Prof. his own bundle to carry up for him in exchange.

He is an enthusiastic bicyclist and his daughter has ridden a bicycle every day since she was a small child.

We have had splendid lectures Two Herkomer students in acting roles (North West Frontier) on the picture galleries. We had disposed to the students and are strictly confidential but I will tell one on Frans Hals after Prof. H had ready to go to any of their parties you a few things about them. We been a tour in Holland and one themselves if invited but on the had one on bicycling. Prof. H always on book illustration and on the whole it is pleasanter and most says there is no other way of seeing way to make the best use of our convenient to live in lodgings or for the country properly and collection time, and the year he was on the a party of students to take a house ideas and impressions and no one Hanging Committee, we had one together and share the expenses of can be a painter unless they bicycle. on the R.A. which was the best of servant and everything. Years ago when I first went to the all – it is some years ago. I hope it school about 1890 it was, I was is no breach of confidence to say The landladies are generally blackberrying and 4 or 5 Herkomers that one painting greatly admired very friendly and nice. One of glided past headed by the professor, by the Hanging Committee was them, a comfortable old lady used (it was the first time I had seen tried each way up in turn and when to confide her anxieties about her ladies riding) and the next time the painter saw it on the wall he boy to her artist lodger. She said we met I had particular enquiries assured them it was turned upside “You see Miss he is not so clever down and though they turned it as some people in fact we think he for him no one believed him. He has not quite all his wits, so Miss as learned a useful word from the he is weak in his head and he is not Hanging Committee. They said of fit for anything else, we think your anything they liked – “It has a good profession is what we must put him aspect”. That is why they hung the to, Miss”. extraordinary picture. Whichever way up you tried it, it always had a Students have a good many good aspect. privileges. Every now and then a notice of a lecture is put up. They It is not a good plan to sit near are generally given by Prof. H but the front at these lectures because occasionally we have lectures by if he is lecturing on work, and being other people – Mr. Muybridge on industrious, and so forth, he is apt to Animal Locomotion with hundreds tell amusing little anecdotes about of illustrations, or Mr. Somebody on you to your face without giving how to write a play but generally names but they generally guess it is Prof. H and every seat and the the name and it is embarrassing gallery stairs are filled, and when to have the whole audience the Prof. comes in the doors are chuckling at you. He was telling locked and the lecture begins. No once about the impossible subjects applause or interruption of any sort The first time Miss people attempted to paint in their is allowed and if the dogs hidden Lucy K. W. took him inexperience and all the tales he under the seats are detected they told were about students who are turned out ignominiously. anything he was really happened to catch his eye and some These lectures are always overcome... of them were so funny we were

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new 2017 journal 2.indd 4 15/11/2017 13:26 and finished it and spoilt it. Sometimes we have new books to look at their illustrations and sometimes a phonograph with reproductions of concerts. Once it was a special lecture by Prof. H. by phonograph and students had to go up by half dozens to listen to it. If he has been painting anybody really interesting we always hear of it and though we are not supposed to mention what we hear I will tell you about his visit to Sandringham as this was a special year. (There is no account of this. A.D.)

Another of the students’ privileges is that every now and then there are special occasions when the Professor sees work. That means that half the school and all the old students who happen to hear of it gather in his studio directly after breakfast with piles of sketches and all the pictures from the studios are brought to light. Then you file before him and show one picture Herkomer students in costume in open air theatricals after another and he gives advice sorry he had nipped the paintings in time no building was going on. I or admiration or makes fun of the bud. He was always very severe fancy the celebrated Bushey plays them according to circumstances. on the practice of students who had taken all P.H.’s energies and It is a most unpleasant ordeal for wanted cows in their landscapes and everything else was at a standstill, the students hang about to see and carefully represented them standing but afterwards the workshop and hear everything he says and it is in grass so excessively long that it chamber of horrors and all the very seldom that he loses himself spared them the trouble of drawing rest disappeared and the great new in admiration. The first time Miss any legs for the cows. house was gradually finished and Lucy K. W. took him anything he made habitable. I am sorry to say I was really overcome and kept on Since I first went to the school have not a picture of it to show you. murmuring over and over again ‘it the Professor has got his new It is like nothing else. The stone for is a masterpiece’ but naturally that house something like finished and the walls came from Bavaria and the cannot often happen especially as has moved into it. It is a monument architect was American but he died all the really great work by Miss to his father he says and it is filled years before it was finished. Kemp-Welch – the great genius of with his father’s carvings. In my the place – is a great deal too big early days it used to be covered Portraits appear one week with to be conveyed across the village with scaffolding and was used for only the face painted in – perhaps and in these cases he has to go to workshops and lumber rooms. a scrawl underneath to say it was their studios and give them private There was one room there stored done in one sitting of one and a criticisms all to themselves. with old canvases and some rude half hours, and later on the same person had chalked on the door portrait will turn up again half- I must not forget to say that “Chamber of Horrors Beware” finished and in a few weeks we see for all this he does not receive any but we went in and turned the it again. We have a great advantage pay at all. The students fees go to things over. They were failures over the public for they do not keep up the school and pay the and unfinished things and some of see his portraits at their best – he models and to pay dividends to the them were truly awful so that was nearly always works on them too company and it is the rule that the encouraging to us though, we all long and spoils them only it does Head Master is always to work for do awful things ourselves. A huge not do to say so. There was a large no remuneration only for the love picture of the Emigrants arriving landscape at the Academy last year of art give his services and for no in New York or somewhere was in which had been magnificent at one other reward and not for money. that room among the rest. I believe time and then something went A.D. notes I have heard of it being exhibited wrong with it and it was laid aside some long time ago and getting and he very nearly made a present *Nettleship, John T. painter of badly abused. It was consigned of it to one of the students but animals (London Zoo) poet, writer to oblivion in that room. At that unfortunately he thought better of it etc.

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The 1st Bushey Scout Troop Janet Murphy

ollowing the success of the camp at Brownsea Island in 1907, Scouting for Boys was published in six fortnightly instalmentsF in January and February 1908; at four pence per copy it was expensive for the average family, but it did have 70 pages. In April the first copy of weekly magazine The Scout was published. Boys were soon calling themselves Lone Scouts and eagerly awaiting the next issue of The Scout so that they could carry out its ideas such as knot tying, signalling and pathfinding. Soon Lone Scouts joined together to form Lone Patrols. In Bushey the Bull Patrol was initially formed from boys who attended Grammar School, but lived in Bushey. It met at Ashfield School, which was hardly surprising as the

Pictures Bushey Museum Archive headmaster, Ralph James, had three boys.

