The pristine countryside of nineteenth century Cornwall was a flourishing patchwork of varied habitat groups, ranging from the sub-tropical vegetation of the Scilly Islands to the windswept hills of Dartmoor. Although certain areas were significantly ravaged by tin mines and clay works, an attentive botanist of the day could be richly rewarded with numerous discoveries in the nooks and crannies of this dramatic landscape. With the era of Romanticism in full bloom throughout Great Britain bringing with it a greater awareness and appreciation of the surrounding flora, a new pastime was created known as the countryside ramble. Enjoyed by the village vicar, squire and school mistress alike, rambling attracted nearly everyone with a penchant for the out-of-doors.

For many of those gifted individuals who possessed the ability to commit their findings to paper, whether by the pen or brush, rambling became a highly important exercise. Miss Emily Stackhouse was just one of those individuals and she was also one of many ladies who ventured into various scientific endeavors to pursue a never-ending quest for knowledge. Delighting in their discoveries, but rarely communicating them to the outside, these ladies, unheralded and solitary, rambled about England painting, collecting, and cataloguing; a true expression of individual freedom as they knew it. Exploration was at their doorstep and Botany was the preferred discipline. Ranging from the armchair amateur to the muddy-booted savant, they were the backbone of early British taxonomy. Miss Stackhouse took her work quite seriously, traipsing through the relative tranquillity of the fields and pastures around her home, journeying overland to the seashore, and thence slopping about various bogs and other "watery places", as she was fond of inscribing on her watercolours.

The Stackhouse Family inhabited many parts of Cornwall from the Trehane estate near Truro, to the Pendarves estate near Cambourne, and Acton Castle near Perranuthnoe. Displaced family centers included the Acton Scott Estate in Shropshire and How Caple near Hereford. As the clergy claimed many a livelihood amongst the Stackhouse descendants, those branches lived in Beenham, St. Mellion, Horley-cum-Horton, Enniscorthy (Ireland), and as far afield as Australia. A branch just outside of Cornwall in the market town of Modbury in Devonshire was the home of Reverend William Stackhouse and his wife Sarah which formed the humble beginnings of Miss Emily Stackhouse.

Born on the 15th of July in 1811, Emily Stackhouse was the fifth of six children of the Reverend and his wife. Although his father was the owner of the Stackhouse family estate of Trehane, William Stackhouse III found it necessary to travel to Devon in order to find an appointment in the ministry for himself. As were many of his ancestors, William was educated at Eton and then Trinity College, Oxford. The Provost and College of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Eton were the patrons of the 14th century church in Modbury and it was from them that William received the Living of the church and the Old Vicarage residence.

Virtually nothing is known of the formative years of Miss Stackhouse. We do know that both her immediate and extended family could have provided any number of seeds for growth. From eminent botanists and geologists, to artists and even colour men and brush makers; they were all available. Botany seemed to run throughout the family and so it is more than likely that William and Sarah possessed a reasonable collection of botanical books. William's uncle, John Stackhouse was the author of Nereis Britannica and also aided William Withering in his publication, Arrangement of British Plants and from inscriptions on several of Emily's watercolours, we know that she was able to refer to English Botany by Sowerby and Smith and the later Sowerby Supplement to this monumental work. William was later to become a member and judge of the Royal Horticultural Society of Cornwall and so it can be safely assumed that he had a direct interest in Botany. This usually meant that he would have also possessed a herbarium which the children could have studied. These collections, generally of dried grasses and mosses, were the source of inspiration for more that one budding naturalist. The living of Modbury also contained nine acres of glebe along with the vicarage buildings so it is also probable that the family would have done some plantings to augment the dinner table and take the excess to market.

Schooling in pre-Victorian Britain, was usually reserved for the boys with the girls either receiving instruction in their own home or one of a close relation. Records indicate that Emily's older sister, Charlotte, had most likely gone to live with her second cousin, Frances Knight Stackhouse-Acton and it is highly likely that Emily did the same. Frances was an accomplished botanist and botanical artist and her father, T.A. Knight, was the author of the beautifully illustrated book, Pomona Herefordiensis. Charlotte later became a most accomplished watercolourist with a specialty in painting fruit.

