One of Sven Berlin’s favourite places to walk and to paint in his later years was along the River Stour near Cowgrove, Wimborne. The swans on the Stour were a favourite subject. Here, at Eye Bridge, his friend and correspondent, John Paddy Browne, photographed the artist and later wrote a comprehensive profile for Dorset, The County Magazine (No. 59, 1977).
John Paddy Browne also wrote a poem At Sturminster Marshall, a location a little further along the Stour recalling a peaceful rural moment as the cows arrived to drink. It can be found in his book Not Thinking Straight and begins…
“Each day at five o’clock
The cows come down.
A weir cuts the river
Where they drink
Out on a line, knee-deep on a man…”