Victorians loved holidays on boats and the waterways became a major tourist attraction. Day-trippers took short tours on motor launches from Great Yarmouth into the nearby Broads. Richer tourists avoided Yarmouth. They escaped from the crowds to holiday cottages or rented old working boats converted into floating holiday homes. They liked to race yachts or laze about on deck. But landowners closed many Broads to all tourists because they often left litter and spoiled the hunting.

Emerson disliked tourists because he believed they spoiled the peace and quiet of the region. Worse, they knew nothing and cared less about the old ways of the countryside. Unlike tourists, Emerson spent a year at a time on his boat. He was a serious ‘traveller' who loved the locals and their way of life. He could not actually save them from the modern world but he set out to preserve his idea of them in photographs.