There were many opportunities for the study of watercolour technique in the Modbury area as well. With the town's proximity to Plymouth, any number of drawing instructors were available including Henry Johns, whose son Charles Alexander was to play an important role with Emily later in her life. A local artist was John Ponsford R.A. who still spent much of his time in Modbury. The Pinwill family who were to marry into the Stackhouse line in a few years through their son were also living nearby to Modbury and were excellent woodcarvers and artists. All that can be definitely gleaned from this early period was that Emily Stackhouse possessed a wonderful talent and a keen eye.

Unfortunately, these formative years were visited by the all too common tragedies of the day. Epidemics were frequent in these not wholly hospitable times, with Cholera, Typhoid and Tuberculosis lurking behind every arriving ship in this sea-faring nation; Emily began life with only a two in five chance of surviving until adulthood. She lost her brother to Cholera at Eton in 1824 and her younger sister, Anne, died at the vicarage in 1830. This year of 1830 was also to be a dramatic year for the family as "Trehane" Stackhouse, the father of William III, passed away leaving his vast estate and the finest Queen Anne mansion in Cornwall to his son. It was to be four years before the family formally took up residence in William's birthplace, but in 1834, the first date on any of Emily's collection of watercolours, the family moved to Trehane.

This vast estate, just a few miles from Truro and near to the village of Probus, consisted of well over 4,000 acres including numerous tenanted farms and was always passed on as the privilege of the first born son. Trehane offered to William and his family, security of a kind only enjoyed by the landed gentry of the day. It secured the well-being of the family, allowed ample funds for travel with a well-staffed family coach, and it was here that Emily's dreams of botanical study became a reality. Virtually every habitat was available to her; right on her doorstep. From the ponds of Tregeagle to the bogs of Bodrean, the woods of Trehane, and the fertile soil of Nankilly. There were quarries, orchards, streams, mills, and gardens galore.

Trehane dated back in parts to 1288 and had developed over the centuries into a substantial holding. Originally referred to as the "old town", it may have been a small hamlet in bygone days and is listed as "Trehan" on the Jonathan Speed map of Cornwall circa 1630. The home farm of Trehane Barton possessed as its centerpiece a magnificent Queen Anne residence built in 1700-1703 by John Williams for his new bride, Catherine Courtenay, a descendant of the great knights of old in Devon. Many architectural elements were featured including a fine Adams staircase and a plastered ceiling created by an Italian sculptor who ornamented it with the signs of the zodiac; the first known usage in England. Through various marriages and subsequent deaths, the house and holdings had passed to William Stackhouse I in 1738 and thence down to his great-grandson. The Stackhouse family itself is thought to have originated in North Yorkshire in the village of Stackhouse. As is usually the case in this circumstance, it is believed that they either lent their name to the village through their settlement in the area or they simply took their name from the village. William I was from County Durham and had traveled to Cornwall via Oxford and then to the living of St. Erme, adjacent to Trehane.

Among the first watercolours from this 1834-1836 period, several were completed in and around Norwich and it would appear that Emily wasted no time in beginning her numerous journeys which would take her throughout England and Ireland. The Stackhouse family maintained friendships with such prominent botanists as Sir Joseph Banks and Sir James Edward Smith. Dawson Turner was also numbered as one in the inner circle and it is believed that Emily must have stayed with him and his daughters during this visit to Norfolk. Within closer proximity were her cousin, William Rashleigh Esq. of Menabilly, and her close neighbours, John and Mary Hawkins of Trewithen.

The Rashleigh family seat of Menabilly is located in the town of Fowey in an area of Cornwall forever immortalized in the novels of Daphne du Maurier; particularly the Manor House in which the Rashleigh family lived, or Manderley as it is known in her books. William Rashliegh was the Member of Parliament for his district and was also well-acquainted with Queen Victoria. He was a first-rate amateur scientist and contributed to a diverse range of books from Sowerby and Smith's English Botany to Yarrell's History of British Fishes to Johnstone and Croall's Nature-Printed British Sea-Weeds. William was married to Emily's aunt and as Fowey was only 20 miles distant from Trehane, she made many visits to this most congenial household.

