Charles Waterton at Home

Figures on the island at Walton Hall

I’ve been reformatting my Waterton’s Park booklet and this detail of three figures is the final illustration. Could this be a photograph of the camera-shy Waterton? Taken around 1860, it may show his Charles Waterton’s son Edmund on the left, one of Waterton’s sisters in law, (so a Miss Edmondstone) and Waterton himself.

Dr Hobson and friend at the farm, Walton Hall, c.1860.

But looking at it again, it does look more like Waterton’s friend Dr Hobson, who had a series of photographs taken of Walton Park at the time. There’s the cane, as in the Hobson photograph, the top hat and light-coloured trousers and there’s even a hint of those Victorian whiskers around his face.

Hobson and Waterton
Hobson keeping Waterton talking while his photographer takes a photograph

Hobson himself says that this back view of Waterton was the nearest that he came to capturing Waterton on camera.

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