Aysgarth Falls, watercolour, 1943. Private collection. Photograph: Gareth Jenkins/Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw.
This modest work is notable as Jonah Jones’s earliest known work. He described discovering Aysgarth Falls, in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, with the poet James Kirkup, in a letter to Mona Lovell*, another close friend: “We both swooned for the sheer beauty of it all, the silver lipping over the steps into the black pool beneath, with no nightmare of long sheer tippling waterfall.”
* During World War Two, Jonah exchanged frequent letters with Mona Lovell, his mentor and would-be lover. Jonah’s side of the correspondence has been gathered in Dear Mona: Letters from a Conscientious Objector (Seren Books, 2018), edited by Peter Jones and available from the Jonah Jones Store (link).