John and Mary Hawkins were much closer, within easy walking distance and were both able and experienced botanists as well as artists. Mary's father was H.W. Sibthorp, Professor of Botany at Oxford who, in turn, was directly affiliated with the famous botanical artists, Ferdinand and Franz Bauer, whom he had been instrumental in bringing to London. Emily's relations had built part of Trewithen house and sold the estate to the Hawkins family circa 1710, so there is no doubt that these families were seen about the countryside in each other's company.

Life in the mansion house of Trehane can be visualized as portrayed in many novels of the day. The all too familiar scene of the sisters busily occupied at the piano, needlepoint frame, or sketching pad so immortalized by another Charlotte and Emily in Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights irresistibly comes to mind. Sarah, the oldest child and bearer of her mother's namesake, had married in Modbury to Reverend Pinwill and moved to Oxfordshire. So the eldest daughter at home was Charlotte who developed into a watercolourist of note as well as an accomplished pianist as evidenced from her collection of piano music. There still exists an "invented" drawing game entitled "The Mill" in either Emily's or Charlotte's hand which possibly shows a favourite pastime.

William Stackhouse, now the former Vicar of Modbury, appears to have taken to livestock and cultivation as much as his daughter took to the rough borders, bogs and woodland. The family grew acres and acres of cabbages, turnips, and potatoes as well as providing rye, barley and other "corn" for milling and feed. Sheep and cattle were numerous with pigs and oxen rounding out the livestock. In reviewing the farm ledger from 1834 to 1861, visits were made to market in Truro every week and most of the entries appear to be in Emily's hand. With such a pastoral life beckoning, Emily Stackhouse was to produce well over 600 delicately coloured watercolours and several collections of mosses, grasses and flowers. In addition to these accomplishments, she made significant contributions to the Hortus Siccus of the Royal Horticultural Society and her writings enriched the Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall.

Her watercolours themselves speak of a supreme dedication to detail and a phenomenal accuracy of colour. Usually sketching an outline in pencil, Emily would then use what must have been the finest paints available as their outstanding staying power and light-fast qualities are echoed by the technique with which they have been applied. Her paper of choice was Whatman's, both regular and Turkey Mill, cut to approximately 12 x 10 inches and various smaller sizes. These appear to have been carefully chosen with annual watermarks when she would embark upon one of her numerous excursions. She occasionally used various enhancement techniques which included applying varnish to simulate the sheen found on some leaves or petals, and mixing gouache or gum arabic into her paints to give a three-dimensional texture to the flower stamens.

After completion of the watercolour, Emily would carefully inscribe the Latin and English names of the plant on the bottom corners in her usual cursive stroke. Most pieces also have the location and month listed either in pen or pencil, with some humour interjected from time to time with comments such as "partout" (everywhere), "do you not know it", or "where is it not". The appropriate Linnean taxonomy was usually listed on the reverse.

The image depth achieved in her plants shows that she must have truly painted from nature. There is no stylization present and she certainly had a remarkable sense of line in order to commit such perfect poses to paper in an extremely unforgiving medium. Some images seem quite literally ready to pirouette off the page as might a Degas ballerina. These are not depictions reminiscent of a flower sitting in a glass on the writing bureau.

Her accomplishments were many, although it wasn't until she had reached maturity and gained a certain amount of self-certainty that she embarked on a more public career in her botanical pursuits. Just prior to her first recorded exhibition, Emily's mother passed away quite suddenly at the age of 69. The family placed a memorial baptismal font in their parish church in Probus to mark this sad event, the first such occurrence since moving to Trehane.

The 14th Annual Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society Exhibition took place in Falmouth during 1846 and a group of four albums of Emily's watercolours were entered in the Natural History competition. The collection was awarded a Bronze medal and reviewed in the Royal Cornwall Gazette in which they wrote, "....four volumes of beautiful botanical drawings....". Had time constraints not been adhered to, Prince Albert would have delighted many by viewing the exhibition as was his intention upon arriving in Falmouth. However, other engagements in the town had taken too much of his time and, not wishing to keep Queen Victoria waiting for dinner on the Royal Yacht which was anchored in the harbour, the exhibition was deleted from his itinerary.