Patrols became troops and the 1st Bushey Troop was formed. During the Easter holidays in April 1909 they held a camp at Burnt Farm, home of Mr Turpin. The

Watford Observer described their 7th South West Herts Scouts (1st Bushey) outside the front door exploits. of the Old Rectory c1920. A part of the field was made into a camp kitchen and each scout were posted each night from 9 to11. demonstration of fire lighting, cooked his own food. A programme boxing, wrestling, ambulance drill similar to the following was drawn One night about half-a-dozen and the game of ‘Bang the Bear’ up for each day;- village youths tried to enter the – the latter was said to be much Reveille, 6:30; wash, &c., camp, but although their attack appreciated. 6:45; breakfast was unexpected, they were quickly 7 to 8; tent and uniform inspection, discovered by the sentries, who Back home scouting activities 8 to 9:15, scout work called out the guard, upon which the continued. Orders for the week 9:15 to 12; dinner, invaders retreated. appeared in the Watford Observer. 12 to 1, compulsory rest, Some boys left the troop – possibly 1 to 2; scout work More welcome were the the discipline of monthly tests was 2 to 4:30; tea parents and friends, including a too much for them – and there 4:30 to 5:30, cricket, football &c., patrol of girl scouts, who came to were advertisements for new 5:30 to 7; camp fire & to 8; inspect the camp on the last day and recruits. Trips to Stanmore supper, 8; lights out 9. … Sentries who were entertained by a Common were frequent with boys

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time was Mr Gerald Ash of Bushey Heath. His father lived in the Manor House at Blakeney on the Norfolk coast, and in August the scouts were The 1st Bushey Scout Troop able to pitch camp at Blakeney for a few days before moving to Blakeney Point. From there, daily excursions had to be made to Blakeney by boat to collect provisions – on one occasion these consisted of 18 gallons of water, 40 loaves of bread, a basket of vegetables, a joint of meat and a box of groceries. During their time there more than half of the boys learned to swim and a good number learned to handle a boat successfully. It’s unlikely that many of the boys had been far from home before – to them it must have seemed like a trip to another world.

The Scout Association was founded in 1908 and with such a rapid growth of interest it was obvious that a framework was needed as a guide to anyone setting up their own groups. Percy Winn Evans was tasked with establishing Bushey Scouts at work an organisation for scouting in encourage Scouting’ in the area . He was an editor which included Aldenham, Bricket with C. A. Pearson who had Wood, Bushey, Bushey Heath, published Scouting for Boys. He set , , up 16 districts, each with a Garston, Letchmore Heath, Oxhey, management structure. The first and Watford. A few Hertfordshire Troop met formally weeks later and on 20 February 1908 and by were included. November 1909 there were 29 troops and 787 boys and leaders. In 1913 the troops of the South At a meeting held on 3 November West Herts Scout Association were 1909 at Bank House, Watford the renamed in order of seniority and clad in full uniform of hat, scarf, South West Scouts Association was 1st Bushey became 7th South West knickerbockers, belt, haversack formed to ‘generally supervise and Herts. (usually with packed lunch or tea) and shoulder tabs – often signalling flags had to be carried, but for variety there was the occasional paper chase and there was also the opportunity for shooting at the rifle range. Mr Painter began his series of lectures of first aid. This was the beginning of his long association with Bushey Scouts.

So successful had been the first camp that planning immediately began for a seaside camp in the summer. The scoutmaster at the Sentry duty at the Colne Valley Water Works

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Joseph Syddall Janet Murphy

oseph Syddall was born at Old Whittington, Chesterfield in 1864, son of Samuel Syddall, J Master Carpenter: his elder brothers became joiners. After leaving school he was employed in a local solicitor’s office and joined classes at Chesterfield Central School of Art, where in 1887 he won a National Book Prize from the Science and Art Department, South Kensington. The first annual distribution of prizes for the school took place in December 1887 when Joseph Syddall won a prize for the best study of a head from the antique. The headmaster of the school Mr Harris went on to say that:

One of the most successful students of the school – to whom the highest Government prize has been awarded that the school has obtained – has the honour conferred upon him of being admitted as student into the Herkomer School in Bushey, Herts. Mr J. Syddall was only with us about six months before his removal, during which time he produced the greater part of these drawings that bear his name. The oil studies from life in colour, are a selection from the set he painted during his first term with Mr. Herkomer. Everyone who examines these will see at once that his industry is backed up by genius, and that he has powers in where he lived with his brother for a short season in the Toynbee reserve, which if rightly developed, will Edmund. In the 1901 census, Joseph Room at the Settlement, Vicar Lane, make of him an artist. And for my part is described as a landscape painter. Chesterfield. I am glad for his sake – though sorry He also gave drawing lessons to the to lose him as a student – he has been young ladies of the town. In 1914 an The work on view, numbering so fortunate before performing any exhibition of his work was held in about 60 examples, has all been done style, as to be placed under the care of Chesterfield which was described in by Mr. J. Syddall of the Studios, New such an able painter as Mr. Herkomer, the local paper. Whittington, and for those hitherto who is not only the principal of the unaware of the artist’s ability, is a Herkomer School, which he founded to Art Exhibition at revelation in all-round technique and help young painters in developing their Chesterfield general excellence. Mr. Syddall, who individuality, but is also Mr. Ruskin’s Whittington Artist’s studied under the late Sir Hubert Von successor as Slade Professor at the Beautiful Work University of Oxford. Under the auspices of the Chesterfield Herkomer, at the Bushey Park School, branch of the Workers’ Educational has an extraordinary command over Following his time at Bushey, Association, an art exhibition of his gift. His studies range from the Joseph retuned to Whittington exceptional interest is remaining open most delicate pencil drawings over 8 THE JOURNAL OF THE FRIENDS OF BUSHEY MUSEUM

new 2017 journal 2.indd 8 15/11/2017 13:26 The images are courtesy Chesterfield Museum and Art Gallery

