The Boat House, by Robert Taylor Pritchett (1828–1907). 1868. Pen-and-ink. Shown at the "Drawing Esher" exhibition of R. T. Pritchett's pen-and-ink drawings, held at the Civic Offices in Esher, Surrey, 31 January - 21 September 2023. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
The rivers here must have appealed greatly to Pritchett as a lover of boats and all things nautical. One of the books he went on to illustrate was W. H. Davenport Adams's Windsor Castle and the Water-way Thither (1880), in a new series on "Our Native Land." There, he would draw the much more elaborate boat-houses on the Thames at Eton. But many houses in this part of Surrey, including the grand estate at Esher Place itself, back on to a river, whether the Thames, the Wey or the Mole, and many still have their own private boathouses at the end of their gardens. This Victorian one is lovingly recreated here, with attention to every plank of wood, as well as to the thick trunk-like stock of the climbing ivy on the left, the little boat itself safely moored inside with its tiller just visible, and the door with its handle and catch, invitingly open for the next sailing trip.
Esher is in the borough of Elmbridge. In the borough's coat of arms, photographed on a street sign and shown on the right here, a river is represented in the lower part of the shield, surmounted by a bridge and a tree. The motto also references its waterways: "Dum Defluant Amnes," or "While Rivers Flow," usually translated as "Till the Rivers Cease to Flow." It would be no surprise to learn that the boat-house sketched by Pritchett has been restored and still exists here, somewhere, along one of those pretty waterways, most likely a nearby stretch of the River Mole.
Photographs, text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee; top photograph reproduced here by kind permission of Elmbridge Museum and the Civic Offices, Esher. [You may use the other one without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL or cite the Victorian Web in a print document. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Created 12 September 2023