The Statues of London is a large, heavy and expensive coffee table book. It was recommended by a reader and in spite of its drawbacks I’m pleased to own the tome.
No, no, no I’m not in Cheltenham but I got this postcard sent from there. To slip in a quick digression, Gustav Holst was born there in 1874. Fancy that. I’d thought he was German and indeed on his father’s side he is a Latvian, Swedish, German mongrel.
Wonderful Wiki’s entry for Margravine Cemetery is woefully out of date. Thanks to the ardour, hard work and pertinacity of The Friends of MC there are now four listed buildings/memorials and the cemetery has re-opened for burials.
The sermon last Sunday at The Royal Hospital was about baptism. The Chaplain (I prefer padre) recounted that he had been to where John the Baptist baptised Christ in the Jordan.
I have been to two artists’ studios this week. Sir John Lavery lived at 5 Cromwell Place from 1899 – 1940. To remind, he was born in Belfast and died in Co Kilkenny in 1941, aged eighty-four. In between he was painting in London.
My brother continues to enhance and extend the gardens at Barmeath. There is a new summer house in the walled garden, new beds and paths and a maze. He is a latter day Capability Brown.
It is 8.44 miles from my front door to The Water Poet near Liverpool Street. I don’t have a pedometer but Uber faithfully records the mileage and notes that I was picked up at 6.13 pm after a lunch that began at 12.30.