Just Voted Britain's Favourite Picture, We Explain Why It's the ... PAINTING THAT SAILED INTO HISTORY

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Byline: CHRISTOPHER HUDSON

THE SCENE could hardly be more poignant. One of Britain's most formidable fighting ships, a pale copy of how she looked on the day all her guns blazed in glory at the Battle of Trafalgar, is towed up the Thames to a naval scrapyard at sunset.

This is the picture that has been voted the greatest painting in Britain, trouncing works by Constable, Manet and Van Gogh in a BBC poll for Radio 4.

J.M.W. Turner's masterpiece The Fighting Temeraire is, in many ways, the perfect choice. For in an age when multiculturalists and politicians are so dismissive of our history, you only have to visit the National Gallery and study The Fighting Temeraire to understand where the roots of Britishness lie.

Its full title is 'The Fighting Temeraire, tugged to her Last Berth to be broken up'. Turner, then in his mid-60s, was on a …