Lichfield on the main routes from London to the north-west and Birmingham to the north-east. It also became a centre of great intellectual activity, being the home of many famous people including Samuel Johnson, David Garrick, Erasmus Darwin and Anna Seward; this prompted Johnson's remark that Lichfield was "a city of philosophers". In the 1720s Daniel Defoe described Lichfield as 'a fine, neat, well-built, and indifferent large city', the principal town in the region after Chester. During the late 18th and early 19th century much of the medieval city was rebuilt with the red-brick Georgian style buildings still to be seen
Garrick Palmer Garrick Palmer Garrick Salisbury Palmer (born 20 September 1933 in Portsmouth) is an English painter, wood engraver, photographer and teacher. Palmer was born in Portsmouth, England and has always remained in the Portsmouth area. From 1945 to 1949 he was educated at St. John's College, Southsea, followed by a National Diploma of Design in painting and engraving from the Portsmouth College of Art and Design. Studying postgraduate courses at the Royal Academy, London, between 1955 and 1959, he was awarded David Murray Landscape Scholarships in 1955, 1956 and 1957, the Leverhulme Scholarship in 1957, and the Royal Academy Gold Medal