THE PRESERVATION OF CONSTABLE'S BRIDGE AT FLATFORD, SUFFOLK. (TO THE
Eorron or THE "SPECTATOR."]
SaR,—Many of your readers will hear with interest that the picturesque wooden bridge over the Suffolk Stour at Flatford, which appears in several of Constable's paintings, is about to undergo repair. Doubtless some will be glad to have an opportunity given them to keep the structure as the painter knew it, and as it has been for the last two centuries.
We who appreciate Constable's work and character could ficarcely pay a more appropriate tribute to the memory of a man who all his life was constant in his love and admiration for the surroundings of his earliest boyhood than by preserving Flatford Bridge and its immediate environment as he knew it, for in its principal features after the passing of two genera- tions it is to-day very much as it was in his time. To others with an historic sense, an important landmark, in a beautiful district, spanning a clear and brimming river which for more than forty miles winds through country of great charm and interest, should be sufficiently worthy of judicious restoration for them to assist with their donations.
CAmatable succeeded in completing the pictorial presentment of cultivated and familiar landscape, paysage intime, a work already begun by Gainsborough, who was born in the same county on the banks of the same river, and this was done without requiring the stimulus of frequent change, but by bringing new thought to scenes of early and constant association.
It is the beauty of this river that one would endeavour to preserve. The bridge, though necessary for a public footway and for the passage of farm stock and carts to the fields, carries no important road, so that for utilitarian purposes the old type of wooden structure is fortunately as serviceable as ever; but we are in danger of suffering from a rigid economy which, while endeavouring to repair the bridge with insufficient means, threatens to deprive it of its former picturesque character, unless the public interest is sufficient to ensure the requisite amount being subscribed for its complete restoration according to the original design. Major Barthorp, of Woodeote, East Bergholt, near Colchester, has kindly consented to act as treasurer of a fund which will be used to this end by supple- menting the amount to be spent, and subscriptions should be forwarded at once to him at the above address. About £100 will be required. Some donations have been promised already from residents in the locality. '
North Common, Chailey, Sussex.
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