sepia, water colour, pastel, and oils to head, rich in sheens, a bit of Venice, a copper plate engraving and modelling. pastel study of an old farm kitchen In these he shows a fidelity in drawing at night, book illustrations (including – as attested by familiar figures two of the six done for Hardy’s ‘Tess and places – which gives his work a of the D’Urbervilles’), a copper plate particular view, and in at least two of etching of St. Bartholomew’s Church his colourings, ‘Chesterfield by Night’ Whittington, in 1879, broadly suggested and ‘Viewing the Fireworks’ his ability in oil scenes, and two perfectly arranged effect is surprising. In the former he has and lettered addresses – one to Mr. merged the town in sombre tones and E.D. Swanwick, M.A., for his services to yet preserved its individuality – the pin the Chesterfield Students’ Association, points of light being cleverly introduced, and another to Mr. Geo. Broomhead, and in the latter, the reflected hues of on retiring from the position of warden, group of rocket stars on a night crowd after 27 years’ service – are among being wonderfully caught. Among the other exhibits, and as the collection local figure studies a large equestrienne is being maintained in the Toynbee subject – Miss Deacon, daughter of Mr. Rooms over the holidays, everyone Maurice Deacon, of the Sheepbridge with the least inclination to art in its Works, mounted on a splendid black pictorial aspect, should take advantage hunter, is full of life and charm. A pastel of seeing what the Whittington artist painting of Miss Gratton, daughter has generously loaned to help the of Mr. Richard Gratton also shows Association in its educational work. warm and artistic treatment, and light, unconventional pencil drawings of Mr. The Derbyshire Courier and Mrs. E. R. Morris, of Chesterfield, 11th April 1914 Edmund Syddall died in 1915 and in and the Rev. H. T. A. Peacoy are 1920 Joseph moved to Hampstead exquisite in their way. Whilst formerly to live with his lifelong friend Annea engaged in a studio in Kensington, it Spong whom he had met at Bushey. is understood that Mr. Syddall was On his death in 1942, he bequeathed eminently successful in portraiture, but his works to Annea who, in turn, in the work on view pencil drawing donated much of it to Chesterfield makes the strongest general appeal. Museum and Art Gallery. Some of his heads, particularly of elderly people and street types, are Although best known as an artist quite arresting, and his study of the late Syddall, designed the war memorials Sir Hubert, drawn from life at Bushey at Old Whittington and Dronfield Park, is a further exposition of his and among the collection donated to Chesterfield Museum is this power to seize expression and ‘mood’. statuette of a lady golfer. Landscapes in varied lights, a bird’s

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new 2017 journal 2.indd 9 15/11/2017 13:26 Canadian Pioneer– William Chewett (1757-1849) Katharine Whitaker

The following article was published in July in the Ontario Professional Surveyor’s Journal, Volume 60, No. 3 Summer 2017.

t is 127 years since the Associa- tion of Provincial Land Surveyors of Ontario honoured William IChewett, pioneer land surveyor, draftsman, soldier and public servant at their Fifth Annual Meeting held at Toronto in February 1890.

In July 2017, Reveley Lodge in Bushey Heath also honoured William Chewett with a small exhibition entitled Canadian pioneers, William Chewett and Son. Why an exhibition about one of Toronto’s esteemed families so far removed from the place where they made their mark?

The last owner of Reveley Lodge was Eila, wife of Albert Ranney Chewett (1877-1965), great grandson of William Chewett. In 2003 the estate and house was bequeathed to the Bushey Museum on the death of Eila Chewett. Figure 1. William Chewett A charitable trust was established to preserve and look after the Whilst researching for the exhi- been born on 21 December 1757, estate including the artistic and bition I made some very interesting not 1753 as recorded in Canadian cultural heritage of the Chewetts. discoveries. Canadian sources tell secondary sources. He was the first us that William Chewett had left child of James and Sarah Chewett Much is known and in 1771, after being trained and baptised on the 8 January 1758 documented at Reveley Lodge about as a hydrographic engineer at the at St Katharine Cree Church, Albert Ranney Chewett’s activities East India Company College in Lon- Leadenhall Street, city of London. and artistic life in Bushey/Bushey don. I went to the British Library in This church is of particular Heath from 1898 till his death in London which holds the records of importance as it is one of eight 1965 but very little is known to the the East India Company, to discover churches to survive the fire of Bushey community about his Cana- that there was no record of London in 1666 and today still dian ancestors. It seemed a fitting William Chewett having attended stands intact with its Tudor tower tribute in this 150th anniversary this college. and significant Jacobean interior year of Canadian history to highlight and exterior dating from 1623-30, in particular the role of William Next I looked for William including the font at which Willian Chewett in the pioneering days Chewett’s birth record through the was baptised. of Upper Canada and how he, his many church parish records for the son James and later his grandson City of London, held at the London So where was William Chewett William Cameron Chewett became Metropolitan Archives. Here I was in 1771 as he would have been only esteemed members of the Toronto more successful, but this search thirteen-years-old? My next clue community during the 1800s. revealed that William Chewett had came with a discovery at Reveley 10 THE JOURNAL OF THE FRIENDS OF BUSHEY MUSEUM

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Figure 3. Boys leaving the Royal Mathematical School, showing entry for William Chewett

Lodge. On the back of a miniature Geography, Plane Sailing, Globular oil painting of William Chewett Sailing, Astronomy, Day works and (I believe this painting is by Hoppner Fortification. Meyer and referred to in the report of the Fifth Annual Meeting in 1890 William would have produced – see figure 1) was a note that he a navigational workbook which he had attended Christ’s Hospital’s took to sea when he joined his ship School, in the handwriting of William the British Queen, in the Quebec Cameron Chewett. Christ’s Hospital, trade, in March 1775. He was a school founded by King Edward VI apprenticed to Joseph Judge for in 1552 for the care and education seven years unless required by His of poor children living in London, Majesty for military service (see moved from the City of London to figure 3). Upon discharge, Christ’s Horsham in Surrey in 1902. Hospital School provided William The school still exists but is now an Chewett with a complete wardrobe elite public school compared with of sea clothes and some navigational its humble origins. instruments such as a quadrant, fore staff and Gunter’s rule. William Further research at the would also have taken his silver London Metropolitan Archives badge with him, a safeguard against where the records of Christ’s the press gangs of the day who Hospital School are held, revealed would then have proof that William that William Chewett’s mother died Figure 2. A Bluecoat school pupil was serving an apprenticeship at sea. in April 1761, leaving her husband James with two small children. James James of St Katharine Cree Church, William Chewett arrived in Chewett petitioned Christ’s in December 1764 and January Quebec, Canada in 1775, at a time Hospital School (also known as a 1765, respectively. when the American Revolutionary Bluecoat school because of its War had broken out the previous distinctive uniform), in a petition William Chewett entered April. William was soon drafted dated 10 March 1762, to admit Christ’s Hospital School on 17 into the Quebec militia, where his William. James could do this as he January 1765, aged just seven, where mathematical skills became an asset was a bricklayer by trade and a he was cared for and looked after during the siege of Quebec in 1775- member of the Worshipful Company for the next ten years. Aged 76. There being no engineer in the of Bricklayers and Tylers which fourteen and half, William Chewett Province, he was employed, by order gave him the right to be a Freeman was enrolled into the Royal of His Excellency, Captain- of the City of London, one of the Mathematical School of Christ’s General Carleton, Governor of criteria for admitting poor children Hospital, founded and granted a Quebec to draw plans of the into Christ’s Hospital School. As a Royal Charter by King Charles II in fortifications and determine the Freeman, James could live and work 1673, for the purpose of educating distances of the enemy batteries. legitimately in the City of London, young boys in the art of William Chewett remained on a practice inherited from the Guild navigation for His Majesty’s Navy. active service till 1783 when he system in the medieval period. The book, ‘The Elements of entered the service of the Director Another criteria was that James Navigation,’ formed the basis of the Surveyor General, John Collins, in Chewett had to provide proof of his course which included Geometry, the Quebec Surveyor General’s wife’s death and of William’s baptism, Plane Trigonometry, Spherics Office. William Chewett received his which was certified by the curate, P. (spherical trigonometry), commission as a Deputy THE JOURNAL OF THE FRIENDS OF BUSHEY MUSEUM 11

new 2017 journal 2.indd 11 15/11/2017 13:26 Surveyor in 1784 and was imme- Chewett was still at school in diately involved in the Loyalist London. I can only deduce that resettlement programme in the William Chewett was commissioned Townships established along the St in 1784 and that the date of 17742 Lawrence and around the Bay of was incorrectly recorded at the You’re Quinte. time.

