|
The Story of E.G. Waterhouse
By Bill Ray
VIEW FULL COLOR PDF
In April, 1890, A.B. (Banjo) Patterson published a poem
which became known around the world as the embodiment of the Australian cowboy
ideal. The poem was ‘The Man from Snowy
River’ and it has stood for over a century as an Icon for Australia to take
pride in.
Portraying a young man of independent spirit and resourceful
and nimble mind, the poem paints an incident of incredible horsemanship, skill
and courage as the young man from the ‘Snowy River Country’ of New South Wales
makes a name for himself with one fabled ride down a mountainside.
….”But still so slight and weedy, one would doubt his power
to stay,
And the old man said, “That horse will never do
For a long and tiring gallop-lad, you’d better stop away,
These hills are far too rough for such as you.”
So he waited, sad and wistful-only Clancy stood his friend-
“I think we ought to let him come,” he said;
“I warrant he’ll be with us when he’s wanted at the end,
For both his horse and he are mountain bred.”
In real life, in April 1881, a boy was born in Waverly, New
South Wales, not far from the Snowy River country that the poem would bring to
life almost a decade later. We don’t
know if he was much of a horseman, but we do know that he changed the face of
the Australian landscape for generations to come. We know that he was ‘slight and weedy’ in
appearance and his birth and upbringing in a solid and honest family, gave some
clues as to the greatness he would achieve.
His name: Eben Gowrie
Waterhouse
Like the poet’s hero, E.G. Waterhouse (Gowrie to friends and
family), was not an imposing figure at first glance. This quiet little man that taught languages
in the local schools and university, who had audiences with Benito Mussolini
and Adolf Hitler before world war broke out and was honored , late in life, by
his Queen for services to horticulture was renowned as a student and teacher of
languages.
Born of the union of two devout Wesleyan families, Gowrie
attended school at the Waverly Public School and remembered in later life being
caned for having errors in his arithmetic.
More interested in cricket than in math, he nonetheless graduated in
1901 from Sydney University with a Bachelor of Arts and first class honors in
English, French and German.
He returned to Sydney Grammar School and taught most
subjects for two and one-half years and saved his money diligently. At the end of this time, he felt that he had
enough money to go abroad to improve his knowledge of French and German. After
visits and sightseeing in Italy, Germany and London—Waterhouse made
arrangements to return to Germany and study phonetics with Professor Tilley of
the Tilley Institute. The value of four
months’ intensive training at the Tilley Institute proved with German
Phonetics, Waterhouse moved on to Paris to become more proficient in French.
Again, in a very short time, Waterhouse achieved his goal
and mastered French language and pronunciation.
One other valuable gain from his Paris experience: he met his future wife, Janet Kellie. Their relationship would wait to mature
however: Waterhouse returned to Sydney
Grammar School in 1909, Gowrie and Janet became man and wife in October, 1912
in a small wedding at her family home, “Eryldene”, Kilmarnock, Scotland.
The newlyweds returned to Australia and took up residence
near to the Teachers’ College at Sydney and were soon blessed by the birth of
their first child, Gordon Gowrie Waterhouse, later to become a prominent
horticulturalist.
In due time, the young family began planning a home—and
sought out the services of an architect.
William Hardy Wilson and Waterhouse had met at an exhibition in the
Queen Victoria Markets Building in Sydney—and it was to him that Waterhouse turned
for the design of his now famous home, ‘Eryldene’.
Somewhat a traditionalist, Waterhouse is said to have taken
a handsome brass reproduction Georgian door knocker which he had bought at an
art gallery in Bligh Street, Sydney and said, ‘Build me a house around this,
Billy!’ So, in 1913-14, a new Australian
‘Erydlene’ was built—“a fine example of Hardy Wilson’s domestic architecture,
simple, direct and dignified—an adaption of Georgian architecture to Australian
conditions” Gowrie Waterhouse was often quoted.
Even today, almost a century later, students of architecture
and others come to the preserved ‘Eryldene’ to study the work of Hardy
Wilson—and see the beautiful landscaping by Gowrie Waterhouse. From the front gate, down the walk and into
the house—back out into the garden to the ‘temple’ and the tea house on the
lawn—the harmony and success of ‘Eryldene’ comes from the architect and client
sharing somewhat the same tastes and working through the process of designing
and building a home, all the while remaining good and close friends.
