Flatford Mill, Constable's painting in the early 1800s of a barge being pulled by a solid-looking workhorse of the day, is one of many painted by England's foremost landscape painter of the age. The River Soar flows across the back of the picture and a side stream permits the barges to be banked close to the mill. Such historical paintings record exactly what England looked like just prior to the industrial revolution. In this time period, Napoleon had just been captured and Europe was on its way to 100 years of relative calm.