Laudator Temporis Acti

Thanks to Eric Thomson for the following:

C.R. Leslie R.A., Life and Letters of John Constable, R.A. (London: Chapman and Hall, 1896). p. 399:

On the 25th July, 1836, Constable delivered a lecture before the Literary and Scientific Institution at Hampstead, on the subject of landscape generally.

Id., pp. 403-4:

Constable then gave some practical rules for drawing from nature, and showed some beautiful studies of trees. One, a tall and elegant ash, of which he said, " Many of my Hampstead friends may remember this young lady at the entrance to the village. Her fate was distressing, for it is scarcely too much to say that she died of a broken heart. I made this drawing when she was in full health and beauty; on passing some time afterwards, I saw, to my grief, that a wretched board had been nailed to her side, on which was written in large letters, 'All vagrants and beggars will be dealt with according to law.' The tree seemed to have felt the disgrace, for even then some of the top branches had withered. Two long spike nails had been driven far into her side. In another year one half became paralyzed, and not long after the other shared the same fate, and this beautiful creature was cut down to a stump, just high enough to hold the board.

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1069290/an-ash-tree-watercolour-drawing-constable-john-ra/?carousel-image=2017JV2712

Detail, with B (of BEGGARS?) and LAW legible:

The vagrant woman and child reminded me of the foreground of Dedham Vale in which sentinel trees equally afford some protection to the pair beneath.

Labels: arboricide