Postword Castle Howard
I Extending of Roman Conquest
in Yorkshire, strange to The Baroque
and of course, the name Vanbrugh, Dutch
as in courage. Check the vantage.
Nicholas Hawksmoor, the draughtsman
for the drawings working to build
post Vanbrugh sketching ; he, the key.
The Hall : Frescoes, Pellegrini.
Statues, casts line Antique Passage.
In grounds, Temple of the Four Winds
delicacy from heavy blocks
of stone contrived. The Garrett Bridge.
Notable, The Mausoleum.
In the mid Eighteenth Century,
the great Sir Thomas Robinson
completed Vanbrugh's Western Wing,
not least with The Long Gallery.
Thus, R finished Castle Howard.
II The first private Dome, Albion
of note, the multi-point Vista.
The silver splinter of a Lake
by avenue, dead straight for five
miles, with column, an obelisk view
to the Northern Front, The Gate House
with a pyramid on archway.
The Satyr Gate is to walled garden
seen at the South Front, the Northern Front
noted as most grandiloquent
with matchless explosive vigour
unto soaring stone, The Hall
of vast internal scale, yet light ;
the Templed south-facing Garden
Front, awe from huge Corinthian
Pilasters, the Commanding Dome
which take command of the facade.
A gilded Lantern can shine out.
III Tapestry Room, Long Gallery,
The Antique Passage, statue castings,
long internal corridors, arch
beyond arch and linked by vaulted
ceilings to the distant, cooler.
When do you have to catch your breath.
How many have got lost therein ?
an Emperor, in Italy.
It began with The Pantheon.
Finally, we structured modern ;
with St Paul's, then Castle Howard
sundered a nation of regard
with, in Yorkshire, surprise grandeur
if not the staggering sublime
equal to plus in Europa.
On the time taken, I will not dwell.
The Barons Rokeby are older
than the blender House of Windsor.
March 16th/March 30th. Text Credits
Nigel Nicolson Great Houses of Britain
Weidenfield & Nicolson (1965) Heirloom
marked inner flap in pencil J.C.T top rtr
IV Of Robinson Pedigree (1700-77)
Sir Thomas Robinson Bart. sold
Rokeby. Elizabeth Howard
married, daughter of Charles, 3rd
Earl of Carlisle. Lent a hand...
Sir Richard Robinson, 1st Baron
Rokeby ('09 to '49).
cf sundialzen Portfolios ZY 37/38
ex Catalog sent to family to buy - no £s
cf The Seventh Baron Rokeby Presumed
The Temple of the Four Winds
Vanbrugh (1724-1726)
New dooway for the word windswept.
You can enter a room to grieve
and remember her, as she wept
and look for something to retrieve.
Wind off Atlantic, the North Sea.
Who read from Horace and Vergil ?
of The Augustan litany
and wrote in Latin, with a quill.
I must research the figurine
up from Stane Street, so rain-washed clean
and almost of the Erechtheum ;
they rarely ever look slightly glum.
Prime The Villa La Rotonda
in the Venetian countryside,
dedicated to Diana
led the way, for somewhere to hide.
II The Temple is atop a hill ;
further down, a Temple of Venus
now ruin. A long Terrace reaches a sill ;
was there a call to the plexus
solar. Below, a cella, food
and drink preparation in mind.
The podium is cruciform ;
by each eight steps, Sibyls hum.
Tetrastyle porticoes, four
with pediments triangular.
Inside, the nicher above doors,
everyone with striking busts.
Vespasian, a Faustina
look down, with Trajan, Sabina.
The floor is of Portland stone
inlaid with coloured marble tone.
III On Temple Terrace, five statues,
one a Satyr with dog and grapes
who could be Bacchus. Hercules
the Farnese next, then Meleager
then the Belvedere Antinous.
Last, the Borghese Gladiator.
March 30th finito pour maintenant
100 lines in toto cf Wild Marble
Addendae Quatrains (c.40)
Estate Games after Betjeman
Where are the spurty girls, furtive
in the rhododendron, croquet
far from their lawn minds in the spring
ache reaching for tennis racket.
Life Art after Pope
To be beau, living in a View
or yoga sound bath, a capture
of the eroding : you walk anew
as if jaunting in a picture.
Going Dutch after RL
The Henrietta Barnett School,
designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Fenton House ; Matthew Robinson,
2nd Baron R, Mount Norris.
or, Morris, near Hythe Kent. Cf
my Magma Pbl Text Parallel Light.
March 31st written near St Jude's
Latinate Rhenish after Pope
Sage Nun Hildegard of Bingen
of The Holy Roman Empire,
not that long after Normandy
lifted us from the mere Saxon.
April 1st her dates 1098-1179
Transports Of Delight after Pound
The ecstasy in Pellegrini
may have combined with an Abbey
the music of ambrosia,
a celestial departure.
