The Road Goes Ever On

Monday, August 5, 2013

Penelope Among The Britons, 2

With Mama and Grandma at Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey)

The four of us; "hi, Claire!"

In Virginia Woolf's Writing Shed, Monk's House; sorry, I
didn't get any pix of her at Jane Austen's

Penelope has always been into sorting and re-sorting rocks, so we thought
Brighton Beach might amuse her...

After fish and chips and mushy peas at Harry Ramsden's, a bowl of strawberry
ice cream

With Grandma on the Volks Electric Train, Brighton

At the Horse Guards, London

Chasing pigeons at St. James Park

On the big screen at BBC Broadcast House

On one of several double-decker rides; "3...to...Oxford Circus"
"3...to...Crystal Palace"

Napping at the V&A

Looking at the dinosaur with Grandma, and the throng, at the Museum of
Natural History

Riding the big trains, underground

And a final plunge in the camper's pool while the grown-ups pack up

Penelope Among The Britons, 1

Normally I would continue with the chronological/narrative flow, such as it is, but, hey, this is the grand-parents' blog, and Penelope is the star, whenever she is available.

First day in Britain, with Mama at Harry Potter World; Penelope, who is not a
Harry Potter fan yet, stayed with Grandpa in the camper

Outside Alice's (Wonderland, not restaurant) in Oxford

Asleep in the camper; it's impressive how adaptable young children can be;
well, this young child anyway

In the rose garden at Blenheim Palace, collecting petals;
yes, that's a Happy Meal box

Riding the Blenheim train with Grandma and Grandpa; we never miss a train

With Mama at Avebury

Born camper at Longleat

Feeding the deer at Longleat

Three generations at the family castle, Nunney

Princess in her castle

With Mama

At Nunney

In the dress-up room at The Vyne

Building a mud mound at The Vyne

Wallace Collection "Other" Items

Among the best two or three private collections we have seen, maybe the best, so far...

Hertford House, on Manchester Square, a beautiful old town home; the Collection
is that of Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford and his son,
Richard Wallace; given to the nation by his family, opened in the early 1900s

Just about every room is replete both with paintings and with fine furniture,
porcelain, etc; actually, "fine" doesn't begin to capture it...

The ceramics are all over the museum, the largest collection of Sevres in the
world; and more Meissens than we saw in Dresden

Ditto

There are more than 500 pieces of furniture, mostly 18th century French (evidently
could be had for a song after 1789), many Boulles; here, the Levasseur Grand
Bibliotheque, 1775; I must learn something about furniture some day (presently I
can only distinguish between Ethan
Allen and Ikea)

Despite everything else, here's the one most memorable
and revealing item at the Wallace:a 1793 poster advertising
the auction of furniture from the Petit Trianon..."meubles et
effets"

Made for Marie Antoinette, 1780

Ditto

Louis XV's perpetual whom-to-pray-to-which-day calendar

Ditto

And there were several large halls of arms
and armor; and more; stupendous place...

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Wallace Collection Paintings

A couple of days before Rebecca and Penelope arrived--Bastille Day, I like to think--we visited the Wallace Collection, a London museum we'd not seen before. The usual line about the Wallace, which is true, is that if it were located in any place but a London, Paris, Rome, or maybe Madrid, it would be the main show in town. But, alas, it is in London, and so stands in the shadows of the National Gallery, the Tates, V&A, BM, and more. It still gets its share of visitors, however, and, from what I saw and heard (we did a tour before indulging ourselves on our own), far more than its share of the discerning ones. We were there for the paintings, but the Wallace exhibits far more than paintings...sculpture, ceramics, textiles, furniture, weaponry.... I'll do a second post on some of the "other" stuff.