Too many books?

     I love this story from the excellent Chatsworth: The House by Deborah Devonshire (a book delightfully full of its author's personality):
"Plum-coloured plush covers a pair of enormous wing chairs constructed for men on the same scale which flank the fireplace [in the Chatsworth library - see above]. Two big fellows - the Eighth Duke and the then Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury - sat in them one evening about a hundred years ago. The latter looked up at the gallery running round the room... 'How do you get up there?' Lord Salisbury asked. Long pause. 'Damned if I know,' replied his host."

The false books on the gallery door have titles thought up by Patrick Leigh-Fermor. They include "Sideways through Derbyshire" by Crabbe, "Gloucester in All Weathers" by Doctor Foster, "Jellies and Blancmanges" by Somerset, and "Venus Observed" by I. Sawyer.

     Moving swiftly on - all those, like me, who have been helpless with hysterical laughter reading Counting my Chickens will be so pleased to know that a new volume of Deborah Devonshire's writings has just come out: Home to Roost has an introduction by Alan Bennett and is guaranteed to enchant and entertain. This is a must!

Comments

[Rhys]

Chatsworth is about a 45 minute drive from where we live and so it can be a very pleasant trip out to go there. The setting is wonderful and you are allowed to roam quite freely and picnic on the banks of the river and bathe in the river etc....and be inspired to write a Wordsworthian poem!!! The house I find makes me uneasy because I look at this opulence and can't help but think immediately of the extensive poverty in the world...but it also is a wonderful historical resource...what you remember of history learnt at school comes back...and there is a wonderful hall with a staircase and a beautiful painted ceiling where I attended a private concert one summer's eve.....

[Simon T]

Ooh, I didn't know another volume had come out. I know I have a book token around here somewhere...