A BOOK OF THE MOMENT

THE LURE .OF LONDON

[COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE New York Times.] THE publishers are spreading the Lure of London throughout the English-speaking world, and every year the effects of this enchantthent are becoming more and more apparent. London, in a word, is becoming- the great representative city of our epoch: If men want to see the greatest, most historical, most mysteriously attractive city in the world their heart§ and

• brains must perforce turn to London.

The output of books dealing with London is both a cause ' and an effect of London's growing hold on mankind. The visitors to London ask' for the books. The books are pro- duced, and at once make other people determine to come to London and see it for themselves. It is, interesting _to note that this impulse to provide books for the double purpose of alluring and satisfying is actually felt by the British. GoVern- ment, not consciously, of course, but unconsciously most cer- tainly. The latest book put out by the Roy-al Commission on HistoriCal Monuments,- rather old called Volume • II: West London, excluding Westminster Abbey, is a de- lightful- piece of Work, and most admirably illustrated with photograVures- of the Outsides and insides of the great buildings ' Of the Metropolis. What Makes it amusing and attractive as 'a book' is that, though it has a very impressive, if somewhat heavy, paper Wrapper, illustrating the Crypt Chapel of the Palace of Westminster, the first feW pages are set forth quite in " Blue Book style." The index is printed like a schedule to an Act of Parliament, and the preface has a terribly " Royal Commission " look about it. Being signed and no doubt written_ by Lord Crawford, it could hardly help having a certain note of distinction as well as of official efficiency, but the present-I-fent is intensely bureaucratic. ..

The official form of the book is a report to the King as to the work done 'by the Commission, accompanied by an " Inventory of Monuments in West London "- which the Com- mission regard as specially worthy of preservation. In this list the ordinary and uninstructed Londoner will find some surprises. Chelsea old Parish Church has, of course, been known to antiquarians as containing many most remarkable . monuments, but probably there are few _people who realize the importance of the twelfth-century crypt of the Parish Church of St. John's, Clerkenwell, or, again, who know why the Chapel of St. Etheldreda in Holborn, " formerly part of the town house of the Bishops of Ely," ought to be preserved

at all costs. _ .

, In Westminster proper. there are many ecclesiastical buildings to be found in the Inventory, including the monu- ment to Dr. Yong in the Rolls Chapel, " a remarkable example of pure Italian Renaissance by Torrigiani." In Chelsea Lindsey House is very properly scheduled; for it is now the only remaining example of the great mansions which made Chelsea famous in the days of Charles H, James II, and . William and Mary. Roehampton House, Wandsworth, will be another discovery for the man in the London street, as will also be the undercroft of Malmesbury House, Harrington

House, and Carlisle House. • For me I am bound to say.that the greatest surprise treasure in the book is provided by the fresCoes in Marlborough House, painted by Lagtierre and well reprOduced in photogravure. Everybody who knoWs anything about English' literature knows the famous couplet in Pope " On painted ceilings you devoutly stare,

'Where sprawl The saints-of Verrio cieLaguerre."

At MarlbOrough House one that Lagnerre -understood the 'proper Way-Of Presenting Military subjects on the wall. It will be remembered that Marlborough Honse, before it became a royal residence, belonged to the Marlborough family, and was built by Sir -Christopher Wren in the great • Diikes tithe:' 'the decOrntions were -designed to Conrimema- - rate the &Minis victories of Blenheim; Malplaquet- and Laguerre seems to have, when at his best, an mi• canny mixture of Goya and El Greco. The picture on the south wall of the saloon, showing Marlborough at the Battle of Blenheim, well illustrates what I mean, The Duke, with a most coquettish three-cornered hat and cockade, is on a white horse with a highly curved neck, painted very much in the way in which El Greco represents a Spanish Hidalgo on his , large canvas in the wonderful Widener Collection at Phil- adelPhia. The beautiful, gentle, false-hearted General ofpenius could not have been historically portrayed by an El .Greco alone, and so the angel or demon who we. must suppOse organized the picture borrowed Goya's brush, for the Duke's face, and poie. Behind is 'a' wonderful group a staff officers with horses, reduced in size partly by the perspective and partly to giVe the intellectual and military relativity re- quired by an official picture. The battlefield- background is wonderful, with its burning church, charging cavalry and

• general effect of thunderous combat. Here is no dim, vague , presentation, with cotton wool clouds and nude genii turning somersaults thereon. It is a hardly drawn picture crowded with large, strongly outlined figures.

