"It was by this circle that I found myself adopted during my first term; they provided the kind of..."

[Brideshead]

“It was by this circle that I found myself adopted during my first term; they provided the kind of company I had enjoyed in the sixth form at school, for which the sixth form had prepared me; but even in the earliest days, when the whole business of living at Oxford, with rooms of my own and my own cheque book, was a source of excitement, I felt at heart that this was not all that Oxford had to offer.”

-

In Mad World, Paula Byrne writes:

For his first two terms he [EW] led a quiet anf uneventful life. He claimed that he was content: ‘I have enough friends to keep me from being lonely and not enough to bother me’, he wrote in a letter, adding that he did little work and dreamed a lot. But in other letters he lamented the lack of congenial friends.

@темы: charles, oxford, motifs, waugh

---

"Sebastian got straight to bed; I sat by his fire and smoked a pipe. I said: “I rather wish I..."

[Brideshead]

“Sebastian got straight to bed; I sat by his fire and smoked a pipe. I said: “I rather wish I was coming out with you tomorrow.”

“Well,” he said, “you wouldn’t see much sport. I can tell you exactly what I’m going to do. I shall leave Bridey at the first covert, hack over to the nearest good pub and spend the entire day quietly soaking in the bar parlour. If they treat me like a dipsomaniac, they can bloody well have a dipsomaniac. I hate hunting, anyway.””

- In the mini-series we can often see Jeremy Irons smoking a pipe, too. Paula Byrne (along with other biographers) claims that Evelyn Waugh himself learnt to smoke a pipe during his first terms in Oxford.

@темы: charles, mini-series, motifs, waugh

---

"[Evelyn Waugh] was in love with my brother."

[Brideshead]

“[Evelyn Waugh] was in love with my brother.”

-

Lady Sibell Lygon

And she definitely doesn’t mean Elmley :-)

[via Paula Byrne’s Mad World]

@темы: charles, i am not i, tian, waugh,sebas, fairies

---

"There is nothing like the aesthetic pleasure of being drunk and if you do it in the right way you..."

[Brideshead]

“There is nothing like the aesthetic pleasure of being drunk and if you do it in the right way you can avoid being ill next day. That is the greatest thing Oxford has to teach.”

-

Evelyn Waugh, Diaries

[via Paula Byrne’s Mad World]

@темы: oxford, waugh, grave sins

---

"A face of flawless Florentine Quattrocento beauty; almost anyone else with those looks would ..."

[Brideshead]

“A face of flawless Florentine Quattrocento beauty; almost anyone else with those looks would have been tempted to become artistic; not Lady Julia…”

-

Anthony Blanche about Julia.

And here’s what Paula Byrne writes about Hugh Lygon at school:

Some said he had a face out of Botticelli, while for [Anthony] Powell [another Etonian] he was ‘fair-haired, nice mannered, a Giotto angel living in a narcissistic dream’.

@темы: sebastian, julia, motifs, i am not i, byrne

---

"[Brian Howard’s] parentage was mysterious. He was grandly named Brian Christian de Clavering..."

[Brideshead]

“[Brian Howard’s] parentage was mysterious. He was grandly named Brian Christian de Clavering Howard, but his friends discovered that his father’s real name was Gassaway. The ‘Howard’ was made up - and rather bad form, since there was no connection with the Howards of Castle Howard.”

-

Paula Byrne’s Mad World.

Brian Howard and Harold Acton, both prototypes of Anthone Blanche, were in Eaton with Hugh Lygon, but of course none of them was expelled. Both of them were openly gay.

As Evelyn Waugh was great friends with Acton in his Oxford days and didn’t much like Howard it is only natural Anthony Blanche is such a controversial figure.

@темы: sebastian, waugh, i am not i, anthony blanche, byrne

---

John Gielgud

[Brideshead]

John Gielgud

@темы: mini-series, waugh

---

libraryland: Writer Evelyn Waugh This picture was commissioned...

