The English Inn Past & Present A.E. Richardson & H.D. Eberlein
A.E. Richardson President of the Royal Academy & Professor of Architecture at London University lived at Ampthill, Bedfordshire. When I practised as Ampthill clinic surgeon in Bedford he was a patient of mine & I knew him very well. He had a home at Ampthill filled with a large collection of beautiful & interesting antiques. He would not have electric light & used candles as being more in keeping with his Georgian house and chattels. He also refused to have the telephone installed & was rather a nuisance to the doctor opposite his house. He would sometimes dine dressed in Georgian costume as were his wife & daughters and the maids waiting at table. He had a brilliant brain & was always active. When I suggested that he might at any rate rest his eyes by closing them during the train trip to & from London he retorted angrily that if Pliny could write on a wax tablet while travelling to Rome in a chariot surely he could read in a first class carriage! Once when going out to dine in Ampthill he was conveyed in a sedan chair & was summoned for not having a rear light. He was I believe fined though he maintained that a sedan chair was not a vehicle.
This looks an interesting book even without the added information about the author. How wonderful this man found time to include information about such an interesting and eccentric character. I would love to know when this book was published. Thank you for posting.
It was published in 1925, and looks like I’ve got a first edition. I’d love to know the identity of the inscriber.
Thanks Wayne for your reply. Yes, it certainly would be interesting to know who the inscriber was, probably another good story there as well!