An old wooden cross measuring 6 in. by 6 in. constructed of totara timber has braved the elements in the Otahuhu Anglican Cemetery for the past seventy-five years. Those who raised the cross followed the precedent at the burial of Sir John Moore, and “carved not a line” to show who was buried beneath the turf.

That cross marks the resting place of Major Walter Vernon Herford, of the 3rd Waikato Militia, whose gallantry at the Siege of Orakau, where he was seriously wounded, has been placed on record by historians of the Maori Wars. Major Herford died three months after the fighting at Orakau, and was buried in the church-yard of Holy Trinity Church, Otahuhu, on 1st July, 1864.

Vernon Herford's Gallantry.

In the files of the “New Zealand Herald,” of 1864, are to be found brief details of the gallantry and untimely death of Vernon Herford. On 30th June, of that year, the “Herald” recorded the death of Major Herford, 3rd Waikato Militia, as the result of a wound in the head at Orakau on 1st April. “He died on Tuesday night, 28th June, at his residence, Otahuhu, being only thirty-five years of age. He had formerly held a commission in the Adelaide Volunteers, and subsequently raised a company of militia in the Middle (now South) Island, and so obtained the rank of captain in the 3rd Waikato Militia. He was promoted major for his gallantry at Orakau. Conspicuous even among the brave, Major (then Captain) Herford distinguished himself at the Siege of Orakau. In company with Lieutenant Harrison of the Waikato Militia, Captain Herford remained at the head of the sap throughout nearly the whole of the siege. The rifles of these officers aided, materially, in keeping down the fire of the enemy. It was here that he received the wound from which he has since died. The conspicuous gallantry displayed in this action called forth a flattering notice in the despatches of General Cameron, and was justly appreciated by the War Minister, who at once conferred upon him the rank of major.”

Behind the recent “re-discovery” of Major Herford's nameless grave there is an interesting story. With the passing of years the secret of whom the old wooden cross commemorated became known only to the vicars of Otahuhu who have the safe-keeping of the plan of the cemetery which surrounds the site of the church built by Bishop Selwyn at Otahuhu in the very early days of Auckland. There is a little chapel there to-day.

Lady Artist and Her Brother.

Thousands of people who have visited the Otahuhu Cemetery and noticed the wooden cross, may have wondered why it was raised there long ago. The story of that old cross is linked closely with a small painting in oils which a New Zealand family has treasured for seventy years.

The title of the picture is “The Little Emigrant,” and it was painted in the years 1866–68 by Miss Laura Herford, sister of Major Herford. It is now in the possession of Mrs. page 26 Laura Herford Sheat (nee Thompson), of 3 Preston Avenue, Mount Albert, Auckland, a god-child of Miss Herford's and who was an infant in the cradle when Miss Herford visited New Zealand a few months after the death of Major Herford.

Motif for the Picture.

To the writer of this article the picture of “The Little Emigrant” has, for many years, been an object of admiration, and curiosity. Recently Mrs. Sheat told the story of how the picture came to be painted, and this prompted the writer to follow the trail of investigation that led to that old wooden cross at Otahuhu. Here is the story as Mrs. Sheat related it:

“My elder sister Jenny, who was seventeen years older than me, told me that one Monday morning at the end of January, 1865, as she and a friend were busy washing at our home at Richmond, near Nelson, two ladies arrived on horseback. My sister Jenny would be about 17 1/2 years of age, with rosy cheeks and a fine figure, and as she was the eldest of a large family she had to take charge of the household to a large extent. The two visitors were Miss Greenwood—daughter of Dr. Greenwood (one time head-master of Nelson College) and the other was Miss Laura Herford—an artist, of Hampstead, London. Miss Herford was a dear friend of Miss M. M. Montgomery, who was an aunt (by marriage) of my father's and lived in London. Miss Montgomery, who was then a very elderly lady, had sent Miss Herford directions to find out my father, Mr. T. J. Thompson, with whom she corresponded. My father had left England twenty-four years before as one of the first settlers in the New Zealand Company's Nelson Settlement.

“Miss Herford came on a sad mission. On receiving news that her brother, Major Herford, had been wounded in the Maori War, she had set out for New Zealand. She was determined to nurse him back to health, but he died before she reached New Zealand. She had letters of introduction to Dr. Greenwood, and so rode up from Nelson to Richmond to find my father, whom she had never seen before. Of course, ladies rode side-saddle in those days.

“My sister used to relate that Miss Herford was so charmed with my elder brothers, Fred and Tom, who were then six and three years of age, respectively, and with the twins—that is my brother Ernest and myself— who were then a fortnight old.

“Miss Herford brought many kind messages to my father from his old friend, Miss Montgomery, who was a patroness of Miss Herford in her art. Of course, Miss Herford was most interested in chatting with my mother as she lay there with her twin babies. My mother recounted so vividly to Miss Herford of how the first Nelson settlers left home in 1841 to come to a wild, new land—of the parting from friends, and of the long voyage on which, as Mark Twain has it, the passengers ‘grew up together’ for nearly six months on the crowded emigrant ship, Lord Auckland. What must have appealed most of all to Miss Herford was my mother's mention of her wistful longing for her old home in Leeds as she sat often by the high bulwarks looking out over the ‘wide, wide sea,’ dreaming of home. My mother always had an intense love of ‘Home.’ She was only fourteen when she left Leeds, and she never moved away from her new home in Nelson. She lived to be eighty-six.

“Miss Herford listened intently and said: ‘Mrs. Thompson, you have given me my motif. I will paint you as the little emigrant lass thinking of home.’ So she painted the picture on her return to London. She got her niece, Helen Paterson, to sit for her. The girl in the picture has long golden hair and large blue eyes and rosy cheeks. My mother's hair was dark, and she had dark blue eyes and rosy cheeks. But for all that my mother gave the artist her thought—her motif.