The judges of the exhibition were somewhat critical of the placement of the watercolours in the Natural History category feeling that drawings of plants belonged in the amateur artist category. They were deemed to not be a satisfactory entry in the Natural History section, but, of course, they didn't realize that they were dealing with someone who considered herself neither an artist, nor an amateur; Emily Stackhouse was a botanist...who painted.

Another grouping was entered in 1853 with the same prize results although a more eloquent statement by the judges was made this time. It read ".....two volumes of Flowers, in water colours, painted from Nature, and beautifully executed, belonged rather to the department of the fine arts; but as they had been submitted to the judges in the natural history department they had awarded to the exhibitor a second bronze medal, the more willingly, as the art of preserving an exact representation of a rare or new plant, whose colours would soon fade, is highly useful and important."

During this time, possibly as early as 1843, Emily came into contact with the irrepressible Reverend Charles Alexander Johns. Also born in 1811 and to a displaced Cornish family, Charles had taken up a position in 1831 as assistant head master in the Helston Grammar School under Derwent Coleridge, the second son of the famous poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Helston was in close proximity to the Lizard Peninsula which was a favourite haunt of a number of botanists including John and Mary Hawkins of Trewithen. Charles was certainly known to them as well as some of the most eminent botanists of the day including Sir William Hooker. One of his earliest excursions in Cornwall was to the Pendarves Estate in 1833 which was owned by a member of the extended Stackhouse family. In 1836, Charles left Helston to pursue his studies at

Trinity College in Dublin. After his marriage in 1843, he was offered the head master position at Helston and returned to Cornwall.  It was probably just around the time of Emily's first exhibition in Falmouth that Charles was asked to look over her watercolours and they "....met with his approbation." Directly due to her association with Charles, the botanical watercolours were soon to become some of the most reproduced drawings of plants in the history of publishing.

At the early age of 25, Charles had been accepted as a Fellow into the prestigious Linnean Society of London, without having had the benefit of a university education. His botanical knowledge was extensive and he was a regular contributor to the herbariums of several prominent botanists, including his close friends Sir William Hooker and George Banks. After obtaining his degree from Trinity in 1839, he embarked upon a most remarkable trip to the Holy Land where he completed his first book, Flora Sacra, which included original dried plants interspersed with inspirational poetry. Charles then began a lucrative association with a publisher known as The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, or SPCK. As is obvious by their name, their specialty over the years was to provide knowledgeable scientific literature, written in an elementary manner, at prices which most of the populace could afford. Having begun in 1698, as an organization to sponsor charity schools, they now seized the opportunity in their rambling books to encourage the amateur and entertain the ordinary through spiritual writings emphasizing the importance of communing with nature. The hopeful outcome of such engaging reading was to inspire some converts to the Christian way of life. While not the first exponent of the rambling genre, Charles was soon to provide some of the most entertaining examples available. With a natural exuberance and fearless attitude, he possessed the gift of expressing his zealousness in words. But he needed an illustrator, and this was Emily Stackhouse.

The first true rambling book written by Charles was Botanical Rambles published circa 1844. This was first issued in four parts following the seasons of the year and was so popular that later editions published all four parts in one binding. However, the three most outstanding works which have endured over time and are still highly sought after today, began in 1847 with a two volume set entitled Forest Trees of Britain. This was an extremely important handbook and provided a wonderful study of the folklore and history of trees in the British Isles and it was reprinted many times up until the turn of the century. A number of the illustrations of leaves, blossoms, and nuts or fruit are by Emily.

The next title and perhaps the consummate rambling book, was A Week at the Lizard issued in 1848. The botanical information on this windswept peninsula was included in the appendix and virtually all of the botanical illustrations are woodcuts taken from Emily's watercolours. The book was reprinted on four occasions up until 1874 and is still a marvelous traveling companion for any visit to this part of Cornwall. Entertaining and extremely well-written and illustrated, it is a very good book in its own right.

