Sheffield Sketchcrawl 7: General Cemetery and Botanical Gardens

| Siân

Well, the forecast wasn’t good, but we merry Sketchcrawlers gathered with our sketchbooks (and waterproofs) in the General Cemetery at 10am. I had a good mooch about the place, reading inscriptions and panicking about trying to draw vegetation, before I decided to just choose the best place to sit. I sat on the steps to the Old Chapel and draw the Monument to George Bennet, which is Grade II listed, and seriously decayed. It looks like his whole portrait has been chipped off deliberately.

Sheffield General Cemetery monument - original sketch by Sian Hughes artist

 

I got a photo in case you didn’t believe me. Look, poor fella:

George Bennet Monument

 

As it seemed such an important-looking object, and knowing nothing about this man, I wrote down the inscription from the reverse. George Bennet was a Missionary who spent eight years travelling the world and founded the Sheffield Sunday School Movement; he isn’t buried here but this is a monument to him and his work.

Sheffield General Cemetery monument inscription - by Sian Hughes artist

 

George Bennet’s story from the Cemetery Trust’s website
Some other interesting graves I saw included Leopold Lichtenthal of St. Petersburg, who was killed from a fall from a horse in 1879. Showing off, apparently. He was 17.
Leopold Lichtenthal
And John Burch, Gentleman, who died aged 80 in full hope of a joyful Resurrection. I hope he wasn’t disappointed. For more history, please go to the General Cemetery Trust’s website: http://www.gencem.org/
John Burch, Gentleman

We managed about an hour or so before the weather started to turn, so we quickly departed and reconvened inside the pavillions at the Botanical Gardens. We were just in time, because it started to absolutely tip it down for the remainder of the day. Here’s a sketch I did of the agapanthus in the “South Africa” pavillion, and the view through the door into “South & Central America”:

Sheffield Botanical Gardens, inside the pavilions - sketch by Sian Hughes artist
I then tried to draw the cacti in the South & Central America beds, but there was too much information! I may have made some of this up, but I think it looks pretty! Those tall things on the left were actually really fluffy. Well, they looked fluffy but they were probably very stabby:

Sheffield Botanical Gardens, cacti inside the pavilions - sketch by Sian Hughes artist


And still it continued to rain and everybody got very cold, so most people went home. Only an intrepid few braved the trek up to the pub for the de-brief and sketchbook swap but a good day was had by all!

As usual, click on the images to see larger and keep an eye on Lynne’s Picture Gallery to see work from the day from the other sketchcrawlers!

Sx