What Of The Wind ? after A Powell
Is it breezy in The Temple,
one may question, out considering
the zone for tea, cucumber, apple
the easy girl sandwich filling.
Mittel England after CT
Literary criticism
grew a task, to prove Oxford wrong
on Eliot ; Celly, a gong
I banged. For Klees, Weldon, a spasm.
Tenebrae after CT
Roman Revolutionary
or fraught Catholic, that I am
thronged, heard the incantatory
on Good Friday. Language, the jam.
April 2nd Keys cf Armitage pbl Acumen
Royal Faux Pas after CT
They denigrated Eliot
after publishing The Wasteland.
They could dine at Castle Howard
after readings of atonement.
April 3rd
Easter Day 2026 after Herbert
Prayers at The Easter Garden
novel, for the spirit warden
extolling to Hallelujah !
after the wine and the wafer.
Pas De Douceur, or Paques
Apprehensive, in Europa
the fatigue, this Easter, even
in preferential France, danseur
dans l'eglise. The great bells clang on.
Bank Holiday after Auden
Beware of gabble in the rabble
without deportment, in speaking
in the difficult North, fuming
if lost unable to scrabble.
After All after all
How many voices out there are
there, many unable to square
into sense without an angel
pointing to the better angle.
1940 after Louis Macneice
After all, a varying pall
of smoke at a time of new war
in a simulacrum St Paul.
For the Fire Brigade, a draw.
15 Decenza Quotidiana after EM/CT
La piu difficile delle virtu.
Architetture di marzapane
apparavino sparse, sulla
costa. Ricco, Siciliane.
April 5th after/from Visita a Fadin
Journo Treason post The Times
We recited The Nicene Creed
in English, that is, congregant
joyful at The Resurrection.
Fraser Nelson, he : feed the weed.
Unsexy after Orwell
For a lithe, vibrant Albion
to thrive, may need large Gas oven
by Barking and Leicester. Niether
solar, nor wind, the depleter.
Chelsea Set Scrum after Swift
Totally decadent, the scum
getting up late to a new deal
to fix, squealing such a steal !
snorty from the pre cocaine slum.
Tender Is The Night after FSF
Once you have acquired, to need
and the garden is full fragrant,
not until then can she delight
not pining, nor wanting the deed.
Le Genou De Claire after Rohmer (1970)
The French ardor, for flirtation
rather than le fin penetration
in leaping, laughing to touche'
jeu perpetuellement frais.
April 6th
The Cover Up after Crawshaw
As a Rome Revolutionary,
plan a clear-out of the lily-
livered flaky, part Romanov
without The Credo in their trove.
Wind Of Fate '17 after EM
God, in a Hurricane, blew down
the rotten slat antique fencing
on Party wall, the Italian
garden in my sun exposing.
23. Lingua Franca 2 after D Jones
We remain a Province of Rome
the Blackfriar claimed, in sermon
by Fleet River. Architecture
and core language, mend the future.
Forsyte Saga War after Wace
All of that fine manner tuning
and palpitating, a choosing
an untoward signal can jar
now, so far gone. Like the host war.
In The Sacred Glade after CM
Reading fast Marlowe, then Chapman
on Hero and Leander, man,
young woman, can appear to swop
through unending passion, no stop.
Sex Lop after E Waugh
Does Liz Hurley have a daughter ?
a Chelsea question, to laughter
and the fashionista parade.
We cannot join an escapade.
Deck Chair after P Valery
Being on the beach in London,
you cherish improved atmosphere
and no longer play solitaire.
May enter pure azure Helen.
Frank Lloyd Wright after E Waugh
I promulgate Castle Howard
as the great Baroque adventure
but, view a Hall standing future :
glassy Hardwick, eerie, forward.
April 8th
Revolution Read after Auden
The Royal Family, they stand
in a row in the Cathedral
and recite The Credo, at hand
in Latin, then hear madrigal.
For CIA Et Al after RRT
Never forget : am MI9
and British Army of The Rhine
and do not countenance treason
or daft, the collapse of reason.
Postscripto Crypto after P Dale
We had got to number thirty.
If Lowell, I would be thirsty
and keen to drink a lake to dry.
Bob wanted to soar on the sly.
Number 32 after Hamilton
Playing in extra time, we are
allowed to write a new number.
Speared, Christ died age thirty three
and very far from The Humber.
Dread 33 after R S Thomas
Apparently, he was a man
for pleasure, Mary Magdalen
stroking her communion wine
with both hating The Philistine.
RL Coda after Neil Corcoran
When language abandons language,
reality unsingable
words can go out beyond the page
to unverbalised actual.
Finale after Auden
All art gone in the car exhaust,
it used to be said, cancelling
without end. Or, to flee unhorsed
in the savage, Rome not winning.
