Some treasures of London's National Gallery

London’s National Gallery, which occupies one side of Trafalgar Square, is one of the world’s greatest collections of Western European paintings, containing around 2,300 exhibits dating from the 13^th to the 19^th centuries. For any art lover visiting London, it is a “must see” destination. Here are brief descriptions of just a few of the many treasures on display.

JanVan Eyck: The Arnolfini Portrait

This was formerly thought to be a marriage portrait of a rich Dutch merchant and his heavily pregnant wife, but that view has now fallen from favour. For one thing, the woman is not pregnant but is holding her dress in the style of the time.

There is a lot of detail in this early 15^th century oil painting (it dates from 1434), in which the artist was experimenting with the medium and demonstrating how it could be used to portray subtle variations of light and shade. In particular there is a mirror in the background in which the artist can be seen, and he signs the painting in a typically witty way in the form of graffiti on the wall that translates as: “Jan Van Eyck was here 1434”.

LeonardoDa Vinci: The Leonardo Cartoon

A cartoon was a full-scale drawing on paper that was intended to be a template for a painting, with the outline being pricked through to create an outline on the panel. However, this cartoon, which dates from about 1500, appears not to have been used for this purpose as it is intact, but also incomplete. The drawing was made using charcoal and chalk and measures 56 inches (141 cm) by 41 inches (105 cm).

The cartoon depicts four characters, namely the Virgin Mary, her mother St Anne, and Jesus and John the Baptist as infants. Mary sits on her mother’s lap, which was a common way of portraying them in medieval art, but still adds an intimate touch to a family group that is both symbolic and naturalistic. There are no halos here, but exquisitely beautiful drawings of real people.

Hans Holbein the Younger: The Ambassadors

Holbein was a German who spent much of his working life as court painter to King Henry VIII. In 1533 he painted this extraordinarily detailed double portrait of Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve, who were on a diplomatic mission from France. The painting also includes a large number of objects and details that are full of symbolism, not all of it being sympathetic to the people being painted.

One very good reason for seeing this painting “in situ” is that there is a very strange object painted across the floor in the foreground. By standing at the correct angle to the canvas the visitor can see that this is a skull, painted as a “memento mori” to say that even the rich and powerful must meet their end eventually.

“The Ambassadors” is a very impressive work, being almost square at about 82 inches (208 cm) each way, such that the portraits are virtually lifesize.

JMW Turner: The Fighting Temeraire

The room that houses this painting contains seven Turners, five Constables, four Gainsboroughs, and more. If time is really short, you could spend your whole Gallery visit in this one room and come away having had a cultural overdose!

Turner painted this canvas (which measures 48 inches by 36 inches (122 x 91 cm)) in 1839, having witnessed the towing up-river of one of the ships that helped win the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Against a flat calm sea and glorious sunset, the ghostly white ship is towed by a busy steam tugboat, belching fire and steam into the sky. It is one of the most evocative scenes ever painted, and one that the viewer can never forget.

John Constable: The Hay Wain

This is another painting that is instantly recognisable. The scene is of an idyllic part of England where the River Stour forms the boundary between Suffolk and Essex. A cart stands in the shallow river as the carters pause in their work of bringing in the harvest from the meadows in the distance. To one side stands a cottage that is still there today, some 190 years after Constable painted the scene in 1821.

Despite the immediacy of the scene, Constable worked from sketches to assemble the finished work in his London studio. The canvas measures 73 inches (185 cm) by 51 inches (130 cm).

George Stubbs: Whistlejacket

This enormous painting of a horse always draws the eye. The canvas is massive, measuring 115 inches (292 cm) by 97 inches (246 cm) and shows nothing but a chestnut horse against a plain brown background. Nobody ever painted horses better than Stubbs, and this painting (dating from 1762) is one of his best. Whistlejacket’s eye is turned towards the viewer, and one can tell that this is a horse with attitude!

Stubbs studied the anatomy of the horse in considerable detail, and his paintings reflect this. Indeed, so realistic was this painting that, when it was nearly completed, Whistlejacket (a racehorse owned by the Marquess of Rockingham) caught sight of it and tried to charge at what he thought was a real horse.

Diego Velazquez: The Toilet of Venus

This is also known as “The Rokeby Venus” from the house of its previous owner before the painting was acquired by the Gallery.

Female nudes are very rare in Spanish art of this period (c. 1650) because of the disapproval of the Catholic Church, and this is the only known nude painting by Velazquez. Venus lies on a couch looking at herself in a mirror held by her winged son Cupid. We can therefore see her face in the mirror as well the curves of her body seen from behind. The beauty of the painting lies in the composition and the many variations of skin tone on both Venus and Cupid.