[Brideshead]

libraryland:

Writer Evelyn Waugh

This picture was commissioned by EW’s friends, the Guiness (to whom Vile Bodies is dedicated) - which is why he is holding a glass of Guiness beer in his hand. It is, perhaps, the most famous of all EW’s pictures ever.

@темы: waugh

---

More on Hugh Molson

[Brideshead]

Paula Byrne writes that Evelyn Waugh’s last Ascension Day at school

was spent with Preters, who had borrowed a motor car. The boys drove the Chichester, got very drunk at luncheon and drove round and round the Market Cross shouting out to passers-by that they were looking for the nearest pub. He also enjoyed pleasent late afternoon sessions behind the chapel, smoking ‘sweet-smelling gold and silk-tipped Levantine cigarettes’.

This would remind us of at least three Sebastian related things:

• Hardcastle’s car;


• 
  

  “And drink — no one minds a man getting tight once or twice a term. In fact, he ought to, on certain occasions. But I hear you’re constantly seen drunk in the middle of the afternoon.”
  He paused, his duty discharged. Already the perplexities of the examination school were beginning to re-assert themselves in his mind.
  “I’m sorry, Jasper,” I said. “I know it must be embarrassing for you, but I happen to like this bad set. I like getting drunk at luncheon…”

  
  


• 
  

  …and we lit fat, Turkish cigarettes and lay on our backs, Sebastian’s eyes on the leaves above him, mine on his profile, while the blue-grey smoke rose, untroubled by any wind, to the blue-green shadows of foliage, and the sweet scent of the tobacco merged with the sweet summer scents around us and the fumes of the sweet, golden wine seemed to lift us a finger’s breadth above the turf and hold us suspended.

  
  

@темы: sebastian, cars, motifs, i am not i

---

florentinetragedy: poems on the thames by knotyknoh on...

[Brideshead]

florentinetragedy:

poems on the thames by knotyknoh on deviantart

@темы: oxford

---

I probably want that edition now. And/or a print of the cover or the picture.

[Brideshead]

It’s on sale on eBay now for some $100; but I’ve seen much cheaper copies of later prints. My all-time favourite Brideshead cover is this one.

---

Where is the picture of Charles and Julia on the top of the site from? I love it.

[Brideshead]

I love it too :-) It is from the cover of the first Americal edition wioth some heavy Photoshop editing by Aloysius Edward.

@темы: unhealthy pictures, covers

---

Another treasure in the mail today :-)

[Brideshead]

Another treasure in the mail today :-)

@темы: books, I like getting drunk at luncheons

---

Lord Lundy

[Brideshead]

In his 1977 book, Homosexuals in History, historian A. L. Rowse suggests that Beauchamp’s failed appointment as Governor of New South Wales was the inspiration for Hilaire Belloc’s satirical children’s poem, Lord Lundy. Nevertheless, says Rowse, “Lord Lundy’s chronic weakness was tears. This was not Lord Beauchamp’s weakness: he enjoyed life, was always gay.”

The poem goes like this:

Lord Lundy

Who was too Freely Moved to Tears, and thereby ruined his Political Career.

Lord Lundy from his earliest years
Was far too freely moved to Tears.
For instance if his Mother said,
“Lundy! It’s time to go to Bed!”
He bellowed like a Little Turk.

Or if his father Lord Dunquerque
Said “Hi!” in a Commanding Tone,
“Hi, Lundy! Leave the Cat alone!”
Lord Lundy, letting go its tail,
Would raise so terrible a wail
As moved His Grandpapa the Duke
To utter the severe rebuke:

“When I, Sir! was a little Boy,
An Animal was not a Toy!”

His father’s Elder Sister, who
Was married to a Parvenoo,
Confided to Her Husband, “Drat!
The Miserable, Peevish Brat!
Why don’t they drown the Little Beast?”
Suggestions which, to say the least,
Are not what we expect to hear
From Daughters of an English Peer.

