It has oft been quoted from Mr. Johnson that "a man who is tired of London is tired of life". Given that gentleman were somewhat on a less egalitarian footing than women at the time: when the offer of a trip to London for little Viva was mooted she could not but all things consider carefully. House sitting in merry old London, forsooth. An internship (that may be revealed in some later post), by Jove. If Viva sublet her NYC abode would she be prone to some crazy person (other than the current occupant and half of 'normal' Manhattan-ites) throwing her library out the window in full mid-summer cocktail flight and possessed by the pages of Baudelaire and Aragon? In spite of the fact that such occurrences on the civil isle are as rare as nesting cranes on a hot tin roof. Could this be Viva's chance at oneupwomanship to the Hampton's' summer brigade? Was this all a ruse by my ex-banker boyfriend to keep an eye on me (surely his drunken pal once met at an Irish midtown pub was/once a spy) and marry me off to a Brit toff? Hiyahowya! Hiyahowya! or whatever the Valkyries cahooted. Viva would brave the waters of the Rhein (figuratively), retain her ring of fire and see for herself if the Thames was festier or filthier than the sludge of the Gowanus.
A friend of my aforementioned ex had recently toured the re-opening of
Chiswick House in West London. So curious of
Mr. Hogarth and his ways around the corner, and with suspicions of my ex's plot to marry me off to the Duke of Devonshire and make me
the Duchess, it seemed a perfect way to initiate my London ramblings.
Photos on
this site HERE.
Frederick Law Olmsted (designer of Central Park) traveled to England in 1850 to visit public gardens including English architect and landscape gardener Joseph Paxton's
Birkenhead Park (join the dots...he was a gardener at Chiswick House from 1823 to 1826). Chiswick House is the first and one of the finest examples of neo-Palladian design in England.
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