James Mudd album

Summary

An album of landscape and historic monument photographs by James Mudd. The photographs are printed in sepia tones on thin fairly matt paper, and are pasted onto thick gilt-edged pages, with one large image on each right hand page. Each of the images on the first 23 pages has been signed and titled on the mount in pencil, possibly by the photographer. They are as follows: Page 1: An oval photograph, ‘In Teesdale Yorkshire’: a view up a shallow rushing river with wooded banks, a house on the left bank. Page 2: A rectangular photograph, softened at the edges in an oval shape, ‘East Window Bolton Abbey’. The high arch of the ruin of Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, can be glimpsed through trees. Page 3: A circular photograph, ‘On the Greta Rokeby Park’. View looking upstream, a high arched bridge curving over the rocky riverbed, and the banks overgrown with trees. Page 4: A rectangular photograph, ‘Fountains Abbey’. The ruins of this Yorkshire abbey fill the picture. Page 5: An oval photograph, ‘View from walls of Goodrich Castle’. We look past trees and a straight river or canal to flat fields and distant hills. Page 6: A rectangular photograph, ‘At Fountains Abbey’. A double-arched flat-topped bridge passes over a moat or some slow-flowing water. Stone walls on either side and the bridge itself are overgrown. Page 7: A rectangular photograph, ‘Coniston Falls’. A view of a rocky waterfall, low houses and hills in the background. Page 8: An oval photograph, ‘Goodrich Court and River Wye’. We look down over what could be overgrown ruins to fields and a meandering river. Page 9: A rectangular photograph, ‘Wastdale Cumberland.’ A flat valley with a small river running through is flanked by high stony hills. Page 10: A rectangular photograph, ‘Yewdale Bridge Westmoreland’. A view across a bridge, though trees (pines on the right) to a distant wooded hillside. Page 11: A circular photograph, ‘Wastdale Head Cumberland’. Across a path and river on a flat valley floor to high stony hills. A building and a stone bridge occupy the middle ground. Page 12: A rectangular photograph, ‘Goodrich Castle’. A tumbledown medieval keep is overgrown by trees. Page 13: A rectangular photograph, ‘Abbey Bridge over the Tees Yorkshire’. We look through a high arched stone bridge at an angle. It stands on rocky, treelined banks. Page 14: A circular photograph, ‘On the Calder, Cumberland’. From a stony bank a river meanders into the distance. The view looks past two tree trunks. Page 15: A rectangular photograph, ‘High Force falls of the Tees’. Twin waterfalls rush down a steep cliffside, tumbled angular rocks in the foreground. Page 16: An oval photograph, ‘River Tees’. Between rocky, treelined banks a river meanders into the distance. Page 17: A rectangular photograph, ‘Entrance to Bolton Woods’. A stone gateway with three arches spans a road leading into trees. Page 18: A portrait-format rectangular photograph, pasted sideways into the album, ‘Tintern Abbey’. We look through a framing arch into the body of a ruined church, now roofless, windowless and ivy-covered. Page 19: A portrait-format rectangular photograph with rounded top corners, pasted sideways into the album, ‘In Rokeby Park’. A low, rocky river flows smoothly past cliffs and trees. Page 20: A portrait-format arch-shaped photograph, pasted sideways into the album, ‘Raglan Park & Moat’. The corner of a castle, overgrown with ivy, seen from the other side of the moat. Page 21: A rectangular photograph, ‘The River Tay, near Dunkeld’. Looking towards a bend in a wide, treelined river, a long hill in the distance. Page 22 : A rectangular photograph: ‘The Ferry Bank’. A close view of brambles, ferns and a mossy rock. Page 23: A rectangular photograph: ‘Near Pitlochrie, Perthshire’. Two ladies stand on open ground in the middle distance. Woodland, river and hills beyond. Page 24: Two rectangular photographs. Top: ‘Old Harry Rocks’: Columnar rock formations. Below: ‘Wimborne Church S.E.’: A Victorian-gothic church with two towers. Two newspaper clippings from ‘The Standard’: A letter appealing for donations to support the family of William Brown, drowned coxswain of the Swanage lifeboat, and an update on the appeal announcing that nearly 1500 pounds had been raised. Page 25: loose, a rectangular portrait photograph: ‘F. Cook Esq.’ A young gentleman of the late nineteenth century, clean shaven, smooth hair, sincere expression. Interleaved in the last (blank) pages: several fern fronds and a sweet chestnut leaf.