Private Member, Fencer, Poet

One of the major pillars of my argument in chapter two is the location of one of the houses in Cecilia, Portman Square in London. Much to my delight (well, more like excitement), the major architect whose work is most relevant to my dissertation designed and built a house in Portman Square between 1775-77, making all the historical background on the "circuit" arrangment of rooms incredibly relevant to my argument.

The house in quesiton, No. 20 (aka "Home House"), is, alas, not open to the public, being the current location of a private member's club. The photos on the website (which you can see if you click on the headings on the top menu) indicate that many of the original eighteenth-century architectural features still exist, though I'm currently more interested in the arrangement of the rooms and what it would be like to just walk through the house.

What's post-worthy is the list of activities that members this private club can partake of, a list that reminds me just how much the rich are not like you and I:


What is petanque? How does one play Wine Bingo? Does "Style" refer to oratorial, written, or sartorial style? And what kinds of poems and creative writing do you think comes out of these workshops?

In other news:
Running page count: 3
Number of long block quotes used to pad page count: 1 (10 lines!)
Final Exams marked this weekend: 36