Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-10-03

/ Special Correspondence.
" #ONDDON, Sept. 21.--It is always
| & aGciirous experience In u small
| way to pass from Holborn down
@'--- j the narrow little passage called
Great Turnstile into Lincolnfs mn
Fields. Full of contrasts, startling ana
dramatic as London is. 1t offers no
change that is more picturesque ana
suggestive than that presented mere.
At one moment the wayfarer5 stands IN
the full tide of London life. and the
great stream rushes by him Win us
hurry and roar. A sharp turn. few
steps and With the next moment no
stands in the heart of one of London s
marvellous silences. The quiet which
broods over Lincoln.s Inn Fields is the
quiet of a backwater, but 1T is also
something more. The great SQUARE ma S
fallen from its high estate of a nun
dred Years ago, but 1t has lost no 1ot OF
IT'S dignity in the process, ana there IS
a touch OF pathos about its stiffness ana
its loneliness, The atmosphere of a by.
gone day lins,ars here, strangely un-
tainted by the modern atmosphere
which touches it so closely. And as we
sloiter5 up and down the gardens we reel
ourselves slipping back decade by de-
cade until we come to the early years.
of the century.
But If the spirit of the past sswalks5
under those trees his very dwelling
Mace il close at hand. And we may.
visit him Whenever we feel inclined in.
&"tfe house and museum on the north
side of Linco!n's Inn Fields, the resi-
dence of Sir John Soane.
LITTLE KNOWN CURIOSITY.
The Soane museum is one OF Lon
gdon's little known curiosities Many
people have heard the name. few people
have Eeen 10 the place, and fewer still
strange as this would seem to its
founder-know anything of the life
Which it was intended to commence
rate And yet it Is very necessary to
make the acquaintance of the man be-
fore his house can be lilly appreciated.
Somewhere about a hundred. and thir-4
sty years ago the daughter of a certain
bricklaysr of Reading came to London
Z to seek her fortune as "a serving maid
in the house of George Dance. q cele-s
5brated architect in the days of George.
the Third Whether she found fortune
history does not say, but she must have
earned a certain amount of liking and
respect for when her mast ter CHANGED
to want an office boy the place was
given to her young brother. This young
brother was John Soane. tits difficult
at this distance of time to look past
the man whose personality Is SO curi-
ousIy embodied in the Soane museum
to the boy of those early days, but It is
obvious that young Soane must have
been What would then have been de-
scribed as "a youth of parts. Dance
recognized those parts. and before
very long his office boy became his
articled pupil. A travelling scholarship
at the Royal academy followed, and the
bricklayaf's son went awayiSto Rome
whence he5returned. having made pow
ierfuI friends. qualified TO practisesas an
architect ard set up an office boy on
his own account. The success of the
Youth was repeated in the success OF the
man. His practise grew and sfi6urished.
He was made professor5of architecture
at the Royal academy. and he held
among other important appointments
that of architect to the Bank of Eng
land,
DEVELOPED CoNCEIT.
1t would have needed q great nature
portion and truly balanced mind
through such a career as this, and
unfortunately Soane the man was less
.han Soaile the arefitect.S i la5 syas IN :
ordinately proud of his success, he had
an overweening conceft of himself, and
he developed as the years passed on
certain qualities-as pompousress, a pet
.ty spitefulness and nnrrownindedness
with which home happiness Is in
a He had married early in life a rich j
woman whose fortune had been ex4
coed ip!y@jlssftl Ito him She seems to