Abstract

This article presents and examines Waites's discovery of the only known artistic/visual representation of the unenclosed countryside around Helpston, Northamptonshire, a drawing entitled 'View of Langdyke Bush & Country adjacent taken upon Helpston Heath near the Hedge 29 Aug’t 1721' by the Flemish artist, Peter Tillemans. More remarkably still, the drawing provides us with a direct likeness of one of the most important landmarks described in the work of the nineteenth century poet, John Clare, 'Langley Bush', described in his famous anti-enclosure elegy, ‘Remembrances’.