h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well done Gnomon+! I look forward to Genie's photos! Great to see her there, and thanks to Lord S for starting the idea up!

A few notes:
"four researchers gathering at the National Gallery at 2pm" I came in promptly at 2.30 . . . I hope you weren't all waiting since two!

"Dutch paintings dating mainly from the 16th Century" -- make that 17th. The books on how to write letters were earlier than the paintings.

"work which is almost photographic" is what I would call damning with faint praise. Hyper-photographic, I would venture; like enhanced photographs. The small ones of lawyers were perhaps purely (not "almost") photographic. My opinion only.

"Vermeer only painted 35 pictures (that we know of)" -- the catalogue says on page 180 "only about 34 works survive today, and . . . his original oeuvre is unlikely to have been substantially larger" and earlier (page 22) it says "Six of Vermeer's rare paintings, or nearly one-fifth of his oeuvre, are dedicated to the letter theme" which implies that he painted more than 36.

"a sizable section fraction of his work." -- do you mean both section and fraction?

"due to a last minute change of plans" looks unnecessarily interesting; but we don't reveal what the change, or the plans were, so perhaps better to remain silent? Simply "the Provost himself showed us round"?

"John Hegarty is a quite-spoken . . ." Quite.

"The Provost's House is an incredible piece of architecture" -- we might add, dating from 1760.

"and is on display here" seems redundant

"a collection of about 20 paintings by Jack B Yeats" -- I counted sixteen. I would like to mention also the portrait by his father, John B Yeats; I was quite taken with that.

"Upstairs in the house is the biggest reception room" let's mention its name: the Saloon.

" Buswell's Hotel" -- we could mention that this is right across the street from the Government Buildings.

"which evinced congratulations" -- let's say warm congratulations.

Thanks!

I couldn't remember exactly how many paintings there were. Azara has the little catalog about the paintings, but I haven't got it from her yet.

I've been trying to think who your daughter reminds me of and it has suddenly come to me: the one photograph of your wife that I have on the cover of an old LP.

Well done indeed, where you joting these things down, or is this all just from your memory?

What LP would this be?

That's all from memory, except that I had to use Google to find the name of the artist of that painting that impressed you. I also used Google to confirm my memory of the Provost's name.

Both Recumbentman and Chaiwallah were in an Early Music group many years ago; the group released a couple of LPs.

What where they called?
Id love to see the LPs or even hear them,

I collect records by the way,

The Consort of St Sepulchre -- Medieval and Renaissance Music. We recorded two LPs for EMI (Ireland) in the mid-seventies: IEMC6005 and IEMC6008. They haven't been available for years, but one member has transferred them onto CD recently. I tremble to hear it, the playing was pretty rough in spots.

The photograph on the second LP cover (that Gnomon mentioned) was done by Tony Higgins, a trendy fashion photographer. That was a revelation; he made us all look incredibly interesting and attractive! Even those that don't normally photograph particularly well.

And I think EMI paid more for the photograph than for the rest of the production altogether. Which is fitting, as the cardboard covers of LPs were much more expensive to produce than the vinyl inside.

Thats brilliant!

Have you not got your own copies?

Im gonna have to keep an eye open for these LP's now,

By the way im currently flicking through your Rimickle page, keep an eye out for my first attempt