Vincent Van Gogh: Sunflowers

This is another world-famous painting, although it is one of four that Van Gogh painted on this subject in August and September 1888, intended to decorate the room of his friend Paul Gauguin with whom he hoped to start a new partnership. For Van Gogh, the sunflower was a symbol of happiness, as was the colour yellow.

However, the timeless quality of this painting comes from the realization that these sunflowers are past their best. None of the bunch is fresh, and some have lost all their petals to leave just the seedheads behind.  There is, however, beauty in decay and the promise of new life from the seeds that can only ripen after the flowers have died. The message of the painting is therefore equivocal.

The viewer can see how the artist has used thick brushstrokes (impasto) to produce a variety of textures in this painting.

And the rest?

Needless to say, this brief survey barely scratches the surface. One quick visit to the National Gallery cannot be enough and you will want to return as soon as possible. There is no charge for admission (except to special exhibitions) so you can certainly afford to!

© John Welford

British village life in crisis

Many areas of rural Britain are in crisis in the 2020s, with village communities in decay as the demographic balance shifts in the wrong direction. Village schools, shops, pubs and post offices are closing and transport links are being cut.

One of the chief causes of this decline is the fact that young people can no longer afford to live in the countryside and are instead being forced to move away from the villages where their families have lived and worked for generations. Affordable rural housing is in desperately short supply.

One trend in recent years has been for wealthier people in the towns and cities to buy themselves second homes in rural villages which they only visit at weekends and during their annual holidays. This is particularly noticeable in the more attractive parts of Great Britain, such as Cornwall and Devon, where some villages only come alive when the “townies” turn up. At other times a large proportion of the properties are empty.

Another trend is for villages that are within easy reach of towns and cities to become “dormitories”. The owners of the houses leave early in the morning and return in the evening, resulting in crowded country roads at such times and a drastic decline in neighbourliness because far fewer people get to talk to their neighbours or even know who they are.

Under such circumstances it is inevitable that house prices will rise because the people with high salaries who want a second home, or somewhere to sleep at night out of town, are going to be able to afford whatever price the market wants to set for country properties. The losers are the “locals” who simply cannot compete in the housing market.

The problem of income disparity has been getting worse in recent years due to a marked decline in agricultural incomes. In order to keep food prices low, mainly for the benefit of town-dwellers, the big supermarkets have dictated the prices that they are prepared to pay to farmers and have been setting these ever lower. This has been particularly noticeable in the market for liquid milk, where many farmers have been forced to sell their produce at a price that brings them hardly any profit, or even none at all. This means that farmers can employ only the bare minimum number of farm workers and can only pay them low wages.

Another problem, in terms of housing, has been that the number of houses available for rent in rural communities has failed to keep up with demand. Local authorities have become much less involved in the provision of social housing over the years, and housing associations such as Orbit Housing are overstretched when it comes to making up the shortfall. One problem they have is that new housing developments in villages, especially “low end” ones, are unpopular with the owners of larger properties who fear that their investment will be compromised if people with lower incomes than their own become their neighbours.

The net result of these trends is that the average age of rural populations is rising and services are declining. It has been estimated that by 2025 one in every four villagers will be over 65 years old. Without access to either private or public transport they will feel increasingly isolated, especially as their children will have been forced to move away and community facilities such as pubs and libraries will have disappeared.

Even when the second home owners are in their second homes they have little positive effect on rural communities. They are likely to spend more time communing with fellow “incomers” than with the permanent population and will, in all likelihood, have filled their 4x4s with produce bought from the nearest supermarket rather than the local village store.

The rural housing crisis is certainly the most worrying trend to have hit the British countryside in recent years but it is not the only cause for concern.

Climate change is beginning to make its presence felt in various ways that are far from beneficial to British farming. When there are prolonged spells of severe weather at unexpected times the net result is likely to be poor harvests. Arable farmers have had to endure periods of drought that have stunted crops and lowland farmers have suffered from flooding that has made it impossible for land to be ploughed or sown. Upland farmers lost thousands of sheep and other livestock to drifting snow that arrived in March 2013 just as the lambing season should have been in full swing. Future prospects are for more weather events of an extreme kind that are impossible to predict in terms of timing or severity.

