Walk E: A walk to school
Local school children will be recreating Constable's walk to school and contemplating the Summer Evening view
Some little feet take in the view
Constable would have been familiar with this route since childhood as, from the age of 11, he walked the 1.5 miles to school in Dedham every day!
We’ll stop along the way and contemplate the Summer Evening print and the view today, before continuing our walk down to Dedham.
It was a much nicer time for the young Constable, as he had been a boarder at a strict school in a village 15 miles to the north-west, the Grammar School in Lavenham.
Back in East Bergholt, he could live back with his family and make the short walk to his new school opposite Dedham church, which later become a landmark in so many of his pictures.
This spot saw the day spring of my Life, Hours of Joy, and years of Happiness, This place first tinged my boyish fancy with a love of the art, This place was the origin of my fame.
Frontispiece, the English Landscape, John Constable, 1831