The Steam Yacht, Gondola

In my collection of carriage prints is this image of the steam yacht, Gondola, on Lake Coniston in the Lake District. It is one of 24 commissioned in 1951 by George Dow from the railway painter and author, Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis, for the London Midland Region of British Railways. They became known as the “Travel in” series, as each example was assigned to a particular year. They illustrated scenes from some of the constituent companies that eventually made up the London Midland and Scottish Railway, the predecessor of the LMR. Gondola, belonging to the Furness Railway, was chosen to represent 1885.

Ellis was a prolific writer on railway topics and his carriage prints are very colourful reminders of the varied liveries of the old railway companies. By comparison, his figures appear rather wooden, as can be seen in this example. He was not the first competent railway artist, nor will he be the last, to have trouble bringing passengers and by-standers to life.

The steam yacht Gondola was built in Liverpool by Jones, Quiggin and Company for the Furness Railway, in 1859. She was taken out of service in 1936 and converted for use as a house boat. In 1979, and by then having been abandoned and in a derelict state, she was re-built and returned to the lake as a tourist attraction by the National Trust.

On a very wet day at the end of March 2017, we came across the Gondola quite by chance, when we visited John Ruskin’s house, Brantwood, on the eastern shore of Lake Coniston, which is also run by the NT. She was being prepared for the new tourist season, due to begin the following weekend. She called briefly at the dedicated Brantwood landing stage while we were there. Now getting on for 160 years old, it is perhaps worth noting that when John Ruskin was looking out from his window for inspiration from his idyllic Lakeland surroundings, he would also have watched the Gondola steaming elegantly by.