The National Gallery

I found the National Gallery more or less by chance one morning when, late for a walk I wanted to go on, I was left stranded at Embankment Tube Station. I went awandering to see what I could find, and no sooner had I walked past the Sherlock Holmes pub did the road open out into Trafalgar Square, and there it was before me, complete with gigantic lions, magic shows, double decker buses and a flood of tourists. Inside the National Gallery I started smiling almost right away when I found a Canaletto which of course reminded me of Ursula in the Gerry Durrell stories. I started grinning when I found the more modern rooms and painting after painting, artist after artist were ones I knew and loved. Here are five (of many more) that I stood in front of lost in happiness and thought.