This is the beginning but it’s in Finnish: “rakentaa kuin Iisakin Kirkkoa”. Put it into Google Translate, unless you speak Finnish, and you get: “to build like the Church of Isaac”. A Finn might use this expression referring to the Heathrow expansion plans or the construction of Crossrail and HS2; in fact any project that takes longer than expected.
St Isaac’s Cathedral sits dumpily on St Isaac’s Square in the heart of St Petersburg. It derives its name from St Isaac of Dalmatia, on whose Feast Day Peter the Great was born. It was built by an Italian, Vincenzo Brenna, for Peter the Great but in the 19th century was rebuilt by Alexander I. The work took forty years, 1818 – 1858, hence the Finnish expression. I wonder what the interior looks like? Although I was staying on St Isaac’s Square I never saw inside.
I did go inside the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, built on the spot where Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 and completed in 1907. The interior is adorned with a spectacular 7,500 square metres of mosaics depicting tales from the Bible. As one of our party said; “plenty to distract you in a boring sermon”. The church is on one of the principal canals criss-crossing the city and is the scene of much of the action in Crime and Punishment. This Russian classic I found unreadable. Anna Karenina, yes; C&P no. I tried to force myself by taking it as my sole reading for the three hour flights to and from St Petersburg but found it deeply depressing. Temptation beckoned on arriving at the Astoria Hotel.
There was a selection of pristine 19th century Russian novels and three slightly dog-eared books by PG Wodehouse. The opening chapter of Frozen Assets is pure joy. It was the start of my love affair with the hotel. The Lichfield Bar is decked out with black and white photographs by the eponymous photographer. The minibar has half bottles of vodka, such a sensible size if you are staying for five nights. There was champagne, blinis and caviar for breakfast if you are up to that sort of thing before dawn; I wasn’t. A Nespresso machine in my room was more up my Nevsky Prospect. My room was bigger than many London flats and looked out on the square.
Monday 3 May, 1937
Arrived at a famous but not luxury hotel, my confidence begins to return. A messenger-boy has to wait while I scribble a note, and I ask him one or two questions. No, he does not know what New York looks like from the river. No, he does not know how long it takes to get to Harlem, where he was born. I reflect that at least there is one person in New York who is not my intellectual superior. The hotel has two lifts, one of which is not working. This also makes me feel at home. I have seen three chambermaids, one Irish, one German, and one, I presume, American. They are as old as the witches in Macbeth, and not much bettter-looking. Prices are staggering. This moderate-sized suite, on the sixth floor, consisting of sitting-room, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms, costs sixteen pounds a week without breakfast. Champagne is anything from thirty shillings to two pounds a bottle, proprietary brands of whisky twenty-eight shillings. (Ego 3, Still More of the Autobiography of James Agate.)
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”Ageing” is spelt “aging” in the United States. This may be a clue to where this astonishing e mail came from. It was delivered to my Junk box.
Obviously you won’t fall for that nonsense but you might like this.
An unusually deep, rich intrigue glows from the lavish depths of this warm, heady fragrance. Hazy waves of sensual musk combine with the mysterious, woody spicy tones of patchouli, sandalwood and vanilla to make this wonderful scent.
Base Notes – Patchouli, Sandalwood, Vanilla
Middle Notes – Geranium, Rosemary, Rose
Top Notes – Clove, Lavender
It’s Spanish Leather Cologne from Geo. F Trumper and I like it at this time of year.
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When Bertie is at Doggie Daycare once a week the house feels empty. When I came home from Castle Park for the holidays, something much anticipated from the first day of term, my mother used to tell me that she liked the noise of me clattering down stairs and whistling. Whistling Jack Smith does it better.
The interior of St. Issac’s is astounding, but then I do have a weakness for the charms of Orthodox beauty. One could say that the mosaics are similar to those in the Church of the Spilled Blood, but on a much larger scale. We were accosted by a beggar on a horse in the square in front. A handsome steed, elegantly controlled, certainly opened our purses. I think most buildings of some ambition might take longer to build than expected. Our house has a late Tudor exterior and much much later Elizabethan interiors, and it’s by no means huge. I think the Astoria was selected by Hitler as his lodgings should St. Petersburg fall. Fortunately he never made it, but the destruction he wrought has all been beautifully restored. We took a boat to the Peterhof Palace and arrived on the first day that the fountains were opened In May. There certainly was a gala atmosphere and mainly Russians enjoying the spectacle. Of course there is so much more to see in the city, not least the Hermitage. We had a wonderful time and thought that nothing was too outrageously expensive, although we were not staying in the Astoria. We had to make do with a bottle of champagne in the bar, and dinner in the empty restaurant.