Excerpt from In Constable's Country The Valley of the Stour contains much of interest apart from the story of Constable and his pictures, and I have set down whatever seemed worthy of record, whether of wayside incident or local tradition. But the title of this book is no misnomer. NO name is more indelibly associated with the country which it describes than the name of Constable. His knowledge of the fair and fertile country around the Stour was more intimate than that Of Gainsborough. It inspired a large proportion of his work. In later life, at Hampstead and elsewhere, his heart was often in Suffolk. Standing before his easel he saw, as in a mirror, his native county, and in fancy lingered beside what Stevenson so aptly styled the lilied lowland waters of that Shire. Constable, early in his career, felt that he could paint his own homeland as he could paint no other. You know, he once wrote, I have always succeeded best with my native scenes. They have always charmed me, and I hope they always will. They charmed him to the end. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.