History records that on Good Friday, 1914, the Waterhouse
family moved into a new home, and thus begins the part of the story most
interesting to us.
“When planning a garden you should study the block of land,
absorb the spirit of it, and try to find out what it wants to be, then work
with it, not against it. Express the
character and the genius that is hidden there.
You must always be sensitive to the atmosphere of each area and can’t
let one part take over and dominate” he has said. Importantly, he did not share the then
fashionable attitude toward camellias and planned them as part of the landscape
of Eryldene from the very earliest.
Acquiring twelve plants, three to four feet tall, in 1914,
he gave six to Hardy Wilson and kept six for the garden he was planning and
building at “Eryldene. “
The camellia quest had begun.
On August 4, 1914, a state of war was declared between Great
Britain and Germany. Soon, Gowrie
attempted to enlist but was turned away; ‘Cardiac’ scrawled in bold red ink
across his application. Consulting with an
eminent physician, Gowrie was told bluntly, “Mr. Waterhouse you are a creaking
door and you’ll always be a creaking door”
“but still so slight
and weedy, one would doubt his power to stay”
But like the ‘man from snowy river’ and his pony, E.G.
Waterhouse had much to do and far to ride on his own “Camellia Trail’’………..
Sometime during 1914, Waterhouse had become more interested
in the Italian language and had been making great strides in mastering it and
in developing his own teaching skills for it.
Even then, he did not neglect his French or German studies and was
warmly regarded by students and faculty.
Life settled in and one can easily imagine the young family,
now grown to four sons, and all the duties the father/husband/educator must
have dealt with. Yet, Waterhouse
continued his efforts to add the study of the Italian language to the college
at Sydney.
In 1933, in recognition for his services in ‘fostering the
Italian language and its study’ abroad, E.G. Waterhouse was made a ‘Cavaliere
of the Order of the Crown of Italy’ and subsequently granted an audience with
Fascist dictator, Mussolini on April 20, 1934.
Weeks later, E.G. Waterhouse was similarly granted an
audience with ‘Reichskanzler’ Adolf Hitler in Germany. This was granted on July 16, 1934 and on
reading Waterhouse’s own statements at the time, we are left with the
impression of a man conflicted by what he had seen and heard. Both leaders proved to be charismatic and
somewhat hypnotic—and both left Waterhouse with a deep sense of foreboding and
discomfort.
Upon his return to Australia, Gowrie Waterhouse found
himself in great demand as an after-dinner speaker, usually on his meetings
with Mussolini and Hitler. It was
through these speaking engagements that Gowrie and Janet Waterhouse were occasionally invited to lunch
at Government House by Lady Hore-Ruthven who sought Gowrie’s advice on the
lay-out and additional planting of some of her favorite shrubs. Sir Alexander Hore-Ruthven was later elevated
to the peerage as Lord Gowrie, and became Governor-General of Australia. His wife, Lady Gowrie, shared the
Waterhouse’s interest in flowers and gardening.
Gowrie Waterhouse later named one of his camellia hybrids, ‘Lady
Gowrie’, in her honor.
Gowrie Waterhouse was over 60 during the years of World War
II and remained at his post, teaching, advising others on horticultural matters
and taking a broad interest in the publishing of limited edition books and the
selection of works for the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
With the war’s end, came retirement from Sydney University;
Gowrie Waterhouse had been professor of German for twenty years. Gowrie was nearing the end of his
sixty-fourth year and retirement provided him opportunity to indulge his interest
in camellias.
Camellia Grove Nursery at St. Ives was begun by Waterhouse
in 1939. In 1940, with help of Janet and
others, he had organized Sydney’s first exhibition of camellias at the
Macquarie Galleries. Sixty-two varieties
were shown with names attached to all of those known. The following year a second exhibition was
held at David Jones’ store in Market Street, Sydney.
In the 1940’s, camellias were largely ignored in
Australia. As with the United States,
camellias had been well received and quite popular during the middle years of the
19th century and one of the largest surviving collections in Australia
was the collection of William Macarthur at his Camden Park estate.
Entranced by the beauty of the camellia, Gowrie became more
and more interested in the history of camellias—and in their nomenclature. He
began corresponding with growers around the world—and later became quite famous
for his hybrids.