However, it is recorded in However, there is proof that Canadian secondary sources that William Chewett was active in the on William Chewett was commissioned resettlement of the United Empire as a Deputy Surveyor in 1774, but I Loyalist programme established by have shown in this article that this the British Government after the cannot be correct. How that came end of the American Revolutionary Next about I can only guess at. Perhaps War in 1783. The Reveley Lodge the date was originally written down Trust holds a number of William incorrectly and then taken at face Chewett’s journals, field note books, Mollie Thomas account books and letters, etc. in value. Like William’s birth year, there rs Mollie Thomas (nee was no way of checking the date the collection of the Chewett family Norcutt), lived in Bushey then, as no birth certificates were papers. In William Chewett’s journal Heath with her parents issued in the 1700s and only came entry for 16 May 1784 he writes: and older sister, Eunice, to be issued in the ‘List of plans delivered into the M from 1927-1949. Mollie attended from 1853. Deputy Surveyor Generals Office – The Rutts (Infants) School, Merry viz General Plans of the five Town- Hill (Junior Girls) School, and then In the book ‘They Left Their Mark’ ships from Cataraqui to the head of Watford Grammar School for Girls Surveyors and their Role in the the Bay of Quinte’. 1938-1945. Mollie says that in the Settlement of Onatario,1 by John 1930s, Bushey Heath considered Ladell, published in 1993, he states I hope this article goes some it had its own identity, bounded by way to correct William Chewett’s fields and countryside and separate that the earliest known surveyors from surrounding settlements such as to be commissioned by the Crown record of his early life because his Stanmore, Bushey, Harrow Weald, -let to survey Crown Lands in Canada story demonstrates the power of alone Watford. She says locals thought were Philip Frey and Alexander education, and how he was able to Bushey Heath then extended from Aitken in 17831. John Ladell goes on adapt to the rugged conditions of The Alpine, down the High Road, past to say that there were plans Colonial life and make good. The St Peter’s Church, down to Ashfield submitted to Lieutenant-Governor Reveley Lodge exhibition was a brief Avenue, where 4 shops were built. Simcoe for the townships of history of this remarkable family (These included Knight’s Newsagent’s Marysburgh and Sophiasburgh, whose contribution to the shop, and an excellent fish & chip surveyed by John Collins and development of the Town of York shop, 2d Cod and Chips, which would William Chewett in 1784 and 1785 (renamed Toronto in 1834) is still be about 1p in today’s money). Beyond that was Bushey. but he questions whether Chewett revered there today. was in fact active in the Loyalist Oh! How we loved those long, settlements as early as 1784, Notes blue velvet curtains in the Bushey despite stating that William Chewett 1 ‘They Left Their Mark’ by John L Heath Parish Hall, and endless were received his commission in 1742, Ladell, 1993, p. 73 the games and tricks we played which cannot possibly be true, as 2. ibid. p. 76 with them, all strictly forbidden by authority of course, but that was The exhibition opened on Sunday 2 July, to coincide with part of the fun. To sneak up the Reveley Lodge’s Canada Day Garden Party. Although the steps and wriggle your way behind exhibition is now closed at Reveley Lodge, Bushey Museum will host it the curtains, then peep out, perhaps in November till the end of the year. If you missed it in July, now is your pull a face or wave a hand, and on chance to view it at Bushey Museum. All are welcome. performance evenings to look for a friend or family member in the audience, well, all simple pleasures, but we loved it, and it was well worth risking getting a telling-off. It sounds childish, but those were simple days, very little glamour, even if we knew what glamour was, which I doubt. Many years later, when I made my first return visit to the Heath, I sneaked inside the Parish Hall, still the same unforgettable smell, but was saddened to see the beloved blue curtains no longer there. To me

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they were as much Bushey Heath as the clear ring of Mr Taverner’s hammer on his anvil in his Smithy next door to the Parish Hall. I suppose there must have been performances of plays for adults, but I can only recall the ones put on by the Sunday school and Church. These were mostly with a missionary theme and were performed in the summer in the beautiful grounds of Howton on the High Road, the home of Archdeacon and Mrs Dray. We loved dressing up, mostly in old curtains and bedspreads and Aerial view of St Peter’s Church, Bushey Heath in the 1930s showing the Parish blankets, and submitting to having Hall, the Vicarage and Springfield. a mixture of gravy browning put on our faces, arms and legs. “You’ll Bad Camping. It didn’t make for simple days, and hope our audiences catch your death of cold,” muttered good sisterly relations, but I think enjoyed them as much as we did. all the mothers when they saw our we all enjoyed it. If I give the impression that our bare feet. Then, before an admiring local exposure to the elements, audience of friends and family, we Under the Rev. Eeles, the Youth drama and theatre was limited, pranced about the lawn and said Club flourished, and we put on maybe that’s right, but we enjoyed our lines, and enjoyed the cake and our annual show, making the most these simple pleasures and I think goodies which followed our efforts. of the not inconsiderable talent our audiences did too. We had Did it ever rain on those occasions? within the group. How lucky we grown up in the shadow of wars, I don’t think so. were to have Philip Kirby, first class the Sino-Japanese war, Spanish Civil musician and accompanist, who gave War, and now our own conflict of One evening in the winter our performances such a touch 1939-1945. I think we reflected we performed in St Christopher’s of class. Some of us joined in the a simplicity which in later years Hall in Police Station Lane, – it was Christmas Play, put on by members seemed naive and unsophisticated. before black-out regulations applied. of the Church Choir, the story of We would have the years ahead It was another missionary play of the Nativity, done with reverence when perhaps we would appreciate course, and I remember taking and real pleasure on the part of the theatrical talents even more because the role of a goody-goody named participants. For this we actually of our early simple experiences. Drumisani, and being very scared I’d wore stage make-up, and brazenly forget my lines. I didn’t forget them went to school the next day wearing This may be an example. In of course, – wouldn’t dare, and I’d blue eye shadow. No complaints! our final year at school, and most been learning them for weeks. But Those were the days? of us were already 18, we were St Christopher’s Hall did not have given the chance to go to London blue velvet curtains to add a touch I haven’t mentioned the with members of staff to see a of glamour to the evening. It wasn’t little concerts we used to get up performance of the ballet in which the same. amongst ourselves, to entertain the famous Robert Helpmann was our friends and neighbours, and dancing; for most of us this would It was the long-standing custom even raise money for the War be our first experience of the live for the Guides (3rd Bushey Heath) Effort! Friendships were made in ballet and the London theatre. to put on a concert each autumn. those early local rehearsals and But before we were accepted to Dear old Florrie Cobb, and her performances, and we learned to be taken, a letter was sent to our helpers had us well and truly trust each other to do their part parents explaining what we were trained, and we loved it, especially as well as possible, just as we were going to see, and making sure that the Backward Drill. We wore our trying to do ours. After all these we knew the meaning of the word Guides uniforms back to front and years I am still in touch with some ‘brothel.’ Well, we went, and I don’t put painted facemasks over the of those co-performers and we think any of us were permanently backs of our heads, then stamped, always recall those early happy affected by what we saw. clapped and gyrated to Blake’s Grand March, thumped out on the For professional performances Parish Hall piano. Super! we had to go to Watford’s Palace Theatre, where the annual We demonstrated more serious Christmas Pantomime (which things such as First Aid and the continued through the war) perhaps essence of Good Camping – ever set standards for our own future tried putting up a tent on a hard performances. We couldn’t replicate wooden floor? Not easy! But the the costumes, the dancing, the laugh came when the sisters of the scenery, but they did not have our two Guides who demonstrated lovely blue velvet curtains, and who Good Camping demonstrated with did not feel a shiver of excitement great enthusiasm the elements of Garden at Howton 1902 to be told, “You’re on next!”

