There are few swans on the tidal stretch of the Thames between Hammersmith and Richmond. Recently I have seen three where the Grand Union Canal joins the river at Brentford and I assume they come from the canal for a change of scenery.
So I was surprised yesterday morning to find twenty at Isleworth. Seven swans a-swimming were quite enough in the 18th century carol. Do swans congregate when the tedium of nesting and nurturing is over?
This very expensive Russian owned restaurant has an unfortunate name – so similar to Novichok. I have been once to buy a client and his entourage lunch. It was shockingly expensive and the bill might not have been honoured on my expense account if the management had not fortuitously omitted most of the wine. Meanwhile, a few streets away in Brook Street it pleases me that relations with Argentina have improved sufficiently for the ambassador to be able to flaunt a jingoistic number plate.
The Argentinian embassy is adjacent to the Savile Club and this month I am permitted to use the Savile while my club is closed. The members there are agreeable and interesting, the food excellent and the pictures and architecture striking. This year they celebrate their 150th birthday and have an exhibition of work by and about noted Savilians to mark their sesquicentenary.
They have also published two books: Guide to the Savile Monument by Honorary Librarian, Michael Bloch, and Suggestions’ Books, a selection of entries 1869 – 1968 edited by Robert Harding, the current Chairman. The former is an account of the authors whose books are in the Savile library (the Monument). They are all Savilians and no other London club has such a distinguished literary heritage. The latter shows that Savile members do not differ from members of other London clubs nor do their querulous suggestions change over the years. There is a universality to Claud Mullins’ entry: “even in war-time must we have Windsor soup at lunch every Thursday?”
Nancy Mitford’s husband, Peter Rodd, is a frequent contributor complaining about cats, coffee, cuisine, the introduction of fruit machines and more. Indeed coffee is a recurrent preoccupation: “ I ordered coffee for lunch today. What was brought was simply detestable.” (February 1874, WT Thiselton Dyer.) One can waste a lot of time most enjoyably immersed in both books.
Better 1ARG than 1Malvin!
Always a joy to read your perambulations.
The artwork at the Savile is also interesting in that some impressively scaled paintings are by the members as well, as I recall. Rather fun that they have taken the trouble to publish their old suggestion books (but it is rather a fun club, as you suggest). Prod’s entries seem to be in line with the general impression one gets from reading Mitfordiana that he was fairly disagreeable.
“Expense account” restaurants, as I think of them, are not only usually mediocre, they tend to attract the boorish, who are there only to show off their deep pockets. The staff are trained to suggest the most expensive items, whether or not they are any good. The combination of factors usually makes for dull food provided in an unpleasant atmosphere. In the U.S., we also have the added annoyance that the staff generally expect the showing off to extend to unduly lavish tips. However, Novikov seems to endure. I have never been inside, but perhaps it is both good and expensive.