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Tenth Anniversary of the Death of Sir Alec Guiness

Ten years ago today, Sir Alex Guiness, an exceptional British actor, died at age 86.  He was, to me (Victoria) the very personification of Englishness, from his portrayals of Dickensian guttersnipes to an obsessed British officer.

I’ve been writing about British movies on this blog from time to time and casting about for more info on old favorites has led me in some interesting directions and lots of orders from Netflix. I simply had to see Kind Hearts and Coronets again. And then Lavender Hill Mob.  I can’t remember when I first saw these films — perhaps when I was in college studying great film comedies (I was a radio-tv-film major at Northwestern University).

But both remained with me to the extent that I couldn’t wait to see them again. Both films owed their brilliance to Guiness (1914-2000), even though other actors were also outstanding.  Then I got to reading about Guiness, who wrote several autobiographies retelling his life stories.  He had worked with the greatest of British actors such as Sir John Gielgud and Sir Lawrence Olivier.  I’m planning to write about them soon.

Sir Alec appeared in many Shakespeare plays on the stage and on film. He won an Oscar for his performance in The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957.  If you have never seen this brilliant film about Americans and British soldiers who were Japanese prisoners during WWII, find it on TV, rent or order it immediately. Directed by the brilliant David Lean and also starring William Holden, you are bound to find it a memorable experience.

Guiness also appeard in David Lean’s films Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and Passage to India.

Beginning in 1971, Guiness appeared in the the Star Wars films of George Lucas as the seer Obi-wan Kenobi. Reportedly, he hated the role and his notoriety coming from it. However, he had believed in the first film so much that his salary included a percentage of the gross profits, which made him a very rich man.  Apparently what he disliked was the autograph- seeking children who pestered him mercilessly.  He is also quoted as saying that he suggested Obi-wan be killed off because he hated speaking “those bloody awful banal lines.”

To the right are pictures of the eight roles Guiness played in Kind Hearts and Coronets,  a most excellent film. Sir Alec was a master of multiple appearances and characters. As a matter of fact, though he played leading men and in various Noel Coward roles as a sophisticated gentleman, he is mostly known for his character parts. An Arab shiek, a Communist party official, an obsessed colonel, an earnest spy — he could do almost anything.
 Author John LeCarre, who wrote the novel Soldier, Sailor Tinker, Spy, was so impressed by Sir Alec’s performance in a television version of his work (see left) that he used the portrayal as an inspiration for further stories about MI5  agent George Smiley.

Guinness wrote three volumes of his life story: Blessings in Disguise (1985), My Name Escapes Me (1996), and A Positively Final Appearance (1999). He recorded each of them as an audiobook.  His wife of 62 years followed him in death just two months later in October 2000.

Victoria Visits Woburn Abbey, Part 1


As a collector of experiences at English country homes, I longed to see Woburn Abbey, a center of Whig politics in the 18th and 19th centuries, a great house full of treasures with its grand deer park and lovely gardens.  I finally realized this ambition in May of 2009, staying in the village of Woburn and touring the estate, but not the safari park (about which more later).

 As you can tell from this aerial view, the estate is thousands of acres. Click here to visit WOBURN ABBEY.  I wish I could have spent several more days exploring every corner, but alas, the next leg of the trip had its temptations.

Woburn Abbey, seat of the Dukes of Bedford, was the site of a Cisterian Abbey founded in the twelfth century. After he dissolved the Roman Catholic abbeys, Henry VIII gave the property to John Russell, who served as Lord Privy Seal.


The titles of Earl and Duke of Bedford have a complicated history. The titles were bestowed by the reigning monarch then lost through forfeiture or lack of issue at least six times before the 16th century. Edward VI honored John Russell, his close advisor, with the earldom of Bedford in 1551. The Russell family home remained in Cheshire until the time of the 4th Earl who began to build at Woburn in the early 17th century.

 The 5th Earl was awarded a dukedom by William and Mary for his service in the Glorious Revolution. The family remained devoted Whigs throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Above, Lord John Russell (1792-1878), third son of the 6th duke, Prime Minister for two periods during the reign of Queen Victoria.

