Fire at Dartmouth 25th August 1820-scene from Paradice Garden (1821)

Gilpin, William. Observations on the western parts of England relating chiefly to picturesque beauty. London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1798. pp. 206-8.But as light is best supported by shade, a conflagration by night, from whatever cause produced, has the grandest effect. […] at night, the darkness of the hemisphere makes the grandest opposition. The light is concentrated to one spot, only variously broken, as it may happen to fall on different objects. At the same time it receives the full beauty of gradation. The ruddy glow which spreads far and wide into the regions of night, graduates, as it recedes from its center, and becoming fainter and fainter, is at last totally lost in the shades of darkness. A conflagration, therefore, by night presents us with the justest ideas of the great principles of light and shade. It gives a body of light variously broken: and at length dying gradually away.[…]Grand indeed, though dreadful, is the conflagration of houses; especially if those houses have any dignity of form. The bursts of fire from windows and doors, the illumination of the internal parts of a structure, and the varied force of the fire on the different materials it meets with, which may be more or less combustible, are all circumstances highly picturesque. It may be added also, that wind makes a great difference in the appearance of a conflagration; and yet I know not whether its most splendid effects are not see best in a calm.But the operations of war produce still grander effects of this kind. The burning of ships is productive of greater ideas, and more picturesque circumstances, than the burning of houses. The very reflections from the water add great beauty. But these representations are among the difficult attempts of the pencil. [Staff in the Westcountry Studies Library have been unable to find any account of this fire apart from this illustration. Any information would be welcome. Please contact the Westcountry Studies Library at exeloc@devon.gov.uk ]

Aq/etch

166x223mm