The Hay Wain was painted close to where I live. The painting shows a cart for carrying hay crossing the river Stour at Flatford Mill. In the painting by John Constable a little dog watches on while a man and a boy sit on the wooden cart. The boy gestures towards the dog on the shore, perhaps encouraging it to leap into the water and cross over, why wasn’t it allowed in the cart? On the left hand side of the painting is Flatford Mill, in the background are the meadows that run along the Stour here. The scene is pretty much unchanged today, except for a national trust building which houses toilets and tea rooms for the guests that visit throughout the year. Downstream on the Stour the river opens up into the North Sea at Harwich.
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