The year 1729 was relatively uneventful. All that Wikipedia can come up with that piqued my interest is this rather charming story.
Srinivasa Ramanujan was an Indian mathematician considered one of the greatest in the world. He came to England to meet other mathematicians, specifically G H Hardy, and fell ill (he died in India in 1920, aged thirty-two) – Hardy tells the story.
I remember once going to see him when he was ill at Putney. I had ridden in taxi cab number 1729 and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one, and that I hoped it was not an unfavourable omen. “No”, he replied, “it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.”
He might have mentioned that Putney Bridge was about to be completed. Made of wood it was the only crossing between London Bridge and Kingston. Sometimes I think it still is, as I queue in Putney High Street to get across it. Two other building projects reached completion in 1729: Chiswick House and Marble Hill House. These two Palladian beauties inspired a Palladian craze in England and America. Ireland was slightly ahead – Castletown was built in 1722.
You should be familiar with Chiswick House from posts passim but I had only seen Marble Hill House from the Thames Path on the south bank of the river. On Sunday we went for a walk in the park around the house. The inside is worth seeing but it would have been frustrating and rather hot for Bertie to be confined to the car. In any case there is plenty to admire outside.
Marble Hill House, South Front, August 2024.
Marble Hill House, North Front, August 2024.
It was surprisingly uncrowded on a sunny, Sunday morning. It took about an hour and a half to slowly circumnavigate the sixty-six acre park that borders the Thames on its southern boundary. I was interested to see the ferry for pedestrians, cyclists and dogs that plys between Marble Hill Park and Ham House. Hammerton’s ferry was started by Walter Hammerton in 1909 and continues today under family ownership but a different family.
Hammerton’s Ferry, August 2024.
It would make a grand day out to take the tube or overground to Richmond, walk up the river to Ham House (completed in 1610) and take the ferry to Marble Hill House to see its 18th century architecture. Then it’s only a thirty minute walk back to Richmond station across Richmond Bridge.
