Water Frolic, Barton Broad by William Brown Macdougall (1868-1936). Oil on panel. H 63.9 x W 76.2 cm. Collection: Manchester Art Gallery. Accession no. 1936.244. Given Mrs Margaret MacDougall and Mrs Agnes Watson, 1936. Image reproduced via Art UK under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (CC BY-NC-ND).
Barton Broad, according to Ernest Suffling,
is a large lake, quite a mile and a quarter long, and averaging a third of a mile wide, and containing nearly 300 acres of water area. There is a good depth of water for fishing and sailing, which may be indulged in with even more freedom than on the other Broads, as it is a long way from any large towns. A large artificial island, near the centre, affords a capital locale for picnic-parties, as their yachts may be brought close to the side in six feet of water. The Broad is fringed round with reed-banks.... [48]
Boating as a sport or hobby, and "water picnics" as social events, were popular pastimes in the nineteenth and early twentieth century (see Chaper 35, "Boating," in Harriet Martineau's Deerbrook, for example). Macdougall shows the expanse of Barton Broad here, and the colourful flags are enough to suggest the gaiety of the "frolic." — Jacqueline Banerjee
Links to Related Material
Bibliography
Suffling, Ernest Richard.
Water Frolic, Barton Broad. Web. 10 October 2024.
Created 10 October 2024