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new 2017 journal 2.indd 13 15/11/2017 13:26 eco-system, where both fauna and flora were in abundance and available for study. Both of their fathers were very keen students Emily Carr of nature and shared that interest with their daughters; both girls became orphans very early in Pat Woollard A young Emily Carr their development, Emily barely 17, Lucy 22 and they both left home to seek art tuition. They both absolutely doted on animals, with In March, as part of the Museum’s an empathetic approach, and always Canada Day celebrations, Pat gave a surrounded themselves with pets – talk about the life of Emily Carr, one Emily earned money at one stage by of Canada’s most esteemed artists breeding English sheepdogs. Neither and her connection to Bushey, which is artist married, each having had a reproduced here. Emily Carr’s painting short affair of the heart, decided to are copyright and so cannot be used devote their lives to their art. And to illustrate the article but they may be perhaps most important of all, they viewed at the Vancouver Art Gallery’s both acquired the habit very early Emily Carr Website on in their lives of sketching.

good many Canadians first On the other hand there were became aware of Emily also some marked differences, Carr as a writer – a writer particularly in terms of their A about her childhood in Emily was born in Victoria, personalities. Emily was the Victoria, Vancouver Island and Vancouver Island in 1871. Fort youngest daughter of five with a her experiences among the First Victoria was established in 1843 brother four-years-younger. From Nations people. These publications as a trading post for farm produce the time he was middle-aged, appeared just before and just after and lumber and, around 1857, gold Richard Carr became more and her death in 1945 and had been was discovered in the canyons of more religious and the older girls compiled into published books from the Fraser River across on the adhered to his practices of strict jottings she had written during her main land. This brought hundreds Presbyterianism. At the same time life, notes, poems and her memory, of miners and traders to the island. their mother became more and which was often very economical By the time Emily’s father Richard more of an invalid. Emily’s eldest with the truth – she was careless Carr arrived with his English wife sister, Edith took on the arduous about such things as dates and her and two girls, Edith and Clara in task of bringing up her four sisters writing could be extravagant and 1863, government and community and a brother; an authority Emily excessive, but the books were an buildings and private villas were deeply resented. Emily was not instant success and internationally already well established alongside exactly a rebel because in the end popular. the makeshift dwellings of the she always returned home never opportunistic wealth seekers, having been able to break away from The Friends of Bushey Museum including the native Indians. Richard the family. Although the youngest arranged an outing to Dulwich Carr knew this scenario well – he girl, her father’s favourite and Picture Gallery in the spring of had made a modest fortune in the 2015 to view an exhibition devoted goldfields of California as a trader to Emily Carr’s work. Amongst in San Francisco. Arriving in Victoria other sources, I have referred to he established a wholesale business the catalogue of this exhibition in the wharf area and within a year and to a book entitled Emily Carr in he had had built a fine house on England, written by Kathryn Bridge, the edge of Beacon Hill Park – the who came to the Museum and new street on which the house was was lucky enough to have Patrick built was named Carr Street, it later Forsyth, long-time Friend, supply became part of Government Street. the information she required. I was introduced to Emily Carr way back While I was reading up about in the early 1980s by Bryan Wood Emily Carr, I was struck by the and Grant Longman, who discussed parallel lives of Emily and of Lucy with me a donation of a book they Kemp-Welch. Emily was born in had just received for the Museum. I 1871, Lucy in 1869. They both have concentrated mainly about the grew up close to forests, very first part of her life – to detail the different forests but forests just later part will need another talk. the same, each with its own unique Emily Carr’s house

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new 2017 journal 2.indd 14 15/11/2017 13:26 Picture Bushey Museum Archive