Besides the 3,000-acre deer park, the extensive gardens are enchanting. 2010 marks the 200th anniversary of completing Humphry Repton’s (1752-1818) redesign of the park, only some of which was taken for the safari park. Repton (right) is often considered the heir of the English Landscape Garden tradition from Lancelot “Capability” Brown (1716-1783).  Repton is particularly well-known for his Red Books, in which his designs are overlaid on pictures of the original landscape. Repton’s Woburn Red Books are preserved in its library, dated 1804.

Repton followed Brown’s general scheme of undulating hills, clumps of trees, irregularly shaped lakes and meandering streams, an idyllic recreation of the natural English countryside, complete with grazing sheep and gamboling lambs.  Repton often added romantic elements, such as grottoes, and themed “rooms” of contrasting garden styles. His taste for the picturesque was fully realized in Woburn’s Chinese Dairy, above.

The house, once much larger than it is today, was designed by architects Henry Flitcroft and Henry Holland in the mid-18th century. In 1950, part of the house was demolished due to dry rot and the facades of the remaining wings were restored.


A tour of the interior is one feast for the eyes after another. Queen Victoria’s Bedroom is part of the State Apartments, used for visiting royalty, which included Elizabeth I while the house was still a monastery. Albert and Victoria came in 1841 and the Queen wrote of her enjoyment of the fine collection of pictures.

 One of the most famous in the Woburn Collection is the Armada portrait of Elizabeth I, by George Gower, 1588, which celebrates the great English victory over the Spanish fleet. Many great Russell family portraits by such artists as VanDyke, Reynolds, and Gainsborough, hang throughout the rooms on public view.

The State Dining Room, left, shows a selection of these portraits as well as the delicate Meissen dinner service adorned with birds and dating from about 1800.

Further along the house tour, another dining room contains the collection of more than twenty views of Venice by Canaletto (1697-1768), commissioned by the Fourth Duke on his Grand Tour about 1730. The view to the right is Entrance to the Arsenal.

The Russell family is also renowned for its development of properties in London. 

At Covent Garden, the fourth Earl of Bedford engaged architect Inigo Jones to develop the grounds of the old convent garden. Jones designed a market place, based partly on the Place des Vosges in Paris, the kind of place we would call mixed use today, with shops, entertainment and residences. Jones also designed St. Paul’s Church, above.

It is quite a memorial to the Russells and Jones that today’s Covent Garden fully reflects their original purposes.
 

 At right is another of the former  Russell/Bedford London holdings, Russell Square in Bloomsbury. In fact the freehold of some of this area is still held by the family. Russell Square was also designed by Humphry Repton and revitalized in the last decade.

 One of my favorite aspects of visiting great country houses is to learn about the families, and the Russell/Bedford clan has a particularly delicious set of duchesses about which to write.  But I must save that for a later post.

In closing, a few views from the Woburn Safari Park which not only entertains thousands of visitors but also particpates in several worldwide plans to preserve endangered wildlife. It was opened in 1970 by the 13th Duke of Bedford.

We Are Dead Chuffed!

Thanks to the kindness of our friend and blog supporter Patty Suchy of Novel Explorations, who nominated this blog for the Vetcy Award, we were pleased to receive the following email this weekend, informing us that Number One London had won the Vetcy Award for blog excellence in the Historical category:

Congratulations – Your website has been chosen as one of four categorical winners in our second round of Vetcy Awards!
Please display this image proudly on your website and encourage all of your visitors to vote for you here.

The Grand Prize will be determined solely by votes cast and will be announced mid-September. You and all of your friends are encouraged to vote once daily : ) The Grand Prize winner will receive a full page spread in the next Issue of Victorian Etc. Magazine.

Thanks for your participation and “Congratulations” on being a categorical winner!  Victoria, Editor ~ Victorian Etc.

Needless to say, we’d be ever grateful if you’d cast your vote for Number One London (once a day, if you’d care to) using this link or the one at the top of the right sidebar – thank you!

Our Time With the Duke of Wellington

As I mentioned in a previous post, I purchased a rather large hand colored engraving of the Duke of Wellington at Storey’s in London and had it shipped home. A bit later, Victoria found a smaller version of the exact same print at Gray’s Antiques Market, which enabled us from then on to complete the rest of our Wellington tour with Wellington.