His Grandmamma, His Mother’s Mother,
Who had some dignity or other,
The Garter, or no matter what,
I can’t remember all the Lot!
Said “Oh! That I were Brisk and Spry
To give him that for which to cry!”

(An empty wish, alas! For she
Was Blind and nearly ninety-three).

The Dear Old Butler thought—but there!
I really neither know nor care
For what the Dear Old Butler thought!
In my opinion, Butlers ought
To know their place, and not to play
The Old Retainer night and day.
I’m getting tired and so are you,
Let’s cut the poem into two!

arbitrary poem break into “Lord Lundy Cont’d”

It happened to Lord Lundy then,
As happens to so many men:
Toward the age of twenty-six,
They shoved him into politics;
In which profession he commanded
The income that his rank demanded
In turn as Secretary for
India, the Colonies, and War.

But very soon his friends began
To doubt if he were quite the man:
Thus, if a member rose to say
(As members do from day to day)
“Arising out of that reply … !”
Lord Lundy would begin to cry.

A Hint at harmless little jobs
Would shake him with convulsive sobs.
While as for Revelations, these
Would simply bring him to his knees,
And leave him whimpering like a child.
It drove his colleagues raving wild!

They let him sink from Post to Post,
From fifteen hundred at the most
To eight, and barely six—and then
To be Curator of Big Ben!…

And finally there came a Threat
To oust him from the Cabinet!
The Duke—his aged grand-sire—bore
The shame till he could bear no more.

He rallied his declining powers,
Summoned the youth to Brackley Towers,
And bitterly addressed him thus—

“Sir! you have disappointed us!
We had intended you to be
The next Prime Minister but three:
The stocks were sold; the Press was squared:
The Middle Class was quite prepared.
But as it is! … My language fails!
Go out and govern New South Wales!”

The Aged Patriot groaned and died:
And gracious! how Lord Lundy cried!

@темы: lord marchmain, i am not i

---

Easton Court hotel, Chagford, Devonshire

[Brideshead]

This photo of Easton Court is courtesy of TripAdvisor

-where EW stayed in 1931 and in 1944, and where he wrote Brideshead Revisited.

@темы: waugh, geography

---

Photo

[Brideshead]

@темы: oxford

---

Photo

[Brideshead]

@темы: oxford

---

Photo

[Brideshead]

@темы: oxford

---

Photo

[Brideshead]

@темы: oxford

---

Castle Howard and the Myth of "Brideshead Revisited"

[Brideshead]

By Steve Bergsman

I started reading the books of the English writer Evelyn Waugh just a few years ago when I discovered his dry British humor and sardonic observations in such books as “Scoop” and “Vile Bodies.” I never picked up his most popular novel, “Brideshead Revisited,” however, for two reasons: It was a more serious turn of literature for Waugh, and I had seen the popular “Masterpiece Theater” production starring Jeremy Irons when it appeared on U.S. television in the early 1980s as well as the more recent cinematic production starring Emma Thompson.

Both productions used the same manor house, Castle Howard outside York, England, as the location for what cinematically was called Brideshead. Although it is still in use today as the home of Simon Howard and his family, the mansion is open for visitation. The day I was there, the parking lot was full of people who had come to walk through the extensive grounds and gardens, to visit an extraordinary mansion with its great art, and to see a home so closely associated with “Brideshead Revisited” and its cinematic incarnations.

When I asked a tour guide whether Castle Howard was the location Waugh had in mind when he wrote or the association came later, his response was, “Certain references to “Brideshead” in the book suggest this home was the inspiration for the fictional manse, but there is no record of Waugh ever visiting Castle Howard before writing his book.”