spoiled by all, she was very often Silver Morning, Aldeburgh, by Algernon jealous, very quickly took umbrage, was contrary, and hated the religious piety and dutiful works and narrow- mindedness of Victoria society. All of her life she felt she was different, that other people were critical of her – not on her side, but at the same time – just like Lucy– she was single-minded in her pursuit of art, but with a very different outcome. Lucy gained success early in her career, having a work displayed in the Royal Academy at 26 and having one of your paintings bought for the nation of England – truly the height of any artist’s ambition. Emily, on the other hand, had no real success until she was in her mid-50s – dejection, disappointment and animosity was Design. By 1890 San Francisco had north and Emily decided to join her. something she lived with pretty well developed quite a sophisticated Unfortunately 1898 was a time of all her life. cultural society. The teachers of epidemics of German measles, TB the school had all been trained and whooping cough amongst the She did make some very lasting in Europe and the students were native Indians, who were very prone friendships, from childhood to old given opportunities to paint still life to European diseases, especially age and she had a great deal of and landscape. Emily found painting smallpox, which had had a fatal admiration for people who were out of doors was what she most affect on the population. They also willing and able to give her advice enjoyed and she relished the life had alcohol and gambling problems. and she herself very often saw of the art student. After a year she Emily empathised with the Indians, the funny side of her exploits, as was joined by three of her sisters, ignoring their transgressions and exemplified in her cartoon work. which brought back to her all her blaming their condition entirely on However, her characteristics and antagonisms. Her sisters were never the European interventions. They in her pursuit of her idea of art led interested in her art, which was a turn responded to her spontaneous to her growing eccentricity as she great cause of resentment for her. delight at greeting them – they liked grew older and no doubt her battle In 1893 their brother Dick became this friendly girl with a smile, who against her family and society in very ill and a sanatorium had to be happily communicated by gestures general affected her inner emotional paid for. Emily had to return home – not ignoring them or treating life and equilibrium. She always in the December of that year. them disdainfully. She was given a suffered with bad health and was native name Klee Wyck, meaning very sensitive to surroundings that She was by now a young woman laughing girl. Emily worked hard on didn’t suit – they had an almost with a longing for independence and this excursion, painting the houses, psychological effect on her and the Victoria’s art society was beginning totems and children – watercolour strain very often proved too much. to develop. To avoid her sisters’ and pen and ink drawings. These fault-finding, she adapted a hay-loft drawings she felt opened up her Victoria in the 1880s was a into a classroom for children. She art, they crystallised her ideas and working town. In the lives of its found she enjoyed the children gave her direction. They exist in inhabitants there was neither time and she could do her own work, her sketch book, which is in the nor space for culture. However, although within the confines of possession of the Vancouver Art Emily did have a primary school Victoria she felt restricted. She Gallery. She greatly admired the teacher, who encouraged her and knew Beacon Hill Park very well, but native art, particularly the totems. later her father arranged for her and she also knew that Vancouver Island two of her sisters to have private had another society, a significant She knew instinctively that tuition. The death of their father in population of native Indians – there she needed more instruction and 1888 obviously upset the family – he was a large reserve on the edge the money she earned teaching, had arranged for a sizeable legacy, of the city – and Emily since her together with an allowance from but it was put into the hands of a childhood had been used to the Edith, amounted to sufficient male guardian, who was not the best canoes moored in the harbour, as a funds for a trip abroad. She manager. However, Emily convinced series of watercolours she painted chose England, possibly because this guardian she could aim for an exemplifies, and the Indians trading of language problems, but also artistic career. An allowance and in the town. she knew that contacts from travelling companion was arranged Victoria were there. She chose and Emily travelled to San Francisco Her sister Lizzie was helping to attend Westminster School of in 1890 to the California School of missionaries in Ucluelet, further Art, more than probably through

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new 2017 journal 2.indd 15 15/11/2017 13:26 recommendation. Unfortunately it was not a good choice at that time. The choice showed how remote Victoria was – in fact and in fashion. Westminster had had a very good principal, Frederick Brown, assisted by Henry Tonks, but he had moved by 1899 to the London Slade, where he would nurture such artists as Gwen and Augustus John, Wyndham Lewis and Paul Nash. Westminster, however, was caught in a time warp and Emily’s day-long life-drawing classes and evening classes in design, anatomy and clay Whitby Harbour by John Whiteley modelling, for her, felt dull and old- fashioned and did not advance her attracted her, but by now, Emily in as living subjects, which would work beyond what she had learned 1901 would be coming up to the 30 become so important in her mature in San Francisco. London itself felt mark, older than Herkomer’s age creativity. Later in 1901 she heard oppressive, crowded and dirty. Her limit of 28 for unmarried women. that her sister, Alice, was to join inbuilt paranoia made her feel an ‘He had built a theatre in connection her in England for the summer. First outsider, an out-of-touch colonialist with his Bushey art school: more time London had to be endured taking with a strange accent. She had found was now devoted to drama, they Alice around the tourist venues. her Victoria contacts and after a said, than to Art. For earnest Art I while made English friends and in was advised to go John Whitely No: 9 Together the sisters travelled particular a landlady who welcomed Meadow Studios’. to St. Ives, which by 1901 was well lady boarders. known as an art colony, but, in any Such was the influence of case, John Whiteley, as a fellow As Muriel Spark wrote some the master, quite a few of his student of Herkomer’s art school, years later in The Girls of Slender students had set up as art teachers more than likely recommended her Means: ‘The Club exists for the themselves. John Whiteley was to contact Algernon Talmage. St. Pecuniary Convenience and Social one such teacher. There is no Ives was a mecca for many budding Protection of Ladies of Slender Means indication that Emily knew anyone artists and two other Herkomer below the age of Thirty Years, who in Bushey. She herself wrote that students, Mia and John Arnesby are obliged to reside apart from she got off the train, and asked Brown spent their summers there. their Families in order to follow an the newsagent the way to Bushey. Talmage with a Swedish painter, Occupation in London’. One imagines However, somehow she managed to Julius Olsson ran an art school. the same sort of arrangement gain a place with Whiteley and find Olsson was very enthusiastic in existed when Emily was sharing somewhere to rent, presumably that terms of exploiting the combination with other young ladies in rooms same day. of sea and light, which Emily found partitioned off by curtains. too glaring in full summer. Olsson The cottage in which she and Talmage were contrasting Hearing of her brother’s death found accommodation was Ivy teachers and Emily found her from TB in Santa Barbara – too far Cottage on Merry Hill Road. All sessions were confusing, but she away to attend the funeral did not the accommodation near the preferred Talmage’s approach to help her peace of mind. Her one Herkomer School was already landscape and when she discovered release was to leave the chaos of taken by his students. The landlords Tregenna Wood up the hill from London and she took various forays were a young working class couple St. Ives, where the sun was less into the countryside – and she even expecting their first baby. Emily from intrusive, Talmage insisted he come travelled to Paris with a woman she her middle class cultural colonial and instruct her there. He told knew from Victoria and visited the perspective viewed with an amused, her to look for the sunshine in the picture galleries. and one might say, a fond eye on the shadows. life and views of the young family. After the strains of London, the It was after her Paris trip in Cornwall air and warmth should 1901 that she arrived in Bushey, Emily came to have great have been very beneficial to her, but which we can only assume she respect for John Whiteley, whose instead she found the boisterous had heard of through the artistic inclination was towards figurative sea and dazzling light gave her grapevine – from her writings it work, but covered landscape and headaches. However, she stayed for would appear that she had made no he encouraged her to look at the eight months painting out of doors previous arrangements. Herkomer’s movement in the trees, not to in all weathers. By April 1902 she claim that his school had a rural paint them as inanimate; you could was back in London, but instead of setting and seclusion from the say he was the first teacher who enrolling again at Westminster she seductions of city life, would have brought to her painter’s eye trees came to Bushey to work with John

