The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-12
TILE MINNEAPOLIS JOURNAL

Us JOURNAL
work upon. with st. James 4 park, as
seen from the windows of nhnrso
House, and also with Thurs House
and its windows as seen from st.
James. For it was q house that looked
as il it had been taken straight off the
Grand Canal at Venice, with It's stately
white walls, its rows Of long windows
the dlnlngroom huge terrace. built
above the Offices thrust out its broad,
square front onto the edge Of the park
itself, SO that the roadway of the Mall
was invisible to anybody sitting under.
meath the big awnings that tapped
gently in the warm wind, aad the eye
looked straight across to the hazy green
OF the grass and trees and the SHIN
meing surface of the lake, where ride
uious pelleans ana seagulls biekered
and screeched over the fragments of
bread and biscuit thrown them by the
over the bridge from and toward Queen
Anne's Gate. On. the other side, the
diningroom and the big drawingroom
above it looked out over the private
gardens, and beyond screen Of filacs,
z over the Green Park, so that the house
was planted, even tho the whole met
ropnlis hummed and clattered round it,
: in the center of green and growing
things.
The dining room was at the corner Of
the house commanding, both parks, and
today the windows were open on both
sides. SO that the lace curtains sWayed
and bulged in the wind, while the hour
don 5. note OF the busy sunny town came
ing in golden flowers. The room itself
was parauetted in oak and walnut, and
was left hare. as beftted these summer
months, except for some half-dozen of
silk Persian rugs that made shimmering
islands on the sea of its shining sur
face, The two walls which faced the
dow than wall. and eight lights on the
longer wall and four on the shorter
made other adernment, except for the
brocaded curtains loeped back to allow
the greatest manageable ingress Of
light and all, impossible, but the#other
bygone STATIONS. The first marquis
Of Thurso was there, portrait in
peer s robes by Reynolds, who also had
done the picture of his wife and the
great family group Of them with their
two young SONS that hung over the Ital-
ian chimney piece; the second marquis,
the eldest boy in the family group, was
there, too, grown to man 8 estate and
painted by Gainsborough; the picture
OF his wife was a Romney, while Law
renee was the artist for the third gener-
alton. Then after . long gap Of years
came the present ;Thurso and his wife,
two brilliant canyases claiming lsinship
by right of their exquisite. art with the
earlier portraits. .=
Otherwise, for nothing could spoil
these glorious decorations Of the walls,
or the more smouldering brilliance Of
the moulded ceiling, the room did not
at this moment appear to advantage,
for its floor was occupied by multi
tude of small round tables in prepare
ton for the ball that was to take place
tonight, and at the end in front of the
Tor the very elect. These were to he
very elect, indeed, and heaps of stars
and garters and ambassadors would not
ind place there tonight, but be relic
gated to round tables. In any case,
however, everybody was going to have
proper things to eat and drink, which
should be presented to their notice in
decent fashion. There was to be no
buffet supper, where, as at a railway
scramble for sandwiches and pale vel
low drinks with mint and anise and
cnmmln floating about in them, among
footmen who logged their elbows with
plates of Strawberries, while the elect.
Olympian-wise, refreshed themselves be-
hind closed doors. Tonight, in fact,
Thurso house was: to be reopened with
the huge hospitality. that it ought to
exercise, after period, SO to speak. Of
ten lean years in which the late lord had
lived alone here with half the rooms
closed, a secret and eccentric life. He
had not even been wicked. and held in
famous revels here; he had only been
morose and shut himself up miserly, and