Equally wonderful are the two smaller pictures on the south wall which illustrate the surrender of Marshal Tallard. The Marshal is grandly, differentiated :from Marlborough. A .thorough Frenchman of the Louis XIV period, he monopolizes the foreground, as he should, for it is his tragedy that is enacted. Marlborough is on the left, and, if I am not mistaken (the details are necessarily hazy in a small scale reproduction), Marlborough's coach is shown close behind the group of mounted English: officers. It will be remembered that Marl- borough, in his despatch to Queen Anne and the Government written from the battlefield, says that fie has already got the Marshal safe in his coach. Needless to say, Marlborough behaved with the most perfect politesse and humanity to the Marshal. He had no cruelty or brutality in his nature.

Perhaps even more wonderful, though it appears in the photograph to be somewhat injured, is the painting on the west wall of the main staircase, which illustrates Marlborough at the Battle of Ramillies. Here, again, he is shown as a great 'gentleman and a great statesman and a great soldier, not a lever of battles for their own sake, though a supreme com- mander when fate bids him command. in this picture there is a specially beautiful bewigged gentleman with -his hat off, whom one supposes must be Prince Eugene. Another exqui- site of the camp who is on Marlborough's left is painted with supreme ability, and one might almost say affection.

But Laguerre did not merely give us " close-up" pictures of the General and his staff. There is a panel on the main stair- case called " Part of the Battle of Ramillies, with the Duke of Marlborough and his staff," which exhibits the actual combat. -There are some terribly' Goyaesque corpses in the foreground. And here I may say in parenthesis that throughout these pictures the drawings of the common soldiers, cavalry and infantry are very remarkable. The infantrymen in their peaked hats have a strangely Japanese look. What I mean is well shown in a painting on the west.. wall of the Visitors' Staircase entitled, " Part of the Battle of Malplaquet." In the fOreground the corpses again are portrayed with a kind of Clumsy terribleness which is most moving: As a proof of Laguerre's variety of touch the painting on the north wall of the Visitors' Staireltie is to be noted. There we haVe'a Malplaquet picture bUt without any of the 'terribleness noted in the Others.- In a Charthing wooded 'landscape the Duke, with the Garter ribbon across his breast, is portrayed very much in what I may call " the meet of staghounds " type icof battle. We get back, however, to the horrors and realities of the combat on the east Wall; a fierce Met& which once more

reminds one of Goya's blood-reeking drawings and canvases. , . _ . _

Finally there is 'a delightful old-world landscape -On the south wall of the Visitors' Staircase, in which the Duke is apparently taking an off day excursion on horseback in Flandersjust as did our Generals only nine Year's ago. Trees and river and Meadows haVe the Middle distsin0e, and in the

'background are groups of great 'Gothic huildings. • " -

The newspapers tell us that MarlbOroUgh Muse is under- going renovation. Happily one may. feel' quite sure that the Prince of *ides and the First Commissioner of Works between them -will'seetti it that Lititierte'd pictures 'do nothi any'Veay suffer, but instead will have that sympathetic attention

deserved by pictures which are not only historical monuments but of great interest in themselves.

I have let Liiguerre and his fascinating hero run away with ink space, but I must find room for a word about Roehamp- ton House which belonged to Lord Leven, the west front of which is given in Plate 145 and the east in Plate 143. They are both delightful, though for myself I put my money on the east front. The comMent of the writer of the inventory may seem at first

,sorne*hat desiccated, but if one gets accustomed to t1 e reti-

.Cendeof the text of this admirable book one realizes that it Thew* a great deal

house is a handsome example of early 18th century work. The details of the saloon and great staircase are noteworthy."

The houie, we are further told, was built from the designs of Thomas Archer between 1710 and 1712. It is stated in regard to one of the principal rooms that :—

`,` The walls are completely lined with paintings by Sir James Thornhill, representing landscapes in architectural framework, And the painting is continued over a cove to the ceiling, on which -is a large-subject-piece, the Gods on Olympus, with trophies-of-arms in the corners." •

The whole book is so full of pure delight that I am not going to seek any faults, but end with the recom- mendation to all who feel the lure of London to purchase and enjoy the Commissioners' Report and Inventory. It is cheap at the money.

J. ST. LOE STRACHEY.