Charles' Magnum Opus was Flowers of the Field. Considered by many to be the bible of the amateur botanist, this book was first published in a two volume set in 1851. The second edition appears to have combined the two into a single volume and it was then that the book achieved its popularity. Over 50 editions were published stretching into

1949 from at least 5 different publishers both in Great Britain and the United States. The book was still on stockist's shelves in London in the 1970's which most certainly must make it one of the longest-lived scientific books of all time. Well over 200 of the book's illustrations have come from the anonymous hand of Miss Emily Stackhouse.

The saga of the illustrations did not end with the writings of C.A Johns nor by the early deaths of either Charles or Emily. The woodcuts which were used to illustrate all of these books were then placed in further rambling and botanical books by later authors employed by the SPCK. From their series on Natural History Rambles ranging from The Woodlands, Lane and Field, to The Seashore and then to other botanical subjects such as M.C. Cooke's, Freaks of Plant Life, it is estimated that the watercolours of Emily Stackhouse have been used to partially illustrate at least 15 and perhaps over 30 publications issued in the period from 1870 to 1890. However, despite her tremendous accomplishment as one of the great anonymous illustrators, Emily attained other heights far more dear to her heart.

During these highly important years from the mid-1840's into the 1850's, Emily formed many lasting relationships with several of the local botanists. After joining the Royal Polytechnic in 1848, she met two knowledgeable and influential ladies. These were Miss Elizabeth Warren and Miss Isabella Gifford. Miss Warren, a founding member of the Polytechnic and an honourary member of the Royal Horticultural Society, was also a close friend of Reverend Johns and Sir William Hooker. It may very well have been her who first introduced Charles to Emily. Miss Gifford published at least one botanical book on seaweeds and was in several of the local organizations as well.

The ensuing years brought the first signs of a decline in the usually brilliant detailing of Emily's botanical drawings as her eyesight obviously began to fail towards the end of the 1850's. During this period, her watercolours took on an almost soft-focus, impressionistic quality and concluded with her last dated work done in Newquay during August 1859. A few others probably date from or just after this time as they all bear the hallmarks of this later style. The colouration is just as robust as in any of her earlier work, but the superb detailing gives way to a hazy quality. After this period, Emily began to concentrate more on herbarium collections and these, like the watercolours before them, were successfully entered into competitions at the Royal Polytechnic Annual Exhibitions. One of these collections, a large grouping of Indian grasses which had been forwarded to her by her nephew stationed in the 27th Inniskilling Regiment, was duly classified by Emily and later donated to the British Museum of Natural History in South Kensington.

The first indication of any severe health difficulties is contained in several letters from Emily to William Wilson who was a noted expert on mosses and the author of Bryologia Britannica. Shortly after this correspondence, Emily and her sister Louisa purchased a Georgian terraced house in Truro near to the Royal Infirmary and moved out of Trehane.  It was also in this same year of 1861 that William Stackhouse passed away at the age of 88 leaving the estate to his first born child, Sarah. However, Sarah and her husband declined the inheritance and passed it on to their son, Emily's correspondent from India. The surviving Stackhouse daughters, Sarah, Charlotte, Louisa and Emily erected a monumental stained glass window in the Church in Probus in memory of their father. Captain William Stackhouse Church Pinwill gladly resigned his commission in India and returned to England. Although not a farmer himself, the estate continued to prosper  through the excellent lettings which Pinwill arranged with local families. This provided him with ample time for gardening which reached its zenith with his receipt of the Victoria Medal of Honour from the Royal Horticultural Society in 1914.

Despite attacks of apoplexy, the move to Truro allowed Emily to continue exercising her considerable talents in the field of Botany. She began by firstly having her collection of 629 drawings bound into three volumes by one of the finest bookbinders in Great Britain, Zaehnsdorf of London, now a part of the Asprey Group. In 1864, they completed the project leaving many blank pages interspersed throughout the books presumably because Emily felt that there was more work to be done on certain species. This is possibly a definite sign of her continued optimism in the face of great adversity.

