Amongst thieves

The British Museum is so huge, we’d need to live a year in this place to do it justice. Today my suspicions that the British were the greatest thieves in history was confirmed. The British Museum in full of booty – marbles, gold, bronzes, gold, urns, gold, mummies, gold, skeletons, gold, Easter Island statues, gold, totem poles, gold – the list goes on.

The rich stole riches from other cultures and put them on display and then became famous for their plundering, and the poor stole trifles from the rich who stole riches, and were sent to Australia.

We were pleased to see the Elgin marbles, that he removed from the Parthenon, seeing we missed them in Greece. They were displayed in a room especially built show them off to the public. It’s a pity the curators haven’t realised there is another building in Athens that would display them more truthfully. The Roman, Greek and Egyptian rooms ate into our day and the small bronzes, Cretan urns, Egyptian funerary objects and paintings from various robbed tombs particularly caught my interest.

We finished off our visit in the Mayan and Aztec room where square metre stone slabs were carved with intricate designs. They were fascinating and I took sketches and photos galore.

London is a huge, fascinating city and has so much to offer and I envy Tom who is about to spend a good deal of time here to explore.

Last night we took a tube to Leicester Square and saw an excellent play, A Dish of Tea with Mr Johnson, which we saw advertised at Dr Johnson’s House. Lots of wit, humour and history in a small theatre with good seats made for a great night. Sharon has certainly experienced a lot of her Boswell connections on this trip and the play was a highlight for us both. Boswell on stage! Theatres, bars, restaurants on every corner around Leicester Square made for a bustling and bright night.

We are off to Kent tomorrow to visit Kate, Tony’s sister we met in Ireland. She is taking us to Chislehurst Caves which we are looking forward to.