Rural communities are not just agricultural. There are many small businesses that are run from rural locations, with many of these also having a connection with tourism because they are making an effort to revive or maintain traditional crafts, be it pottery, cheese making or whatever. Visitors are welcome to see goods being made that they can then buy, and what the visitors pay is a valuable addition to the income of the business.

However, modern businesses, wherever they are, need good broadband connections if they are to succeed against the competition. Unfortunately, the broadband speeds available in many rural areas are pathetic in comparison to what is commonplace in cities. Rural businesses, and people working from home, are thus placed at a serious disadvantage because the broadband suppliers do not anticipate much profit coming from such sources.

A more sensible and integrated approach to the concerns of the countryside is clearly called for. It is important that city-dwellers grow to appreciate that the British countryside is not just somewhere “nice” that exists purely for them to enjoy as and when they feel like it. It is a living entity that must be allowed to thrive if it is to continue being the attraction that they clearly believe it to be. This means that people who live and work in the rural areas must be given every opportunity to do so, which in turn means being able to buy or rent property that is within their price bracket. Also, the institutions that make country life possible and productive must be preserved and encouraged to thrive. Unless these problems are solved, everyone, whether they live in a village, town or city, will ultimately lose out.

© John Welford

Preserving the Flow Country of Northern Scotland

The Flow Country is a vast area of blanket bog in the far north of mainland Scotland. The name, which has only been in common use since the 1980s, comes from the local term for the pattern of bogs and small lochs that stretch for many miles. The Flow Country, which is more than a million acres in size, is believed to be the largest expanse of blanket bog in western Europe.

The Flow Country is important from several perspectives. For one thing, it is an area of wilderness that has been largely undisturbed for more than 7,000 years and is therefore a “living fossil” of the landscape as it was soon after the end of the last ice age. Since then, layers of peat have steadily built up as vegetable material has slowly decomposed in wet, poorly drained conditions, to a depth of up to five metres in places. The peat preserves anything that is covered by it, so a section down through the peat provides a wealth of information about what was growing and living here in past ages.

As it is compressed vegetable matter, the peat acts as a massive carbon “sink” that traps millions of tons of carbon that might otherwise be contributing to climate change.

The Flow Country is particularly valuable for the wildlife that it supports. The boggy ground has a highly specialised flora that includes sundew, bog bean, cotton grass and other plants that depend on this environment. Bird species found here include greenshank, hen harrier, merlin and golden eagle. The value of the area as a wildlife haven is demonstrated by the fact that 50% of the UK’s population of wood sandpipers live in the Flow Country, as well as 37% of the country’s common scoters, 19% of dunlin and 16% of black-throated divers.

However, from an economic point of view, this is 1500 square miles of wasteland. Just about the only land use that is possible is forestry, and that is where the problems started for the Flow Country.

Afforestation began in the 1960s and accelerated during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Land was bought cheaply by forestry companies which took advantage of generous government grants and tax breaks to drain the land and plant vast numbers of non-native pine and spruce trees in dense arrays. Over a five year period more than 60,000 hectares were planted, with devastating consequences for the boglands and their wildlife as massive trenches were dug into the peat to provide drainage and alien forests grew that were almost devoid of other forms of life.

The campaign to save the Flow Country began in 1985 with publicity-arousing events and representations to government that included pleas to reverse previous policies regarding afforestation.

The RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) was particularly active in the campaign, pressing for action to be taken under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act, which provided for the establishment of protected Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). The first such sites in the Flow Country were announced in 1987, as were protected areas under the European Union’s Birds Directive. Another important move was a new requirement for future forestry proposals to be subject to proper assessment in terms of their environmental impact.

The most important move on the part of the RSPB was the purchase in 1994 of land on the Forsinard estate that had not yet been forested, thus guaranteeing that the bogland would be preserved. The initial purchase was of 7,000 hectares, and this has since been extended to nearly 21,000 hectares. The reserve extends for 26 miles from east to west in the eastern part of the Flow Country.

Work is being done, in co-operation with the Forestry Commission and other agencies, on the removal of existing forests and the damming up of drainage ditches. To date, nearly 2,000 hectares of forest have been cleared and more than 20,000 dams built to raise the water table and restore the bogs.

The hope is that these efforts to reverse the march of afforestation and preserve the remaining blanket bog will lead to the Flow Country being according the status of a World Heritage Site. This would be due recognition of the importance of this area of true wilderness in much of which the hand of man has been absent for thousands of years. With any luck, many future generations of black-throated divers and greenshanks will be able to live at peace in this otherwise inhospitable region.

