More box hill

Following the last post, the hunt for a proper picture of Edwardian Box Hill continued.

National trust version

Step one, snap the rather grainy picture in an old National Trust guide to the place. Load it up and ask Google image about it.

Cab driver version

He turned up lots of copies of a different version of what looked like the same snap, which led back to reference 1. From where I offer this snippet from the knowledge: '... During his first few weeks in England, Vincent [van Gogh] travelled to Surrey to visit Box Hill, leading him to write, “The countryside here is magnificent.” Although he could have made the trip by train, Vincent opted to go on foot… a journey which took him six hours...'.

But further down I came across a splendid site for heritage photographs of beauty spots, that is to say reference 2.

The real thing

They had what looked like the real thing, cunningly copy protected. What looks like a summer bank holiday in 1906, so Edwardian indeed. You can buy a proper print for £65 plus mount, plus frame, plus postage and packing - and I can think of all kinds of people who might like such a thing as a present. But what did the National Trust pay to use a cropped version in its guide? And did the black cabbers bother to pay at all?

By way of experiment I asked about Dawlish, a Devon seaside resort I know fairly well. And there was lots of stuff. Clearly a useful resource.

PS: but I still haven't found the image I actually had in mind. Perhaps I need to go through the 130 offered by Frith more carefully.

Reference 1: https://blackcablondon.net/2013/09/.

Reference 2: https://www.francisfrith.com/uk/box-hill/photos.