The 'Greyhound', Besselsleigh before 1912

Editor: So, here we have "The 'Greyhound', Besselsleigh," a photographic print by Henry W. Taunt, dated before 1912. It's essentially a picture of a building, draped in what looks like ivy, maybe a pub, set in the countryside. What strikes me is the old-worldliness; it feels like looking back in time. What do you see in it? Curator: What do I see? A faded echo of simpler times, perhaps! I feel that, too, that pull to a past where the Greyhound Inn was, as the accompanying text tells us, a "capital little inn… quiet and fairly furnished with most things wanted." That description alone paints a rather complete picture. Taunt, with his camera, wasn't just recording a building; he was preserving a fragment of social history, a place for respite along a country road. Do you feel any of that in the image itself? Editor: Definitely the "respite" aspect comes across. It looks peaceful. It makes me wonder about the people who frequented it. Curator: Exactly! You get that inn-between space where stories are shared and forgotten. The print medium itself adds to the sense of distance, don’t you think? It's not a slick digital image; it’s got texture and age. Look closely – can you almost smell the beer and hear the quiet murmur of conversation? Taunt created a time capsule. Editor: I hadn't thought about it as a "time capsule" before, but that's a good way to put it. The landscape style focuses on what are ordinary elements that make for the extraordinary image, it seems. Curator: Right. And even a simple building photographed well is also a portrait of place, people, and customs now mostly gone. Which reminds me, did that place have an open fire? A good story from a landlord? Some images speak beyond art, offering social narratives. This old ‘Greyhound’ wags its ghostly tail.