'The Wolf's Fall / Holne Chute'

This graphite drawing with wash depicts two figures scaling a steep path, on the right, in a rocky landscape lined with trees. Blue wash highlights the clear sky and a small waterway between the wooded hills on the left and the rockface on the right. ‘The Wolfe’s Fall’ at the bottom of the path and ‘Holne Chute’ is inscribed in the bottom right corner. The image bears some resemblance to the areas of Dartmoor frequented by the artist. Clergyman Prebendary Wolfe was an active figure in the Torquay, Newton Abbot and Devon community from 1848. He owned land and property in Leighon, along the road of a route towards Becky Falls, where he observed the local bird-of-prey population. No records have currently been found of a ‘Wolfe’s Fall’ in this area or the attribution of the Reverand’s name to any of the landscape.

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.