As the last few posts have comprised non-original material (apart from the photos) I feel an explanation is necessary. We’ve been extremely busy here in London, hoofing it all over to parts hitherto unknown in the quest for the “true” London experience, and research material. Erica, who is angelic in her obliging nature in letting us stay at her flat, also offered to drive us out into the country for a day, so we could experience what the rest of England is really like. The “country” has quite a different meaning over here, referring to the rolling hills and sweeping meadows and forests that comprise the vast majority of England’s landscape, occupying the undeveloped spaces between the industrial centers of Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and London, among others. In order to accomplish a bit of research while on this sojourn, we looked up several John Constable landscapes, which are from the 18th century, and thus slightly too early for us, but regardless he is certainly England’s greatest landscape painter. He painted of and around the town of Dedham, which is close to a place called Flatford Mill, where his extremely famous painting “The Haywain” was made, and which hangs in the the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.
We got up early (8 am) and drove the 60 miles out to Dedham and Flatford, strolling around the town and asking people we met for directions to Flatford Mill, which wasn’t very clearly marked. After stumbling upon a woman painting the scene of a water lock at Dedham Mill, we moseyed on back to the center of town and explored the church, which was easily the most impressive building in the area. In fact it is featured prominently, particularly the bell tower, in most of Constable’s work.
Among other things, the ornate door and stained glass windows were destroyed by the Puritans (weak!), but one small section of window that was too high for them to reach has the initials ES on it, referring to an Edward Sherman, the ancestor of a certain General Sherman who gained fame in the US Civil War. Sherman’s house in Dedham is covered with graffiti from the 18th century by boys he taught to read and write, carving their initials and even nicknames into the brickwork. The town is also linked closely to Dedham, Massachusetts, which donated 1000 pounds(2000 dollars) to help restore the building, and has a memorial to the NASA astronauts from the Apollo 11 mission that landed on the moon. Continuing on to Flatford Mill, we found it completely preserved, virtually unchanged since Constable and full of spectacular views and fields full of curious sheep(yes, they were curious). We then traveled further to a town in Suffolk (the county in England north of Essex) called Lavenham, which has stood virtually untouched since the 17th century. Most of the houses there are pre-Victorian and are now slouching and sliding over very dramatically, and among other places we visited a tea house that is rumored to be haunted called Tickled Pink, after its owners hundreds of years ago named Mr. and Mrs. Tickle, who sided with Cromwell and the Roundheads against the Monarchy and were thought to be witches, by way of which the townspeople tortured them by tickling them to death (probably not with feathers though). One of the houses here, not pictured below, is thought to be from whence the children’s poem about a crooked man who lived in a crooked house originated.
Overall it was quite an excursion out into the country, full of incredibly useful and interesting information from Erica, and a great many photos of a nice day out in Constable Country (great name for a theme park?) My apologies for how long it has taken to get a real post up again, but its been a very tiring, although enjoyable, week and a half and the late nights have meant late mornings which have meant not a lot of time to chronicle our adventures. Rest assured more will be posted soon about expeditions to the uncharted regions of South and West London, meetings with John Coulter, Abbey Road graffiti, and much, much more. Love to John Constable, and to all of you readers (Javier).
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