English School, 19th Century

A view from Penang Hill with a Malay climbing up carrying pineapples and fruit, and a Chinese woman and girl with their goat descending, a military encampment on Signal Hill[?] to the left, George Town below and the Kedah coast beyond

Footnotes

An indistinct inscription in ink ('.... .... Thomson[?]') has offset (presumably from the original mount) onto the reverse of the sheet.

This fine finished watercolour appears to be a worked-up drawing by a professional artist for publication, possibly from a sketch taken in the field. The offset inscription on the reverse of the sheet may indicate a connection with the surveyor John Turnbull Thomson.

Thomson was surveyor and an amateur sketcher on Penang between 1838 and 1841 before being appointed Government Surveyor and Engineer in Singapore in 1841. He described the ascent of the Penang Hill and the views from the top in his memoirs published in 1865:

'However patched like the Penang hills appear from the sea, their tops afford the most delicious retreats from the scorching heat of the plains. On the summit of the Great Hill, several bungalows are perched ... Happy are the individuals whose means or duties will allow of frequent residence up here. Here are the governor's, recorder's, and principal merchants' bungalows. ... To ascend and view this wonderful mountain, was my earnest desire; and the invitation of a friend soon enabled me to gratify my curiosity. I ascended the winding zigzag path early one morning, accompanied by a ship captain and a purser. ...

'On we went, alternately admiring the expanding landscape and the gigantic forest trees and ferns. ... The air perceptibly cools, the mists are refreshing; and when we arrive at Strawberry Hill, we are equally charmed by the magnificent wide-spreading prospect, and the true welcome of our host. ...

'We retire to a shady seat, commanding a panoramic view of the Keddah and Perak
mountains and plains, the little islands, the narrow straits, the blue unbounded
ocean. We turn again, and our eyes rest on the white glittering houses of the town, three thousand feet beneath us. ... Well has Penang earned the title of "Gem of the Ocean"; well has she incited her numerous poets to sing of her in rapturous lays.

'Besides the Great Hill, there were several others, having their solitary bungalow perched on their very tops. Thus, there was Mount Erskine, Mount Olivia, named after "Raffles'" first wife, the Highlands of Scotland, Jackson's Hill, Ibbetson's Hill.

Brown's Hill, &c.' (J. T. Thomson, Some Glimpses Into Life in the Far East, London,
1865, pp.70-71.)

It has been suggested that the bungalow on the adjacent hill may have been that of the former Deputy Paymaster of the Prince of Wales Government, Quinton Dick Thompson and his wife, Mary Anne, sister of Sir Stamford Raffles, when they were earlier living on the island.