Famous Homes Of Great Britain And Their Stories

Author : A. H. Malan
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781331204732
Total Pages : 380 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (47 download)

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Download or read book Other Famous Homes of Great Britain and Their Stories (Classic Reprint) written by A. H. Malan and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-11 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Other Famous Homes of Great Britain and Their Stories It may, in short, be taken as true that not seldom the mansion, built with a generous expenditure and growing under the hands of its successive owners, is after all simply the casket that holds the gem. Further, it should be noted with satisfaction that these houses are in a large sense the property of the public. Private ownership happily has never depreciated the value of their treasures as a means of historical and artistic study. Scattered throughout the length and breadth of the land, their doors always stand open to the student. With praiseworthy unanimity the owners and occupiers have come to regard themselves as trustees and custodians for the public weal. What younger nations, later in their awakening to artistic life, are striving to do in their museums and public galleries has already been done for this country by the aristocracy of England. As the monks of old kept the lamp of learning alight, so those good Knights and Gentlemen, not seldom connoisseurs of learning and taste, performed an incalculable service to the arts in the dark days of artistic history. They lavished their wealth with a large unselfishness upon the purchase of sculpture and pictures that their descendants might be surrounded by the influences that make for the perfect life. One can trace nothing of the commercial spirit in these transactions. Pictures were not bought to sell again at a profit. Clearly it was understood then, better than we understand it in these days of business enterprise, that by the cultivation of his taste and in his surrender to the exquisite creations of the artist and the craftsman a man may add a dignity to his life which neither title nor wealth can bestow. And so it comes that the scramble for the great masterpieces of the world, pursued in hot haste by all the nations, need not disturb us. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.