When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds…

George Smart, born in 1774, lived and worked in Frant, near Tunbridge Wells; there are early 19th century prints that depict his shop in the main street and one that shows Smart outside his premises, offering his wares to people in passing carriages…

In late November, 1970, All Things Must Pass, George Harrison’s melancholy devotional masterpiece, was first released…

Kelly Reichardt’s outstanding First Cow has much in common with her earlier films: it is as tender and unobtrusive as Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy, and like Meek’s Cutoff, also set in 19th century America, it is about people on the move who are living under extreme pressure, both physical and psychological.

Not long ago the Tate Gallery announced the acquisition of an archive of about five thousand sketches, drawings, and artworks by Ithell Colquhoun, which was added to the occult work that had been bequeathed to the same institution by the artist. The National Trust, the original owners of the archive, decided that it would make sense to have them housed in the one place.

Sinikka Langeland’s new record, Wolf Rune, is stripped back to its essentials - her voice and the kantele - and among its sources of inspiration are the ‘rune songs’ of Finland, which are based on epic, lyric, or shamanistic folk poetry.

St.Winifrede’s Well, in Flintshire, Wales, may be the oldest continually visited pilgrimage site in Britain; it is said to be where a spring arose when the young Winifrede, a chieftain’s daughter, was martyred and restored to life in the 7th century.

Francis Archibald Wentworth Walter, who called himself ‘7th Prince of the West Indies, Lord of Follies and the Ding-a-Ding Nook’, was born in 1926 in Antigua.

The Incredible String Band’s Wee Tam and The Big Huge was released as a double album in November, 1968, its name an allusion to someone looking up at the stars and becoming aware of the vastness of the universe.

In the 18th century thousands of poor women left newborn babies in London’s Foundling Hospital, believing that this would be best for them.

It is said that the 9th century Chinese Chan master Joshu responded to a monk’s question about whether or not a dog has Buddha-nature with the single word ‘Mu!’, and that his answer became one of Zen’s most famous koans.

It is heartening to see that Rose Wylie, at an age when most people have long since retired from the fray, has a new exhibition in a major New York gallery.

These curious and enigmatic objects from India, variously known as ‘sectarian body stamps’, ‘chhappa’, and ‘tika jali’, are used by Hindu Vaishnavite devotees (and sometimes Shaivites) to express loyalty to their deities and to transfer to themselves some of the gods’ power and beneficence.