Up at 5.30 am to shower and pack my gear
for the Cambridge Uni Library trip. I had an early breakfast and double checked
my Cambridge journey using Google map and the Library website. I caught a Number
52 bus just after 7 am, and got to Victoria Station by about 7.25 am. I then
had to find the Victoria coach station, about 7 min down the road. I was in the
Coach station sitting in the appropriate platform for my bus by 7.45 am. 8.00
am all the current buses left and I had a seat while waiting for the 8.30 National Express Coach to
Cambridge. So far so good.
The Coach Station was a lot like the Greyhound Terminals in the US; originally built 50-80 years ago, now in a bad part of town and with an unsavoury cast of “residents”. [Take a train next time.]
The prior bus was a bit late departing which made the Cambridge bus a few minutes late, so a private tour bus “jumped”
into the empty slot. When the Cambridge Bus arrived it had no platform (i.e., more delay). We finally got away, running a good 10-15 min late, and the delay was
compounded by the heavy traffic, hence we got into Cambridge a good 30min late
for my appointment even before walking the "maze" of streets to the Library. The added wrinkle was the Coaches do not
stop at the Bus Station but at a separate "Coach" area 400 m away. My 15 min walk, as
suggested by the Library Website was only from the Bus Station and only if you
made no wrong turns. I was a full 1 hour late at the Library front desk after walking the extra distance and taking numerous dead-ends, plus the bus being late of course.
Unfortunately all my emails had gone to naught as the key person was away. No Westall documents were ready for me, so more delays.
They did find documents in the Royal
Commonwealth Society archive that dealt with the book of Westall’s drawings
(and this file contained the photographs of the “coloured” drawings of some of
his coastal profiles, which I photographed). These images filled out my collection of his artwork made in
Australia, as I already have photos of his major landscape paintings courtesy of the UK MOD.
I also tried for three boxes of
“drawings” (according to the Cambridge Uni Library catalogue) as well. However, these boxes only had
correspondence concerning the printing of the book of Westall’s drawings. Checking through
the "Westall Committee" correspondence I found the note that in 1969 (5th of March) the drawings had been sold to
the Australian National Library.
Ironical to say the least but that was the only way I could track the fate of these drawings. There was considerable correspondence and proofs for the published "Drawings of William Westall" but not the actual drawings.
I made it back to the Coach area by 4.30 pm, detouring for nostalgic visits to St John's and to St Catherine's colleges, where I had stayed previously on Visiting Scholar visits. St John's is as magical as always but Cambridge was nigh on impassable with tourists during the holidays.
A "replacement bus company" Coach arrived at the scheduled departure time and we left for London (with a slightly uneasy feeling). Arrived in London at about 8.0 pm and I headed for the bus dropoff points at Victoria Station (basically the reverse of getting to the Coach Station in the morning). I found the Bus 52 stand after some good-humored redirection and was back at my accommodation by 9.0 pm.
Summarising the day: I got images of some of Westall's Australian coastal profile/landscapes and have tracked where his original Australia drawings are. These are not all his drawings just those that were salvaged from the wreck of the Porpoise.
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