Hello Susannah. I worked at Chatsworth for 19 years, and am loving your raging diatribes about the excesses and injustices of these places. I don't see things exactly as you do, but you are making me think, hard, about all sorts of things, and I am grateful for that. I will definitely pre-order the book as a modest pledge of support.
I am also, I think, the author of a series of tweets (I see you follow me there @oybat) about starting up primary school tours of Chatsworth which provided you with the wisdom of the small boy asked about what the Painted Hall at Chatsworth was 'really' about, which you reference above. I tweeted my experience after watching Mary Beard's Octavia Hill lecture, and it got a lot of traction, because of her large following, not mine! Anyway, I don't think I am being presumptuous in believing I am the forgotten source for what you write above. Hope that helps. Really look forward to your book. Simon
This is the twitter thread:
Simon Seligman
@oybat
Just watched the Octavia Hill lecture given this week by @wmarybeard for @nationaltrust @HilaryMcGrady
& found it enormously engaging & thought-provoking. One thing she said chimed directly with my experience. Early in my 19 yrs working at @ChatsworthHouse I was charged with...
·
Mar 23
2/ ...setting up, & giving, tours of the house for primary school children. Over several years I gave 100s of tours. Two things I learned: 1) tours would accrue adults in our trail, hungry for clear story-telling, enthusiasm & carefully edited volume of 'content', told with no...
·
Mar 23
3/...assumption about what my audience might know. Adults were liberated from the tyranny of things they 'ought' to know. One woman even said, when I asked the class a question, 'Oh I know, I know' before realising it wasn't directed at her. It changed my/our attitude to all...
Mar 23
4/...forms of interpretation. 2) Secondly, the children, free of anxiety about what they ought to think/say/do, would get to the heart of things without embarrassment. Standing in the Painted Hall, we'd talk about the entry ways of our homes, and then I'd ask what they thought...
·
Mar 23
5/...the 1st Duke of Devonshire wanted you to think as you entered his hall? 'He's showing off, isn't he?' the kids would say; 'He wants you to know he's powerful, rich, grand, important' & so on. No wittering on about baroque history cycles, Laguerre's painting technique, just..
·
Mar 23
6/...straight to the point, to the essence of what the space was for, & as a result, the kids started to take ownership of the visit, understanding that the house was made to create impressions on them & noticing what they might be. Providing for children liberates adults too...
Hello Susannah. I worked at Chatsworth for 19 years, and am loving your raging diatribes about the excesses and injustices of these places. I don't see things exactly as you do, but you are making me think, hard, about all sorts of things, and I am grateful for that. I will definitely pre-order the book as a modest pledge of support.
I am also, I think, the author of a series of tweets (I see you follow me there @oybat) about starting up primary school tours of Chatsworth which provided you with the wisdom of the small boy asked about what the Painted Hall at Chatsworth was 'really' about, which you reference above. I tweeted my experience after watching Mary Beard's Octavia Hill lecture, and it got a lot of traction, because of her large following, not mine! Anyway, I don't think I am being presumptuous in believing I am the forgotten source for what you write above. Hope that helps. Really look forward to your book. Simon
This is the twitter thread:
Simon Seligman
@oybat
Just watched the Octavia Hill lecture given this week by @wmarybeard for @nationaltrust @HilaryMcGrady
& found it enormously engaging & thought-provoking. One thing she said chimed directly with my experience. Early in my 19 yrs working at @ChatsworthHouse I was charged with...
·
Mar 23
2/ ...setting up, & giving, tours of the house for primary school children. Over several years I gave 100s of tours. Two things I learned: 1) tours would accrue adults in our trail, hungry for clear story-telling, enthusiasm & carefully edited volume of 'content', told with no...
·
Mar 23
3/...assumption about what my audience might know. Adults were liberated from the tyranny of things they 'ought' to know. One woman even said, when I asked the class a question, 'Oh I know, I know' before realising it wasn't directed at her. It changed my/our attitude to all...
Mar 23
4/...forms of interpretation. 2) Secondly, the children, free of anxiety about what they ought to think/say/do, would get to the heart of things without embarrassment. Standing in the Painted Hall, we'd talk about the entry ways of our homes, and then I'd ask what they thought...
·
Mar 23
5/...the 1st Duke of Devonshire wanted you to think as you entered his hall? 'He's showing off, isn't he?' the kids would say; 'He wants you to know he's powerful, rich, grand, important' & so on. No wittering on about baroque history cycles, Laguerre's painting technique, just..
·
Mar 23
6/...straight to the point, to the essence of what the space was for, & as a result, the kids started to take ownership of the visit, understanding that the house was made to create impressions on them & noticing what they might be. Providing for children liberates adults too...
Excellent, thank you. I think you are now the source for this. And also thank you for being able to see a different side to the argument.