WHEN artist and TV presenter Ashley Jackson heard that one of his paintings was going under the hammer tonight, some very moving and personal memories came flooding back.

For the original work, pictured, painted in 1970 and featuring Copgrove Hall, just outside Knaresborough, was his first ever commission.

And, within a short time of completing it, the hall's then owner sent Ashley and his family on a free holiday to Scotland to recuperate after his daughter, Heather, had nearly died from food poisoning.

Auctioneer Malcolm Dowson, who expects the painting to fetch thousands when it goes on sale at Malcolm's No 1 Auctioneers in High Street, Boston Spa, discovered the fascinating story behind the painting when he sent a copy by email to Ashley, a Yorkshire-based artist who specialises in watercolours of the local landscape.

"He was absolutely over the moon," he said. "He said it had brought memories flooding back for him and his wife. It was very emotional for him."

Ashley told the Diary that in the late-1960s and early-1970s, he had taught art to prisoners in Wakefield Prison.

"One year, an inmate told me he had no one to visit him at Christmas, so I took my wife and daughter in to see him," he said.

"My daughter, then aged two, said she was thirsty and she was given a glass of milk."

Unfortunately, she later developed severe food poisoning and had to be rushed to hospital, where doctors told Ashley and his wife she might not survive. She was in hospital for several weeks before she had recovered enough to go home.

Ashley said the then owner of Copgrove Hall, Stuart Barr, who had commissioned the painting and was the chairman of the coach firm Wallace Arnold, heard about Heather's illness and offered Ashley and his family a holiday at the company's hotel near Aviemore in Scotland, to give them a chance to recuperate. "He was a lovely, lovely fellow," he said.

The painting has been owned by someone in the Helmsley area for the past 20 years.

Out of the mouths of babes. Teenage college students at a York bus stop were discussing their tutorial visits to the public gallery in the crown court.

"What about the judges?" said one.

"They weren't a bit like Judge Judy. They were all really old blokes of about 40, falling asleep. They even had grey wigs on to cover their bald heads."

Updated: 10:44 Monday, May 22, 2006