sherborneschoolarchives
The Abbot’s Fish Pond by Mr Bissett, c.1865
Sherborne School Archives, Sherborne School, Abbey Road, Sherborne, Dorset, UK, DT9 3AP oldshirburnian.org.uk/school-archives/
Pencil sketch of the Abbot’s Fish Pond in the Headmaster’s garden, Sherborne School, by Mr Bissett, c.1865.
Pencil on paper.
33.5 cm x 25.5 cm.
Standing on the croquet lawn next to the pond are Mrs Mary Charlotte Harper (wife of the Headmaster, Hugo Daniel Harper) and her three daughters Caroline Elizabeth (Birdie), Mary (May) and Margaret Annie (Maggie).
The drawing was given to Sherborne School c.1939 by Margaret Stewart Roberts, daughter of Mary Roberts (nee Harper),
The pond was first mentioned in 1145, with documents ordering the preparation of nets and directing the disposal of the tithes of eels caught on Saints' Days. By a grant dated 1695, Hugh Hodges, a young barrister just returned to practise in the town and recently made a Governor of his old school, is given fishing rights by the Earl of Bristol for an annual reservation of eight carp, to be delivered to Sherborne Castle. By 1865 the pond was largely silted up and the water stagnant: Hugo Daniel Harper described it as 'little better than a solution of mud'. An epidemic of typhoid in Acreman Street in 1867 was attributed to its stagnancy and in 1873 it was filled up with the earth removed during the building of a swimming bath for the school further down Acreman Street.
An account of the pond by Mary Stewart Roberts (nee Harper) in 'Sherborne, Oxford & Cambridge: Recollections of Mrs Ernest Stewart Roberts' (London, Martin Hopkinson Ltd., 1934), pp.26-29: 'We had a large and beautiful garden, with orchards, etc., a little way from the house, where we spent most of our time. It had been the Abbot's garden, and there was a very large oblong pond, almost a lake, in it, I believe three-quarters of an acre in extent, which had been the Abbot's fish pond. This added greatly to the beauty of the garden, and along one bank there were tall Scotch pines. I grieve to say the pond was filled up during my father's reign. It seems to me now that this ought not to have been done, but the question was much discussed beforehand. The fact was the water was almost stagnant and people began to say it was not healthy, and when there was illness in the town it was whispered that the pond had something to do with it. The alternative was to have it cleaned and keep it clean, and this was impossibly expensive. On Sundays the Sixth Form used to be allowed the freedom of the garden, and I can see them now, lying on rugs on the grass slope above the pond, under the Scotch fir trees. When my brother Harry and I were very young (I think he must have been nearly six and I nearly eight) we had a theological discussion on the subject of Our Lord walking on the water. We agreed that we could not do this, but that possibly one foot on the water, and one on dry land, it might be done. We tried it in our bath (one of the flat round ones then in general use) unsuccessfully, and decided that the pond would give us more chance. Harry did not wait for me to try this experiment, but one Sunday he got into an old boat which was moored to the bank, and never, to the best of my memory, used, went to the farthest side, and proceeded to walk on the water, one foot remaining in the boat. I was coming, alone, down the very long centre path of the big garden when I saw in the distance Harry's Sunday hat, yellow straw with a blue ribbon round it, floating on the pond. A little later I met a strange party all dripping with water. My father, covered from head to foot with mud and weeds, Mr Riddell (a very charming Oxford friend of my father's, generally an immaculately dressed clergyman) with mud and weeds covering exactly half of his whole person, and Harry, hand-in-hand between them, also covered with mud and weeds. It appears that Harry fell in, as he did some distance from the short, my father jumped in beyond him to push him to the bank, and Mr Riddell lay down on the edge to stretch out and catch hold of Harry as soon as he came within reach, but fell in as far as half his person was concerned. He always declared that my mother pushed him in, in her eagerness that he should go to the rescue of her son and husband.'
If you have any additional information about this image or if you would like to use one of our images then we would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below or contact us via the Sherborne School Archives website: oldshirburnian.org.uk/school-archives/contact-the-school-...
