"My wife is at Hampstead, and both she and the infant are doing well. I am endeavouring to secure a permanent small house there, and have put the upper part of this house into an upholsterer's hands to let, made my painting room warm and comfortable and have become an inhabitant of my parlours. I am three miles from door to door, and can have a message in an hour. I shall be more out of the way of idle caller, and above all, see nature, and unite a town and country life, and to all these things I hope to add a plan of economy…"
Letter to John Fisher, from Charlotte Street, November 28th 1826
" …This house is to my wife's heart's content; it is situated on an eminence… and our little drawing-room commands a view unsurpassed in Europe, from Westminster Abbey to Gravesend. The dome of St. Paul's in the air seems to realise Michael Angelo's words on seeing the Pantheon: 'I will build such a thing in the sky.' We see the woods and lofty grounds of the East Saxons to the north-east. …I have painted one of my best pictures here."
Letter to John Fisher, from Well Walk, Hampstead, Aug 26th 1827
Memoirs of the Life of John Constable C.R. Leslie
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