North was a great networker. She always made certain to obtain plenty of letters of introduction before she set off on her travels. Fortunately, her father had known many distinguished scientists, botanists, artists, writers, and politicians who were able to put her in touch with people all over the world. She never cared for staying in government residences, preferring less grand accommodation—friends’ or acquaintances’ homes, boarding houses, inns, hotels, or primitive huts. In Sarawak she was a guest of Rajah and Rani Brooke in their official residence; the rani found “dear Miss North” exhausting but nevertheless enjoyed her visit. In Java, North had “a big letter” from the Governor General asking all officials, both native and Dutch, to feed and lodge her and pass her on to wherever she wanted to go.
In Sri Lanka she spent some time staying at the house of an English judge near the Peradeniya Royal Botanic Garden west of Kandy. Later she was photographed at Kalutara by famous Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. In India, where she stayed for well over a year, she was a guest of Dr. Arthur Burnell, a distinguished scholar and authority on South Indian languages, who became a great friend. The viceroy, Lord Lytton, and his wife entertained North in Simla and looked at her paintings. When Charles Darwin advised her to investigate the flora of Australia and New Zealand, she took it as a “Royal command” and went at once. North considered Darwin the greatest man living and had hoped that he would open her gallery in 1882, but sadly he died some weeks before the event.
North was a forthright and unusual woman who was not easily swayed by convention or other people’s views. Her brother-in-law, John Addington Symonds, described her as “blond, stout, tall, good humoured and a little satirical.” Although she came from a distinguished and wealthy family, her upbringing was not completely conventional, and people are apt to give her views she did not hold or to frequently misinterpret her actions. She was a non-believer and proudly declared herself a heathen; North particularly hated the “mumbo-jumbo” of church services and contrived to avoid them. She also did not care for the social round with its frivolous chatter. Despite her considerable charm and great sense of humour, she could be autocratic and, in her words, prone to “one of those rages which are sometimes necessary.” And while some of her remarks about native peoples would be unacceptable to modern readers, she easily befriended people of many races and backgrounds, as long as they were interesting and hard-working.
Revelling in adventure, North was excited by the dangers she often encountered, and she experienced an extraordinary variety of modes of transport. She was an accomplished and intrepid horsewoman, sometimes riding for eight hours a day; she was occasionally thrown to the ground, but it never seemed to worry her.
North was also a keen conservationist and frequently lamented the wanton destruction of forests and wildlife. Sir Joseph Hooker, the second director of Kew, stressed the importance of her paintings as historical records, particularly as many of the plants were “already disappearing or [were] doomed shortly to disappear before the axe and forest fires, the plough and the flock, or the ever advancing settler or colonist.” In recognition of her discovery of new plants, North has four species and one genus (Northia) named after her.
Although she did not consider herself a feminist and was not interested in women’s suffrage, North was a great supporter of women. She was particularly keen to promote the work of other women artists (although she was often irritated by certain young ladies who made stupid remarks about her paintings). In a letter to a friend, she lamented the role of the married woman: “…the wife was a sort of upper servant to be scolded if the pickles are not right.” In the last codicil to her will, she expressly desired that an annuity left to a woman friend be for the friend’s own use, free of her husband’s control.
North was a friend of Barbara Bodichon, the great feminist and fighter for women’s education. Bodichon was the illegitimate daughter of the radical Member of Parliament Benjamin Leigh-Smith, and while many friends and relations refused to acknowledge the “tabooed” family, she was warmly received by the Norths. Bodichon was also an excellent painter and a friend of the author George Eliot, who also admired North’s paintings.
IN 1884, AT THE END of her trip to the Seychelles, North’s health began to break down. She returned to England, but after a brief rest she decided to visit Chile. She was still suffering from what she called her “nerves,” but she was determined to paint the intriguing Monkey Puzzle trees she knew she would find there. After a stop in Jamaica, she returned from this, her final voyage, in 1885. She continued arranging the paintings in her gallery and finally retired to a house in Gloucestershire where she made a wonderful garden. She had always kept a detailed record of her travels, and so she also continued writing her autobiography, Recollections of a Happy Life, which her sister, Catherine, eventually edited and arranged for publication. North died on August 30, 1890, at the age of only fifty-nine.
Marianne North was a fearless traveller and accomplished painter, and undoubtedly a great inspiration to many others. She had extraordinary energy and determination, and considerable artistic talent, and she made a significant and noteworthy contribution to the study and appreciation of botanical subjects.
ABUNDANT BEAUTY
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BRAZIL
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1872–73
FOR THE next two months I enjoyed the society of my friends in London, and then began to think of carrying out my original plan of going to Brazil, to continue the collection of studies of tropical plants that I had begun in Jamaica.
1872.—I started in the Neva Royal Mail ship on August 9, 1872, with a letter from Mr. R. G. to the captain. I had a most comfortable cabin, quite a little room, with a square window, and the voyage was most enjoyable. Lisbon was our first halt, which we reached on August 13 at sunset; the entrance to the harbour is striking, with the semi-Moorish tower and convent of Bela in the foreground; the domes and tall houses of the city gave me a much grander idea of the place than it deserved when investigated nearer: on August 19 we stopped to coal at St. Vincent. I did not land on that treeless island, which looked like a great cinder itself; but the boats that surrounded the ships were full of pretty things from Madeira, baskets and inlaid boxes, feather-flowers, and fine cobwebby knitting, as well as monkeys and lovebirds from the coast of Africa.
On August 28, 1872, we cast anchor at daylight off Pernambuco, and I saw the long reef with its lighthouse and guardian breakers stretching out between us and the land, and wondered how the crowd of ships with their tall masts ever got into the harbour. Seen through my glass, the buildings of the town looked much like those of any other town, but beyond were endless groves of cocoanut trees, showing clearly in what part of the world we were.
“Friend, a walk on shore will do thee good; my husband hath work to do there, and where he goeth I can go, and where I can go thee canst also,” said a dear old Quakeress of New York to me; so I fetched my umbrella and prepared to follow the leader of our landing party (a Belgian) down the ladder into the boat, but he went too fast and far, a wave went right over him, and we had to come up again while he changed all his clothes, for he was completely soaked. Our next start was more fortunate; we all watched till the boat was on the top of the swell and then dropped ourselves in, cleverly, one by one. It is often quite impossible to land at Pernambuco for many days together, and yet in this