George Herbert at Bemerton

George Herbert retired from his Cambridge academic career and took Holy Orders in 1630. He obtained the small living at Bemerton, a village on the Avon near Salisbury, and there wrote the poems which he said presented ‘a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed between God and my soul’. In 1860 the rector of the parish of Bemerton was William Dyce’s friend Cyril Page. Dyce visited him there and painted this picture of the poet in his garden, with its view across the water meadows to Salisbury Cathedral. Herbert was an accomplished musician, but the lute seen leaning against the bench may also symbolise the lyricism of his verse.