Another Diana

Estcourt J Clack sounds like a character from PG Wodehouse; a dyspeptic American millionaire perhaps.

In fact he is the sculptor responsible for another fine bronze of Diana. It was commissioned in 1950 although its grace and elegance is redolent of an earlier era. It stands outside the exit from Green Park station leading out into the Green Park.

You are probably aware that Elephant and Castle derives its name from a corruption of Infanta de Castilla; a charming notion that is, as us experts say, bollocks. An elephant carrying a castle is actually the badge used by the Cutlers’ Company referring to their, now forbidden, use of ivory for the handles of their knives.

Unfortunately on Wednesday morning I was not asked about the Elephant and Castle. Instead I was asked how Rotten Row got its name. You will know that Rotten Row is the broad path running along the south side of Hyde Park between West Carriage Drive and Hyde Park Corner. In the 17th century it was part of the route from Kensington Palace to Whitehall and Westminster. The road was known as the Road of the King, or Route du Roi, and Rotten Row is a corruption of this name. Or maybe not?

Apsley House, Number One London is supposedly its address which if true must be a source of irritation to occupants of Buckingham Palace at the other end of Constitution Hill, is synonymous with the Dukes of Wellington. However, it derives its name from its first occupant, the 2nd Earl Bathurst, who commissioned Robert Adams to build the house in the 1770s when he was a mere Baron (Apsley). In 1807 he sold Apsley House to Marquess Wellesley, the older brother of the 1st Duke of Wellington. By 1817 Lord Wellesley was on his uppers while his brother was loaded; in short he was pleased to sell the house to the Iron Duke for £42,000. The Duke extended and altered the house over the next thirteen years and that is what you see today.

It is worth visiting for its interiors, statuary (a huge marble of Napoleon starkers by Canova and if anyone can Conova can, takes up a lot of space at the foot of the stairs), plates, table decorations and best of all its pictures. King Ferdinand of Spain presented the Duke with some two hundred pictures, eighty-three of which are on display in Apsley House, among them stunning works by Goya and Velasquez.

I’m pleased with my heraldic dinner service made by Xavier China but I must admit the Duke’s dinner services are pretty impressive too.

The Saxon Service reminds me of the plates commissioned by my great-grandfather for his daughters: Aunt Aline and Aunt Ada. The plates depict Bellew houses, gardens and lodges. Aunt Ada’s set was destroyed in a fire but my cousin has the remaining, now unique, set.