“Miss Herford was returning to London with many good wishes from my parents. She called at Adelaide to see her widowed sister-in-law—Major Herford's wife and her little children. She continued to write to my parents regularly until her death in 1870.

“My sister Jenny used to tell me that they put their washing aside on that midsummer's day in 1865 and prepared a very nice dinner, and laid it out daintily in the old parlour with the bay windows and the big open fireplace. My father had built all that part of the house, and had made the windows by hand. They shifted in about 1860. The four new rooms were added later by carpenters as the family grew.”

Tragedy in Old Letters.

In Mrs. Sheat's collection of family papers are several letters written by Miss Herford to Mr. Thompson. One letter dated 24th November, 1865, tells of her arrival in London in the middle of June, and of her visit to Adelaide to see her bereaved sister-in-law, with whom she stayed six weeks. “I found everyone there most kind and most friendly,” she wrote, “and I felt glad to know those most nearly connected with my brother. I am at my work, painting in town from soon after nine in the morning. I hope your children are all well. I felt very much gratified to hear that one of them is my namesake.” When this letter was written Miss Herford resided at Rosslyn Terrace, Hampstead, London.

From her studio at 20 Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, London, Miss Herford wrote on 31st July, 1866: “I feel a great interest in my little god-child. I hope both she and your family are quite well, and that Mrs. Thompson is not overwhelmed with so many young cares! (The twins brought the family circle up to ten children). I have the most pleasant recollections of the many kind friends I met with at the Antipodes, and always think I should like to come again and pay New Zealand a longer visit. Very kind regards to Mrs. Thompson and yourself, good wishes for all your circle, and an especially tender greeting for my namesake.”

What a wealth of tragic circumstances are conjured up in the letter which Miss Montgomery wrote on 24th August, 1864—nearly two months page 27 after Major Herford had died—to her nephew, Mr. Thompson, in Nelson! The letter says: “You will have heard or read in the papers that Vernon Herford, whom I recommended to you some time ago, was badly wounded in one of the battles. His sister, Laura Herford, has lived with me for the last seven years, and is an artist— portrait and landscape painter—very dear and very heroic as you may imagine when I tell you that she determined, on hearing of her brother's disaster, to go out to Auckland by the ship Victory to help him and his young wife and little children. I am very anxious about her.”

The Picture and the Piano.

Miss Herford “comes into the picture again” in January, 1870, when she wrote from 40 Fitzroy Square, London, to tell Mr. Thompson that she had carried out his commission to buy a piano and have it shipped to Nelson. Here is her letter: “I had the piano in my studio for a week, and invited a large party of my friends to meet it. But alas! when fifty people came they talked so much that we could not judge much the tone of the piano! Then as you kindly wished to make me a present I have made you the purchaser of a small picture of mine to the extent of £10—the price I put on it in an exhibition here. I hope you will like it. I painted it a little while before my dear old friend Miss Montgomery died (in March, 1868), and she liked it very much. I only tell you as it may give the picture a little interest in your eyes. The piano is sent out by the Albion, consigned to Nathaniel Edwards, Nelson.”

That was how “The Little Emigrant” came to New Zealand seventy years ago.

Poor Miss Laura Herford! She wrote on the day before Christmas, 1869: “I am able to work very little from bad health. I have begun to have some professional success just lately, and have just sold two little pictures in the Manchester Exhibition.”

She did not live to see Christmas, 1870.

Pioneer Woman Art Student.

Who was Miss Laura Herford? She was a pioneer in her particular sphere, according to “Everywoman's Encyclopedia,” Vol. VI., which states: “At length the doors of the Royal Academy were cautiously opened to admit women. Miss Herford, whose neice, Mrs. Ailingham, R.W.S., holds an honoured place among water-colour painters to-day, entered as a pioneer woman student.” Mrs. Allingham was before her marriage to William Allingham in 1874, Miss Helen Paterson. It appears certain from Mrs. Sheat's reminiscences that she was the model used by her aunt, Miss Herford, in painting “The Little Emigrant.”

From a book called “Happy England,” we read more about Mrs. Allingham and her aunt, Miss Herford, as follows: “Two influences greatly helped Helen Paterson in her artistic desires at this time. Her mother's sister, Laura Herford, had taken up art as a profession. Although her name does not appear in exhibition records the sisterhood of artists owe her a very enduring debt; for to her was due the opening of the Royal Academy Schools to women—which she obtained by another's slip of the tongue, aided by a successful subterfuge.”

The book describes how Lord Lyndhurst had claimed that the Royal Academy Schools offered free tuition to all Her Majesty's subjects. Miss Herford wrote, pointing out the inaccuracy —as only male, not female, students were taught. She appealed to Lord Lyndhurst to use his influence with the Government of the day (apparently 1857–58 or 59) to obtain the removal of this restriction.

Sir Charles Eastlake, President of the Royal Academy, was entirely in sympathy with the request. He said there was no written law against the admission of women. Now comes the “subterfuge.” After an interview with Miss Herford, Sir Charles connived at a drawing of hers being sent in as a test of her eligibility for admission as probationer—under her initials, not her full Christian name. A few days later came the notification that “he had passed the test and obtained admission.” It arrived at her home addressed to “A. L. Herford, Esq.”

“There was a demonstration when the lady presented herself in order to execute a drawing in the presence of the keeper,” we are told. “Her claim to do this was vehemently combated by the council (of the academy). The president demonstrated the absurdity of the situation and the untenability of the position. So the doors were opened to female students once and for all.

“Miss Herford, who had a strong character, constituted herself art-adviser-in-chief to her young niece, Helen Paterson (afterwards Mrs. Allingham).”