poliphilo

Basingstoke is unglamorous. It was never, so far as I can make out, a particularly pretty town, W.S. Gilbert made fun of it in Ruddigore and it got an uglifying makeover and enlargement in the 1960s. I'd never visited before. but my sister is a volunteer guide at the town centre museum- The Willis- and we wanted to see her place of work.

The Willis turns out to be a nicely-proportioned early Victorian building. Before the uglification it was the Town Hall. It houses items relating to tBasingstoke's history, including a massive Roman sarcophagus, complete with skeleton- and a well-preserved mammoth tusk. It also hosts temporary exhibitions. Currently showing is a collection of large Hockneyish drawings by David Remfry of New York personalities with their dogs. Among the personalities are actors Susan Sarandon, Alan Cumming and Ethan Hawke. Humans and dogs are all winningly characterised.

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Outside the Willis, in the market place, stands the bronze statue of a young woman. She wears Regency dress and seems to be in a hurry. She's carrying a book.

Who is she?

Why, bless my soul, it's Jane Austen....