Red painted postcard

This one is interesting. Interesting because there is so little to be said about the picture. If it's famous, I don't know of it; it looks like a pretty average landscape with a lot of red. It is a reproduction of an oil, as in the postcard you can see the brushstrokes reproduced.

The back of the card reads,
"Dear Friends, Sorry to say we shall not be able to come tomorrow as promised. having friends coming from Bradford if fine as Mr. D is going to the Sylum at Menston. Kind regards to all, your sincerely N LE."

After reading it a couple of times, the conclusion was that "Sylum" meant "asylum", and then figuring out penmanship to determine the place as 'Menston' made the process even easier.   The 'sylum was  "West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum" and apparently, the best place to be, as their approach to mental illness was fairly revolutionary at the time.

I sincerely hope that it turned out alright for "Mr. D", whether he was a doctor or a patient...or even a victim of PTSD.

A great photoset of the hospital can be found here on flickr.