In this same year of 1864, Emily's great friend, Elizabeth Warren passed away and it was on this occasion that Emily first contributed to the Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall with a memorial tribute. The year of 1867 saw two articles placed in this Journal, "Musci, Natives of Cornwall", in which Emily described and classified the various mosses of the area and her own attempt at a rambling story, "Rare Plants in the neighbourhood of Truro", which takes the reader on a journey around some of the roads and byways around Truro on a botanical search. Emily was later acknowledged to have collected and classified virtually every British moss and her "Rare Plants" article listed Rubus Radula, the first such mention of this plant occurring in Cornwall.

The last few years of her life were not kind to this gentle lady. A severe attack of apoplexy brought on paralysis in 1869 and she lingered on for another year before a final episode took her life on the 1st of March 1870. She was buried in her family corner of the Probus churchyard beneath a verdant canopy of her beloved mosses.

The plight of the talented and intelligent woman in the 19th century is almost impossiblefor us to imagine today. Many of Emily's watercolours pre-date the accredited discovery  of various species in Cornwall by as much as 45 years and several of these were included in her two exhibitions at the Royal Polytechnic Society in 1846 and 1853. It must have been an oppressive scientific community indeed, that made is impossible for these ladies to register their findings with any degree of acceptance; not to mention the inability to create the proper atmosphere to make it desirous to do so. She was always beset with "second" place status in most of the exhibitions she entered. It is difficult to comprehend how a volume of delicate watercolours which possessed her amazing red poppy as its centerpiece, could have been surpassed in the medal awards in favour of a paper on the "Fisheries of Mount's Bay". Most women exhibitors were referred to simply as "a lady amateur" in the discussions of prizes awarded with the men all receiving a proper named acknowledgment.

This same social attitudes continued with the various organizations that she belonged to. The Royal Institution of Cornwall had Emily and other prominent lady botanists in regular attendance at their annual meetings and even though their Journal is at great pains to note by name all of the gentlemen present, the lady members are lumped into their customary terminal anonym, ".....and a large number of ladies." However, they do redress the pathetic situation a bit in their tribute to lost members which reads, "...Miss Emily Stackhouse enriched our journal, from time to time, with admirable contributions  relating to a branch of science seldom treated of in its pages, but which she had long studied with singular zeal and success."

Many conjectures about this remarkable woman will remain educated guesses at best and much will simply never be known. The magnificent Queen Anne mansion of Trehane literally burnt to the ground in 1946, the victim of a torch which was being used to re-lead the gutters and roof. The flame apparently reached in through a crack in a slate tile and ignited one of the rafters underneath. This smoldered away in the attic un-noticed throughout the day. When the fire took hold in the evening, the villagers in the town of Probus thought it was one of the many bonfires that were seen throughout the countryside due to the clearing up of the fields after World War II. The alarm finally reached the village, but it was too late. It is known from family sources that the house and attic were filled with papers and memorabilia. Fortunately, the three volumes of watercolours which can be clearly seen in a turn of the century photograph of the drawing room had already been removed to the homes of various Stackhouse descendants.

Therefore, the legacy of Emily Stackhouse is represented by these 629 delicately crafted watercolours. Whether a simple blade of Sedge or a bouquet of Henbane, each plant received the fullest possible attention. Her travels took her the length and breadth of England with several overseas excursions to Ireland and the Scilly Islands. Un-acknowledged, she provided numerous illustrations to C.A. Johns' "little books", as she so called them in a letter to Sir William Hooker, and a vast array of other SPCK publications, thus making her one of the great un-heralded illustrators of her time.

But then, such was the humble nature of this lady. A quiet and solitary figure, developing a superb technique for preserving and seeking out the natural beauty around her. And at the same time, amassing great local knowledge which had it been shared or communicated, would have secured her a place amongst the foremost discoverers of plant species in Cornwall. Miss Emily Stackhouse, a great naturalist in her own time awaiting recognition as an equally great botanical artist in ours.