Strand and Mall —I.: The Boat House: Grove Park

The Boat House: Grove Park by A. H. Henley. Signed with initials lower left. Source: the 1884-85 Magazine of Art. Click on image to enlarge it.

Commentary from the 1884-85 Magazine of Art

Between Mortlake and Kew the river is at its prettiest hereabouts. The Surrey shore is fringed with alders and water-side growths down to the river's edge; bushy luxuriant hedge-rows separate the towing-path from fields and market-gardens. Over on the Chiswick bank are rustic boat-houses and trim villas, with ample lawns shaded by old trees. Our third illustration depicts one of these boat-houses — that of the Grove Park Rowing Club —  with a glimpse of Mortlake in the distance. In the grey gloaming of an autumn evening the soft haze which here hangs over water and sky produces an effect which must be strangely like to the hues of the Indian summer. The Grove Park Boat-House is backed by a thick belt of trees, behind which is a delightful nook known only to the initiated — what our grandfathers would have called a "bosky dell." A deep and silent pool, dotted with water-lilies and swarming with pike, lies under the shadow of beech and elm and silver-birch. A rude grotto of uncemented stones, overgrown with mosses and creepers, is a relic probably of the days when the dell was promenaded by ruffled dukes and silken duchesses from Grove House hard by. This little plesaunce almost adjoins the grounds of Grove End, Mrs. Pullman's French-baronial villa.

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Bibliography

Penderell-Brodhurst, J. “Strand and Mall.” Magazine of Art. 7 (1883-84): 392-459. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of Toronto Library. Web. 2 January 2015.


Created 1 January 2015