A Gentleman's London, Episode Six: Huntsman
15 hours ago
THE NAKED APE GETS DRESSED. For those who strive for better things and who understand, as did Ben Jonson, that: "the pipe marks the point at which the orang-utan ends and man begins". - And those who understand S T Coleridge's: "While Fate tramples on things of beauty, the indignant human heart shall utter them."
It's ever so slightly Rennie Mackintosh in style, where is it? Or is that a rude question?
ReplyDeleteIt's a strange experience to look at a past home, I sometimes pass our old family house and see myself as a younger soul and my father coming through the gate smiling - then I spend the next hour in tears, so I try not to do that too often. Nostalgia - I really think it's one of the saddest emotions, it's the yearning part that hurts the most.
Oh and Hunters and Frankau - my cap is doffed to you.
ReplyDeleteIt's in St Austell in Cornwall; set in about an acre, it was built by a local builder in 1912. I am unsure who the architect was but the owners whom I knew relayed the rumour that he built it out of materials which he had 'saved' over the years from various building commissions! Nostalgia is both painful and pleasurable. As Proust rightly says (if I know about Hunters & Frankau I must also know about Proust): "Les vrais Paradis sont les paradis qu'on a perdus." I guess that the old Hollywood directors understood its draw: hence the potency of films such as "Random Harvest" and "The Ghost and Mrs Muir" - even "Gone With The Wind" (and however many times one sees them).
ReplyDeleteNJS
Thank you. Cornwall is beautiful, it's on my list for next year.
ReplyDeleteOh I'm going to a Hunters & Frankau hosted dinner next month!
Not at all. Cornwall is still beautiful but St Austell has been spoiled. Make sure that you see Fowey by moonlight!
ReplyDeleteNot many people even know who H&F are! Simon Chase (whom I have never met) telephoned me internationally (at his expense) and gave me an hour of his time over the draft section in my second book on cigars. Given that some people that I contacted did not even reply, I think that says a lot.
NJS
I've met Simon Chase - Lordy it is small world.Oh what wes your book on cigars? I have a David Tang/Cuba tale for you.
ReplyDeleteAre you in the cigar business or just smoke them? It wasn't a whole book on cigars just a part of a chapter but, thanks to SC it is a reasonable intro. Do tell the tale!
ReplyDeleteNJS
Oh no, not in any business, I just went to a few cigar dinners and events!
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