It was a grey day when I headed off to London…
…first class on the direct train from Glasgow to London Euston – a lovely way to travel…
Arrived at my beautiful hotel, The Royal Horseguards, and since my suite was so pretty, complete with two balconies nonetheless, I decided to order in room service… Yum!
The next evening I met up with friends at the elegant and glorious Rules restaurant – established by Thomas Rule in 1798, it is the oldest restaurant in London and is officially my favourite restaurant in London!
The following morning it was off to the gallery to meet my relative…
As you may know, my great-grandmother largely raised me – and her husband’s (my Pop) grandfather was the first of the family who emigrated away from England, along with all of his brothers bar one, the eldest – Dr Richard Parnell. My 4x great-uncle Richard moved to Edinburgh and was a world-leader in several disciplines, author of several books (I have tracked down and purchased the original 1842 and 1843 editions of two of his books)… and the eminent portrait painter, Norman Macbeath painted Dr Richard’s portrait… a portrait I tracked down to a gallery in London…
…and was granted ‘behind the scenes access’ to the actual painting itself…
Macbeth’s portraits were considered “unmistakable likenesses”… and so I was about to come face to face with the true likeness of a man to whom I feel so very honoured to be related…
Although I had seen a photocopy of the image, when I saw the original painting, I wept with joy – this man is my “family”… I haven’t really known what that word meant until recently…
I have no idea how long I stood soaking in image… It was such a profoundly beautiful moment in time…
While I appreciate that he is housed in a perfectly climate-controlled archive, I am thinking I might inquire about paying to have the painting professionally restored by a conservator so that it does not deteriorate any further…
From there it was a taxi ride to another part of London to collect my Estonian business visa…
…then off for a spot of lunch…
…before returning to The Royal Horseguards for a well-earned drink…
Views from my balconies…
The next day it was off to a private club for my Debrett’s training – essentially a two-day one-on-one finishing school…
The building was astoundingly beautiful…
…and that evening, it was off to the theatre… I am very much an Oscar Wilde fan and so one of my dearest friends joined me to see, “The Importance of Being Earnest”.
The following day it was back to the club for my Debrett’s training – and around lunch-ish we were to head to high-tea, however protestors had other ideas. Were were stranded.
We attempted to leave the back way, however all other roads had been blocked as well – and this unfortunate bride was supposed to be going to the club we just left – and they couldn’t get there because of the protestors… I felt so incredibly bad for her…
The trip from the club to my hotel should have been about 20 minutes – it took almost THREE HOURS!!! …and although by then the majority of the procession was over, the roads to the hotel itself were still blocked – the only way I was able to get ‘home’ – one of the doormen came to as close as we could get in the taxi, and he managed to get the policeman to agree that if he walked in front of the car to the hotel, the policeman would let us through… He was my hero!
~ Bella
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