Sharpham, On the Dart, 1856

Wood engraving of "Sharpham, on the Dart, Devon- The Largest Rookery in England," by Edmund Evans (signed) for the Illustrated London News.

The image shows a view of the river dart, surrounded by trees and fields with grazing sheep in the foreground, and forested hills behind. Two boats can be seen sailing along the river.

The illustration accompanied a short piece on the landscape, featured in the May 10, 1856 issue of the Victorian periodical:

"No South Devon tourist ever dropped down the silent Dart, either in the excursion steamer or by boat, from Totnes to Dartmouth, without pausing halfway to admire the scenery at Sharpham, and to test that wondrous ringing echo which so perserveringly mocks the boatmen's halloo, as they near the beautiful crescent of woods which marks his first peep of it on the right-hand bank.

[...]

One side of the river is crowned with thick woods of beech and ash, where rooks have had their hereditary abodes time out of mind, and formed a colony as large, if not larger, than the most celebrated rookeries in Essex and Kent. When the music of the countless packs of foxhounds and harriers, subscription and parish, with which Devonshire abounds, has at last ceased, and the fox can bring out her cubs to play in the ridings without any thought for Sir Henry Searle and his troop of scarlets, the rooks' hour is come, and amid an endless fusilade of every species of artillery, from the delicate Minie to the ancient blunderbuss, family after family of squab rooks are picked off, and come to ground with all that "emphasis of a squashed apple dumpling," which fell with such special force on Washington Irving's ear."-p.13

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