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new 2017 journal 2.indd 16 15/11/2017 13:26 Whitely, with whom she obviously Aboriginal villages in the province. got on extremely well. This time she After a number of painting trips resided in Rudolph Road. By her around Vancouver Island to visit own account by now, however, her native villages recording the art, health was deteriorating and her in 1910 she and Alice set off for return to London exacerbated her . weak state, which resulted in her becoming bedridden at the home of With a letter of introduction, a friend. Having heard the news her she sought out an English painter, sister Lizzie arrived from Canada. Harry Phelan Gibb. Gibb had been Unfortunately Lizzie was the least living in Paris for a good long time appropriate sister to have with and had exhibited with Bonnard, her and Emily, aware she needed Seurat and Manet, he was a friend of treatment, booked herself into the Matisse and Braque and his paintings TB sanatorium in East Anglia. The were modern, but lacked the French diagnosis was hysteria by the female artists’ innovatory touches. He specialist there – her symptoms advised Emily to attend classes at were headaches, sickness, bouts of the Academie Colorossi, but Emily crying, numbness on to paralysis, was confused by the language and Emily Carr in later life general malaise, which could all have left to join the private studio of been psycho-somatic. It took 15 Scottish colourist, John Duncan to the Queen Charlotte Islands months for her to recover and then Fergusson. But, of course, she fell making sketches of old totems. was she was still fragile. But, instead ill again very soon and Sweden was She felt that the resulting paintings of going straight home to Canada, the chosen place to recuperate. of these trips should be part of a she made a third visit to Bushey to Through 1911 she studied under provincial government collection, spend another spring here. However, Gibb and then, as she herself said, but an eminent ethnologist advised she had described Bushey thus after four months of good work, that her rendering of native Indian ‘everything was yellow-green and pearly she found an artist/teacher in artefacts were nothing like the with young spring. Larks hurried up Concarneau. Frances Hodgkins real thing – too brilliant and vivid to Heaven as if late for choir practice’ was a New Zealander, who had to be true. Her reaction was true – ‘the new foliage the lush grass the travelled throughout Europe and to her nature – the chapter in her Cuckoos and bluebells and primroses in fact had resided at 3, Rudolph autobiography is entitled Rejected. and anemone were just intoxicating. Terrace in Bushey in 1903 – she was Her sisters begged her to go back I used to sing and sing and sing in the attending classes by Ernest Borough to her old way of painting, but she woods.’ No wonder she came back, if Johnson at the time at the North knew that would be a retrogressive only for the last time. London Polytechnic – she had just step now that she had discovered missed Emily, who at that time was modern art. Realising that she Any painting she did in England in the East Anglian Sanatorium. would have to give up any idea of may or may not be in her archives Hodgkins by now had developed a a successful art career and earn a and whether her coming to England Fauvist palette and with her Emily living she turned herself in another progressed her art is debatable – it discovered that brilliant colour direction. Victoria once a thriving certainly brought her nowhere near could be produced in watercolour port was now feeling the strains of her final mature powerful visions, as well as in oil, as she had been depression and her sisters had to but the experience of being on her using with Gibb. One thing she sell her father’s property and with own in a foreign land and meeting a took on board during this trip in a her share, Emily built a small house variety of personalities and artists big way was a fresh way of seeing, and, keeping accommodation and no doubt helped to consolidate her which produced a major change in a studio for herself, she let out the painting journey. her work. She began to understand other rooms – she would eventually that a painting ‘was more than write about her experiences in this She returned to Canada and what was before us’, not strictly regard. She also made pottery, which spent time teaching in Victoria, representational, but colour, shape, she decorated with native Indian but largely in Vancouver – a happy light and form. She learned to use designs. period for her. In 1907, with short quick brushstrokes boldly. She sister Alice, she embarked on an described it thus: ‘simplification to From 1913 to 1927 she Alaskan cruise, where in Sitka express depth, breadth and volume, produced 20 paintings. Very early they discovered the Totem Walk a brighter, cleaner colour, simpler on Emily had had lessons with tourist venue, which went towards form, more intensity’ – the energy another Victoria female painter – a determining her to try and capture and the vibrancy she gave to her art daughter of a wealthy father who the native Indian heritage before it was now very obvious. could afford to send her to Paris was too late. This marked a turning and later to the Slade, her name point for Carr: it was at Sitka, she She returned once again to was Sophie Pemberton, who had decided to pursue her project of Canada in 1912 and again set off made a professional artistic career. documenting the totem poles and on various painting trips, including She always remained a friend to

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new 2017 journal 2.indd 17 15/11/2017 13:26 Emily and on making a visit to Emily’s studio in the early 20s she advised art enthusiast, Philip Morgan Harold Mortimer-Lamb, of her work. He was responsible Rector of Bushey 1981-1994 for the Vancouver Art Gallery and in turn he mentioned Carr’s work to the Director n immediate response of National Gallery in Ottawa, to my article in the 2015 Eric Brown, who coincidentally Journal about Herkomer was the younger brother and rallying came from of John Arnesby Brown, a A Herkomer student. Brown Hartfrid Neunzert, acknowledged visited Emily in 1927 and invited expert on Herkomer and former her to take part in the ‘Exhibition and 71. Three of her books were director of the Museum in Lands- of Canadian West Coast Art – Native published while she was alive and berg am Lech. It was Hartfrid who and Modern’ – her paintings would her autobiography, Growing Pains, in brought the Herkomer Konkurrenz hang alongside those of the Group which she has a chapter on Bushey, back to life in 1997, and it now runs of Seven, a renowned collection and one book with her jottings every other year. Cars qualify if of landscape artists practising in were published after her death. they were made in 1930 or earlier. Toronto and environs – all male – Hartfrid invited me to the 2016 and it was one artist in particular, After the war and Emily’s death Konkurrenz; over two days, drivers , who received her in 1945, a growing awareness ran would cover two routes on Upper into the group and also inspired her through the Western Art world. In Bavarian country roads, one to the to include a spiritual dimension to 1971 an art critic, Linda Nochlin her work. wrote an essay entitled Why have west and the other to the east of there been no great women artists? the start and finish in Landsberg. Emily at 56, at last, accepted as a This was followed in 1976 by an Each day would cover about 100km. member of an artistic brotherhood, exhibition in L.A. Women Artists: I accepted with great enthusiasm, was very excited by the Group 1550-1950. Germaine Greer wrote and on Friday 8 July, my son Dan and of Seven’s work, especially that her book on women artists, The I were on the Parc Ferme close to of Lawren Harris, whose work Obstacle Race, in 1979 and Roszica the Mutterturm, looking at a particularly impressed her, and Parker and Griselda Pollock in collection of remarkable vehicles. whose theosophical approach – the 1981 wrote Old Mistresses, Women, artist’s relationship to God through Art and Ideology. England did catch The sound of engines varied nature – appealed to her life in up – later – with an exhibition between roars and rattles, and every general. at the Whitechapel Gallery in variation in between. Most cars 1996, entitled Inside the Invisible. This idea of nature slowly An elliptical traverse of 20th century were tourers and as it was a lovely imposed itself on the totem art art in, of, and from the feminine. Tw o morning, most of them had their she was painting and she found she of Emily Carr’s paintings were in hoods down. The oldest I saw was was concentrating more on the this exhibition. It was not until a 1902 Oldsmobile single-cylinder trees of the forest and it was Harris November 2014 at last an array of two seater, with a tiller to steer by who told her to ‘create forms for this artist’s work was able to be and no windscreen; thank goodness yourself, direct from nature’. seen at the Dulwich Art Gallery. the weather was lovely on both days. The most modern was a 1930 The next decade or so saw Emily’s Bibliography Singer Le Mans – anyone remember most prestigious body of work – Barton, Parker ed. Great Canadian Painting A Century of Art The Canadian Centennial those? In between were about 65 she kept up her sketching trips, cars, mostly German and visits to the East and production Publishing Co. Ltd. 1966 American, with a smattering of of the most substantial and vibrant Bridge, Kathryn. Emily Carr in England. Royal Museum, Victoria, Canada French: Peugeot, Citroen, Delage, artwork. She travelled to America 2014 and met Georgia O’Keeffe and one Renault and Hotchkiss. From the Carr, Emily Growing Pains: An Autobiography. UK, all with German owners, there other American artist, Mark Tobey, Irwin Publishing, Toronto. 1946 who introduced Cubism to her. In were an MG 18/80, a 1930 Sunbeam LaFargue, Oliver, ed. A Pictorial History of the 1937 she suffered her first heart American Indian. Spring Books, London 1956 and a Rolls Royce Phantom I, as well attack. Never strong of course, as the Singer. Milroy, Sarah and Dejardin, Ian ed. From the travelling caused her health to suffer Forest to the Sea. Emily Carr in British Columbia. and a number of heart attacks made and Dulwich Picture Dan and I were with Hartfrid it more and more difficult for her to Gallery 2014 at the start, as the cars began to pursue her life’s work in paint but Shadbolt, Doris. The Art of Emily Carr. roll by. Suddenly Hartfrid stopped by then, she had taken up writing Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver 1979 the driver of a 1924 Mercedes, who in earnest. Her main stories were Tippett, Maria. Emily Carr. A Biography. Oxford had no passenger; the next minute written between the age of 63 University Press 1979 18 THE JOURNAL OF THE FRIENDS OF BUSHEY MUSEUM

