'The Ness, Parson & Clerk, ev.1852'

This watercolour depicts a coastal view towards Teignmouth and Dawlish. Inscribed ‘The Ness / Parson and Clerk / ev. 1852’ in the bottom left corner. The twin red rock stacks on the coast of Holcombe, known as Parson and Clerk, can be seen in the far distance on the right. The Ness, a rocky headland in Shaldon, can be seen on the left, with the shore of Teignmouth, populated with white buildings that continue up the hill, visible behind it. Several vessels are shown at sea, including two steamers with billowing brown smoke trailing off with the wind.

This drawing is part of an album containing thirty-six drawings (PAG3476–PAG3511) by Harry Edmund Edgell (1809–1876), dated between 1851 and 1852. During this time, Edgell was living in Torquay, Devon, with his wife Caroline, with whom he had a daughter in June 1852. Edgell entered the Royal Naval College in 1821 and was involved in forcing the passage of the Bocca Tigris in China while serving as Lieutenant on HMS ‘Imogene’ in the 1830s. He became Captain in 1846 and commanded HMS ‘Siren’, in which he assisted in the removal of the sculptured remains of the Tomb of Mausolus (Canning Marbles) from Bodrum Castle, Asia Minor (now Türkiye), to the British Museum. After returning from the Mediterranean in 1847, Edgell did not serve on board a ship again until 1855. This sketchbook primarily contains landscapes and coastal scenes depicting everyday life in and around Devon. Some of the later pages depict places in China and other locations in Asia, suggesting Edgell may have used this album outside of the dates recorded. The final page contains a note in Edgell’s hand, titled ‘India’, recording the details of six ships involved in the Second Anglo-Burmese War, which began in April 1852.