Knowing that many were associating his hybrids with that
popular image of an elderly gentleman carefully pollinating one camellia from
another—, many of the species saluenensis with C. japonica.
A group of his hybrids were named after family and
friends—and most of these were seeded and germinated beneath a single
bush—without any help from him. A group
of his seedlings were known collectively as C. williamsii, this group was
placed on trial at the Wisley Royal Horticultural Gardens in England.
Perhaps the most beautiful of the camellias that appeared in
the ‘Eryldene’ garden was named ‘Janet Waterhouse’ after his wife—and was captured
in paint by Paul Jones. Prints of this
famous work hang in rooms around the world.
Paul Jones was to become both friend and collaborator with
Gowrie Waterhouse. The pair produced a
pair of books that were destined to become collectors items sought around the
world by camellia lovers: Camellia Quest
was the first book and was published in 1947 by Ure Smith in Australia. The second book, Camellia Trail first
saw print in 1954. Both books still
command high prices and are usually snapped up quickly whenever they are
offered for sale.
In 1952, Gowrie founded the Australian and New Zealand
Camellia Research Society, and was active in that organization until the time of his
death in 1977.
In 1957, two books on camellias were published in England by
Beryl Urquhart, both acknowledged the services of E.G. Waterhouse to the
culture and literature of the camellia.
That same year, Gowrie was honored by the Goethe Institute in Munich
with a medal for ‘fostering the German language and literature abroad’ at a time when ‘relations between Germany
and the Allied world’ were strained.
In 1962, with the cooperation of Dr. Ralph Philbrick (USA),
Charles Puddle (U.K.), and Albert Fendig (USA), Gowrie formed the International
Camellia Society—and later served as its president.
Gowrie Waterhouse was also honored in 1962 with his
appointment by the Queen to the Order of the British Empire for services to
horticulture.
In his 90th year, the E.G. Waterhouse Bicentenary
Camellia Garden was opened at Yowie Bay, Sydney, to commemorate the landing of
Captian Cook at Kurnell on April 29, 1770.
The gardens, maintained by the Sutherland Shire council are still a
popular destination today. Traveling
north from the harbor, a visitor will encounter ‘’Camellia Downs’’ and the main
road, ‘Waterhouse Avenue’. Other streets
and avenues are named after camellias and camellia-growers.
In 1976, almost at his 95th birthday, Evan Gowrie
Waterhouse was awarded the ultimate accolade from Queen and country for
‘services to horticulture’ when he was created a Companion of the Order of St
Michael and St George (C.M.G.).
In her book, E.G. Waterhouse of Erydene, Mary Armati,
describes a moment which might best capture the ever enthusiastic spirit of
Gowrie Waterhouse,
“On the morning of
the announcement of the honour, he greeted me with the words: “Do you know how
Michael and George became linked together?
They seem to me to be strangely dissimilar. I know George killed a dragon and saved the
Fairy Queen, but what does that have to do with archangels? If I am to be their Companion, I must learn
what it was that brought these two conflicting saints into the same team.” He discovered that originally this title was
that of a third class knight, with which he was in full accord as he said he
was really quite frightened of dragons!!”
The following year, E.G. Waterhouse passed from this earthly
garden to a better one, joining his beloved Janet on August 17, 1977. He left behind thousands of minds enriched by
his teaching: lessons on the beauty of
language, on the beauty of landscaping, and on the lasting beauty and mystery
of the Empress of the Winter Garden, the camellia.
“And down by
Kosciusko, where the pine-clad ridges raise
Their torn and rugged
battlements on high,
Where the air is clear
as crystal, and the white stars fairly blaze
At Midnight in the
cold and frosty sky,
And where around the Overflow
the reed-beds sweep and sway
To the breezes, and
the rolling plains are wide,
The Man from Snowy
River is a household word today,
And the stockmen tell
the story of his ride.”
And so, E.G. Waterhouse joined that ‘Man from Snowy River’
as a household word today, an icon for Australia and camellia lovers around the
world.
Material for this article was taken from both Camellia Quest
and Camellia Trail and from Mary Armati’s, 1977 book, E.G.
Waterhouse of Eryldene.
|