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and lunch under the trees in the surroundings of the vast Baroque The Herkomer church at Furstenfeldbruck. After lunch, Dan and I swapped seats, and I came back with Hartfrid Konkurrenz 2016 to Landsberg to await the arrival of the cars in the Hauptplatz. They I was climbing into this enormous were received by a large crowd, and car to begin a really exciting journey. everyone must have felt the Michael was an engineer with good Konkurrenz had been a great English, and knew everything about success. For Dan and me, the whole his car. Dan was soon in a 1925 event had been a wonderful Chevrolet, whose owners, husband experience, and well beyond our and wife, wore matching plus four expectations. The result was suits. As we charged through the announced at dinner; I’ve no idea town and up the hill, all the who won. For us, the winners were primary school children were on Hartfrid and Ella, whose the pavements waving and cheering. hospitality knows no bounds, and We waved back. So it went on. Michael, Reinhard, Heinz and People cheered us through every Sandra, who welcomed us into their village till mid-morning. cars, and enabled us to motor in a different age in the benign and From time to time we stopped beautiful Upper Bavarian in villages to have the route card Awaiting the start of the Konkurrenz in countryside. Our Konkurrenz end- stamped. This meant there was the Parcs Ferme ed with the awards dinner at a local some way of establishing a result, hotel, another fine occasion. but there was absolutely no hurry, about 1930 because it was deemed I met some who had visited Bushey and the way the winner was easier to see errant pedestrians if during the more active years of the calculated was beyond me. Stops the driver was in the seat nearest link, and was glad to see them again. were frequently accompanied by the side of the road. Drivers, on Hartfrid ensured that Dan and I coffee, and visits to the local the other hand, were thought to be were mentioned as contacts from churches with their baroque or invariably well-mannered; and that is Bushey. rococo decoration, and onion the reason there was no speed limit A superb few days. domes. The Alps were splendidly in Germany for a very long time. visible to the south. Michael drove Back in Landsberg, we all met for One other thing. The question with verve, and the Mercedes dinner at the sports centre, where a I raised in my article was answered roared and swooped along under his fine meal was provided, and we sat by Hartfrid. Herkomer bought his guiding hands and feet – right hand with a family from Zurich who were first car in 1903. It was a Panhard & drive, large steering wheel, running an immaculate 1915 Buick Levassor which rumbled along High accelerator between clutch and tourer. After a beer, I found I could Street. French technology was at the brake, gearchange on the right of once again speak some German. head of the field. the driver. We had a lovely lunch in the courtyard of an inn, and a On the second day, another further major stop in Bad sunny day, the route took us east of Worishofen, birthplace of Herr Dr Landsberg. Ella, Hartfrid’s daughter, Kneipp, founder of the wonderful persuaded the owners of the plus Kneippbaden, which allow one to four suits, Heinz and Sandra, to take bathe the feet in springs of cold me, while Dan went with Hartfrid water; there can be no better way to one of the check points. Heinz of revival after a tiring day. Dan and I stopped in a village where there was made do with suntan lotion. a small crowd, and encouraged the children round the car, so Dan was by this time travelling photographs could be taken – a kind with Reinhard in his Licorne. He gesture. He also drove with dash, said it was somewhat warm in this and it was great fun sitting up in Philip (on left) and Hartfrid Neunzert, the back seat. We had glimpses of moving spirit of the Konkurrenz and saloon. Reinhard told him cars in co-founder of the Bushey-Landsburg Germany had right hand drive until the lovely Ammersee at Schondorf, link

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Ivy House School here have been many Whether this was because it was clearly was popular as in schools in Bushey, but Ivy a short term or to encourage September 1935 it was announced House School must have families to enrol their sons is not that the school would be moving T been one of the shortest apparent. However the school to Tanglewood, at Stanmore, which lived. A brochure advertised that had been the home of the late Rt. the Ivy House High Street, Bushey Hon. Sir Montague Lush, a former was to be opened on May 4th judge who offered much financial 1933, as a Preparatory School for support to Bushey Heath Cottage Boys between the ages of five and Hospital. Tanglewood had grounds fourteen years. The aim of the for extensive playing fields and school was to prepare boys for the more room for boarders. When Public Schools and the Royal Navy. the school moved its name was Both day boys and boarders were changed to Tanglewood School. to be admitted and day boys could The Ivy House from the garden c1933 stay for lunch for a small extra On 24 January 1936 Lt. charge. Additional information Colonel W. H. Wild, D.S.O., the given was that the bus fare by High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, read Green Line Coach from Stanmore the proclamation of the (coaches stopping outside the accession of King Edward VIII house) was 6d return for boys outside Ivy House. Judging by the under14. number of people watching from the windows Ivy House did not Half tuition fees only were remain empty for long after the to be charged for the first term. school moved out. Ivy House today 20 THE JOURNAL OF THE FRIENDS OF BUSHEY MUSEUM

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