Bequest stop

Within a couple of miles of the centre of our teeming capital city is a sylvan retreat of woods, meadows and ponds: Hampstead Heath.

Occasionally the HB has the privilege of acting as a tour guide to overseas friends who are visiting London.

Hampstead, both the village and the Heath, never fail to impress. On a clear day there is nothing to beat the view of the whole of London from Parliament Hill.

It's a genuine 'earth has not anything to show more fair' moment.

Here Mr G is posing in front of Kenwood House on the northern edge of the Heath.

Once the home of the Guinness family, it was bequeathed to the nation as a free-entry art gallery housing the family's far-from-insignificant collection. Small but unquestionably exquisite: there's a perfect Vermeer and one of the greatest of the Rembrandt self-portraits - and much, more more.