Oil picture, 10¾ by 7½ in.
In 1832 Constable exhibited this very small picture at the Royal
Academy under the title given above. It is numbered 147 in the
catalogue.
The view was painted from what is now called Haverstock Hill, looking
towards London, St. Paul’s Cathedral in the distance. There is a
mezzotint of it by David Lucas. To the small house on the right Steele
retired during the summer of 1712. In a letter to Pope dated 1 June
of that year he says: “I am at a solitude, an house between Hampstead
and London wherein Sir Charles Sedley died.” Isaac Reed, editor of
Shakespeare, in his edition of Baker’s “Biographia Dramatica,” says:
“part of the building remains.” In 1855-56 it was a dairy, faced by the
“Load of Hay” public-house, here shown with Georgian buildings next to
it. In one of these, then a dame’s school, George Grossmith, second
of that name, was a pupil. Afterwards Steele’s cottage was divided
into two tenements. According to F. Baines (“History of Hampstead,”
1890), they were pulled down in 1867. Steele’s Road covers the site.
By J. CONSTABLE, R.A., 1832 (1776-1837).
_Lent by Mr. R. K. Hodgson._