36 Le Fin (Encore) after Yeats
Now I see sky, gazing nothing
lost in dour tribulation
and worry at late taxation
as a page turner not singing.
April 9th
*******
11 Loads Of Hay after JB
Climbing up former countryside
on Haverstock Hill, Rosslyn Hill
to pond, cool by Jack Straw's Castle.
Fitzjohn's Avenue : tragic wide.
April 11th
MI6 Failure after MI9
Why have you not entered The Street,
home the Defence spend idiot ?
Likewise, brain-dead Camden Town Hall,
purveyor of trash kids people ?
Strange Sunlight after W Kees
Can it oddly be over-bright,
enhancing more strange detail
and off a Nave, the Statue
white a minute from ghostly pale.
After Virgil after C Day Lewis
Sunbathing, The Long Gallery
can fathom oxymoronic,
Robinson. Think of The Georgic,
the shepherd dark in Sicily.
April 14th
Making Reality after G Chapman
The powerful race of number.
For one no number is, but thence...
The morning challenge, sat humbler
a language construct with no fence.
Cogito Ergo Sum after R Descartes
Without any knowing language
there cannot be an evoking
or a cognizant arguing,
waxing just beyond pidgin.
Tiffin Post Malayan after S Maugham
The tea-time risk is Horatian,
Vermouth Rosso with lemonade
enticing in the Villa shade,
with your scripting out of action.
44 1944 after P Larkin
The V1, then V2 Rocket
fire made Victory urgent.
In Northchapel, a flying bomb
hit the Primary School. All dumb.
April 15th finis
45 Incompetent Country after '45
An attack of idiocy,
the render of insanity
to Government. The register
for voting, to be made smaller.
Littlehampton, No after W Kees
As if near the end of the world,
rampaging hungry bands of gulls
get to circling, loudly raucous
near five over free Malden Road.
Furor Poeticus after STC
The Furies can drive to fury
the denied man, smothered by dead
matter and the wrangling leary
wanting only to hear maddened.
Ginger Ales after L MacNeice
Thunder at the picnic, lightning
flickering on the horizon
may be the theatre of summer
to terror in our inertia.
Disaster Struck after L MacNeice
Who will face the Firing Squad ?
with radiation in The Quad
and the undefended Care Home.
He fed them, without missile chrome.
50 Number 50 after L MacNeice
Are we back in 1950,
with all having to be thrifty ?
and grey ghosting the back fashion
and we won ! to stupefaction.
April 16th finis
Societal Collapse after Auden
Le Fin de Gentlemen's Relish,
spice anchovy butter fish paste
leaves, in the mouth, a sour taste
warning the end of the English.
April 18th
The War Game (1965) after P Watkins
Remember, it stuck in the soup
wartime coming back on the loop,
the staggering beyond repair
from an exploding in thin air.
53 Mustafa Hell after The MOD
How dare The Evening Standard weep
for somebody over-breeding
on public funding ? They all want feeding.
Beyond two blighters is not cheap.
54 54 after A Motion
Born, a British Military
Field Hospital, up country
in our recovered Malaya
of much interest for rubber.
55 The Fall Of Singapore after A Motion
This had been the great agony
and Empire humiliation.
At Ipoh, we can dance wildly.
For Malaya, we, salvation.
April 19th finis finis finis finis -- non non
From Stane Street after A.E. Houseman
We lost our Raffle Singapore
to the invasion by Japan,
of part of our Empire Roman
and a great Battleship, no more.
Crise Existential after Camus
You can hope to merely exist
of an afternoon, sunbathing
but in jungle, the bush, the cyst
enemy no angel traying.
Military Intelligence after Kipling
The hyper-breeding Mustafa
more dangerous than the Channel
hopper, bleeding the defender
of space, money, vital able.
Transcendental after RL
Can our monotonous sublime
be seen as oxymoronic
in import ? to mental quick lime.
For Thoreau, a pond grace epic.
60 Nobody There after Yeats
We had owned a Castle, near two
in our Tree, Hean, Rokeby Villa
to say, terrible the purlieu
if a dead land has no leader.
April 23rd
Onward Christian Soldiers !
going on multiple crusades
=====================================
From The Brochure for The Licensing by
The Rt Revd Dr Anderson Jeremiah Bishop
of Edmonton of Fr Philip Chester Sunday
April 12th 2026 at St Saviour's Chalk Farm
The Bishop introduces the Declaration
and the Oaths
'The Church of England is part of the One, Holy,
Catholic and Apostolic Church, worshipping the
one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It pro-
fesses the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy
Scriptures and set forth in the Catholic Creeds,
which faith the Church is called upon to proclaim
afresh in each generation. Thereafter and et al
The Declaration of Assent ref the Catholic creeds
======================================
Nota bene
In full, the key text is 'The Niceno-Constantinopolitan
Creed' (source The Catholic Truth Society April 21st)
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