One day in the three-year period 1833–36, perhaps around the heady days of Emancipation of the remaining slaves in Bermuda, the young Royal Artillery surgeon, Johnson Savage, set about on a walkabout in the Parish of St George’s, armed not with sword and musket, but with brush and paint, intent on capturing scenes, rather than enemy soldiers.

When he left Bermuda in 1836, perhaps in the early summer, as one of his illustrations is dated to May of that year, the artist doctor took with him some 40-odd watercolours and drawings of the island, a cache of images of local life that would become lost to memory in the Island for over 170 years.

In later 2013, Dr Adrian Webb gave a lecture to a conference of surveyors in Britain on his research and writings on Lieut Thomas Hurd RN, the composer of the great Hurd survey and chart of Bermuda, another major work of art lost to Bermuda until Dr Webb brought it to local attention in 2009.

At the end of the talk, he was approached by one Peter Savage, who told him that his family possessed an album of watercolours of Bermuda executed by his great great grandfather.

A further connection to Bermuda lies in the fact that one of Peter’s grandfathers, Arthur Johnson Savage RE, was responsible for the great Ordnance Survey of the Island that was published in 1901 and is still in print.

A meeting was arranged through Dr Webb and in late November 2013, Peter and Rosemary Savage graciously met him and Dr Edward Harris (of the National Museum of Bermuda) at their home in England, for a walkabout of the album of paintings by Johnson Savage, at the end of which Peter announced that he and his siblings, William and Jenifer, wished to donate the album to the National Museum and in effect the people of Bermuda.

The walkabout of the album followed a geographical roadmap, which started in the old capital of Bermuda at St George’s and progressed westward via Ferry Reach to the Main and onwards, passing Somerset Bridge, to the islands of Somerset and Ireland, the last being where the Royal Naval Dockyard and its major hospital (naturally painted by the surgeon) were located.

The images capture Bermuda exquisitely, as the good doctor was a most accomplished artist and draughtsman.

The paintings will be published in a book in late 2015, partly in celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the National Museum, that will also contain biographical and other artistic information on the Johnson Savage family and its long connection with Bermuda, as a son also visited the Island as a midshipman and kept a log book that has painted images in it.

But one day, or likely several, 180 years or ago, Johnson Savage put his easel, papers and paints under his arm and took his horse, or Shank’s mare, and went to the hill overlooking the town, then to either ends of St George’s and lastly, over to St David’s Island and from each produced a painting, as discussed below.

The first scene was ‘shot’ looking down from near Fort Victoria and gives a 180-degree view over the landscape to the east of St. George’s, the town being largely tucked below the hill on which Fort William (“Gunpowder Cavern”) is being erected.

On the far left, several women and children appear to be admiring the view, to the left of them is the military hospital and below, the Army’s parade ground and barracks buildings.

In the distance, ships are transiting St George’s Channel, while in the centre of the painting stands the Royal Artillery Mess (also painted by Savage) and another large building, possibly the one lost in a recent hurricane. Perhaps abandoned during a lunch break, on the right, a wheelbarrow, shovel, pick and sledge hammer lie on the hillside, with the flagstaff of Fort George in the background.

Moving to St David’s Island, Savage looks back at the view just described, but now in the forefront is the original channel into St George’s Harbour (the ‘Town Cut’ was 90 years in the future).

Guarding the entrance is one of Major Andrew Durnford’s forts on the small Governor’s Island, while the original Fort Cunningham is on an eminence on Paget Island opposite.

Much of the landscape is denuded of trees, most of which were likely cut down to feed Bermuda’s industry of ship and sloop building.

On the eastern side of the town, Johnson Savage painted a scene looking downhill from the site now occupied by the ‘Unfinished Church’, then part of the old Government House, the incumbent having moved several decades previously to be near the new capital of Hamilton.

Savage having learnt, according to artist Judy Davidson, of the technique of a ‘splash of red’ to catch the eye, two ladies in conversation on the side of the road are each so adorned, as in several of his other paintings.

Behind them is the vegetation of Somers’ Garden, set against a backdrop of whitewashed and yellow-washed houses of the town.

Moving to the west of the town, surgeon Savage set up his easel and painted the area which eventually became Penno’s wharf, after infilling much of Tiger Bay.

The house above the ribs of a ship, and Durnford House on the hill in yellow, yet exist, as may others in the picture.

Except possibly for a few paintings of Thomas Driver, there is little to compare with Johnson Savage’s images of Bermuda in the 1830s, in the period around Emancipation.

For generations to come, thanks to the generosity of his descendants, Bermudians, residents and visitors will be able to take their own walkabouts of Bermuda, back in time as it were, likely to the delight of all who see and study Johnson Savage’s meticulous record of our land 180 years ago.

Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Director of the National Museum. Comments may be made to director@nmb.bm or 704-5480.