The real Castle Howard, as opposed to the fictional Brideshead, boasts a life worthy of a good book. It was designed in 1699 by Sir John Vanbrugh, a playwright who had never designed a home, and it took more than 100 years to complete. In 1940, a fast-moving fire destroyed the manor’s magnificent dome, numerous rooms and artwork that was priceless — nine Canalettos disappeared in the conflagration. The house was then boarded up.

George Howard returned home after service in World War II and decided to restore the family property. Much of the restoration has been accomplished, including the dome, but there are still rooms and spaces undone — and that is one of the reasons Granada Television in 1981 and Hollywood in 2008 came calling. They were able to use the empty spaces to create fictional Brideshead rooms while using the remainder of the home, exterior, grounds and gardens for other shots.

My iconic memory of both cinematic versions of the story is the first time the protagonist, Charles Ryder, arrives with Sebastian Flyte, his university friend, to Flyte’s home and sees the grandeur of the mansion for the first time.

A two-lane road cuts through grounds of the estate for what seems like a mile or more, then passes through gates in the various walls before the building, partly obscured by trees, appears in the distance. Today visitors enter through a ticket office that was once the property’s stable and courtyard. Once through the gates, however, in the distance sits Castle Howard in all its glory. It’s a five- to 10-minute walk to the home, depending on how fast one walks and whether one is diverted by the walled gardens. In the center of the formal gardens sits the Atlas Fountain, an important venue in both film versions of the “Brideshead” story.

The entryway to the home is at the head of the wing to the right of real main entrance.

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This is a good place to start because the stairwell leading up to the second floor is lined with the grand portraits of the first six Earls of Carlisle. It was the third Earl of Carlisle who built the castle, which appears in the background of his painting. The last Earl of Carlisle to live in the home was the ninth. He died in the 20th century, and through complicated family bequests, the home ended up with the Howard family.

The first actual room one enters is the bedroom of Lady Georgiana, Countess of Carlisle, who was pregnant every 18 months from 1802 to 1825. The room adjacent to the Georgiana bedroom was originally the dressing room. Now it is a bedroom in the style of 1884, when it was redecorated by the ninth Countess of Carlisle. The furnishings look to be original, and a painting by Gainsborough hangs on the wall.

The artist with the most works of art in the home is Mario Ricci, a Venetian landscape artist who was commissioned to do work at Castle Howard during the years 1709-1710. Probably the second most exhibited painter is George James Howard, who was also the ninth Earl of Carlisle and resident of the house.

Many of the paintings at Castle Howard were acquired by Frederick, the fifth Earl of Carlisle. In 1798, he and two other patrons acquired the Italian paintings from the Orleans collection; among the pictures exhibited were Titians, Raphaels and Leonardos. A number of these paintings have since been donated to the nation.

The Castle Howard collection is still first-rate. As I wandered through the rooms, I saw paintings by some of England’s greatest artists, including Gainsborough and Constable, as well as works by Hans Holbein, Joshua Reynolds, Rubens and Canaletto.

The artwork is just a part of the home’s attractions. Antiquities, Roman sculpture and period furniture are also on exhibit. I had to keep reminding myself that people actually live in this house.

A key plot point for Waugh’s hero — apart from his affairs with the siblings — was his deep regard for the house itself. After being turned away from the property by the stern Flyte matriarch, Ryder doesn’t return again until the war, when the home is being used by the British army and he finds himself stationed there.

Ryder’s love for Julia is resurrected after the war. In real life, the house and grounds, too, were resurrected post-war, a happy ending for the fictional Brideshead and the non-fictional Castle Howard.

IF YOU GO

Unless you’re a guest of the Howards, the best option is to stay at a nearby bed and breakfast. I chose the No9 Luxury Bed & Breakfast in Pickering, about 15 minutes away, where I was greeted with a tray of tea and cakes when I arrived. It’s a great location because you can easily walk into the village for dinner: www.no9pickering.co.uk.

Steve Bergsman is a freelance travel writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS.COM.

@темы: mini-series, 2008, films, brideshead, i am not i