Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-10-03
ROMANCE OF A LONDON BACKWATERI
Writes For This Paper Account Of One
The Most Interesting Corners Of the Great City

ures In, an ordinary museum lose some
thing by reason of their environment
The atmosphere of loving care and rev
erence which should surround great
works of8art or relies of a. remote past
evnporates In the businesslike galleries
and under the inevitable numbering
and classifying which a vast collection
entails. In the Soane museum that
atmosphere rcigns supreme. Sir Johns
affection for his Museum, library and
works of art" may not have been
wholly of q worthy nature. Some
doubtless leavencd it. But it is inn
possible TO stand today in any room
in tlic house where once he lived with
out feeling that the very joy of a mans
life once conferred in the things that
room contains. And all our sympathy
must needs go out to meet their silent
claim.
JUST AS OWNER LEFT IT.
Exactly as Sir John Soane left them
in 1887. those rooms remain today Tho
vcryfcarpet which we tread upon as
( we so into the library Soane trod up
on when he walked across the floor
for the last time Everything that
we see. we see just as its owner
must have seen it in his minds eya
when his bodily eyes grew dim in
death in an upper room in tho same
house.
The dining room and library form a
large double room, Sir John was nat
uraly his own architect, and in the
description of his house which he
compiled and which lies upon the Ii
brary table he dwells at length upon
its architectural advantages. Those
students for whom he wrote doubtless
follow his details with due apprecia ::
ton. but the average visitor will only
observe that this room in particular.
is nobly proportional and that the
space available is used to the utmoss
advantage. This latter feature is a
work and we shall find 1t curiousl;-
Eexemplfied later on
The first object which catches ou..
eye. as we go into the room lisa por-
trait Of Sir John Soane himself by Sir
Thomas Lawrence. Its position may
be, significant, but unfortunately the
portrait lacks Individuality Facing It
is very fine Sir: Joshua Reynolds But
the most beautiful thing in this roor.
is q magnificent manuscript dated aboug
1910, illuminated with marvellous deli
scaey and art by#Cfiplio Clovio. CIorio's
work is as rare as II is exquisite, and
no one need wish TO see a, more per-
feet example of his skill, And now at
the very outset appears the catholicty
of Sir Jollll5 SCANS tastes Many men
collect pictures, many men collectman
some men collect both: bus
Sir John Soane collected everything.
From the GioTio manuscript wc may
turn to n very. remarkable bust Of Ma
4poleon as First ConsuI-renlarkab
in It's singular unlikeness to the face
We know as Napoleon's in later years.
When We have studied this our atten-
#tion will be attracted by an admirable
& pccitncn OF Chippeudale furniture, or
early eighteenth century English
workmanship, beautifully inlaid with
mother OF ~earl.
SCORES OF TREASURES.
The breakfast room opens out of the
dining room, and here are more manu-
script observation-disclosures glowing
the eyes of the man who placed them
here nearly a hundred years ago, and
as they glowed afresh from the hand
of the artist who created them in the
century, Another Napoleon
relic hangs on the wall. 1t is Turk
ish listol and is said to have bsaa
taken by Peter the Great from Turk
isfI hey and TO have b.aen given to Ma,
poleon by Alexander the First at tho
treaty of Tilsit. Next to il on either
side hang portraits of Napeleon--pfob-
ably the earliest and latest portraits
eSfafit-atila latter a miniature by Isil-
hey. There is much rnosestp see in this
little room. the detailed catalogue OF
the Soane museum tflls seNera COT
llf1ns-=and some time WI probably
iiape elapsed before Sir John Soane's
Continued on page eighteen)