© John Welford

Rye, East Sussex

Rye is a beautiful old town in East Sussex that was once a premier English port and a haven for smugglers. These days it is hard to believe that this sleepy town could ever have had an important maritime past, given that it is some two miles from the sea, but that is a result of coastal deposition and the silting up of the river that once provided easy access to the English Channel.

In 1377 Rye was such a nuisance to the French that a raiding party landed and burned down most of the town, after which the English government took revenge on its leading citizens – for being faint-hearted in their resistance - and hanged a number of them.

Many of the buildings in Rye date from the Georgian period, and one of these – Lamb House - was lived in by the American novelist Henry James before World War I. It is now owned by the National Trust and is open to view.

Rye’s most characteristic old street is Mermaid Street, the cobbled surface of which rises steeply from the river towards St Mary’s Church. It is lined with a mixture of half-timbered and red-brick buildings, among which is the Mermaid Inn, which was once frequented by members of the villainous Hawkhurst smuggling gang who would sit with loaded pistols on the tables in case of sudden visits by the revenue men.

At another old Rye inn, the Olde Bell, a revolving cupboard provided a quick exit to the street should it be needed.

St Mary’s Church dates from Norman times. The clock was built in the 1560s and features two gilded cherubs that strike the quarters. There are stained-glass windows by Edward Burne-Jones and Christopher Webb.

The marshes below the town are a haven for wildlife.

© John Welford

The Humber Bridge

The Humber Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the Humber Estuary five miles west of the city of Hull in northeast England. When it was opened in 1981 its central span, at 1,410 metres (4,626 feet) was the world's longest, although it has since lost that accolade to ten other bridges, six of them being in China.

The engineers were Freeman, Fox and Partners, and the work took eight years to complete.

The structure contains 470,000 tons of concrete, and the cables that support the roadway consist of 70,700 kms (44,000 miles) of wire, which is enough to go round the world one and a half times.

The towers are 152 metres (533 feet) high and the road deck is 30 metres (100 feet) above the water at high tide.

There is no Humber River as such, because the estuary carries the waters of two major rivers to the sea. These are the Ouse and the Trent, which between them drain nearly 10,000 square miles of Northern England and the East Midlands. The estuary, which is already a mile wide upstream of the Bridge, is more than seven miles across before it reaches the sea more than 20 miles to the east.

The bridge solved a problem that had troubled travelers for hundreds of years. The Romans built a major road north from Lincoln (Ermine Street) which was part of the route from London to York. However, the crossing of the Humber had to be by ferry. There is evidence that rafts were used in prehistoric times.

More recently, a paddle steamer service connected Hull to New Holland, a few miles east of the new bridge.

The only bridging point prior to the opening of the Humber Bridge was at Goole, 29 miles west of Hull. This became a congested “pinch point”, especially when heavy goods vehicles tried to get through the town. Things were eased when the motorway network bypassed Goole, but the Humber Bridge shortened the route between East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and is now heavily used.

© John Welford

Lydford Gorge, Devon

Lydford Gorge is a beauty spot on the edge Dartmoor, Devon, that is well worth a visit if you don’t mind a strenuous walk over some uneven ground.

The River Lyd has carved a steep narrow gorge as it makes its way off the moor. The tree-lined ravine is a haven for wildlife and you might see a kingfisher or a dipper at work in the river. The woodland floor in Spring in covered in wild garlic that provides a heady scent.

You can follow the river for over a mile, past the Devil’s Cauldron, which is a whirlpool of white foaming water, down to where it falls 30 metres over the White Lady waterfall (see picture).

The site is managed by the National Trust, who make a charge for entry, but if you enjoy seeing the English countryside at its unspoilt best, and you have a decent pair of walking boots, the visit will be well worth it!

© John Welford

Merrivale Stone Row, Dartmoor

Merrivale Stone Row is high up on Dartmoor, in the southwest England county of Devon. There is a great deal of evidence that this region, now largely deserted, was home to many people during the Bronze Age (c. 2000-650 BC). The Merrivale Stone Row is one of about 60 similar ancient monuments on Dartmoor, as well as many stone circles, solitary standing stones and tomb remains.

The Merrivale Stone Row stands out from the rest by virtue of its length and completeness. It consists of two nearly parallel double rows of stones thirty yards apart.

The northern row is about 180 metres (590 feet) long and the southern row is about 260 metres (850 feet) long. There is a burial cist (stone-lined grave) and small stone circle about halfway along the longer row.

Why was it built? No-one can be absolutely certain, but the prominent position of a burial cist suggests that it could have been a processional route to honour the memory of great clan leader.

© John Welford