Back in the time of Queen Elizabeth I, the mid 1500s if you
are a bit vague about dates, a clergymen by the name of Darrell who was
chaplain to the queen wrote a history of Dover Castle.
Just at the moment here in my bookshop we are preparing a
cheap reprint of my copy of the 1786 edition, I hope to have it in print for
around £6, I think it will be a useful addition to my range of local books.
Partly because it is one of the earliest history books relating to this area
and partly because having the original Latin accompanied by an English
translation will be useful for those hoping to improve ther grasp of Latin.
To finish this task in need a cover picture of Dover Castle
for the book, sounds simple. Doesn’t it? Well there are complications, firstly
it has to look like Dover Castle for people buying the book and secondly it
needs to look like Dover Castle did in 1550 and not how it looks now or as some
later intermediate time.
There is for instance a very nice painting by Turner but
unfortunately it doesn’t look much like Dover Castle, or does it? Anyway I can't use it as it has a seam boat in the middle, not invented in the mid 1500s.
In fact there are lots, I particularly like this Turner
watercolour
Anyway at the moment I think the only solution is to paint
the thing myself, here is my first crack at it, mostly done using Turner’s
sketchbooks which date mostly from the early 1800s and not from the mid 1500s.
I don’t think that I am very good liar and trying to be a
liar with paint is very tricky, added to this is the business of trying to
depict the castle by the sea in my mind an presumably other people’s.
At the same time I would like you all to know that I have a
lot of decorations for valour and academic qualifications, and am not the
rather stupid coward that presumably most of you thought I was, I am also a lot
taller than I look.
Where was I? Oh sorry I got a bit carried away there. The truth
is another matter with painting, you can of course take a photo, trace it,
paint over it, use a light box, all sorts of tricks to get it right. Of course
this isn’t lying, in fact the result is likely to be much nearer to the truth
than the paintings I do directly from life.
Anyway today I breakfasted (toast and marmalade) on the end
or Ramsgate’s East Pier at The Royal Harbour Brasserie and added a bit more to
my sketch of Ramsgate from there.
