lasted for most of the Nineteenth Century with many thousands of poorly paid agricultural workers leaving the land for the towns and the cities and with their exodus many of the rural trades and skills also disappeared The hardships of rural life are generally missing from Gore’s rural paintings. Nevertheless there is a subtle poignancy within paintings such as The Wood Gatherers (Royal Academy 1897) and Rising Moon (Royal Academy 1908) with its echoes of Linnell and Constable. W.H. Gore's landscapes without figures display an abiding affinity for the Berkshire countryside. The area of the River Kennet valley lies within flat pastures, moors and meadows and provided scope for panoramas of watery meadows and high skies. In common with many English landscape artists the skies are reminiscent of the work of John Constable (also a favourite of the French Barbizon School). The early works are inspired by the Romantic poetry of Shelley and Keats, sentiments from an earlier age and possess titles that include Midst Tall crested reeds whispering their lullaby (RSBA 1881) and Stretch’d Wide and Wild the Enormous Marsh (RSBA 1892). Gore’s rural landscapes often possess tranquillity and an abiding affection for the countryside. Children and animal paintings Gore was a Victorian genre painter of children and animals. Genre painting is a term that refers to the depiction of everyday life and was immensely popular in the late Victorian period. Gore’s painting of children and animals capture the excitement and playfulness of a Victorian child at play. They are affectionate and arresting but came to be seen by some critics as trite and sentimental. Their reassessment took the best part of a century. The whereabouts of many of his genre paintings are unknown with some examples known only from photographs and sketches discovered at his studio in Newbury. One of W.H.Gore’s most famous images is Forgive Us Our Trespasses exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1897. A little girl in a night-dress is kneeling against her bed saying her prayers. A small dog, possibly one of the terriers that Gore owned, is also kneeling seeking attention. It is an image that has been produced many times since in commercial settings. The West Berkshire Museum at Newbury in Gore’s home town owns two paintings A Pastoral Scene (1914) and The Culprit (1900), the latter an example of Gore’s genre painting of children. Bibliography Margaret Wheeler (1992), William Henry Gore: