Places

Date: 1850

By: Weld, Frederick Aloysius (Hon Sir), 1823-1891; Scrope, Mary Constance, 1907-1987

Reference: A-269-010

Description: Shows a night-time camping scene, lit by a campfire, with members of the six-strong camping party (a woman and five men) seated around the campfire, some of them in the entrance to a tent at the left. The tent uses a flowering cabbage tree as a ridge-pole. The scene may show John Robert Godley, Charlotte Godley (and possibly their son Arthur), as well as Charles Torlesse, Edward Jerningham Wakefield, Hunter Brown and Mr Boys. In a letter to her mother, starting 13 December, Charlotte Godley describes being led on a camping trip with Weld, including camping at the edge of Rangiora Bush on 6 December 1950. She writes of their camp being 'just on the edge of thick, almost impenetrable wood, with very fine trees; and our little tent with a fire at the door, quite shaded over by the tall waving toi-toi grass, and the large one for the gentlemen a little beyond, with such a magnificent fire ... Mr Weld ... went and got me a bouquet ... it was the flower of the cabbage tree ... ' (Godley, Charlotte. Letters from early New Zealand (Christchurch, 1951), p 145. Other Titles - Rangiora, North Canterbury Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour, 90 x 110 mm Provenance: Scrope/Weld Collection.

Date: 1850

By: Weld, Frederick Aloysius (Hon Sir), 1823-1891; Scrope, Mary Constance, 1907-1987

Reference: A-269-011

Description: Shows a tent and shelter with camp fire on the nearer (south) side of the river. On the far side are two Maori whare and two food storage platforms. A range of foothills of the Southern Alps, including Mount Grey, is in the distance. In the centre foreground by the tent, are a European man, woman and child, probably the Godley family. Two further people are by the campfire and tent on the right. There are flax bushes and scrub on the south side of the river, and a cabbage tree on the north side Compare a very similar view in Canterbury Museum titled by Weld 'Camp, banks of Courtenay (Waimakariri) Canterbury Plains, Dec 5th, 1850'. The Canterbury Museum view contains more people and a clearer view of the shelter and camp fire on the right. On Dec 5th 1850, Weld camped on the south bank of the Waimakariri with John Robert Godley, Charlotte Godley and their three-year old son Arthur Godley, as well as Charles Torlesse, Charles Hunter Brown, E J Wakefield and a surveyor, Mr Boys. Charlotte Godley wrote to her mother about the camp 'The little tent, just big enough for a bed for us three ... The flax bushes and grass grew all about, higher than our tent ... As it got dark, a party of natives, who had been assembling at some huts just across the river, came over in a canoe to pay us a visit ... Next morning we were up early, and ... had to cross the river in a canoe, the horses having to be swum over' (Godley, Charlotte. Letters from early New Zealand. Christchurch, 1951, pp 143-144). The man seated in the tent is likely to be John Robert Godley, while Charlotte Godley will be the woman holding the hand of their small son Arthur by the river. Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour, 170 x 245 mm Provenance: Scrope/Weld Collection.