"The Central Station"

In: Overland Route; Part of our Paintings gallery

Date:
c.1850

Medium:
Watercolour on paper heightened with white bodycolour

Description:
The Central or halfway station was the largest of the post-houses where relays of horses were kept to pull the vans. "The halt at the central station is the occasion of much mirth, as it brings together again all the passengers by the steamer who have been temporarily separated into sections of half-a-dozen each". (Taken from an album of thirty-one watercolours, recording the Diorama of the Overland Mail Route from Southampton to Calcutta, and presented to Brodie McGhie Willcox, one of the founding fathers of P&O.)