On Wednesday, I am in Dublin to deliver lecture on Irish country house servants at the Royal Irish Academy for the Irish Georgian Society. I arrive in afternoon and am given a mind-blowing tour of the great Dublin town houses, by Desmond Guinness, who had been involved in the rescue of so many. We call on the Irish Architectural Archive in Merrion Square and see several of the great rococo plasterwork ceilings created by Italian craftsmen in the early 18th century.
My talk is delivered is in the beautiful library of the Royal Irish Academy, with the fine collection of statuary busts looking down on us. Saw various friends there and met new people connected with the houses such as Castletown. Stay the night at Leixlip Castle, in a room with two beautiful windows which were modelled in the early 18th century on pages from the pattern books of Batty Langley. With the shutters shut in the early morning the Gothic arches look like the eyes of great beast at Bomarzo in the half-light.