Georgian spat
From Jacob Simon Sir: As the curator responsible for the new 18th-century galleries at the National Por- trait Gallery, I am delighted that your cor- respondent, John Martin Robinson, finds the new rooms with their glorious portraits so splendid (Arts, 11 March). I am sorry, however, that he took exception to the pic- ture labels.
He makes a general point about the texts `pretending to be accessible and inclusive'; my response is that there is no pretence about it, and it has nothing to do with his taunt of 'New Labour'. In an age when British 18th-century history is, alas, no longer the stuff of the GCSE and A-level syllabuses, labels and introductory panels have to be written to be 'accessible' to the widest possible audience, without presum- ing that the reader has a PhD like Dr John Martin Robinson. And our labels are, indeed, written with a view to being 'inclu- sive' (whichever political party happens to be in power); he intends this as an insult whereas I take it as a compliment.
Robinson makes a dozen specific points about labels being off-beam or supposedly inaccurate. Rather than answer them all here, let me take two as examples. Most visi- tors would far prefer to know that Flora Mac- donald was the daughter of a Hebrides farmer, and hence able to help Bonnie Prince Charlie to escape from the Hebrides to Skye after his shattering defeat in 1746, rather than that she later married Allan Macdonald of Kingsburgh (not John Macdonald of King- burgh as Robinson would have it).
Then, in the introductory panel on Britain's rise as a great power, where Robinson claims there is no mention of the Royal Navy and Britain's command of the seas, I describe her sea power and trade; where he berates me for ignoring London's place as a financial centre, I refer to Britain as a leading financial power. There is no pleasing some people.
Jacob Simon
Curator, 18th-century Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London WC2
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