The Prince and Princess of Wales attend a ceremonial welcome for The President and the First Lady of the Republic of Korea at Horse Guards Parade on November 21, 2023 in London, England. 

One man in a thousand, Solomon says, Will stick more close than a brother. And it’s worth while seeking him half your days If you find him before the other. Nine hundred and ninety-nine depend On what the world sees in you, But the Thousandth Man will stand your friend With the whole round world agin you.

Rudyard Kipling, The Thousandth Man

Inside the Household Cavalry Museum is a big window into the stables. It’s a bit like peering into a football changing room at half-time. You can watch the soldiers hosing down the stalls, scraping out the grooves in the horse’s hooves, and scooping up big pitchforks of hay to fill up the feeders. They all act totally oblivious to the tourists taking photos of them, so I guess they must be used to it.

Household Cavalry Boots

The Household Cavalry on Horse Guards Parade

Sometimes one just has to do the tourist thing!

Admiring glance for a trooper by Frederick McLean Via Flickr: My photograph of a Blues and Royals mounted trooper on guard at the Whitehall entrance to Horse Guards Parade. Getting an admiring glance from a person walking past, a fairly common occurrence I think.

London Day 3: Changing of the Guard! Here we come!

It’s a new day, day 3 and we have lots to do! First, I want to take you on a tour of the restaurant in the hotel, it’s fun! It’s a nice restaurant, wide, open, and inviting, if that makes sense. They have a few walls with animal heads, but just wait…the animal heads are all made of newsprint! Most likely paper mache on the outside, if you look closely,  you can see headlines and typeset in the…

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Office of the Paymaster-General, 36 Whitehall, 1733. The single-bay addition of 1806 has been cropped out of the first image to emphasize the perfect balance of the original elevation. The second image is the Paymaster-General's Room with its famous screen, shown on the floor plan at the rear of the ground floor (with a view of the garden).

Henry Pelham (1694–1754) was appointed Paymaster of the Forces in 1730 and immediately began campaigning to replace the dilapidated offices and London residence that accompanied the position. John Lane was a joiner by trade who oversaw the building's construction; he would go on to work as Surveyor at Horse Guards, designed by William Kent and executed by John Vardy. Neither could have designed the house, although each played an important role in its construction.

Sources mention Colen Campbell (1676–1729) as an influence on the architectural design, and John Lane had worked for Campbell. The Office does resemble in outline the relatively prim Marble Hill documented as "A House in Tottenham" by Campbell in Vitruvius Britannicus (architect unknown), a work which in turn derives from a town house design in Palladio's Quattro Libri. Palladio's plate is indisputably a source for both, with the Office having a much stronger primary elevation. Regardless, Campbell was already dead before Pelham had permission to break ground.

William Kent was appointed Master Carpenter in 1726 and could easily have had some influence on the house. Sources are certainly right to see Kent's hand in the famous screen in Pelham's office, which is related in design both to the sumptuous marble screen in Houghton Hall's Dining Room and to the same room at Raynham Hall. Also, Kent was architect of the next-door and closely related Horse Guards. Why are there no attributions to Kent, I wonder? Neither Colvin nor Harris even mentions the possibility.

Trooping The Colour, 16th June 2023

This is from the Dismounting Ceremony at Horse Guards. 125 years ago Queen Victoria caught the entire Guard drinking on duty so she punished them with a daily inspection to make sure they were behaving themselves. This was back in 1894 when every dress she had was black, every hat she had was black, and all of her moods were black as well -- nobody messed with her in those days. The 100-year punishment was supposed to have expired in 1994 but our current queen kindly decided that they'd have to carry on with it for all eternity. So let that be a lesson to you: no drinking on duty!

"I was gonna say you're like a son to me.. but you're more than that."

"It ain't that complicated!"

How quickly that shoulder pat of comfort turned into a condescending one.

Elite Gendarme of the Imperial Guard by François Flameng

don’t you hate it when your civilization flees deep underground to escape the wither only to find yourselves trapped down there with something even worse. anyway surprise! i can still draw

Tereza and Florette, and their Octopath-esque sprites.

have I somehow ruined myself for perfectly average movies? I watched both Robots (2023) and The Deer King (2021) and both of them were fine---Deer King was better, but suffered from trying to jam too much into a single film; Robots should have been more black-humored, delighting in its lazy sociopaths and their vaguely squalid world. But that's it, that's all they were---fine. Just fine.

Does this mean I have to watch exclusively Films now? I can't get into a movie unless it's black and white, or two hours of characters speaking sideways and having neuroses at each other?