Brada Hulton Twayblade Orchid Flower

English Wildflowers: Brada Hulton (1877–1973)

This is one of a collection of botanical paintings that we have for sale, which show the artistic and literary talents of the 19th-century Lancashire Simpson and Hulton families. The collection catalogues common English wildflowers found in the Lancaster area, and many of the illustrations are accompanied by lyrical poetic odes to the humble flowers, fungi and 'weeds' that they depict. The project was started by Reverend Samuel Simpson (1802–1881) in the 1830s, along with his sister, whom it appears died before the project came to fruition. Two generations on, Simpson's granddaughter, Brada Hulton (1877–1973), completes the project in the late 19th century, painting the flowers and transcribing her grandfather's poems, which span 1830–73.

Reverend Samuel Simpson was born in Lancaster in 1802, son of a West Indies merchant. He worked for many years as an attorney, and was the Director of the Liverpool and Leeds District Railway. In 1843 he built the grand Lancaster residence Greaves House. In 1851 he decided to become a clergyman, finding appointment in the Isle of Wight. Brada's mother, Ellinor Brada Simpson (1853–1887) married Jessop Henry Fletcher Hulton, whose brother was the artist William Stokes Hulton (1852–1921). Brada would no doubt have felt this artistic influence, and she evidently lived a life of privilege and cultural accomplishment, of—as her diary attests—'dances and dancing classes, tennis and the tennis club, concerts, music lessons and bathing at the Lido'. Her cousin was Edith Teresa Hulton, later Lady Berwick, of Attingham Park, Shropshire (now owned by the National Trust), and there are a number of photographs of Brada Hulton in the National Trust collections.