DOI Heft:
No. 16 (July, 1894)
DOI Artikel:Marshall, Herbert: Letters from artists to artists, [8], London (second letter)
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17190#0124
London as a Sketching Ground
ship ; St. Martin Ludgate Hill, St. Mary Aldemary, line on his left would be Peckham and Denmark
St. Antholin and St. Bride; while away to the Hill, and the rising ground of Hyde Park would
west the eye catches all the notable landmarks in have confined the waste of waters that covered
a continuous line from Fleet Street to Charing at every tide the now fashionable districts of
Cross. At one's feet is the river, more tawny than Belgrave Square and Kensington. So broad was
the Tiber, on whose swift stream sweep past on the estuary of the Thames near London that an
the hurrying tide barges and lighters, steamers, tugs, old Roman geographer declared that the river
and wherries. It is, indeed, a scene of which every here poured itself into the ocean.
Londoner should be proud. Over this waterland nearly two-thirds of Modern
Many centuries ago, we are told, this Pool of London is now built. Perhaps it is not difficult
London was a vast lagoon, and if painters were to to trace the source from which spring the countless
take for their subjects landscape restored to its scenic effects, the fogs and heavy haze of its streets,
early physical condition, as architects "restore" Every bridge from Chelsea to London Bridge
THE EMBANKMENT, WESTMINSTER BY HERBERT MARSHALL
buildings, the approach to London by the river
would fill a sketch-book with some rather re-
markable " jottings." An early British artist sail-
ing up the Thames from Blackwall on a flood-tide
would have under him a stream nearly three miles
broad. His course might be shaped in a bee-
line across the Isle of Dogs, through Rotherhithe,
Bermondsey, the Borough, and, sailing over where
is now the best pitch at the Oval, would strike the
river again at Battersea, his passage fringed in
parts by beds of rushes out of which rise wildfowl
innumerable, and by low-lying mudbanks where
fishermen, as in the present day on the Venetian
lagoons, dry their nets or make fast their boats
awaiting the turn of the tide. The nearest shore-
108
affords both up and down stream views of the
greatest interest and beauty ; Westminster being so
near its own picturesque surroundings yields less
than the rest, but Waterloo and Cannon Street
bridges command the best of the river scenery.
Naturally Wordsworth's well-known sonnet springs
to one's lips; this was, however, written when only
three bridges were in existence; had he seen the
view from Waterloo Bridge a more glorious vision
would have appeared to him as he crossed the
river in the early morning of the summer of 1803.
For sketching purposes the wharves along the
southern bank of the river are generally attainable—
they are all approached from the Belvedere and
Commercial Roads, which make up that long
ship ; St. Martin Ludgate Hill, St. Mary Aldemary, line on his left would be Peckham and Denmark
St. Antholin and St. Bride; while away to the Hill, and the rising ground of Hyde Park would
west the eye catches all the notable landmarks in have confined the waste of waters that covered
a continuous line from Fleet Street to Charing at every tide the now fashionable districts of
Cross. At one's feet is the river, more tawny than Belgrave Square and Kensington. So broad was
the Tiber, on whose swift stream sweep past on the estuary of the Thames near London that an
the hurrying tide barges and lighters, steamers, tugs, old Roman geographer declared that the river
and wherries. It is, indeed, a scene of which every here poured itself into the ocean.
Londoner should be proud. Over this waterland nearly two-thirds of Modern
Many centuries ago, we are told, this Pool of London is now built. Perhaps it is not difficult
London was a vast lagoon, and if painters were to to trace the source from which spring the countless
take for their subjects landscape restored to its scenic effects, the fogs and heavy haze of its streets,
early physical condition, as architects "restore" Every bridge from Chelsea to London Bridge
THE EMBANKMENT, WESTMINSTER BY HERBERT MARSHALL
buildings, the approach to London by the river
would fill a sketch-book with some rather re-
markable " jottings." An early British artist sail-
ing up the Thames from Blackwall on a flood-tide
would have under him a stream nearly three miles
broad. His course might be shaped in a bee-
line across the Isle of Dogs, through Rotherhithe,
Bermondsey, the Borough, and, sailing over where
is now the best pitch at the Oval, would strike the
river again at Battersea, his passage fringed in
parts by beds of rushes out of which rise wildfowl
innumerable, and by low-lying mudbanks where
fishermen, as in the present day on the Venetian
lagoons, dry their nets or make fast their boats
awaiting the turn of the tide. The nearest shore-
108
affords both up and down stream views of the
greatest interest and beauty ; Westminster being so
near its own picturesque surroundings yields less
than the rest, but Waterloo and Cannon Street
bridges command the best of the river scenery.
Naturally Wordsworth's well-known sonnet springs
to one's lips; this was, however, written when only
three bridges were in existence; had he seen the
view from Waterloo Bridge a more glorious vision
would have appeared to him as he crossed the
river in the early morning of the summer of 1803.
For sketching purposes the wharves along the
southern bank of the river are generally attainable—
they are all approached from the Belvedere and
Commercial Roads, which make up that long