The Abbot’s Fish Pond by Mr Bissett, c.1865
Sherborne School Archives, Sherborne School, Abbey Road, Sherborne, Dorset, UK, DT9 3AP oldshirburnian.org.uk/school-archives/
Pencil sketch of the Abbot’s Fish Pond in the Headmaster’s garden, Sherborne School, by Mr Bissett, c.1865.
Pencil on paper.
33.5 cm x 25.5 cm.
Standing on the croquet lawn next to the pond are Mrs Mary Charlotte Harper (wife of the Headmaster, Hugo Daniel Harper) and her three daughters Caroline Elizabeth (Birdie), Mary (May) and Margaret Annie (Maggie).
The drawing was given to Sherborne School c.1939 by Margaret Stewart Roberts, daughter of Mary Roberts (nee Harper),
The pond was first mentioned in 1145, with documents ordering the preparation of nets and directing the disposal of the tithes of eels caught on Saints' Days. By a grant dated 1695, Hugh Hodges, a young barrister just returned to practise in the town and recently made a Governor of his old school, is given fishing rights by the Earl of Bristol for an annual reservation of eight carp, to be delivered to Sherborne Castle. By 1865 the pond was largely silted up and the water stagnant: Hugo Daniel Harper described it as 'little better than a solution of mud'. An epidemic of typhoid in Acreman Street in 1867 was attributed to its stagnancy and in 1873 it was filled up with the earth removed during the building of a swimming bath for the school further down Acreman Street.
An account of the pond by Mary Stewart Roberts (nee Harper) in 'Sherborne, Oxford & Cambridge: Recollections of Mrs Ernest Stewart Roberts' (London, Martin Hopkinson Ltd., 1934), pp.26-29: 'We had a large and beautiful garden, with orchards, etc., a little way from the house, where we spent most of our time. It had been the Abbot's garden, and there was a very large oblong pond, almost a lake, in it, I believe three-quarters of an acre in extent, which had been the Abbot's fish pond. This added greatly to the beauty of the garden, and along one bank there were tall Scotch pines. I grieve to say the pond was filled up during my father's reign. It seems to me now that this ought not to have been done, but the question was much discussed beforehand. The fact was the water was almost stagnant and people began to say it was not healthy, and when there was illness in the town it was whispered that the pond had something to do with it. The alternative was to have it cleaned and keep it clean, and this was impossibly expensive. On Sundays the Sixth Form used to be allowed the freedom of the garden, and I can see them now, lying on rugs on the grass slope above the pond, under the Scotch fir trees. When my brother Harry and I were very young (I think he must have been nearly six and I nearly eight) we had a theological discussion on the subject of Our Lord walking on the water. We agreed that we could not do this, but that possibly one foot on the water, and one on dry land, it might be done. We tried it in our bath (one of the flat round ones then in general use) unsuccessfully, and decided that the pond would give us more chance. Harry did not wait for me to try this experiment, but one Sunday he got into an old boat which was moored to the bank, and never, to the best of my memory, used, went to the farthest side, and proceeded to walk on the water, one foot remaining in the boat. I was coming, alone, down the very long centre path of the big garden when I saw in the distance Harry's Sunday hat, yellow straw with a blue ribbon round it, floating on the pond. A little later I met a strange party all dripping with water. My father, covered from head to foot with mud and weeds, Mr Riddell (a very charming Oxford friend of my father's, generally an immaculately dressed clergyman) with mud and weeds covering exactly half of his whole person, and Harry, hand-in-hand between them, also covered with mud and weeds. It appears that Harry fell in, as he did some distance from the short, my father jumped in beyond him to push him to the bank, and Mr Riddell lay down on the edge to stretch out and catch hold of Harry as soon as he came within reach, but fell in as far as half his person was concerned. He always declared that my mother pushed him in, in her eagerness that he should go to the rescue of her son and husband.'
If you have any additional information about this image or if you would like to use one of our images then we would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below or contact us via the Sherborne School Archives website: oldshirburnian.org.uk/school-archives/contact-the-school-...