GLIMPSES INTO THE PAST
What preceded our building? It’s a question that has led to a fascinating
story.
The first house on the piece of land where Herbert
Gardens stands today was built for the artist and pharmacist Charles Decimus Barraud.
He wanted to be a surgeon, but the
family could not afford it, so he became an apothecary and practised in
Southhampton.
When he was twenty-six he married Sarah Maria Style,
whose cousin was Judge H. S. Chapman, who lived in Wellington, New Zealand.
Chapman urged them to migrate here. Then, after they arrived in August 1849, he loaned
them his cottage in Karori while their house was being built on the Terrace. It
was called Fern Glen, evidently because the gully behind the house was thick
with foliage.
Though there are no records of its appearance, the
house may have looked like this lovely little painting, made by Barraud himself:
As yes, Barraud became a noted watercolour artist, though it was only a hobby. He set up his apothecary shop on Lambton Quay, but his heart was in his art. As time went on he set up quite a flourishing business in pharmaceuticals, making enough money to travel about New Zealand to paint local scenes and buildings, and even getting as far as England.
He and Sarah Maria had six sons and three daughters, all born at Fern Glen, at 186 the Terrace. Charles Decimus Barraud died on 26 December 1897, and was buried in the Bolton Street Cemetery, after a service in Old St. Pauls -- the church for which he had painted the illuminated texts in the nave.
So what happened to Fern Glen after that? Watch for the next episode of Glimpses into the Past ...
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