Off again

Above, as if you didn't know, are the Three Graces by the great Italian neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova, who was born on this day in 1757. I was recently admiring, if that's the word (rather than, say, laughing at), his gigantic nude statue of Napoleon, which was eventually presented to the Duke of Wellington, who installed it at the foot of the staircase in Apsley House. It looks very silly indeed.
  Tomorrow I'm off on my Mercian travels again for a few days. Pip pip.