ALEX A. writes from England:

Thanks for posting George Cole’s superb painting, Harvest Rest. Landscapes similar to the one depicted in this painting can still be seen in some counties of England. But the timeless and untroubled composure suggested by the three field workers eating their simple meal amidst the corn, beneath a beautiful tree and under a benign sky, has disappeared without trace.

You might be interested to learn that Christie’s sold this picture last month. The price realized was £34,850, or $56,980.  It came from the estate of Lady Magnus Allcroft of Stokesay Court in Shropshire. Shropshire is one of the most beautiful counties in England – largely unspoiled and underpopulated.

Studying the figures in this pastoral scene put Thomas Hardy’s lines in mind:

In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations’

Only a man harrowing clods
In a slow silent walk
With an old horse that stumbles and nods
Half asleep as they stalk.

Only thin smoke without flame
From the heaps of couch-grass;
Yet this will go onward the same
Though Dynasties pass.

Yonder a maid and her wight
Come whispering by:
War’s annals will cloud into night
Ere their story die.

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