I must say, Victoria and I found the Duke to be everything we’d ever imagined – and more.

After first meeting up with him, the Duke took Victoria, Brooke and myself for a drink at The Golden Lion pub, St. James’s. Who knew he was such a two fisted drinker!? And the stories he told us . . . he is funny. There was one anecdote the Duke told us about Prinny that involved a dwarf and a footman. That Prinny – what a card! I’d relate the story to you here, but Victoria feels it’s a bit too racy for public consumption.
Afterwards, the Duke took us to dinner on St. James’s Street, at an upscale venue called  Just St. James. Of course, we were given a window table with views over the Street when the hostess realized that we were with the Duke of Wellington. However, on the way down the Street towards the restaurant we had passed a venerable building with a uniformed doorman out front. Victoria stopped before him and asked, “What is this building?” Well, honest to Betsy, the man refused to answer. He just looked at us with the tiniest of smiles and kept mum.

Then, Victoria asked, “It’s Boodle’s Club, isn’t it?”
Reluctantly, the man answered, “Yes, madam, it is.”
“Ha! I knew it,” said Victoria, taking the smallest step closer to the man. “Can we come in?”
“Certainly not!”
“Well,” Victoria allowed, “it was worth a shot.”
Of course, we could have pulled out the Duke of Wellington and gained admittance, but we decided to keep him in our back pocket, so to speak.
His Grace insisted upon we ladies ordering dessert and, though we demured, we did eventually order a gorgeous cheese plate and fresh English strawberries and cream. And an Irish coffee. And a glass of port.
The Duke also escorted us to many of the lovely garden squares we visited, and to the Lansdowne Club for cocktails.
We made a visit to Horse Guards, where the Duke was pleased to find that everything was still ship shape and Bristol fashion. And from there we went to the Grenadier Pub, where we three hoisted a few pints.
We asked the Duke about the mounting block outside the pub, purported to have been his. “Rubbish!” he exclaimed. “I’ve never needed the aid of a mounting block to mount my horse and still less a paltry sort of mounting block like that one!”
 
His Grace grew a tad sentimental at seeing Windsor again, what with it’s connections to Queen Victoria. When we asked the Duke if he also remembered George IV with fondness, he replied, “Not so much.”
Though he was the most charming of companions, I must say the Duke was chomping at the bit to get back to his old stomping grounds in Brussels.

The Duke (with description and price tag intact) arrives in Brussels.
The Duke visits the British Monument to those who fell at Waterloo at a cemetary in Brussels. The poor man . . . . it was a very touching moment.
The Duke was disappointed that the building that had been the site of his Brussels Headquarters was being  refaced. Progress, he sighed philosophically,  marches on.
The Duke with two of his fans. On the right is Jeremy Black author of many history books including this one below:
We first visited the French encampment . . .
where the Duke was not amused.
Finally . . . . we and the Duke reached Waterloo and the first thing we did was . . .

to eat lunch. Oh, and have a drink. Thus fortified, we headed for the Battlefield,
where the Duke spent some time checking out the artillery.
Here we are near the site of the Duke’s greatest victory.
Even in the nastiest weather, the Duke prevailed.
And was pleased to see that his troops were still capable of pitching a demmed fine tent.
And so our time with the Duke came to an end. Victoria and I will always look back with fondness on our tour with the Duke of Wellington, the sites we visited and the many good times we shared. Having completed many campaigns in his time, the Duke was a real trooper where travel was concerned and planned our outings with military precision. Not to mention the fact that, as a gentleman, he always insisted on picking up the tab. You’ve got to love it.

The Battle of Waterloo: The Video – Part Three

At the end of the Battle, Michael, a fellow tour mate, helped me down off the Mound and we proceeded to the pub mentioned earlier for a well earned coffee and fortifying brandy. On our way there, we were fortunate enough to get up close to the battlefield and witness some dashing derring-do by men on horseback, which I’ve edited in to the video below.  What the woman beside me was cackling about, I’ve no idea. Anyway, this is what I saw: