3-003-712 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Path to Blackdown and the Surrey Highlands", by J. W. Weymper [sic], from the exhibition of the New Society of Painters in Water Colours, 1861. Engraving from a painting. Black Down is a mild, barren, sandstone hill, about three miles from Haslemere, in Surrey, which is now easily reached by the Direct Portsmouth Railway...The individual nook which Mr. Whymper has chosen for the exercise of his pencil is of that peculiar beauty and wild suggestive richness which almost creates a new sensation as you gaze upon it. The rugged hill, covered at the top with a light mist; the calmness of the wooded retreat beneath, peopled by just sufficient of life to show that the spot is one within reach of the abodes of civilisation; and the air which encircles the trees and pervades the whole scene, all combine to make this little bit a gem of landscape, both in conception and execution. Too much cannot be said of the sympathetic feeling with which Mr. Whymper has taken up his subject, and the delicate and appreciative finish with which he has invested every detail. This little work was one of the most attractive of his numerous exhibits at the gallery of the New Water-colour Society'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.