Burlington House

Part 2, London.

Chapter 19, Burlington House.

Although it was the first public day of the exhibition, there was no crowd in the spacious saloons of Burlington House.

Not more than thirty or forty people stood gazing at the pictures in each fine apartment, or sat upon the red leather settees gazing at nothing.

Though it was half an hour past noon, the place had an air of early morning, of width and cool light and emptiness, and the bright gilt and colours of the pictures which hung upon the dark and crusted walls seemed to be morning sun shadows cast through the muslin awning under the glass roof.

It took place from November 28th, 1935, and closed about half a year later on March 7th, 1936.

At Burlington House, many people who've been to London and seen the Royal Academy will know it's still very much the same building.

And this was a blockbuster, one of the first really big ones.

Sixteen of the galleries at Burlington House were used, and something like 4,000 Chinese objects which came from 15 different countries and probably about 200 different collections were put together.

They included a huge number of artefacts, priceless items that came from the Beijing Palace Museum as it now is, the Forbidden City in other words, in the centre of Beijing.

Bearing in mind in 1935 it was just over, what would it have been, less than a quarter of a century since the last emperor of China had fallen, famous, of course, from the Bertolucci film from the 1980s.

Part two, London.

Chapter nineteen, Burlington House.

Although it was the first public day of the exhibition, there was no crowd in the spacious saloons of Burlington House.

Not more than thirty or forty people stood gazing at the pictures in each fine apartment, or sat upon the red leather settees gazing at nothing.

Though it was half an hour past noon, the place had an air of early morning, of width and cool light and emptiness, and the bright gilt and colors of the pictures which hung upon the dark and crusted walls seemed to be morning sun shadows cast through the muslin awning under the glass roof.

This I partly attribute to general impression, which I do not condescend to deny, that, at home, I occupy the social status of a rajah, or some analogous kind of big native pot.

So, on a recent Saturday afternoon, she invited me to escort her and a similar young virginal lady friend, by name Miss Priscilla Primit, to Burlington House, Piccadilly, and, as Prince Hamlet appositely remarks, look here upon this picture and on this.

which I joyfully accepted, being head over heels in love with art, and the possessor of two magnificent coloured photolithographs, representing a steeplechase in the act of jumping a trench, and a water-nymph in the very décolleté undress of puris naturalibus, weltering on a rushy bed.

We proceeded thither upon the giddy summit of a royal oak omnibus, and on arriving in the vestibulum were peremptorily commanded to undergo total abstinence from our umbrellas being accompanied by the spanioux silken affair with the golden head which as i have narrated supra i was so lucky to obtain promiscuously after witnessing the adelphi of the westminster college boys i naturally protested vehemently against such arbitrary and tyrannical regulations urging the risk of my unprotected umbrella being feloniously abducted during unavoidable absence by some unprincipled and illegitimate claimant but alack i was confronted with the official ultimatum and sine qua non and have subsequently learned that the cause of this self-denying ordinance is due to the uncontrollable enthusiasm of british public for works of art which leads them to signify approbation by puncturing innumerable orifices by dint of stinks or umbrellas, in the process of pointing out titbits of painting, and on account of the detrimental influence on the marketable value of pictures thus distinguished by the plerophory of the vox populi.

Resolve always to send Robin and Vicky to parties without me if possible, as children without parents infinitely preferable from point of view of hostess.

Find it difficult to get Oranges and Lemons going whilst at the same time appearing to give intelligent attention to remarks from visiting mother concerning exhibition of Italian pictures at Burlington House.

Find myself telling her how marvelous I think them, though in actual fact have not yet seen them at all.

Realize that this misstatement should be corrected at once, but omit to do so, and later find myself involved in entirely unintentional web of falsehood.

One hare and an infinite number of tortoises." "An extreme case indeed," her aunt remarked with admirable gravity, "and a most dangerous state of things." "And I thought, if I went with a tortoise, there would be only one hare to meet.

But if I went with the hare, you know, there were crowds of tortoises." "It wasn't a bad idea," said the elder lady as they left the cab at the entrance of Burlington House.

"You shall have another chance today.

We'll have a match in marking pictures." Clara brightened up.

In London he had made enemies as well as friends, and one of the most implacable of his foes was the great but churlish Addison.

His admirers, on the other hand, included a child named Mary Granville, later Mrs. Delaney, one of his staunchest friends, the Duke of Burlington, through whom he had entrée to Burlington House, and the famous eccentric Thomas Britton, a coal dealer by day but who, on certain evenings, sponsored memorable concerts in a specially outfitted loft above his coal shop, which drew prominent London musicians and cultured aristocrats to the Clerkenwell garret, where Handel frequently appeared as harpsichord and even organ virtuoso.

Back in Hanover, June 1711, he renewed his contacts with Bishop Cifani, composed organ concertos and other chamber music, as well as a quantity of songs, to German texts by the Hamburg Senator Brooks.

He would have liked to produce Rinaldo, but the Hanover Opera was closed.

Tazio came near duplicating the fortunes of Rinaldo, and if, as Rowland says, it was full of haste, it was also full of genius.

If anything could have entrenched the composer still more firmly in London, it was this opera.

He went for a while to live at Burlington House at the Duke's invitation, met Pope, Gay, or both not, struck up friendships with this and that musician at the Queen's Arms Tavern in St. Paul's Churchyard, and was never so happy as when he sat with some musical crony, a mug of beer at hand, and a harpsichord nearby.

The first work he composed in the ideal peace of Burlington House was a birthday ode for Queen Anne, whom he had met on his first London visit.

Resolve always to send Robin and Vicky to parties without me if possible, as children without parents infinitely preferable from point of view of hostess.

Find it difficult to get Oranges and Lemons going whilst at same time appearing to give intelligent attention to remarks from visiting mother concerning exhibition of Italian pictures at Burlington House.

Find myself telling her how marvelous I think them, though in actual fact have not yet seen them at all.

Realize that this misstatement should be corrected at once, but omit to do so and later find myself involved in entirely unintentional web of falsehood.